Maybe ghost hunting is really about the friends you make along the way.

Dear Readers,

The story I’m about to tell you is something of an unorthodox one for me if you’ve read my other works. I’ve always considered myself an essayist, telling my own brand of horror stories about trauma, adversity, and racial injustice.

But this tale, though wrapped in the guise of a paranormal ghost story, is really just about a Scooby-Doo Gang of rather ordinary people with a rather extraordinary hobby.

2020 has been filled with a lot of scary, anxiety-inducing twists and turns, so unexpected and under-appreciated for the long-enduring trauma they’re sure they’ll inflict on us. A pandemic. A presidential election year. An apex of political activism.

I’ve written about all of these things but when I got a message from a friend and co-worker asking if I was interested in a one-off writing job focused on something entirely non-political, I jumped at the opportunity.

“Whatever it is, I'm game,” I typed enthusiastically, excited at the prospect of my first independent writing gig. She quickly replied,

“Um… wanna go ghost hunting?”

PINE GROVE FURNACE PRISONER OF WAR CAMP

Michaux State Forest, Newville, Pennsylvania…