Memories of a Ghost
Prologue
What does it mean to be alive? To breathe, to move, to eat, to be warm, to love and be loved, to mourn, to feel. What about to be dead? To never take another breath, to remain motionless, to taste not another morsel, to be cold, to be no more. Does that mean one never dies if that one is forever loved? Immortalized by the thoughts and feelings of others? Suppose that is true, then the result of these memories and feelings are the ghosts of this world. The beings that are not alive, but not gone, either. Is it painful for them to remain chained to a realm that they no longer belong? Whether or not they stayed the chains must surely be there. Do they wish to be alive once more or to seek the shelter of an absolute death? Can they even desire or be pained? No one knows, though there is one thing for certain: the pain of those that carry ghosts in their hearts are very real.
Memories are one thing, but feelings are quite another. Memories preserve the dead but feelings are the heaviest chains a soul can bear, both dead and alive. It is the feelings one bears that opens up a space in the heart, a mere sliver at times, in which a ghost will reside. When these feelings die, so will the ghost, but if that does not happen then that heart and its owner shall be haunted henceforth on. These are the people that cannot "move on" with their lives after the loss of a loved one, and inability to do so prevents the ghost from doing the same. Beings from different realms connected by an invisible tie, one that can be detrimental to both if allowed to persist. That is where Rosewood Lake comes in, a place dedicated to helping both the dead and living cut their binds and finally "move on." However, to "move on" is as ambiguous as to be alive or dead.
Dr. Benjamin Rosewood, the founder of Rosewood Lake, defines "moving on" as the severing of unhealthy ties between the living and the dead and his facility is dedicated not only to that purpose, but the education of the masses to what that definition entails. He has been working with patients for years on this very issue and one of the main reasons he found that people refused to "move on" is because they thought it was synonymous with to forget. That is not the case in the slightest. He has long accepted that some people wish to preserve that ghost, to keep it alive in some way, but nurturing darkness alongside that is something that he cannot condone nor will. Through various therapeutic techniques he now helps as many people as he can, bringing only his worst cases to be impounded at Rosewood Lake. Though it is a luxurious facility it is filled with all the shadows of those that cannot release someone from their hearts.
A new group of patients will soon be sealed away at Rosewood Lake for containing darkness in their hearts. Some long term patients of Dr. Rosewood, others new to his care but have been treated long term, and some still that are new altogether to the this world when the shadows grew to where they could not hide any longer. This is their story, but not theirs alone. Each ghost has a part to play, even a doctor with motives of his own, because Rosewood Lake has one too many secrets to keep.
"Dear Doctor Benjamin Rosewood, it has been many years now that I have left you in peace, as I have promised. However, no matter what you do your sins will never be purged away. But why purge them when they are not sins at all? As dim as you are, even you should be able to see that and the lies that you built the very pinnacle of your profession on. I believe it is time for me to show you exactly what I mean once more, on your holy ground no less. I know more than you would think, Doctor. Be wary of your next patients:
Francis Bonnefey
Arthur Kirkland
Allistor Kirkland
Antonio Carriedo
Gilbert Beilschmidt
Kiku Honda
Ludwig Beilschmidt
Feliciano Vargas
Lovino Vargas
Matthew Williams
Alfred Jones
Ivan Braginski
Natalia Alfroskaya
Yao Wang
You never know who is who. I just might be among them. Love, Jax."