Author's Notes: This is something random. It all started with the insignificant line of 'salt the son of a bitch', and then it evolved into this after I thought about and decided to write the first and the last paragraphs. The person ('he', 'I') referred to in here is Sam, and 'they' refer to ghosts. Italics mean emphasized words, depending on the context. I know this can be confusing, but I do hope you'll like it. Thanks in advance to all who'll read, and read and review. Happy reading.
Summary: If ghosts are dead, then why do you see a semblance of life, no matter how little there is left, in them?
Warning: PG for language/swearing
Disclaimer: Supernatural, Sam Winchester, Dean Winchester, and anything else related to the TV show belong to WB and Eric Kripke. Definitions of the terms dead, soul and ghost taken from Google. The title of this fic is borrowed from the Nine Inch Nails song of the same name (originally by Joy Division).
Dead Souls
Sometimes he hears them, or he thinks he hears them, calling him, begging him, for salvation.
Deliver us from evil.
That's when he usually aims whatever ammo he's got on the thing and fires a round of salt. Dead is dead, ghosts are ghosts, hurt them before they hurt you. That's the way they do things – the way hunters do things.
Still, the wraiths haunt him to no end. Sometimes he believes maybe it's his conscience. Sometimes he believes maybe he's been wrong all along.
Do ghosts have souls?
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We've been taught since we were children the difference between living and non-living things.
Living things are called such because they are alive. They breathe. They live. Non-living things are inanimate. Unresponsive, and lifeless. Dead.
But ghosts – one can see them, taste them, feel them. One can see their otherworldly visage, taste their moldy, decaying breath, feel their presence like a seeping, paralyzing cold. They can hurt you, and they can be hurt.
Living and non-living.
In reality, sometimes it's difficult to say which one is which.
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Are ghosts the souls of dead people?
He had asked his father this question once, when he was younger and he didn't know better. No, his father had said. The soul is the essence of a person, when he's alive. When a person dies, his soul goes with him, dies with him. Ghosts – ghosts are remnants of people who die who are afraid to, or refuse to, move on.
Then where do dead souls go? And where do ghosts come from?
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If I die, my soul dies with me. Goes with me, to heaven (if it exists), or to hell (most definitely – for its existence is proven by all of my experiences. There is a hell, a living hell, a hell on earth). If I die and I refuse to let go, to move on, where does my soul go? It remains here, because I don't want to go anywhere but here.
Ghosts are remnants of people who are afraid to, or refuse to, move on.
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If ghosts are dead, then why do you see a semblance of life, no matter how little there is left, in them?
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Dead. Adjective – not showing characteristics of life. Noun – people who are no longer living.
Soul. Noun – life force or essence, person.
Ghost. Noun – apparition, spirit, specter, disembodied soul of a dead person.
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When they go out hunting, sometimes he hears them, or he thinks he hears them, calling him, begging him, for salvation.
Deliver us from evil.
That's when he usually hesitates, before his older brother would yell at him to salt the son of a bitch. Dead is dead, ghosts are ghosts, hurt them before they hurt you. That's the way they do things – the way hunters do things. His hesitation – sometimes he believes maybe it's his conscience. Sometimes he believes maybe he's been wrong – they've been wrong – all along.
Ghosts. When he looks at their eyes, it's as if he's catching a glimpse of their lost humanity.
These beings – they were once someone else's mother, father, brother, beloved. These beings - they were once like him. Human.
-Fin-