An Academy of Apparitions

Did you attend an academy of apparitions? Would you be able to sleep if there was a racket of banshees hovering around your bed? Doesn’t it make sense that a congress of ghosts would roam the halls of the United States Capitol? Do you know of any graves that have been robbed by a shroud of ghouls? How scared would you be if a degradation of wraiths appeared in the aisle of the airplane you were on?

Apparitions are supernatural manifestations of phantoms, ghosts, wraiths, specters, etc. If little Susie innocently walks into an old house that houses an academy of apparitions, she will most likely scream and try her best to leave. Whether or not she can escape their hauntings will probably depend upon how playful a mood they are in.

According to Irish folklore, a banshee is a spirit that appears in the form of a wailing woman. She either allows herself to be seen by members of a family as a sign that one of them is about to die, or she is heard by them. Anything but quiet, a gathering of them is known as a racket of banshees.

Ghosts, prevalent in Halloween tales, are the souls of those who are dead; they haunt us and roam among us in their evanescent form. A congress of ghosts, made up of former politicians, is said to continually rove through the halls of the United States Capitol in Washington D.C.

Ghouls, originally from Oriental legends, are spectral beings. These evil demons are said to feed on human beings, alive or dead. One of the favorite pastimes of a shroud of ghouls is robbing graves and feeding on the rotting corpses.

There is nothing special about phantoms, they are simply apparitions or specters that cause a noisy or violent disturbance. The librarian would not be happy if her quiet domain was invaded by a rumpus of phantoms.

Poltergeists, according to paranormal and parapsychology experts, are neither spirits nor ghosts. They don’t appear to haunt places or people; they just seem to want to cause disruption and scare people. However, there have also been times when poltergeists have wanted to do more than scare. Many have been physically harmed by them. The nature of a blanket of poltergeists, usually described as an invisible force or entity, has long been debated within paranormal circles.

Spirits are supernatural beings. The spirit is said to depart from the human body at the time of death. A penumbra is a partial or imperfect shadow. I would say that a penumbra of spirits could easily be found around hospitals or nursing homes.

Ghosts or specters are also known as spooks. It is unknown why a mystery of spooks has chosen to inhabit the as of yet incomplete structure being built in downtown Atlantic City. A firm of private detectives has been hired to investigate the history of the plot of land chosen for the site of the city’s new bank. Maybe they can solve the mystery and finally put the mystery of spooks to rest.

Wraiths is the Scottish dialect for ghosts or spirits. Supposedly apparitions of living people, they are not the alien species portrayed in Stargate Atlantis. They appear to beings as an omen of their impending death. A degradation of wraiths could appear on a plane doomed to crash into the icy waters of the ocean.

Writing Prompt:
Choose one or more of the above collective nouns. Write a Halloween tale that is guaranteed to keep the reader (and maybe even the one who writes it) up at night.

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