Unease |

Hauntings and Unease

I am plagued by several odd daydreams and fantasies that become prominent during these urban explorations. I’ve had them in one form or another since childhood. One is the thought that I am the last man on earth. Some terrible war/plague/zombie apocalypse has wiped out all humanity save me. I’m left in a deserted, decaying world. Though terrifying, I find this strangely compelling, even soothing.

Another is the idea that the whole world is imbued with spirits good and bad, but mostly fickle and pernicious. Each place is haunted with forces whose strengths grow when people leave the area. Thus when I walk through an abandoned building, I am tempting malign forces around every corner. I really shouldn’t have read all that Lovecraft when I was young.

I grew up hearing a lot of stories of the Polish resistance during World War Two. Partisans in the woods sabotaging rail lines or urban squads launching daring raids on German supply depots. As a kid, every trip was imagined as a mission. Though rarely nowadays, I’ll still look at a copier ominously crouched in the middle of a wrecked office and think, “there’s a Nazi on the other side of that thing.”