i think ghosts are by far the most tragic manifestations of the undead because unlike other revenants they are firmly beyond your reach. other reanimated corpses have corporeal forms which embody the hope that you might yet still be able to bring them back, or that they might learn to love you again, or that you may be reunited once more if you only cross over to the other side to join them. but ghosts offer no such reassurances. they are intangible echoes of grief whose presence only emphasizes the distance that now lies between you. you can rewind and replay the tape over and over again, but it’s a one-sided gesture, not communication; it cannot respond or return your affections. even if you both reach out, your hands will only pass through each other like smoke. like orpheus looking back at the mouth of the tunnel, you can only ever confirm that euridyce was lost to you the moment you turned around and laid eyes on her.