I have been stalked by a ghost for years, and while it has yet to physically cause me harm I am terrified. Sometimes it is palpable, standing over my bed grinning with a hideous maw as I wake up in a sweat. Other times I only hear it whispering disparaging thoughts...to cross without looking, to swerve the car, to quit. It can walk into and out of rooms as I work or relax, and it can even appear at will with a cold chill next to me in my car.

Yet only I see this monster, translucent and yet disgustingly full of filth and evil. The hate, self-deprecation, jealousy, and vice are physically manifest in this specter of my past.

My ghost's face is the one I see in a mirror....I know we will always live together, and I know this specter of the past can be defeated with my own better vision of the future.

The butcher HH Holmes said "I was born with the devil in me. I could not help that I was a murderer, no more than the poet can help the inspiration to sing". I was born with no devil and no murderous streak - but everyone has a dark side. Keep your ghost close and your past mistakes in mind, embrace them and the ghost will be a tool to learn and help, not kill or destroy.