It is what I felt from it- the unmistakable feeling of death itself. ( It is not the first time that he has heard of someone speaking to ghosts, but it is still strange to him if only because he is so well acquainted with death. Souls move on. They do not linger. It is unnatural for them to linger, to not be drawn to the afterlife whichever they end up in. )

That would imply something occurred to create this affliction- possession. When I asked her of how long this had been occurring, she said she didn't remember exactly, but that she had been a girl once and then she wasn't. She said she now pays for that change, that it was a common enough story. ( It seemed a particular way to phrase it to him. His brothers are always careful of word choice and so is he so he pays close attention to it. )