The Secret of the Ghosts
They are silent. She speaks.
And for the first time,
Anne doesn’t know
if the truth is enough.
“I don’t understand anything anymore,” said Anne. “Are you ghosts or not?”
“Ah, that’s a long story — and not a very interesting one,” said the woman with the purple hair. “Why don’t you tell us something about yourself instead? A real ghost probably has loads of interesting stories to share.”
Anne was practically bursting with curiosity, but decided to satisfy the ghosts’ first.
“Oh, nothing special. I’m about five hundred years old, I live in an old castle, and everyone is terribly afraid of me. I mean… they were. Hey, all of this is already written down somewhere — haven’t you read the story?”
“Well, we… can’t read,” said the bony woman in the cloak. “Go on, it’s really exciting.”
“So, everyone was very scared of me…” Anne began uncertainly. How exactly did that story go? Only scraps of it floated through her head.
“Everyone’s scared of us too,” said the blind bear more kindly now. “It’s pretty boring, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, it really is,” she agreed, then continued. “But one day, these Americans came to the castle. I’ve forgotten their names already — doesn’t matter. They had three kids — two boys and a girl. The boys were total pests and kept teasing me, but the girl liked me. She helped fulfill the prophecy.”
The ghosts bounced around with excitement.
“The prophecy?!” they shouted all at once. “You had a prophecy too?”
“Wait — you guys have a prophecy too?” Anne was beginning to worry about how far she could keep up this story without contradicting herself.
“Our story is far less interesting,” said the blind bear impatiently. “Keep going, keep going!”
“Well, there’s not much more to say. Little Virginia helped fulfill the prophecy, like I said. That’s the end of the story.”
“So it’s true?” the one-legged woman clapped her hands. “The prophecy is coming true? The savior is really coming?”
“Yes, that’s right,” Anne said cautiously. “But I’m dying to learn more about you. Who are you? Where did you come from? And if you’re not ghosts, what are you then?”
Reflections on the scene
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This scene delivers perhaps the most dramatic revelation in the entire first part. The ghosts, who seemed until now like random malevolent figures, are revealed to be Anne’s very own toys. Suddenly, her journey is no longer a whimsical quest but a reckoning—a moral trial cloaked in fantasy.
The emotional impact lies in the simplicity of the truth: that Anne herself is responsible for the ghosts’ suffering. Not a dark wizard, not some distant evil—but her. Laptsev’s role is not to condemn, but to explain. His is the voice of conscience, not judgment. It is a moment when guilt does not come from external accusation but from internal awakening.
Equally powerful is the fact that only one ghost has the courage to forgive. Redemption, it turns out, is not easy to earn. Mercy is rare. The scene ends with the announcement of three great trials, each a test of intellect, bravery, and—most difficult of all—self-sacrifice. The road to forgiveness begins not with a gesture of apology, but through suffering and the willingness to change.
In this moment, the story sheds its skin. The Forest stops being just a place Anne must navigate—it becomes a mirror. One that reflects not who she is, but who she has been. And if she hopes to move forward, it must also reflect who she chooses to become.
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Participants in the scene
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Read more …Book I - Scene 08: The Secret of the Ghosts
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