What is your favorite Monster? This is the question for this week’s theme of asking the writers of Gothic Bite Magazine questions that well… only they can answer. 

Monsters can come in many shapes and variations, from the beastly to the all too human. They are involved in almost every genre in one form or another and can be a similar bonding of the fandoms.

What one person considers a monster, another may not. It is really at the core of the question whatever you perceive of it.  With this in mind I give to you dear readers my favorite Monster, Remnants. 

What is a Remnant?

Great question, it isn’t something you will find aside from a definition for the most part. Not in correlation to your typical Monster search at least. So let me just spill. There are many classifications when it comes to the afterlife and what is thought to still exist on this plane. For those who follow shows like Ghost Adventurers, if I were to use the term “Echo” you might be able to already tell just what I mean when I say Remnant.  

Most levels of Ghost are easily recognized and are familiar to the ear. You may even have an image in your mind when I give classes like Poltergeist or Shadow People. These are popular ones and even some of the lesser classes like Doppelgänger are known to those who follow into the creepy pasta realm. But what is a Remnant?

When I say Remnant I speak to a very specific type of ghostly phenomenon that follows a set premise. Setting the scene a bit, these are spirits who are trapped in a sort of loop following the same actions or playing out the same scene over and over again. This type of ghost is speculated to be born from an extreme act that stems from a variety of emotions. While there isn’t much that can be scientifically stated over why a person may fall into these “Echoes”, they still intrigue me. 

Play Me A Memory

Remnants can take many forms and actions, they have been documented over every time period and have been caught in many situations. These have been notes as ripples, scenes that play out from a battlefield, soldiers lost in time. Mothers mourning the loss of their children, Husbands mourning their wives. Murder most foul. 

But Remnants do not always take an extreme form, sometimes they are as simple as someone working in a kitchen making a mostly ghostly meal, or in an office still trying to punch that time card from the beyond. The accounts fascinate me and because they speak not only to the past but to our potential afterlife they are that much more enthralling. These types of spirits have been labeled as non-interactive, and I see this logic because they are replaying scenes, we are only seeing shadows of what has come before. 

Why Do I See Them As Monsters

For me, monster doesn’t necessarily mean that something is evil, though the definition is broadened to cover that aspect. A monster to me is something that frightens people, that chills them. An experience or a meeting with something that cannot be explained and leaves a marked reminder of change in our lives because we look back on it with dread or with anxious feelings. An encounter that most would not want to adjust to, that they would fear. Granted for me, it only serves as an inspiration and a want for more knowledge. A fascination. 

But our favorite Monsters don’t have to be considered as such to us, just as a Monster in general. 

Tell me, reader, what keeps you up at night, the bump that happens in the still of the night? An inhuman howl that rides the wind to your ears? The sudden hot breath at your neck where nothing should be? Let us know below and I will see you next week!

Kendra Hale

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