Light is the first thing to go as we near the year’s nadir, the days dimming earlier and breaking later. The dark is truly rising. So as Advent approaches, flip every switch in the house, break out the blankets and steel yourself to outlast the gloom. But in all your preparations, pause for a moment, just long enough to peer up into a firmament black and cold as flint. See the frosty flecks of stars? See how the borealis coils its frigid fire around them, eldritch and writhing? What speech do they pour forth to us, and what unearthly knowledge do they show night after endless night?

Come, come. Don’t be shy. Tell us: What did they say to you?

Visit I Saw Lightning Fall: Shared Storytelling: Advent Ghosts 2012. (You can read my submission last year here: https://essediemblog.com/2011/12/24/the-escape-advent-ghosts-2011/. And yes, I’m good for it again this year.)