Issue 14 – Ghosted
(But Not the Fun Kind)
I couldn’t help but wonder…
Are we ever really alone in this city — or are we just walking through life with ghosts in tow?
And no, I don’t mean the kind that need Yvette Fielding and the Most Haunted crew running around your flat with night-vision cameras. These ghosts don’t slam doors or whisper your name in the dark. They show up in far subtler ways.
They’re in the playlist you once swore was your song. In the train station where they kissed you goodbye. In the Blank Street order you now associate with someone who used to “always know your matcha.” Suddenly, your city — your London — feels haunted.
It’s funny, really. Love, infatuation, a crush, whatever you call it, leaves invisible fingerprints all over our lives. A restaurant becomes “ours.” A street corner becomes “that night.” A Netflix show becomes ‘our show’ — the one they introduced you to and thankfully it’s a one-watch wonder. Even the virtual realm of Fortnite or RuneScape becomes that thing ‘we’ did.
And when it ends? You don’t just lose the person — you lose entire patches of the map. Walking around becomes like scrolling through an old photo album you didn’t ask to see, but somehow it’s on autoplay.
But here’s the gag: not all ghosts are bad. Some sting, yes. Others? They’re bittersweet. A reminder that you lived, you loved, you felt something.
Because isn’t that the point? We’re shaped by the people we let in — even if they don’t stay (two weeks minimum). They become part of our geography. Our soundtrack. Our overpriced coffee order.
And yet, ghosts can be pesky. You agree to meet someone new, but then you flinch because the restaurant is “off-limits.” You scroll TikTok and a sound drags you back to a moment you thought you’d archived. Even a hoodie in the back of your wardrobe becomes a séance you didn’t plan.
But maybe the answer isn’t banishing them. (We aren’t the Charmed ones.) Maybe it’s learning to live with them. To make peace. To laugh. To see them as part of the ongoing rerun — another season in syndication, not the finale.
Because here’s the truth: someone new will always show up. And when they do? That same iced matcha, that same song, that same place… it won’t feel haunted anymore. It’ll feel like possibility.
And just like that… the ghosts become part of the story, not the ending.