By: Jennifer Monsen.

“It detects ghosts?”

“Common misconception, but no. A ghost machine creates ghosts.”

“What? How—”

“For ‘how’ you’d have to talk to the folks in engineering—something about resonance chambers and mirrors? Goes over my head. But as for ‘what’? This machine makes the ghost you wish was haunting you.”

“Who wants to be haunted?”

“Everyone. Here, try it. Put your hand there, I’ll flip these switches, and—”

Lavender and vanilla. Humming in a distant room. The lightest touch, a familiar ache…

“Madeline?”

Then nothing.

“Afraid that’s the end of the free trial.”

“I’ll take it.”

“Thought you might.”

© 2025. Jennifer Monsen

Jennifer Monsen works as a music therapist by day. By night she is an aspiring writer with a bent toward the strange and the fantastic. Her first love is storytelling in all its forms; her second love is pizza.

Posted February 11, 2026.