@fragmented_imagination: Yep, it was in Alison's bio piece (Hangman's Scafold) where I gave the point of view from the Lecton Police. There are many deaths that happen in Piedmont but their scattered throughout over 70+ years. Just like in the real world, most of the world doesn't really believe Piedmont is haunted, its just kind of a dangerous place thats prone to accidents. Their just ghost stories. All this is made even more discreet because ghosts like Sarah and her friends, actually clean the place up periodically. The bloody messes are mopped up and bodies are incinerated in the basement furnace in the dead of night. But there is enough that actually happens here that MANY people do believe the place is haunted. Ghost hunters, dare devils, and now more recently. people looking for internet clout, all willingly visit. Lecton City itself sells the concept of "the most haunted factory in the world" to promote tourism. There are enough deaths, disappearances, sightings, and other conspiracies to make the place exciting for the people who care about that stuff, but the actual events are rare enough for most people to go in, maybe see a ghost or hear something, and then leave perfectly fine.
Existence for the children of Piedmont is a convergence of the real world and a dream state. While lucid, they physically exist, but when they lose focus they blink away. They refer to this state as being “awake” or “sleeping.” The children of Piedmont are for the grand majority of time asleep. A ghost can sleep for days or even months at a time only to wake up for just a few hours, minutes, or even a few fleeting seconds. This transition is not always obvious to them. One can work on something without realizing that half a year has passed between the moments they blinked their eyes. Sarah alone is uniquely active, usually waking up at least once a day.
When a ghost wakes can be due to all sorts of unique conditions. Sarah never wakes up on her birthday. Rob almost strictly awakens only when someone enters the basement. Lilly usually wakes up after a recent kill to clean up the mess. It’s rare for more than two ro three ghosts to be awake at the same time. As such many of the kids actually rarely get to see each other. For instance, Lester and his beloved Lauren have only managed to meet again a handful of times since their death. Still, others seem spiritually linked. The Manders twins always wake up together and Karen is almost never awake without Chris (though the opposite is not true).
There are other more common patterns. Obviously intruders are a very common trigger, though even then most intruders will leave with no notable events happening. Everyone tends to wake up more during the night, with some of the kids having never seen daylight since they were alive. The exception to this is Simon, who due to his skin condition has always feared the sun; and of course by the cruel nature of the madness, essentially only wakes up during the day. In fact, most everyone tends to awaken when situations are similar to a traumatic memory. On that note, almost everyone will wake up at one point during the night of July 26th, the anniversary of the Night of the Fire. The night they died.
When a ghost wakes can be due to all sorts of unique conditions. Sarah never wakes up on her birthday. Rob almost strictly awakens only when someone enters the basement. Lilly usually wakes up after a recent kill to clean up the mess. It’s rare for more than two ro three ghosts to be awake at the same time. As such many of the kids actually rarely get to see each other. For instance, Lester and his beloved Lauren have only managed to meet again a handful of times since their death. Still, others seem spiritually linked. The Manders twins always wake up together and Karen is almost never awake without Chris (though the opposite is not true).
There are other more common patterns. Obviously intruders are a very common trigger, though even then most intruders will leave with no notable events happening. Everyone tends to wake up more during the night, with some of the kids having never seen daylight since they were alive. The exception to this is Simon, who due to his skin condition has always feared the sun; and of course by the cruel nature of the madness, essentially only wakes up during the day. In fact, most everyone tends to awaken when situations are similar to a traumatic memory. On that note, almost everyone will wake up at one point during the night of July 26th, the anniversary of the Night of the Fire. The night they died.
Life After Death: The Sleep by @rollee (Rollee Bitterblossom)
When most people think of ghosts they imagine white sheet ragged specters that can fly through walls. The ghosts of Piedmont aren’t exactly like this. While active, they can be indistinguishable from a living person; drabber in color and cold to the touch but, at least at first glance, easy to mistake as just a particularly dirty or unhealthy child. For the most part the restraints of the physical world still apply to them and while It can be strange to imagine it, these kids still have lives (in all but the most literal sense).
If you liked this story and found the Factory of Madness interesting I have a group where I store the art and stories here
If you want to see the cover art, that can be found here
Affiliated Groups
This is an astounding piece of lore! When you first described FoM, it's very easy to get the impression that the ghosts are active all the time, turning the old factory into a full-time death trap. Now, with this, we actually have a reason for people still wandering into and out of the factory: for a significant amount of time, it's perfectly safe! It's the kind of environment that someone could stumble into and out of without being any wiser to the dangers. Yet there are still dangers if anyone walks in at the wrong time. It perfectly explains why anyone would try going into the factory in spite of its horrors. This isn't just some haunted factory the local kids dare each other to walk into when they're bored, this is a legitimate magnet for people exploring because people can and do come back out! This makes so much sense! With any other haunted location, encounters are such a given that the haunt makes the audience ask why people still go into it since it's a one-way trip. But with this?! Now we know why people still continue to go to the old factory! It's a very realistic approach to the location and the psychology behind the living who wander in, and it's awesome!