wraith

The original Beetlejuice, which starred Michael Keaton as an obnoxious wraith hired to help scare away a house's pretentious inhabitants, was released back in 1988.

From BBC ● Dec. 24, 2023

This Diana, a pale wraith who clutches at her children like she needs them to keep her tethered, is a bird in a luxurious trap; we see the eating disorders, the mental illness, the misery.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 4, 2021

For years, Mr. Guzmán remained a wraith, invisible to authorities whose efforts to capture him proved futile.

From Washington Post ● Sep. 11, 2021

Finally back home, she was … weird — an insomniac “wandering around the House at all hours like a soundless wraith… In the morning her children sometimes found her unconscious in unexpected places.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2020

Then he climbed the steps, silent as a wraith.

From "The Golden Goblet" by Eloise Jarvis McGraw

The protagonists are a couple of paranormal investigators, Red and Antea, who are trying to clear the tormented wraiths out of a haunted settlement.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 11, 2024

"All my energy has been well and truly sucked out of me like I've been kissed by a dementor," Paolo says referring to the soul-consuming wraiths in the Harry Potter stories.

From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2023

She saw her mother, shrouded in a dark covering of wraiths, bones and melting faces, and felt her overwhelming grief.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 2, 2023

The tales boil down to the problem of balancing empathy with self-assertion—of both practicing kindness and expressing your own needs, and all while the people around you are behaving like wraiths or aliens.

From The New Yorker ● Dec. 17, 2018

As a child, I spent hours listening to Tribal tale-spinners weave their legends of the mythical fey: the Nightbringer and his fellow jinn; ghosts, efrits, wraiths, and wights.

From "An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir