How we cite our quotes: (Section.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"Poor Eduviges. That must mean she's still wandering like a lost soul." (17.21)
This is the first hint we get that Eduviges is dead, and that things in Comala are really totally creepy.
Quote #8
"Are you alive, Damiana? Tell me, Damiana!"
Suddenly I was alone in those empty streets. (24.21-22)
This is unequivocal proof that either Juan Preciado is nuts and we can't trust him as a narrator… or the town is full of ghosts and things are going to get really scary from here on out.
Quote #9
"And that's why this place is swarming with spirits: hordes of restless souls who died without forgiveness, and people would never have won forgiveness in any case—even less if they had to depend on us." (30.81)
Here is the explanation the reader might have been looking for of why all these dead people are roaming around Comala—it has to do with their relationship with the church and their inability to pay the priest to forgive them.