The reader may, for example, simply accept the student’s story as a true example of demonic possession: The woman was indeed a reanimated corpse sent specifically to ensnare Wolfgang’s soul. Given the student’s already established precarious mental state, however, the reader might address even more disturbing possibilities. Was the woman ever truly alive in Wolfgang’s presence? Because he has necrophilic tendencies, could he have appropriated a corpse and imagined it alive? The fact that the portress at his hotel sees Wolfgang and the woman arrive might bring this reading into question. Is it then possible that Wolfgang himself murders the woman after he brings her to his apartment? Perhaps, but the police officer identifies the woman as one executed previously on the guillotine, so once again this rational answer seems unlikely