They carry the souls of the residents who died there.
When they gather around the fallen tree, it's to warn people. When they appeared at the funeral it was also for that purpose - to warn the people that the MIY was there. The tarot reading event - to prevent MIY to further manipulate the residents.
I'm being deliberately vague to avoid spoilers.
So, I personified my OCD. It felt like some monster at first (I was scared of even facing it). Then it felt like an illusionist or some sort of trickster. Then it turned into some nagging old lady to whom I was able to reply with "not now, I'm busy doing.... (insert activity). Then it felt like some child throwing tantrums when I refused to play along. Now it just feels like me, broken me, who tried to save me, but was using wrong tools (control most of all). It feels now that i just wanna give up on using those tools, and for some reason I'm sad now and tired. Sort of like I wanna raise a white flag.
I hope I'm not breaking any rules by asking this question???