The Ghost Children

"James," said a voice. "Wake up, James."

James stirred and rolled over in his sleep. "Go away, dad. It's Saturday," he murmured.

"It's nine-thirty and I'm not your dad. Get your arse out of bed," the voice said.

This shook James into waking up and he sat up to view the room. "Who's there?" He said nervously.

"James, please don't be alarmed," the voice continued, a male's voice.

"A bit late for that now," James replied sarcastically. "Why is that voice so familiar. Alexa, are you playing tricks on me?"

"No, James. I am detecting another presence in the room," Alexa replied with her usual emotionless tone.

"Some guard dog you are. Who?"

The male voice spoke up, "James I've come to see you. Please do not scream."

"Scream, why would I-" James stopped as a faint blue glow appeared at the end of his bed. It grew bigger and bigger and began taking the form of a man.

Startled, James pulled the duvet closer to himself, "What the..."

"James, it's me, your uncle," the form said as it completed its transformation into a man.

"Uncle Ryan? You-you're dead," James stared deeply into the older man standing before him. "Alexa, I didn't ask for a projection."

"This is no projection, James. I'm really here," Uncle Ryan smiled.

That was true as projections did not make sound, James knew that.

"A gh-gh-ghost?" James stammered with fright. "Here!"

"Congratulations, James. It appears you have made a connection to the spirit realm just like your forefathers. I will begin uploading data to your social media," Alexa spoke as if the situation was completely normal.

"No, Alexa," James cried. "Incognito mode, no one needs to know about this."

"Understood, James "

"I see she's still a lot of fun," Ryan joked. "I do miss my Siri."

James steadied his nerves uneasily, "If you really are a ghost of which I'm sceptical, what are you doing here?" A blue ring of light emulated around his uncle, almost as if the moon was directly above him, but it still was not enough to satisfy James.

Ryan laughed, "Sceptical? You are a descendant of proven spirit hunters and you're sceptical? What is it they used to call you in school? The name we all started using? Oh yes, the ghost children, you and your sister."

"Those were just stories. Everyone was a ghost hunter on YouTube fifty years ago."

"Perhaps, but now that I'm a goner I can say the work that your grandparents, and their grandparents, and so on, did was very much real." Ryan sat on the edge of the bed and kept his gaze locked with James.

James thought for a moment before replying, "Ok, but what do you want from me? Are there no fishing spots in heaven to keep you busy?"

"Of course it does, it's heaven. But I'm here on an errand. Your six times, great grandmother, Luca, sent me."

"I have no idea who that is," replied James.

"You have that information on your wrist. Are you telling me you never looked into the history of your past?"

"That's more Jewel's thing. I have other interests."

"Yes, I'm aware you like to hurt your sister's feelings," Ryan answered.

James turned red, "You've been watching me?"

"I've visited a few times but you were never ready to see me before now. I have not been watching you," Ryan reassured. "Although I do not agree with your choices."

James lowered his head, he was becoming increasingly uncomfortable with his uncle in his room.

"You still haven't told me what you want, uncle," he said abruptly.

"Well to put it simple, to tell you why you can see me."

James looked puzzled, "You've come to see me to tell me I can see you?"

Ryan grinned at the remark, "The rumours surrounding you "ghost children" are correct. Upon coming of age next week you two will inherit abilities."

"Abilities?" James asked with uncertainty.

"They've already started. You're making connections with the spirit world. It's why you can see me."

"Well that explains everything," James spoke sarcastically. "What about Jewel?"

"She cannot see yet, but her time will come. You two are very unique, the first twins of the Underhill bloodline, and born on separate dates I might add."

James rolled his eyes, "We know that much, our mother wouldn't shut up about the fairytales."

Ryan sighed, "Luca was right, you always were going to be the difficult one. Can you just hear me out, please?"

James huffed, "Fine, go ahead."

"Thank you. In 1972 a critical moment in a war against a demonic foe reached a great calamity. It will be one hundred years since that moment on your eighteenth birthday. This is no coincidence.

Your great, great, great grandfather, Leonard Neville, sacrificed everything he had to permanently seal the gateway to the underworld, the fiery pits of hell. Trust me, you won't find this information on Wikipedia.

The demon put a curse on our family. After a hundred years to ensure the death of Leonard and any who might follow his path, the spirit realm would collide with your world and the dead would be able to break the seal and reopen the gate.

To complicate things, the best our side could come up with was a prophecy. Twins with a special connection to the past and to the spirit realm.

You and Jewel are to be our connection in this world to prevent the new judgement day."

"So the stories are true? We are the ghost children? Literally. So what now?"

"Well, firstly you can drop the name, you aren't children anymore," Ryan said.

James agreed to the ridiculous name, "How am I supposed to fight ghosts and demons?"

"You'll have to rekindle the broken relationship with your sister. I do not know how long her connection will take for me to speak to her. The bond you two share must not be shattered, together you will have the strength to fight the dead."

James nodded nervously, "What's death like?" He asked suddenly.

His uncle thought for a moment, "The dying part was not great, I'd admit, but the size of the carp in heaven," he paused, "Fantastic."

"Sounds it," James mused. "I'm not sure how I'm going to tell J any of this."

"Start from the beginning, I have a feeling she'll be more open to it than you think."

"Will I see more spirits?" James was not sure that he actually wanted to.

"I can see in your eyes what you want the answer to be. Unfortunately you'll see all the spirits that walk unseen on earth."

"Fuck," James whispered.

"Talk to Jewel today, you'll feel better," Ryan said reassuringly and placed a hand on James's knee. "I'll be back once it has all sunk in."

James watched his uncle fade into nothing and whispered, "Fuck," again. This was not how he expected to wake up on a weekend.

Thank god I wore pyjamas today, was his immediate thought. This was a lot to process and he did not have the capabilities of understanding completely what was

asked of him. He was not his sister and he knew it.

He now just had to find out what Jewel really would make of it.

***