The Forgotten Park- A Ghostly Gang Short

by LyssLyaa

The Ghostly Gang are my own original creation-and this was the closest category I could find to match it. It's basically a ghost story. The story was inspired by catching my bus to work in the middle of winter and seeing I live in a low lying area often in the cooler months there are a banks of fog in the morning and this was inspired by going past a park that looked haunted.

The Forgotten {ark

It was one of those forgotten parks that every large city or suburb had, the ones that had been there for simply forever but noone ever seemed to use or had forgotten about, people walked past it every day or cut through it on their way home from work or something but never actually saw it, the Council would cut the grass occasionally but noone ever saw it.
It was on a corner and probably had been much bigger at one stage, but all it now contained was a swing set, an old merry go round and a seesaw and a bench all old and warped or pitted.
It made Gurnin sad as he and Rannith walked past it on their way home from a reaping assignment to the Gangs Manor in Sydney , Australia late one night, the two of them still in Reaper aspect, meaning black robes, sometimes ghostly tendrils, black wings and ghostly scythes, they also still had their hoods up. (although the tendrils weren't always visible that was just a Cyra thing)
Late night denizens tended to ignore them like that and kept a wide berth from them both, the twins didn't mind, it was a spring night in October and although they could just morph around they enjoyed the walk , they used it to chat and discuss things and at the moment both of them were drinking coffee and eating a sausage roll each.
Reaping was something they both did, they worked for Sellaware the Crasolian Death God and were basically minor death Gods themselves as well as Ghosts, they basically helped newly born souls move on if they could, the job suited the darker natured Rannith more than it did the lighter natured Gurnin but he had gotten used to it more or less by now and he liked to be able to help.
"I am so glad we could help that poor mother and her child pass on" Gurnin remmarked to his twin.
Rannith nodded and put tomato sauce on his sausage roll and said "You like that when we can do that don't you?"
Gurnin nodded "yeah" they came to the old park and Gurnin looked sadly at it "does anyone even remember this parks name?"
"No" said Rannith "not even sure if it has one" as he and Gurnin walked in it, noticing the homeless man sleeping on the ground.
"He's still alive" Gurnin said as they both sensed his life-force and their tendrils quivered in response and became visible briefly.
Rannith nodded and bent over pulling the blanket up over him better, and slipped a couple of twenties in his pocket "probably needs a good meal" he said.
Gurnin nodded and then he and Rannith sat on the bench to finish their coffee and sausage rolls.
Both twins removed their hoods and it became apparent again that they weren't a walking skeleton, but in fact a pair of red headed, Gorta-Trellian twin boys in their late teens., both their eyes glowed slightly due to their nightvision although even that image was deceptive at over 11000 years old the twins were two of the oldest ghosts in the Ghostly Gang.
Rannith said "I've always felt more comfortable under the cover of night".
Gurnin nodded " same here in many ways".
Rannith said "this park has been here forever! Noone notices it anymore, it's basically been left to the drunks and the Nightfolk".
Gurnin nodded "it is sad, it isn't even lit anymore!" as they watched a slight sea mist rise from the ocean, the Manor was on a hilltop overlooking Sydney Harbour in a suburb called East-Haven one of the many pocket suburbs that had formed after the Meteorite had hit Earth so many centuries before and behind them the clock struck twelve from the church.
"Twelve O'clock and all is well" Gurnin said softly.
Rannith said "yeah this close to Halloween you can feel the barrier thinning between the living and the dead".
"We are the Ghostly Gang!" Gurnin sang softly.
"And we're gonna haunt you!" Rannith sang back.
Gurnin laughed and said "been a long time since any of us sung that".
Suddenly they both heard the laugher of children and the merry-go-round started to creak as it went and the swings started to move.
Gurnin and Rannith were instantly alert and Gurnin said "Look! The park is haunted!"
Rannith stood up and watched as ghostly children started to play in the park a little girl in a blue dress, one in a white nightgown, one in a white dress and a little boy in his pyjama's and another in what looked like a Sunday best suit and a couple of others, a ghostly dog romped around the playing children, a woman in a long dress stood there watching them and a pair of teenagers stood nearby kissing.
"Oh my..." said Gurnin " all these lost souls!"
"Are you an angel?" a voice asked and they saw it was the little girl in the white dress which was actually white with tiny flowers on it, she looked like she was dressed for a party.
"Uh..." Gurnin said realising that he and Rannith probably both looked like more like the black-winged Angel of Death at the moment.
A hoop came rolling and a little boy came running after it chased by the dog and two of the children got on the swings.
The teenagers walked hand in hand and sat on the bench together and Gurnin watched in horror as the boy pulled out a gun.
"No!" said Gurnin running forward his currently black wings flying out behind him "don't! We can help! Don't doom yourself !"
The boy looked at the black robed Gorta-Trellian with the Scythe and the girl clung onto him.
"Please don't you probably have been doing this too long already!" Gurnin said Please let me help!" sensing that the young couple had killed themselves because they could not be together "please I can help you pass on!"
"Who are you?" the boy asked.
"My names Gurnin. I'm a Reaper I can help you pass on!" he said "let it go! Let your love for each other lead you away from here! Let it lead you to the light!"
"You're the Angel of Death?" the boy asked.
"No I'm a Reaper, it's my duty to help lost souls like you pass on!" Gurnin said "please don't do this! Let it go!"
"We can't be together!" the girl said.
"This was not the answer" Rannith said coming over followed by the little girl in the white dress.
Gurnin turned to his brother and nodded and continued "please believe us give us your gun and let all your sadness go and take our hands".
"They wouldn't let us be together and we're soulmates" the girl said.
"Let your love lead you, not your hate and your sadness" Gurnin said "here take our hands, Jake, Mary".
"How do you know our names?" Mary asked.
"Because we're Reapers" said Rannith.
Jake looked down and the gun dropped from his hands and disappeared and Mary hugged him and both stood up "will we be together?" said Jake.
"Yes!" Gurnin said "you will, here take our hands! We will mark you so your own Gods or God can find you, we are just here to make sure you pass" Mary took Gurnin's hands and felt a warmth fill her, Gurnin touched her with his scythe and Rannith did the same for Jake.
Suddenly a light surrounded them both and a voice said "I'll take it from here, Rannith and Gurnin" whom they both recognised as their superior Sellaware, a figure appeared in the light, of a tall figure dressed similarly to they, Jake and Mary clung to each other frightened until the figure removed his own hood to reveal a albino male Gorta-Trellian and he smiled kindly at them both.
"Are you...?" Mary asked "forgive us we have committed the ultimate sin!"
"No but I am a God," said Sellaware "my names Sellaware, the Gorta-Trellian God of Death, here come to me Jake and Mary and I'll take you to your destination" he noticed the little girl "not you little one! Not yet, your time will come" he turned to Rannith and Gurnin "I will take it from here, Rannith, Gurnin"
"Ok" said Rannith.
Sellaware nodded at the two teens went to him and he encompassed them in his arms and then disappeared.
"He's funny!" the little girl in white said " was he an angel too?"
"Well..."said Rannith.
"Come play with us!" the little girl said pulling Rannith and Gurnin to where the other ghost children were.
"How come you haven't passed Jenna?" Rannith asked.
"Because Mummy still needs me" she said " and I lost her, mummy told me to stay here until she found me!"
"Unfinished business" said Rannith to Gurnin.
Gurnin nodded "not our jurisdiction then although I think some of them are still here because they want to be although I wonder what the story is behind the twins in the pyjamas?"
Rannith nodded "I wonder too" as the said twins hopped on the merry go round laughing.
"Come play!" Jenna said "its fun! Come on angels!"
Rannith and Gurnin looked at each other and shrugged it had been a long time since they had just 'played'.

So play they did they chased the children around, played with the hoop and the dog and pushed them on the swings and spun the merry-go –round around
The dog chased a ghostly cat which also appeared , Jane and Jim the twins in the pyjama's Gurnin found out when he spoke to them had gotten lost late one night and had probably drowned and judging from the fact that they were here their bodies had never been found and probably never would be it made Gurnin sad but it also really wasn't part of their jurisdiction and the twins who had probably been about five years old probably didn't even realise that they were dead, they were happy here with the other children forever playing in the park.
So they played, all night till the dawn when the sun rose and all the lost souls disappeared leaving only Rannith and Gurnin standing alone in the park apart from the sleeping homeless man who hadn't even noticed them.
"Lets go home" said Rannith to Gurnin who nodded and lifted their hoods up again, once again adopting the aspect of the Angel of Death once again, the park appeared empty once more apart from the glimpse of a small girl in a white party dress sitting on the swing.
"Goodbye Angels" she said and soon she, like them, was soon gone and the park sat empty and forgotten again.