I am finally doing it. I am going to finish this series once and for all!
Chapter 30: My Brother the Ghost
Roxas seemed like just the average boy. He attended school and did fairly well in his classes. Had had his friends too, Hayner, Pence, and Olette, and all of it seemed pretty normal. But there was something that seemed odd about Roxas, something that people would notice that would make them question the boy.
Sometimes he was caught talking to nothing. He was seen many times talking to nothing but thin air! No one else was in sight when this was seen and whenever he was asked about it, he would only grin and reply with 'my brother' and then walk away.
It got to the point that Roxas's closest friends started to question him. They all thought they knew him well enough, but something always felt strange. They wanted answers, and so they decided to take charge to figure out what they could.
"Hey Roxas," Hayner said as he came closer.
"Yeah?" Roxas asked. "What's up?"
"We've been wanting to ask you something," Pence said.
Roxas tilted his head to the side. "And what would that be?"
Olettle spoke next. "It's about uh… your brother? Or whatever that whole thing is about."
"And what about him?" Roxas asked as he leaned against the wall behind him.
"Is he real?"
"Do you really talk to him?"
"How come only you can see him?"
Roxas only laughed, giving his friends a rather cheeky, all knowing grin. "You guys really wanna know?"
"Yes!"
"Yeah tell us!"
"Tell us the truth!"
"Alright, as long as you promise to not tell anyone else," Roxas said as he looked around. "Follow me."
Roxas led them down a small alleyway that was nearby, heading all the way to the back. Once they were there, he looked around again, making sure there wasn't anyone else who followed them. When he saw that there was no one he smiled as looked up slightly.
"Okay Ventus, come on and show yourself."
Before the group's eyes an image of a person came out of thin air. A transparent boy who looked nearly identical to Roxas was now floating in the space between them.
The three friends all let out a small shriek as they jumped back from where they were standing. They could not take their eyes off what they were seeing before them. It was a ghost! A real ghost before them!
Hayner was the first to step a little closer to get a better look at it. He just wanted to make sure that it was in fact a ghost and not some tricky of the eyes or projection that Roxas somehow was pulling off. He doubted that Roxas could or would do something like that, but he had to make sure.
"Are you… really Roxas's ghost? I mean brother? Ghost brother?"
The ghost that Roxas had called 'Ventus' laughed. "Yeah, that's me. I'm the ghost brother." His voice even sounded just like Roxas's albeit a slight bit higher and softer than Roxas's was.
"But uh, we got a lot of questions…" Olette said. "We never knew… Roxas…" she looked at him, "You actually have a brother?"
"Yeah… and it's a bit of a crazy story," Roxas said as he rubbed the back of his neck. "So strap in…"
"We got a story to tell," Ventus added.
"Okay wow. That's just creepy!" Pence shouted. "You guys hear how similar they sound?"
"They are brothers," Hayner replied. "Makes sense anyways."
"Still a bit freaky," Olette added.
Roxas nodded. "Well, the truth is, we kind of got into some sketchy magic curses when we were younger."
"Basically… we got into more trouble than good back then with that magic. In a sense I died," Ventus added. "But not really… I still aged along with Roxas as if nothing happened."
Hayner furrowed his brows a little. "So you are just stuck as a pseudo ghost?"
Ventus shrugged. "I guess that's a way to phrase it. I can vanish and appear. I can go through walls and possess simple objects. All that usual ghosty stuff."
"So you aren't a real ghost?" Olette asked.
"Not really I guess, but it's pretty close, wouldn't you say?"
"Well, it just makes it not as scary that way," she replied.
"Yeah totally, but hey, I still have some questions!" Hayner said.
Ventus floated a little closer, practically hovering over Hayner at this point. "And what is it?"
"You said you could possess objects… but what about people?"
Ventus shrugged. "I dunno. I don't plan on trying."
"Now that you guys know the secret you can't tell anyone," Roxas interrupted. "Okay? Just keep this between us… or I'll have my brother haunt you."
The three looked at each other and then Roxas and Ventus, seeing how serious the twins' stares were. But after a few moments, the laughter died down after seeing that the other two weren't laughing.
Hayner shook his head. "Come on man, you serious?"
"We are," the twins said in unison.
"Okay… that's totally not creepy," Pence said warily.
"You guys know the secret now. We gotta make sure you stick to it," Roxas stated.
Ventus then started to smile. "And I can make sure of it… all when you'd never expect."
