Chapter Twenty-Five:



This chapter begins the night that Ziggy asked Petra to marry him.

Petra was expecting it but she was still so very excited when Ziggy slid that beautiful ring onto her cool ghostly hand.

They had their graduation the next morning, but this young engaged couple didn't waste any time in beginning their lives together.

Dressed up in her graduation robes the next morning, Petra had a secret smile on her ghostly face. She hadn't even graduated yet and she had nearly everything in the world she could want.

The family gathered outside the school auditorium for the graduation. Nora couldn't have been prouder of the young people standing in front of her. Niki was climbing up the music ladder, Ziggy had made a life from the most humblest toy beginnings and her young daughter Petra had grown up into a fine young woman, despite the grief that had started it.

Ziggy graduated with high honors and was voted by his classmates as most popular.

Petra graduated with high honors, was the class valedictorian and was voted  most likely to fail. Petra didn't mind the judgement, she was just looking forward to later on that week.

The young couple wasted no time in tying the knot. Just one week after they left behind the high school hallways this loved-up pair were embarking on one of life's biggest journey's together.

Niki and Nora gathered by Ziggy as the blushing bride got ready.

Petra and Ziggy were so very happy that day.

As Ziggy held on to Petra's cold hands and slid her ring on, he promised her that he would be with her always. Through the good times and the bad and he promised that no matter what happened in their lives together Petra would always be the most important thing in his life.

While Niki wouldn't have chosen this married life for herself, she was proud of her little cousin.

Nora had tears in her eyes as she watched her little girl get married. She only wished that Alvin could have been there to see his little girl on that day. But the past was the past and Nora was just glad that she could see it.

The newly weds wasted no time in getting on with starting a family.

Niki did worry about her aunty as the weeks began to move on after the wedding. Nora wasn't getting any younger and Niki knew that women didn't live too long in their family, it wouldn't be too long before Nora was joining her husband in the netherworld. And Niki wished it would never come.

Petra and Ziggy settled in to married life. They had begun trying for a baby almost immediately, and Petra was waiting with bated breath for the first sign she was pregnant.

Ziggy decided to get a job. And what better place to get a job than at the science lab. After all, he may even be able to find out more about the potions Nora cooked up to make her daughter a ghost and to make him real. If there were going to be any side effects from these chemicals, like making it difficult to have kids, Ziggy wanted to know about them.

Nora eventually had to retire from the bookstore. She spent more and more time around the house with the kids. She just hoped that Petra would get pregnant soon, she wanted to see her grandkids.

Ziggy and Petra talked about the possibility that they wouldn't get pregnant. For one, Petra may not be able to get pregnant considering she was a ghost, for another Ziggy didn't start out life as a real man, he may not be able to have kids either. But they both decided one way or another, they would raise a family together.

The weeks turned into months, the happy couple continued to try for a baby, Ziggy settled in to his job at the science lab, Niki continued to live it up as a stagehand and Petra waited day by day for a baby.

Nora knew that she was nearing the end of her reign as matriach of this long standing family. Overall she was happy with what she had accomplished in her life. She just hoped that her ancestors were proud and her descendants would be happy to belong to her family.

Petra, like her mother before her, was a home body. Happiest when she was pottering around the house. But this gave her plenty of time to contemplate what her children, if she was blessed with them, would be like. Would they inherit her ghostly appearance? Or would they resemble her gorgeous husband?

One day Petra found herself burying her head in the toilet and a wonderous thought occured to her. Could she be pregnant??

Indeed she was. Finally the ghostly young woman had a tiny life growing inside her.

Petra was in the bathroom most of the day, morning sickness had struck her particularly bad. When she finally managed to go to bed she whispered the good news to her husband. The young couple slept soundly that night, their minds full of dreams of babies.

Ziggy was so happy when he woke the next morning, knowing that his wife was finally pregnant.

Ziggy decided to make an addition to the house. He added a sliding door and a garden for Petra.

While the baby was still small enough so Petra didn't have to tell people she was pregnant, she got a nice vegetable garden started.

It wasn't long before Nora guessed that her daughter was expecting. It made her so happy to see Petra in a strong, loving relationship. And now with her first grandchild on the way, Nora hoped she'd be around to help raise them.

Every day since her wedding day, Petra had been preparing for when she was pregnant. And with her mother close by and the first sign of a baby bump, Petra began preparing for the baby's arrival.

Ziggy's love for Petra made him protective. He knew how taxing a pregnancy could be on a woman's body, and so he reminded her every day just what she meant to him, and how happy he was that she was with him.

Worries plagued the happy couple when they should have been sleeping. They would pray together that their baby was happy and healthy.

The baby grew day by day. And so too did Petra's garden.

While her little cousin was settling in to maternal bliss, Niki was living it up as a stagehand. Her music was her priority. Oh and whatever handsome man she happened to come across at night. These flings were a nice distraction from all the hard work she put in to her job.

Niki always had a few different men on the go at once, just to keep things interesting. But she always made time for Shelby.

The family didn't really mind the strange hours that Niki would come home, still in the same clothes that she headed to work in the day before. They still loved their Niki, no matter her indiscretions.

During the afternoons Niki had work, during the nights she was enjoying some random man, but during the day she spent the time only on her. She loved her life.

Nora was beginning to feel completely at peace. She knew her time was all but up. She didn't tell her family how close she knew she was to leaving them, she just gave her little grandchild a kiss and retired for an afternoon nap.

Nora's time was up.

Petra was just settling down to read a pregnancy book in bed, when she heard an odd sort of noise coming from her mother's room. The only time she had heard that before was when the reaper had come for her family. Fear gripped her heart as she headed to her mother's room.

Now that the sun was down, Niki was heading inside from the hot tub. When she saw her beloved aunt. 

Both girls were distraught over losing Nora. Despite the fact that they knew it was coming.

This loss felt particularly hard for Niki. Unlike Petra, she had never come to terms with the death of Lexi, Mia and Alvin. And seeing her beloved aunt pass away before her own eyes only broke her heart again.

What Niki didn't know was that as one life was ending another was about to start.

Nora was laid to rest with her family. Finally after all these years she was reunited with her sister, niece and husband.

Although Petra and Ziggy felt the loss of Nora, they knew she was happy where ever she was. And they turned their thoughts to the due date of their first born, which loomed ever closer.

The grief of losing Nora had taken a grip on Niki and she didn't notice the first warning sign that her life was about to change forever.


Thanks for reading chapter twenty five! Stay tuned for the first chapter of generation six, Chapter Twenty-Six. Here's a quick preview of what's to come.

Petra's due date is finally here. Will she be blessed with a healthy baby?

With her grief over Nora's departure still fresh on Niki's mind, will she wake up to the possibility that this isn't just food poisoning?

Find out what happens to this family in Chapter Twenty-Six!