She woke up

Usually when I wake up I feel groggy and more tired than I should be after sleeping for more than eight hours. But this…I felt odd. And not odd as in I slept somewhere unfamiliar or sick or something. Instead I felt nothing. No warmth, no cold, no air from my ceiling fan, and my dog Douglas was absent from my side. What was this?

I opened my eyes and the first thing I saw was a dirty grey ceiling. That wasn't right. I rubbed my eyes with my arm to wake myself up and get out of bed. Only I wasn't even in a bed to begin with!

"What the hell?" I hoarsely said as I looked around to see I was laying on a wooden plank ground with feet scuffling about. Did I pass out at a party or something?

"Oy! The new arrival is awake!" someone shouted.

"New arrival? I didn't see her earlier!"

"Whata gem! She's got pretty eyes."

"Such a shame, so young to be down here."

I was suddenly yanked to my feet by two sets of hands pulling my arms and taking me to a wooden counter. I was already a tad dazed when I woke up but to be dragged so fast made me dizzy.

"Get her an arsenic Jim! A half should do it."

My head shot up, "Arsenic!? Why would I drink that…" My train of thought came to a sudden halt when I finally laid my eyes upon the man who ordered the unusual drink for me. He was a deathly pale blue with bulging grey eyes. Those eyes had no light…no shimmer of life what so ever yet they looked at me with intelligence. On the top of his head where his scalp should have been was a gaping hole revealing a shattered skull. My scream was cut short when a foaming mug was presented to me by the hand of a skeleton.

"Here ya are love. This will bounce ya right back!" The skeleton said from behind the counter.

I couldn't speak. I couldn't move I was so frozen with terror of what stood before me. Without thinking I grabbed the mug and downed the beverage whole not even knowing what I consumed. I pulled it away and gasped for air only to drop the mug with a jolt. I couldn't breathe! I tried to suck air into my lungs with my nostrils but nothing filled them. I opened my mouth and tried gasping but nothing happened! I felt like a fish out of water as I tried to suck air into my body but nothing would happen. I didn't feel anything but the slight warmth of the beverage sitting in my stomach.

"Hey calm down girlie. You'll get used to this. Just give it some time." The man with the open skull said to me as he toke a sip from his own mug. I continued to stare and gape at the sight of the blue man. It didn't take me long to explore the rest of the place around me as my eyes caught the sight of another blue person walking around the counter to a group of people at a pool table.

I spun on my feet and leaned against the counter as I saw everyone around me was just like the man beside me, they were all deathly blue like corpses!

I finally screamed.

"What's going on over here!?" A woman came up to the counter and saw me crumble to the floor with my head buried in my folded arms. The woman sighed and rolled her lifeless eyes before shooing off the man who helped me up. "Honestly Joe you know better than to make a new arrival have a drink before learning what has become of her!"

"I thought a drink would help ease her in Margie!" He shrugged sheepishly.

Margie shooed him off and knelt beside me, taking on a more motherly tone than before. "Hello darling, there's nothing to be afraid of. No one will hurt you. Not anymore."

"W-what do you mean?" I was surprised hearing the sound of my own voice. It felt different. The woman, Margie, was deathly pale but appeared more normal save for the loss of hair on her scalp and no skin on her fingers. "I wish there was an easier way of saying this darling. But I'm afraid his is how it goes."

I felt like my throat should have formed a lump but there was no moisture in my mouth to do so. Then she said it, "Your dead now, honey."

"I'm…what? Dead? No that's not possible I'm here aren't I?"

A different man sitting further down the counter cackled with laughter, "If you're here then you are as good as dead sweet cheeks!"

"Zip it Fred or I'm throwing your bones out!" Margie threatened. She then turned back to me with a sympathetic smile. "I'm sorry to tell you this hon but that's how it is here. You're dead if you're down here."

"But I don't understand…I got up and went to school yesterday and then to work right after. Yes…and then my friend and I decided to go to the movies for a late showing." I got to me feet as I tried to remember the part when I got home and went to bed. But that didn't happen…

It all came back to me now. "…We finished the movie. She got in her car and drove away while I walked to my car that was further down. There was a man…yes, a tall skinny man." By this point the majority of the pale people were looking at me and waiting to go on with my horrible story of how I came to be here. I started to shake with fright, "He asked me for a ride but I kept going and he followed me. Before I could do anything he grabbed me and I fought him but then he…he…"

It all came crashing in at once. Margie was right. I am dead and I remember dying. "He stabbed me…three times in my…oh my god." I looked down and saw the hole in my blouse and my pale skin penetrated by something sharp. I shakily moved my hand down to the side of my stomach and pulled out the small silver handle of a switch blade that was embedded. It didn't hurt when I pulled it out like I thought it would but it felt so empty without the blade in there, as horrendous as it sounded.

"He left his switch blade in me! And before it went dark he stole my purse and car keys! That ass hole killed me for $10 and a beat up truck!" I screamed as I slammed my fist onto the counter of the bar. I used the switch blade to stab the wooden surface with rage and tried to breathe in but couldn't because I was dead. Dead people didn't need air. "I'm truly dead…how could this happen? Why would this happen!? I didn't do anything to him!"

"There, there darling. The pain never really goes away, I'll be honest, but you will eventually learn to move on." Margie patted my back with reassurance.

"Yeah it will turn out alright! Why take our old buddy Lawrence, he's been dead for nearly thirty years and he finally moved on just last week. Better place that one went!" A man with no eyes in his sockets said from the pool table he was playing at.

"Moved on?" I said.

"Well you just got here darling. It will take a while to understand how this here afterlife works. But it won't be so bad! You always have a friend here at the Nail n' Coffin." Margie nodded to me and left to go around the counter to fix a different drink. I looked around the bar and noticed the whole room looked a tad western and there was wood everything everywhere. Wooden tables, chairs, piano, and counters. It all looked like a coffin alright. Aside the dusty place, the dead people seemed to act normal. They played poker like normal people even if they were mostly skeleton, some played pool, others sat at tables drinking with their friends, and then there was me. Me leaning against the bar counter with my mouth agape having the worst time trying to wrap my head around the fact I was dead. I am no different from these people around me for I was dead as well and probably looked just as bad.

"What's your name darling?" Margie suddenly said as she presented a new mug for me to have.

I toke the mug and tried to blow away the steam but nothing happened. I forgot I had no air to give or take anymore. "Um…it's Claudia."

"What a lovely name. My name is Margie and if you ever need anything please let me know."

I nodded as I toke another sip and felt my inside grow heat and then vanish as quickly as it came. I sighed tiredly, "Um, Margie?"

"Yes hon?"

"How does this work? What happens to me now?"

Margie gave me the smallest of smiles, "Well for now you should take it all in, your death I mean. And the best place to do so is your grave or the place you died."

"My grave? I was buried already!?" I got to me feet. Geez my family didn't take their time on this one. I mean I get I haven't called home in a while but to stick me six feet under the day after I was murdered seems too cold hearted, and I'm the dead one!

Margie shook her head, "No darling you have been dead for a few days now, your body has been put to rest just now and that's why you arrived."

"I'm not sure I'm following this?" I said.

"I'll give it to her straight." The man that had laughed at me earlier toke a swig of his beverage and walked over to me. "When someone dies their soul is trapped within their own bodies without rest. Until the body is buried will they arrive in some place like this here bar. It's sort of like a meeting place for the dead in ever cemetery or burial."

"What if the body isn't buried?"

"Then they are fucked. Stuck to rot away inside their own corpse. Luckily that never really happens for a corpse doesn't smell pretty and people tend to bury the bodies when it comes to murder."

I shuttered at the word. Murder. I can't believe this is how I went. I always assumed I would die either from some disease like my aunt or old age but I was twenty four for god's sake. I wasn't old enough to rent a car and my life was taken away from me just like that. I'm alive and living and now I'm down here drinking what looks like poison and talking to other dead people who look like they have been dead much longer than I have. I fiddled with the switch blade that was still in my hand and began to grow anxious for some weird reason. I don't know why for the life of me…or the death of me whatever, but I had the urge to put the switch blade back into my side where I had pulled it out.

"Ah, is that the weapon that brought down your inevitable doom?" the scruffy skeleton man said. I nodded. "Well you can go on and put that back where you pulled it out."

"Why would I do that?" I demanded.

The man smiled, "Your body died with that knife in ya. A piece of your soul is gone and that knife was what replaced it for that moment you died."

"Death is so complicated." I sighed tiredly as I shoved the switch blade back in-between my lower rips. The anxious feeling went away as soon as I dug it in place. It was then I noticed one hole was punctured above my stomach and the another was right in my shoulder blade. I groaned in anger, "I hope that asshole was caught and locked away for life. Death is truly too good for him if he were to just wind up down here and have a beer." I threw a chair back and sat in it angrily as I downed my drink and felt my tasteless tongue tingle from the beverage.

"And what is with this stuff!? I can't taste, feel, or smell yet I get weird sensations from this!"

The man cackled, "Its poison darlin. The things that kill ya up there can make us feel down here."

"Do we need to eat?"

"Not at all. But it's the closest to feeling something isn't it? When you get a chance try Cyanide with a splash of arsenic and you will feel your body tingle all over with this radiation of heat! Ha ha! Its quite the buzz." He patted me on the back.

I nodded and looked down at my mug and saw that the label on the side assured me I was indeed drinking strychnine. It is a very toxic poison you could pick up at a local hardware store to feed to pesky rodents. And for dead people to consume as well I guess.

"So. Where is this grave of mine? I think I'd like to crawl into the hole they dug for me now." I sighed as I tried to get the last few drops of the poison from my mug just so I can feel the tingle on my tongue. So I can feel SOMETHING even for a moment.

"From the looks of the obituary, your about two blocks down from here. Not too shabby I say." Margie said as she skimmed through a wrinkled black and white newspaper. I looked up to see the front page head line said "Possible cemetery move?" and a picture of the St. Marys cemetery that was a few miles away from where I lived when I was alive.

"Is that where I'm buried? St. Mary's?"

"That's where we are all buried honey. We are right under it." Margie corrected.

My eyes widened as I finally understood how this worked a little better. When we die we don't 'wake up' right after. We wake up when we are buried and put to rest and end up in a place where you can meet a bunch of other dead people to welcome you to the afterlife. I felt a tad better seeing that I'm picking this up, but I'm still dead and nothing could change that.

"Would you like me to walk you to your grave darlin?" the man said.

I shook my head as I got to my feet, "No I should be fine. I mean…what could happen right? I was stabbed to death so there's nothing to worry about anymore." I knew I sounded rude and sarcastic but how could I not feel this way after what happened to me? I opened the wooden doors and stepped out of the bar for the first time and was stunned by what I saw. Everything wasn't drab or grey or dirty like I assumed it would be. There were buildings with similar architecture as the old buildings from above ground and were pretty well kept. There was flowers everywhere and people, all dead and decayed, walking about talking and laughing as if this was all normal. I started down the stone road in the direction Margie had said my grave was and I hugged myself as I saw the world around me. There were a lot more children here then I was comfortable seeing. Why were there so many kids here? They were supposed to grow up and live their lives to determine whether they died young or of age. Not when they can't even spell their own names.

"Excuse me mam?" a boy suddenly called out to me from across the street. I turned to see a small boy wearing pajamas and was pale with an IV still stuck to his arm waving at me.

I hesitantly waved back. He smiled, "Are you new? I've never seen you before! Do you want to play?"

I smiled sadly and shook my head, "Maybe another time kid. I'm not feeling up to it."

"But we don't feel anything!"

I chuckled, "Yeah. We don't do we?" unless you get addicted to drinking poison which I assume is the equivalent of being an alcoholic. "Another time ok buddy." I waved off the boy, trying to not stare at the IV needle imbedded in his arm.

I continued to walk straight until I saw a fairly sized building with my name written on the black mailbox just outside the chipped picket fence. I began to remember that the St. Mary's church had old white picket fences surrounding their gardens just like it. The building was a weird build of half wood and half cement and there were roots climbing down instead of up. I looked to the sky and instead of night I saw nothing but black. It was as if there was an abyss looming over this strange world and it made me shiver strangely enough. I pushed the white picket door and started up the stone path and saw there was a skeleton key already sitting in the wooden doors lock waiting for me. I turned it till I heard a faint 'click' and pushed the creaky door open. What was inside surprised me.

The room was obviously the sitting room and it was complete with one old red plush sofa and armchair with cobwebs and an out dated fire placed. The other room down a short hallway was a kitchen that looked like it hasn't been touched since the 1950's. From the appliances to the weird pastel green wall paper it looked like it came out of an 'I Love Lucy' sitcom mixed with some Adams family what with the cobwebs and dead flowers. I went back into the hallway and saw at the end there was a creaky wooden stair case the lead to the second floor. I climbed the stair nervously and reached the top to see a red chipped wooden door. There was nothing to fear anymore for I was good as dead but for some odd reason I worried for what was of the other side. Hesitantly, I turned the gold knob and pushed the door in. What I saw nearly made me double over with a wave of emotions I couldn't comprehend. It was a large bedroom with one creaky twin bed made with simple pale pink sheets. But what shook me to my dead core was the explosion of flowers placed all over the room along with candles, letters, stuffed animals, and photographs. I knew the moment I saw it all that this wasn't all a part of the room that came with this grave. I got to my knees and scavenged through the piles of flowers and pulled out a stack of letters that were scattered below.

"Claudia Reed, we never really spoke in class but I always thought you were a great person and its heart breaking to know that you will no longer be with us. I pray you're in a better place. Your class mate and friend, Rachael Troy." I bit my lip in confusion. I never thought Rachael from my theatre class considered me a friend. Then again she might have written me this just to pay respects. We never had any ill will towards each other but we never spoke either. Odd. I decided to read through the other letters and found that they were written by most of my class mates or people I went to school with but never met or talked to. This was all probably something the school encouraged to do just to pay respects to a university student who passed of under unfortunate circumstances. I mean, I've seen it all the time on the news when I was alive. It was always so sad, a girl or guy would be found dead near the school or over spring break and the university would hold a memorial in their memory. I still can't believe that I am one of them now.

I stood to my feet and stepped over the piles of flowers to climb into my bed. I continued to read through the notes and letters but eventually found it repetitive for they all said the same thing.

"I hope you're in a better place."

"I'm sorry this happened to you."

"You will be missed."

"Blah blah blah blah BLAH." I said as I threw the letters across my twin bed and watched them scatter to the ground on top of the piles of roses and lilies. I leaned back on my creaky bed and closed my eyes. Darkness. Something I thought death would be like but instead it's like pretending to live again only you can't feel anything but the emotions that bubble up deep inside you.

"So this is it. This is how it's going to be now. My hopes and dreams are gone and will be here doing who knows what for the rest of my undead life." I rolled to my side and was about to drift off when I noticed more letter were stack on my wooden night stand next to a candle. I sat up and grabbed the envelopes. These weren't pity notes, these were my families.

The first letter belonged to my mother and I felt myself shaking with fear of what it might say. Slowly I opened it and read aloud, "Words cannot describe the pain a mother feels when she loses her child. It was never meant to be this way. I was ready to see you grow up and become an actress like you always dreamed of being. I was ready to see you perform in shows and be in movies and hear your speeches at award shows when you thank me and your father. I was ready to pass on first and wait for you in heaven but it seems fate had other plans. What happened to you was unforgivable and this anger will never leave me for as long as I live. But my love for you will never change and there will never be a day that goes by when I don't think of you Claudia. I will see you someday sweet heart. I know you will be watching over us from heaven. I love you always, Mom."

By the end I scared myself when I saw water splash onto the corner of the letter and looked up to see if the ceiling was leaking but there was nothing. I touched my face and gasped when I realized I was crying. The dead can cry.

"My god…what is this place? It doesn't make sense!" I hugged the letter to myself and cried, only to learn a few tears would fall and I couldn't really cry or sob to let it all out. There was only a few tears to shed and I had used them up for now. I lied back down and closed my eyes once again. There were three other letters but I was too emotionally drained to continue reading. For the sake of making the best out of this horrible situation I tried to be humorous and crossed my arms over my chest like a mummy. It wasn't anything but I had always responded to scary situations with sarcasm or humor.

Perhaps tomorrow would be a better day. I will finish reading my letters, sort these flowers out, and learn what I could do in this world for the rest of my time here waiting for who knows what to happen. Will I be judged to move on to heaven or hell? Or will I wait until my family gets here? Or is this it? No matter what I thought the answers were still scary. Either way I will be alone in death for a very long time.