Been a while since I last wrote and it was lovely to come back to such nice reviews! Thanks guys! So here is when Emily wakes up. Hope you enjoy!

(PS: I made some very slight changes to the first chapter because I noticed a few typos. Not really anything more, just the bit where Barkis says about elder gutknect.)

She seemed to be falling. Falling down and down and down and not stopping. But was it falling? Felt more like flying, but almost as if in a dream. She also felt a little empty, perhaps eating something when she woke up would help.

It wasn't long before Emily felt herself slow down and stop, she hadn't opened her eyes yet so couldn't see anything but knew that wherever she was, the grass was dead and there was no wind. But she liked it here, sort of. It was a bit quiet but other than that it was… OK.

Emily opened her eyes and sat up, looking around. Perhaps this really was a dream, one of those that felt so real. She was lying in a forest, the trees all dead and depressing yet with a certain dark beauty about them. It was then that she realised that she was wearing a dress, a wedding dress. This was certainly a funny dream so why not explore?

Her dress trailing behind her, Emily made her way to a nearby town. The roads where full of clutter and shops held human body parts that both amused and revolted the girl as she wandered past. Decrepit figures sat hunched at every corner, head down and some thinner than should be possible (they seemed to have missing limbs making her wonder about the shops) but not one asked her for money or begged her for food nor grabbed her dress as she strolled by.

A few minutes later, Emily entered a pub. If you could call it that. It was massive with blood red and black as night dirty carpets and curtains and glasses that could have been 1000 years old and chairs that were falling to pieces. She went up to the bar and signalled to a woman in her late 50s for a drink. Her order was slid across the bar towards her and she raised it to her lips, the cold liquid running down her throat…

Images flashed before her eyes. A forest, a man, a knife, blood…. This dream had turned into a nightmare and as she toppled back off her chair, she dropped her glass, smashing it into a thousand pieces and piercing the skin on her arm. But no blood appeared, only a clean cut… in blue skin?

"Oi missy! You alright?" the barmaid shouted at her.

"Where am I!? Why is there no blood!?" she screamed, waving her arm around to emphasize her point.

"You're new here aren't you?" the barmaid said calmly. Emily nodded her head vigorously, speechless.

"Sit down, I'll get you another drink."

"No drink! That did something to me!" she sat down on another stool, leaving the one she had been sitting on on the floor.

"Now, I've had to have this talk plenty of times before and to be honest it's become a bit boring so I'm just gonna say it. You're dead. This is what we call downstairs and my drinks help people remember how they died so that they might have some way of knowing how to move on. What you just saw was your death." the barmaid looked at her glumly whilst cleaning a glass. It didn't make sense, wasn't she supposed to go to heaven or something?

"I don't understand… is this heaven? And what do you mean by 'move on'?"

"This is no heaven dear. People come here when they have died and have unfinished business. When they have figured out what that business is they either choose when to move on up to what you call heaven. And before you ask, my drinks show people their deaths but not those responsible for it. I don't know why, they just do."

Emily tried to take this all in. She was staring at her hands, icy blue and cold as death. Her hair was no longer lush but dull and just below her left breast was a hole, a perfect fit for a silver dagger. Slowly, she got up and left the pub with her head down and a single tear staining her hollow cheeks.

So I hoped you enjoyed that. I've got an idea on how Emily copes with all this so there will be more in future but I think I'll keep these relatively short depending on my mood. Please review!