As Emily continued to tumble through the dark air, her mind was running a mile a minute. Where would she end up? Why were there these strange trees in the forest? Surely falling this long would be the death of her. And then, the darkness began to move away slightly. She let out a final scream, and hit the ground very hard.

Colliding with the hard ground had knocked all the breath out of her, and she lay there coughing for several minutes. Her head was spinning and she seemed in a daze. She stood, her entire body trembling violently from the force of hitting the ground and the terrifying ideas that were popping into her mind.

She turned three-hundred-sixty degrees, and took in her surroundings. She stood in a cemetery, obviously somewhere far from the woods she had just left. It was night in this place, and the moon glowed yellow and huge in the sky. Much bigger than Emily had ever seen at her home. There was a strange-looking hill off to her left, and straight ahead of her was the gate that would lead out of the cemetery.

Her eyes had turned electric blue with fear, and she wasn't sure what to do. Leaving the cemetery might be a good plan, but what if the people were dangerous? Plus, that would be leading her away from the way she had come and that didn't seem a good idea…

Still, she couldn't just sit here and hope that the portal she had entered through would randomly appear out of nowhere. This was all too overwhelming; she didn't know what to do, where she was, where she should go next.

Her head felt strange, and she wondered fleetingly if maybe she had gotten a concussion. Darkness clouded the edges of her vision, and she fell to her knees. Her head turned to the left as she thought she saw some movement from the corner of her eye. She fell backwards so that now she was lying on the cold ground.

Before unconsciousness completely overtook her, she saw a strange, spidery-looking fellow standing over her, looking at her with confusion. He was tall, and extremely thin with long limbs.

The word "skeleton" passed through her mind, but she brushed it away. That wasn't possible. She let her eyes close, and felt that man lift her with ease. She tried to protest, but no sound escaped her lips, and darkness covered her.

"Is she dead?"

"Of course she isn't dead, she's breathing!"

"But she's so pale!"

"Such a thin young thing…"

"Where did she come from?"

"Jack found her in the cemetery."

"What are we going to do with her?"

Emily could hear a handful of strange voices speaking near her. Her entire body was weighed down with exhaustion, and she struggled to remember what was going on. At first her mind brought only a small stream of memories. The forest…Strange trees…Falling…

Suddenly, the stream turned into a river, and pictures flooded her mind. She had found that strange Jack-O-Lantern tree, and fallen through it to the cemetery. She remembered losing consciousness, and being picked up by that spidery-looking man.

With a good deal of strength, her eyes opened, and she sat bolt upright in bed. The scene that greeted her was a bizarre and terrifying one. All around her, there were people – no, not people, monsters! What were these horrible creatures? They looked fit only for a small child's nightmare.

Chills ran down her spine, and she tried desperately to comprehend what was going on. A dream. Surely this was all just a terrible dream. There was no other explanation.

Yet, everything around her seemed so real. Her breath was coming in short gasps, and she felt extremely dizzy. She grabbed the edges of the bed she had been placed in, to keep herself from falling to the floor. The things around her were all staring at her, obviously as interested in her as she was in them.

"Excuse me!" she heard a strong voice call from the back of the crowd. "Excuse me, coming through!"

The skeletal man from the previous night was pushing his way through the group, and kneeled when he reached her side. When he saw that she was awake, he beamed at her.

There was no doubt about it. In the light, she could see quite clearly that this man was most definitely a skeleton. This was all so overwhelming. Emily tried to grasp what was going on, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't make sense of it.

"Where am I?" Emily asked, in barely more than a whisper. Then, raising her voice, she asked, "Who are you?"

The man continued to smile at her. "Emily – !"

"How do you know my name?!" Emily asked, her voice becoming panicky.

The man put a bony hand on her shoulder for comfort, but all it achieved was to send a shiver down her spine. "Emily…I'm Jack…Your father…"

A/N: My apologies for the rather soap-opera-ish twist there at the end.