mega: Hello everybody! Sorry it took me so long to update but wasn't really working for me. I'm not quite sure why... Though everything seems better now. I'm not really in the mood to make up something funny for the author's note so here's the disclaimer.

Disclaimer: I, megafan505, do not own anything mentioned in this fic with the exception of the storyline and several characters. Everything else in here belongs to either Tim Burton of Bryan Fuller. Enjoy!

There I stood, in the middle of the forest, staring at what seemed to be my own body. For a moment I had been filled with pure terror. So many thoughts rushed through my head. But that didn't last long. I reasoned with myself about it. I mean I've been dead before this happened. Sure I didn't have a specific time when I died before, but still, how different can death be the second time around? But still, this just seemed kind of strange. I stood there for what seemed like forever, when actually it wasn't even a whole minute. Then behind me I heard someone walking toward me. I turned to find that it was that strange girl that I bumped into. "So what are you?" I asked her, "The Grim Reaper or something."

"You got the basic idea of this," she said as she walked up next to me, "Except I'm a reaper, not the reaper."

"A?" I asked her strangely, "So there's more than one. Well, I guess I have you to blame for being dead."

"Nope, not my job," she said crossing her arms and looking down at the ground, "The Gravelings take care of that. Think of them as the things that go bump in the night, just with a sick sense of humor. In fact there should be one or two still around here somewhere." As I tried looking around for it, she stared at my body. "Crushed by a tree," she continued, "What a way to go kid."

"I told you, my name isn't kid," I said crossing my arms and facing her, "It's Allen. Besides, I'm sure you've seen something worse than this, haven't you?"

"Try being crushed by a toilet that falls from a Soviet space station," she said looking back at me and then back to my body, "That's how I went. I'm George by the way."

"George?" I asked, "As in the curious little monkey?"

"It's short for Georgia," she said with a slight scowl on her face.

"So it's like the state then," I continued. I kneeled down to try to pick up my scare pack but for some reason my hand just went through it. "Hey George, can you help me over here," I called over to her, "I have to get somewhere by midnight."

"Well the only place you're going is to the afterlife. Of course I'm not really sure how that works yet," she said walking over to me, "And if you wanted to get there by midnight, I've got some bad news for you." She held out the yellow thing she had looked at earlier, which turned out to be a Post-It Note. On it, it read:

A. Hershel

Dalefield Forest

E.T.D. 12:00 Midnight

I would have held it myself but I had a feeling my hand would go right through that too. "E.T.D." I said looking at the Post-It for a moment, "What does that stand for?"

"That would be Estimated Time of Death," George said as she crumpled it up, "So if you had some place to go at midnight, you missed it. But don't worry about that, your schedule is pretty free from now until about forever."

"It doesn't really matter if I'm dead or not," I said trying to grab my scare pack again, "Where I'm headed pretty much everyone is already dead. All I need is for you to get that mask out of my bag for me. Then I can get going."

"You're not going anywhere except with me. If I let you go, my boss is gonna be real pissed," she said grabbing my hand, "Now come on. I'm going to go show you some pretty lights."

"Fine then, I'll go with you," I said to her, "Just get that mask for me first." I was already planning in my mind that I'd run off as soon as she let go of me, but at that moment I needed to get that mask.

"Look, I'm not supposed to interfere with this kind of stuff," she said groaning, "But if it will make you get moving, I guess I can do it." She went up to my scare pack and starting looking through it. She muttered something under her breath but I could only hear something about stubborn spirits. "There's no mask in here," she said turning back to me, "You couldn't do anything with it anyway. You can't touch anything in this world anymore."

"What?" I shouted walking over to her, "It has to be in there. I just put it in there before you got me." She held it open to reveal that she was telling the truth. Most of the stuff was still in there, but my mask wasn't. "I don't understand it," I began but was cut off.

"Hey! Get back here you damn Graveling!" George shouted throwing a stick at a tree nearby us, "Put that back!" She stood up and threw a rock in that direction as well. "Damn it!" she shouted, "Those things really piss me off!" She turned back to me and sighed. "Well I know what happened to your mask now," she said, "That Graveling took it."

"He took it?" I asked standing up in front of her, "And he took it because…" At this moment in time these Gravelings were starting to piss me off too.

"Who knows," she said turning back in the direction the Graveling ran off in, "They don't usually do this. Most of the time they just kill someone and run away. Although they do steal candy from any trick-or-treaters they knock off." She grabbed my arm again and started dragging me off. "You couldn't do anything with that mask anyway," she continued, "I told you before, you have no body. In fact, no one but me and other reapers can see you right now."

"Well I guess it could be worse," I replied, "So I guess you're going to take me to Halloween Town now." I figured that since I was dead now I would just end up there. After all Jack was dead and he lived there.

"Halloween Town?" she asked turning her head toward me, "Been watching a little too many cartoons lately kid?"

"Why do you find something like that so hard to believe when you're pretty supernatural yourself," I asked her, "I mean, there aren't that many people who would expect that grim reapers live among us. So why couldn't there be a place like Halloween Town."

"Well, whether or not it exists, I don't really know where you're headed. I just see to it that souls get to their final destination, I can't come with you," She explained, "I'm stuck here until my quota is done. I should probably start thanking my reaps now. You guys help me get one step closer moving on."

"You're welcome, I guess," I said to her. She didn't really say much after that so I had a little time to think about things. I had lived a nice life, I had a good family. I experienced a lot more than most people did, seeing Halloween Town and all. I thought I would end up in Halloween Town anyways. I realized that even if I was still alive I couldn't really go back to my real family. If I did go back my parents would have probably never let me leave the house again. They probably thought I was insane chasing after a place called Halloween Town. I finally figured it all out after what seemed like hours. My life was really over, and that was okay.

"Hey kid, look," George said to me as she finally stopped walking, "Your ride is here." We stood in front of a huge clearing. It wouldn't have been very special if it hadn't been for the thing that was in the clearing. What I saw was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. It looked almost like Halloween Town, but somehow different. There were ghosts and monsters all over the place. There were rivers of candy flowing through it. In the center of it all there was a huge Jack-O-Lantern. Everything in there just seemed to beckon me towards it. So I started to walk towards it.

"And George," I said looking back at her for a moment, "I told you before. My name's not kid, It's Allen!" I waved at her and she waved back. Then I ran into the midst of the image and everything seemed to be made of some kind of wonderful light. George and the woods blurred out of sight. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.

When I opened my eyes again the images were gone. I wasn't in the woods either. At first I didn't really know where I was. It didn't look like Halloween Town, but it did have a sort of dead feel to it. It looked like some kind of pub, but all around me there were people who looked dead. I sighed for a moment and turned around on the barstool I was sitting on. "Strange," I said under my breath, "I pictured the afterlife differently."

"So what'll you have?" the bartender asked behind the counter asked me. I looked up at him for a moment then looked back down. So much for my idea of ended up in Halloween Town again. "You're new around here, aren't you," he asked me, "My name's Ray. I get off in a few if you need someone to help you get around."

"No thanks Ray," I said getting up and sighing, "I think I'll see myself around. I'm Allen by the way." I stuck my hands in my pockets and began to walk off. There had to be some kind of mistake. I had just walked into a grand image of something that was my ideal afterlife. How could I have ended up in a place like this? It looked pretty nice and all but it wouldn't have been my choice of where to spend the rest of eternity. I walked out the door and looked around me. It seemed to be some kind of huge town of dead people. "Well, it could be worse," I said to myself. I began to walk down one of the streets when I heard something.

"Excuse me!" I heard a female voice calling from behind me, "Hold on a moment please." I turned around to see a woman coming towards me. For a moment she looked like Sally but as she got closer I noticed she was in a wedding gown. She also looked kind of different. She didn't have stitches running through her and he face seemed slightly more slender. "I'm terribly sorry I'm late," she said coming up to me, "My name is Emily and I'll be your guide around the Land of the Dead."

"Um, thanks, I guess," I said to her. I realized that if I was going to be stuck here it wouldn't be a bad idea to get someone to help me out. "So Emily," I said, "Are you like an angel or something?"

"An angel? Oh no," she said laughing slightly, "I'm dead, just like you are. Come right this way please. I'll show you to your new house first." I began to follow after her.

"So is this where I'm going to spend the rest of eternity?" I asked her while looking at the scenery of dead people all around me, "I mean I like it but it's not really my style."

"No dear, this isn't the end," she said looking at the addresses on the houses near us, "Think about this as a place of waiting. It's kind of like limbo."

"So George didn't know I was going to end up here?" I continued following her up a flight of stairs.

"George?" she asked, "Oh you must mean your reaper. No, they don't really know anything about this place. They don't really get much insight on the afterlife except for the things they know from their job." She turned to a door on the wall and checked the address for a moment. "You see, some rides lead directly to a person's final destination," she said as she continued up the stairs, "Other souls, like you and me, still have some things that need to be worked out before they can get to the ending point."

"So will I end up in Halloween Town?" I asked her as we reached the top of the stairs. I really hoped that would be where I would spend the rest of forever.

"I'm not quite sure dear," she continued as she walked up to a few other doors, "You see, there are many different final destinations, and we won't really know where you're headed until all of the paperwork is finished. You will end up in the place that you are most suited for. Ah, here we are. 1313 Deadend Drive." She opened up the door that revealed a huge home complete with furniture and everything. "Now, if you need anything at all, just ring this bell," she said handing me a tiny little bell that made a sound as if it belonged in a wedding chapel. "Please, make yourself comfortable and enjoy your stay here."

"Wait a second," I said stopping her from walking out the door, "Why can't I just head back to Halloween Town now?"

"Oh, you mean you didn't know?" she asked turning back toward me, "You see dear, when the big mishap with the holidays happened they laid down some rules. You see it is impossible for someone to enter one of the holiday towns unless it is in the same month as the holiday. When it hit midnight, October ended. It's the first of November dear. I'm sorry dear."

"You mean," I stood there in shock for a moment, "I'll have to wait a whole year before I can go back to Halloween Town? I can't see Jack or any of them for a year?"

"Actually, I hate to say it," Emily continued, "But you may not be able to go there ever again. The elders have already started decided your final destination. The only way you can make sure you will end up there is by finding your own way there."

"This isn't fair," I said sitting down on a couch that was in my new living room, "First I lost my old life and now I lost my new one."

"I'm sorry but I can't do anything about this," Emily said sitting next to me, "I just take care of some of the souls. I can't decide anything."

"It's not your fault Emily," I said turning towards her, "Could you just leave me alone please?" I thought I sounded kind of rude but I didn't do anything about it. She had been very kind to me but I just needed to think things over with myself. She said something to me as she left but I didn't pay any attention to it. I couldn't believe that my life with the people I cared for was over. Then it hit me, I would probably never see my real family ever again. Crying wasn't something that I normally do, but that night I cried just like I had when I ran away from my family. I cried so hard that I was sure that my neighbors could have heard me, but at the time I didn't care. I just kept crying and before I knew it I was asleep.