Darkness. Nothing but darkness as death carried me away. He was nice to me though, I felt safe around him. Then light surrounded us. There was no transition, just suddenly there it was. This ‘place’ was solid light. It had no beginning and no end; you could have walked in any direction forever. That’s where Death left me, just stranded in the middle of nowhere. I wasn’t alone for long; I was soon joined by "Uncle Vincent!" I shouted. I gave him a hug.
My great Uncle Vincent (Vincent Malloy) was my grandpa’s (Dr. Finkelstein’s) half brother. He also created Edward, my mom’s cousin. Uncle Vincent was dead before I was born so I never met him, but I’d heard a lot about him and Edward is one of my favorite relatives. Last time I saw him he made an ice sculpture of me. He even did Mom’s hair once, though she didn’t maintain the style. I wish he’d move to Halloween with us.
"Pleased to meet you." He replied once I had let him go. "I’m, sorry I won’t be able to stay for very long." "It’s okay…Wow, I can’t believe you’re here, wherever here is, I mean I’ve always wanted to meet you." He laughed and said, "Why thank you, I’m very flattered. So how has everyone been doing? How’s Edward?" "Well, I’m not sure, I know Edward’s doing alright, but last time I saw most of my family they were trying to escape Oogie’s burning lair." "I hope they’re alright" he sounded concerned now, "My time is almost up. I was very pleased to meet you Lini, if sad for the reason of our meeting. Your Aunt Emily should be along any moment to see you. Good-by my niece." "Wait! Who’s Aunt Emily?!" and just like that he was gone.
I waited not too long before I was joined by who could only have been Aunt Emily. She was tall and very good looking, and for some reason wearing a wedding dress. "You must be my Aunt Emily." I said as she got nearer. "Yep that’s me, come, have a seat." As she said it out of the nowhere there was a bench. "Aunt Em, not to be rude, but who are you exactly? I mean how exactly are you related to me?" "I’m your father’s sister." "Wait what?!!" "I’m his older sister, and I must say you look like he did when he was alive." I found that a bit hard to believe as I'd never pictured Dad as a blond, but I didn't comment as I was more concerned with other matters."Then how come he’s never mentioned you before?" "He probably doesn’t remember me, I ran away when he was only about three and my parents were so mad they never spoke of me again." "I’m sorry." "Oh, don’t be, that’s just life, err...death." Silence. "Uhh…so how did you die?" I seriously couldn’t think of anything else to ask, my mind was a total blank. I think this place gave off fumes. "Well, that’s kind of a long story…" "I have time." So she told me.
"And then you just floated off to Heaven?" "That’s right." "Is that where we are now, because I must say this isn’t how I pictured it." "Oh no, this isn’t heaven, it’s the between." "What’s the between?" "It is between everything." "That’s not a very good description." "Hmm, think of it as a place where you can come to terms with dying before you go on to heaven." "Oookaay, but why didn’t I just go to the land of the dead?" "I don’t know, not many come here." "Well that explains nothing." "Sorry, I wish I knew more." "Sigh. It’s alright; it’s just that nothing here seems to make any sense." More silence. "I miss them." "I know how you feel." "Do you miss Victor?" "Sometimes, but I know things couldn’t have worked out any differently. Besides, look." She drew a circle in the (uh…fog maybe?) and it was like a window opened. Through the ‘window’ you could see a little girl chasing after a butterfly. "Who’s that?" I asked "That’s their daughter; they named her Emily, after me! Wasn’t that sweet?" She sounded just tickled to death that they’d done that. I looked back at the window to see who I assumed was Victor running after her telling her that she shouldn’t have run off like that. He was very a nervous looking man, handsome though, but rather thin. He was soon joined by who I assumed was Victoria. She looked like her daughter, with the exception that her daughter had dark hair like her father. She seemed kind enough. "So that’s them now?" "Oh no, that was over a hundred years ago." "A hundred years ago! Then that would make you and Dad…" "Old?" "I wasn’t going to say old, but okay. So, she grew up?" "Take a look for yourself." She waved her hand over the ‘window’ and the picture changed to show a now all grown up Emily on her wedding day. She was beautiful. Her father walked her down the aisle, he hadn’t changed much. His hair had started turning grey. Victoria, who was crying, had gained a bit of weight but she still looked good. I couldn’t see the groom. "So she had a good life?" "A very good life." She sounded almost envious. I felt bad that she never found anyone. If she weren’t here she might have been good with Cousin Eddy. I think they both got screwed, she never got married like she had wanted and he never saw that Kim girl again. I didn’t say it out loud though.
