Karen O'Neill COMPLETED

5

But she never did. She crash landed in Ghosttown. Ghosttown where there are other poor souls like her. Ghosttown where the people just accept life-after-death. Ghosttown where feeling is just a processed sensation they're used to feeling. Ghosttown, the only home Karen O'Neill has now.

"Hey!" Heather bounces in the balls of her feet.
"Hey."
"Oh, Karen! So glad I found you! The Roi fantôme would like to see you!" An elderly ghost runs to Karen and grabs her shoulders to stop herself. She is very plump and her silvery cheeks look as if they were once rosy. Her hair is groomed nicely. She has it in a 50s inspired look. She completes the look with a nice poodle skirt and a tucked in button up shirt.
"The what?"
"The Roi fantôme, of course! Why, who else? Come along now!" The lady grabs Karen's elbow and pulls her toward a castle.
On the way, Karen asks, "How did you die?"
"What a wonderful question! I had a heart attack! Quite enjoyable, dying, really!" The lady seems unfazed by Karen's quite personal question. "Oh! I'm Belinda, by the way! How did you die, m'dear? Quite young, dont ya think? You're eleven? Twelve?"
"Thirteen. And I died- uh... I-" Karen pictures the gun in her hand and the metal on her temple. "Drowned," Karen lies in a small voice.
"Mm... quite fun, sounds like!"
"Yeah... fun."
"My daughter, Carol, fell out of a tree. I think she was your age. She's fourteen now. Or would be, if we aged after death! But alas, we do not. I had died a year before. Of course, husband took it too hard and blockaded my bedroom's door. The only way in or out was up the big oak tree, into the window. Out the window, down the big oak tree." Belinda repeated it thrice.
"Why do you call him 'husband'?"
"Oh. Do you not know? After so long in Ghosttown, we lose our memories of life. Only the terrible ones, like dying, stay. If, of course, you do forget death, you fade from the waiting in Ghosttown and pass on to the judgement."
"The judgement?"
"Its where we are decided where to go next. Whether we restart a new life, pass on to the kingdom, or live a sorrowful eternity in the prison."
"You mean I can go back to my life?"
"No. You go to another life."
"Oh." Karen smiles to herself. She wants to go back to her own life, fix the mistakes she made. But another life was better than being stuck in Ghosttown, Karen thinks.
"Ah, we're here!" They stand in front of a castle that seems to be made of clouds. It would be magnificent, but there are bodies floating around in the clear water moat. The water in the moat is moving around in a circle at a semi slow pace.
"Bodies of those who have faded and left us," Belinda explains. Karen nods numbly. The bodies are the only thing about the people in Ghosttown that has color. Everyone's skin and clothes are silvery and glittery. Belinda leads Karen inside the castle. Karen gasps as soon as she walks in.