The Dead has a sense of Humor too.

"What? Sorry if I am enjoying myself much too much for someone who is very , very dead. Why should I mourn like everyone else. I am having the time of my...Death"!

"Nightmares". Yells, the dapper skeleton. "Nightmares, get your nightmares here. Get it before they are all gone, for living, in reality here, is death". He cackles at his own joke, toothless grin and sunken eyes searching for another lost soul to torment.

Skeleton shuffled along, careful not to bounce or rattle his bones too much. He stopped by the new arrival's door to observe, his warped sense of humor and total lack of empathy kept him fully entertained in his new existence. He always enjoyed watching the newbies freaking out when they realize that they are dead. The rich ones are usually the most sad and a tad hilarious, refusing to accept that all their money couldn't save them from the same fate as the not so fortunate. Those poor souls whom they looked down on and heaped derision upon their measly lot in life, not expecting to end their days within the same realm of judgement.

Skeleton smiled, a frightening gaping leer that would scare the bejesus out of the soulless. Strangely, he mused, it is the less fortunate who are more easily inclined to accept their fate with humility and grace.

Mina, awakening within her private cabin, stretches luxuriously and delays opening her eyes. Later, she will take daddy's yacht and invite a few friends over to go sailing. She hoped that it was going to be a gloriously sunny day today. She just wanted to laze around a little longer.

Suddenly, coming alert, she had the feeling that someone was watching her. Opening her eyes she saw Skeleton standing by the door watching her through the tiny glass window. Mina jumped off the cot screaming and yelling for help, when no help was forthcoming after a few minutes, she plopped down on the chair dejectedly, and closed her eyes.

.....

Julie Bones limped over to stand by Skeleton at the door, she elbowed him a little aside so she could see inside. Skeleton's arm fell off. "Oops, so sorry"! JBones apologized, bending down to pick up the arm. But she stayed in that bent position as her hip slipped and she couldn't straighten herself up.

"Sorry you had to see that". He apologised to Mina.

"Oh Jules, Skeleton chuckled, "you will be the death of me"! He held her hand and carefully helped her stand up straight again, her bones crackled and popped, and she inched them into their correct positions. He then reattached his own arm, jiggling it into place.

"You are too funny SK, and your jokes are especially corny. Julie pointed to Mina, "We have a live one, and let me guess, one of the elite who won't believe she passed on".

"You got it, poor thing, I hope you buy a nightmare Mina, you're gonna need it". They made no move to leave, just stood there watching and waiting.

Mina opened her half-closed eyes, closed them and opened them again, hoping that she was hallucinating. They were still there watching her, they must be in costume, she thought, how rude to be peeking in at her. She got up and brusquely drew the small curtain over the window. Still they stood there, she could see their silhouette dimly through the curtain.

The train swayed and shook, Mina grabbed onto the seat. Puzzled, and realizing what her mind was refusing to see, it suddenly dawned on her that she was not at home. She started to panic, looking around the room at the long seats, the overhead compartment, the bare sparsely decorated room, devoid of table or chair except for the two long seats facing each other. She ran to look out the other window. Mina looked around for her luggage, bags, purse, anything. She would never travel without her makeup and her poodle. Where is Bunny-Rae anyway. She went to the window again, looking out, trying to make sense of everything. The landscape was zipping by really fast, all she could see were gnarled trees and small thickets which seemed to be on fire. "Why am I on a train, a really weird train with freaks in costumes, I can't remember any reason why I should be on a train". Mina wailed.

Mina felt so lost, and her stomach was queasy.

"I don't ride trains, oh my God, where am I. Why am I here"?

"You're dead", Skeleton yelled.

"Stop it, don't hurt her feelings, break it to her gently". JBones said.

"Is it Halloween, are you guys wearing costumes"? Mina asked in between confused sobs.

"Sorry dear...but f you open the door we can help". Julie Bones offered

"Go away"! Mina yelled.

"Ok missy, when you get off your high horse, come look me up, I will sell you a really wonderful nightmare. Take all your troubles away".

"You are so mean SK, she just needs a friend".

"Good luck with that one, Jules, she is a spoilt brat"!

In Mina's heart somewhere, she thought she recognized Skeleton, something about his mnner was very familiar.

She also knew that her world had changed forever. She could not remember yet what happened or why she was here, but she knew without a doubt that things would never be the same again. Slowly, she got up and opened the door. She took a tentative step outside and gasped in horror. Everywhere, there were ghouls and skeletons of every variety and color, pink ones, red ones, orange ones and every other color. There were people who looked ordinary, until they turned to look at you and you saw their sunken skeletal faces. Crows and bats flew overhead, and weird animals scurried here and there between all the comings and goings. But what scared her the most was the strong and pungent permeating stench of death.

Everything on the train was painted black. the only colors were on the creative looking denizens of the train. All the animals were black. The windows were left clear so one could view the forever dead and dying trees and the forever fire. There was no beauty to be seen outside these windows.

Everything was bleak and black as the death train hurtled onwards towards paths unknown.

Touching Mina's arm ever so lightly, Julie Bones pointed to a seat. They both went to sit down.

"Why am I here on the train"?

"I'm so sorry Sweetie, do you remember the last thing you did before you woke up here"?

Mina clasped and unclasped her hands nervously, closing her eyes for a few moments, she tried to take her mind back to the last thing that she could remember. There was a party that Gracie and Mike had invited her to. She had had quite a few glasses of wine when she arrived home, then she had gone in to take a shower, hoping to sober up.

Mina opened her eyes, with tears welling up in recollection of what had happened, she turned to look at Julie Bones. She reached up and touched the left side of her head. It was still bloody.

"I tried really hard to get over my boyfriend who died a year ago. I don't know why, because he had been a mean narcissistic bastard who never really cared about me. He died in a car accident with my best friend. I had a lot to drink at the party, and made a bad decision to take a bath... I had a stumble in the bathroom and hit my head. I don't remember what happened after that. I wish I had never met Darius Blackwood".

"Darius Blackwood, oh my God"?. Breathed Julie.

Julie took both of Mina's hands in hers. "I'm sorry honey, but you never woke up. This is the train that those who have passed on too soon must travel temporarily in a state of limbo, until your fate is decided, you are on the Train of the dead, and we are it's ethereal and other-worldly passengers". Julie looked pitifully at the bashed in left side of Mina's head, there were no mirrors on the train, although it is said that the dead have no reflection. Mina was stuck like this until she passes on to wherever she is destined to exist in her ever after.

"Does the train ever stop, it just seems to be careening on and on without decelerating at all".

"Sorry honey. No need to stop, we just wake up here when our time comes to be judged and sent on our way. No, it never stops, we just make the most of it"?

"But cheer up, we have parties here too. Skeleton throws the best of them, there are many souls on the train, we will go exploring after you get some rest, and clear your mind. You need to purchase a nightmare from him, it can be anything that you want it to be".

"What do you mean purchase a nightmare, aren't those free when you sleep".

"Not these, check your pockets, you will have dream coins, we all get them". Holding her breath, she waited for Mina to recognize the name.

Mina stuck her hands in her pocket and sure enough there were a half a dozen silver coins bearing a tiny black skull symbol. Around the skull, the name Darius Blackwood was engraved in bright red letters.

"Darius Blackwood..."? Mina swooned.

She started to cry, to her, it felt as if the coins were a final confirmation that she would no longer be able to see her family and friends, that she had actually died in one terrible accidental moment in time. Here, amongst a strange and varied assemblage of a weird and unnatural mixture of nature's beings, she was to learn to finally know how to live without her life of pampered luxury.

....

Julie had hurried to talk to SK about Mina. He remembered her well, and he felt really bad for what had happened to her.

"I am so sorry Mina. This is all my fault. I am so sorry to be a part of the reason you are here. I wish that I could do something to help. But I cannot".

Mina stared long and hard at Skeleton as she purchased her Nightmare from the cynical man thing pile of bones which she had once known and loved.

Maybe this will help her find closure, yet he seemed quite happy.

Life was so unfair. So too, is death - it would seem.

She returned to her little private room, at least she had a quiet place that was all her own. Mina opened her hand and stared at the tiny delicate white rose that Skeleton had gently placed there. She had marveled at how out of place a beautiful flower had seemed in this place of darkness and mist. She knew that it was really just an illusion. "Just lie down and gently inhale your rose, it will calm you to sleep and pleasant dreams". Julie Bones had been kind at least.

So while the runaway train hurtled on into infinity and forever, gathering the wretched, the damned and the confused accidental visitors, Mina raised her hands to her face and the dream flower turned into a tiny white mist that fluttered like a dream over her mind. She dreamed of her life as it had been, running along the beach with her friends, loving and laughing with her family, and forgetting the here and now, she smiled peacefully in her new, but old and Kafkaesque nightmare. She forgot the here and now and the unacceptable certainty and reality that death brings.

Mina was not prepared for her death. It was an ill chosen moment in time that may or may not have been avoidable. If one believes in fate then can we say it was ordained.

Or is it our choices in our personal existence that determines how and when we will catch the Train of mist and shadow.

Who will be next? You? Me? Welcome to the nightmare train.

Let the train continue on in it's non-stop journey, Mina is now lost in a happy dreamscape of her own choosing, she will languish there in happy thoughts and nightmares, until reality once again rears it's ugly head.

Skeleton carries on - he wonders if romance can again bloom on the death train. Maybe...Things did not look very promising.

N.A.