If one had seen her on the streets, one may have mistaken her for Lydia Deetz, or maybe a 20 year old Shock. Her wild black hair could not be easily looked over, especially with the only controlled part of her hair, which was a sleek white section, close to her face. That she somehow inherited from her father. Her eyes were like both of her parents, which were dark and shadowed. She was taller than average, and wore mostly dark items of clothing. On this particular evening, her attire consisted of black and white knee high socks, boy's school shoes, a black blazer and matching skirt, and a white dress shirt with black buttons. The white of the shirt was a fair rival to the ivory skin of the 15 year old. Her name was Clara Lovett, and she was dead.

Well, technically, Clara had never been alive. She died while she was still a tiny fetus, and for reasons unknown to her she had been born somehow in Heaven, and raised by her step mother Lucy. She didn't know who her parents were, and she didn't want to know them. In Clara's opinion, her father was a treacherous murderer who slit the throats of innocent men- apart from some judge and a man called B-something, according to Lucy- with barber's knives, and her mother was a hateful swine who didn't deserve to know her. Heck, anyone who baked dead men into pies were not worth knowing. Her father made things worse by killing her mother (thus killing Clara as well) by thrusting her into her own pie oven, and minutes later some kindred spirit killed her father by slitting his throat with his own knife. She also knew that her father was the one who killed her step mother- her mother told her father that Lucy was dead, and he didn't recognize her. Other than that information she had gathered over the years, Clara didn't know who here parents were, other than their names. She hated them all the same.

Like anyone that hates their parents, Clara blamed them for everything bad that had happened to her. This current predicament she was in was no exception. Contrary to popular belief, afterlife is actually normal for dead people. The difference between Heaven and Hell was that Hell-dwellers could only stay in Hell. Sure, Satan was the head of the place, but it wasn't like Hell was a big, fiery, demon-producing torture chamber. Neither was Heaven a large, peaceful sanctuary. Hell was more of an endless prison, and Heaven was like a big office building, mixed with a retirement home. There were only 2 other places you could go where you were dead that she knew of- rebirth, which was giving up your afterlife for a new soul, or to a completely new realm, which was a big place called the Hinterlands. This brought Clara back to her problem.

Hell dwellers could send letters to, and be visited by those in Heaven. Naturally, her parents sent her letters every week. The last one she received from them explained of an entirely new development- her father had a younger brother that lived in Halloween Town. He was getting married, and they thought it would be a good plan for Clara to see more of the Underworld and visit for a few weeks, until the big day. They didn't agree on anything usually, so this was also a new development. But, typically, her parents gave her no more information than how to get to the Hinterland realm. This meant that she was now horribly lost. At least her step mother did so much as help her get here. She wandered around aimlessly for at least another hour, until she finally found something. A grove of trees which had doors embedded in the seven largest ones.

"Halloween, Halloween. If I was from Halloween I would probably be a... pumpkin!" she muttered to herself, remembering her lessons from her step mother- a Jack o' Lantern was a common symbol associated with Halloween. Something else from her parent's letter clicked in her mind... though it flashed away as soon as it appeared. 'At least he's expecting me', she thought. 'Is he?' a little voice asked her. Nervously, she shook her head, and grasped the nose of the grinning Jack o' Lantern door, to be sucked in by an autumn wind, with leaves blowing around her.