the queendom ☆ a six the musical fanfic

Chapter 1: Aragon

Maria smiled at me, a tear running down her cheek. I smiled back, weakly, and the world went black. Then, seconds later, I felt a whoosh of warm air and the world lit up again, but a more pink-tinted world. It took a minute for my eyes to adjust, but soon I realized I was in a clear, glass pod, in a row of other pods that also held women in them. The door slid open and a voice in the room it opened into said:

"Welcome to the Queendom. You have died, but this is just the beginning. Please sign in at the desk at the end of the room. We will explain everything soon."

I stepped out, incredibly confused, and could tell that the other women who were stepping out recognized me. I walked briskly to the desk before people could start talking to me. At the desk, a group of women were sitting, assisting the newcomers. A woman in a very unusual outfit waved to me. She was wearing a glittery dress that only reached her knees, scandalously revealing her legs and arms. Her hair, however, was covered in a hood. Glittery, but a hood. I approached her.

"Hello! I am Georgiana, but I go by Georgie. Who are you?"

"Um, I'm Catherine of Aragon. Queen of England." I said, in a low, hesitant voice.

The woman talking to the assistant next to Georgie cried:

"Oh heavens! Catherine of Aragon, Your Majesty!" She bowed deeply.

I stood awkwardly as she stayed in a bow.

Georgie and the other assistant laughed.

"As honored as I am sure Catherine is, we don't have a monarchy in the Queendom."

"But... it's called the Queendom. Doesn't that mean it's a monarchy?"

"No, it doesn't. Because we're all queens!"

I put my hand on my hip. "Ma'am, I am sorry, but I am the only queen in the room right now."

"We're in the Queendom now. Everyone is equal." Georgie said soothingly. I sighed, irritated.

"Ok, Catherine... of Aragon." She muttered, filing through a metal cabinet below her desk, and grabbing a paper folder. "Here's your packet. It includes a map of the Queendom, a name tag, your room assignment, a biography of your life and a Tiara." She said, handing me the folder.

"If everyone is equal here, why do we need tiaras?" I asked, taking the folder from her.

Georgie laughed. "It's not an actual tiara. It's a phone. It's like a combination of a book, a compass, and letters. You can message people and read stuff with it."

I raised my eyebrow and opened the folder. Along with the files Georgie listed, there was a rectangle decorated to perfectly suit my personal style. It was gold with my initials on the back. I pulled it out and observed all sides of it. It buzzed, and I dropped it, yelping.

"It's ok, it does that." Georgie said, picking it up and placing it on the table again. Just keep it in there and you'll learn how to use it soon. I hesitantly picked it up again and placed it back in the folder.

Georgie stood up, saying "Okay, Catherine, you can wait in that room out there for everyone else to be ready, and soon there will be an introduction presentation to the Queendom." She pointed to a doorway on the other end of the room. I nodded and gulped, walking through the door.

It opened into a large room with marble floors and pale pink walls, decorated with portraits of women from history, some of which I recognized -- Joan of Arc, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and... was that me? And Anne Boleyn? I scoffed at how they placed our portraits right next to each other. The room was filled with seats, most of them were taken, and had a stage at one end. I took a seat in an empty area and about thirty minutes later, the room was filled and someone took the stage.

"Hello everyone, and welcome to the Queendom!" the woman on the stage said. "This is the afterlife for women. We all understand that it is hard to adapt to being, well, dead. But the good news is that this is just the beginning! Now that you are in the Queendom, you will be here forever! And the thing about the Queendom is that it is so much better than Earth because there are no men!"

Many people in the crowd laughed, including me. The speaker continued to explain how our new world worked, and I started to feel less nervous. We came to the end of the presentation and I raised my hand to ask a question.

"Are we able to communicate with those on Earth, or at least know whats going on there?" I asked, thinking of my daughter, Mary, who must've been suffering greatly right then.

"Unfortunately, we have not developed life to afterlife communication, but we are working on that. However, it is a common career path for our newcomers to do reporting on the goings-on from their lifetime to educate those who came here much earlier. That is the main way we stay up to date with Earth news."

I sighed. I wouldn't be able to send a message to my dear Mary. But at least I would be here waiting for her here when she arrived.

After a couple more questions, we were told to stand and follow the speaker out of the building. We reached the large double doors and she said:

"Welcome to your new home!"

The doors opened and a whole new universe opened up to me. First, I noticed the pale pink sky, then the beautiful chaos of my surroundings. The buildings were extremely varied in style -- some were extremely simple, cubular buildings that seemed to defy gravity and some were traditional castles flying flags -- all along large roads that were filled with people, carriages and some weird-looking vehicles. We stepped out of the building and I noticed the rows and rows of carriages waiting for us to board -- oddly, however, there were no horses or coaches to lead them and, somehow, they were floating. Behind those was a river, or a moat, between the so-called Soulport and the rest of the Queendom.

"Those with A last names in this carriage, and the other letters in the following carriages." the speaker commanded. I stepped into the large, pale pink carriage at the front of the line, and soon we were off. Each carriage had a leader-woman, and ours informed us that we were headed to our apartments, our new homes, that were stocked with everything we would need. We could build our own houses soon.

We passed over a large, grey and pink brick bridge, and reached the other side, which opened into the city. Very soon, we reached a huge, pale pink building that was built in the same style as the Soulport.

Our leader sent us all to our rooms, and I eventually found mine through the series of pink hallways. Room 504. Following the leader's directions, I pressed my thumb against the white circle next to the doorknob and it unlocked. I opened the door into my new home. The walls were painted pale yellow, my favorite color. The fairly small room was decorated with all matching furniture, made of gold metal. There was an odd large white rectangle next to some marble counters and a weird grey furnace looking appliance -- they were labeled "refrigerator" and "stove." The bedding was plain white. There weren't many decorations. To the right of the bed there was a large window that looked out to the city.

I slumped onto the bed and let out a sigh. This was really overwhelming. There were too many new things flying at me. I needed a friend. But my only two friends were still on Earth -- Maria de Salinas and Jane Seymour. I would just have to get along on my own until I made more friends.