Where Do Fictional Characters Go When They Die?

I'm answering the big questions.

Where do we go when we die? This is a question which most of us have thought about at least once. It's something that scares us immensely. Sometimes we feel pressured to believe that there's life after death or that there's a big fat nothing. It's a topic that can divide people and ruin relationships. It can keep us safe (when you're not sure whether there's anything after you cork it you're not exactly jumping up and down to find out). But there's no denying there is no one answer, or belief in terms of where people go or don't go when they say toodaloo to planet earth.

For me it's easy. I believe that when we die we go to heaven or somewhere nice. I have complete faith in this and it doesn't keep me up at night. Why do I think this way? Well I am a Catholic and believe in God and the whole eternal life thing but I just cannot believe that this is it. That when I breath my last breath I will never think or talk or interact again. I demand the pearly gates to heaven. But something that does plague me, that leaves me scratching my head and begging for answers is where exactly do fictional characters go when they die?

No I am not crazy. No I do not need any psychiatric help. I am just a girl who loves books and the characters in them and when they die I want to know where they scamper off to.

It's perfectly rational to want to know. After all so many of my beloved characters seem to get killed off (dear authors if you are reading this, the deaths you are causing are becoming just a bit too much and we need to have a talk about it next time we catch up) and I am simply concerned.

I invest hours of time into these figments of an authors imagination that get put onto paper and then passed around the world; and then when they are booted off the face of the earth I would like to know where they end up. I want to know if they're safe. If they're having a good time. Are they drinking pina colada's and getting caught in the rain? THESE ARE THE BIG QUESTIONS PEOPLE. Stop worry about where you go to or whether you are going to be content. Not everything is about you, you, you!

But it's not only the characters who die in the novels that I worry about. It's all of them. When I close the book do the lucky ones who didn't suffer at the hands of John Green or Suzanne Collins live on? Have they been living prior to my picking up the book? Will they die someday? I like to think they all have happy ever afters but will they actually live them? And if they do will they then die? Because we all know once you do enough living death is inevitable. Or how about how they die? Will it be gentle and in old age? Or will they get hit by a bus. Once you start asking yourself these sorts of questions life just isn't the same, your brain has to work ten times harder and your poor little heart is on the verge of combustion. WHEN WILL MY SUFFERING END?

You may say to me "But you believe in everlasting life, in a heaven for yourself. Why don't you believe this is the same for your beloved characters?" I understand where you are coming from and why you may be confused but dear friends my brain is not any normal brain. For some reason I cannot set my heart at ease, give me a night of peace by convincing myself that fictional characters go to fandom heaven or normal heaven or just some sort of heaven. Why? Well here's my main arguments. Not all these characters live on planet earth, not all of them believe in heaven and worst of all these characters do not live in my world, they live in the pages of a book. There is no Bible or Wikipedia page or yahoo answer by a dodgy 14 year old boy about where fictional characters go when they die. No one seems to care. But I do. I care. I am tossing and turning and pulling my hair out and in general losing my mind. SOMEONE GIVE ME ANSWERS. GIVE ME PROOF. SET ME AT EASE.

I am at a loss. I love to read. But the more books I read the more characters I encounter which means I have more characters to worry about in terms of death and everlasting life. I am trying to move on, to worry about other things, like will I get accepted into University or why is my house on fire, but I just can't. I'll be walking down the road having a good old time and then I'll pass a book store and see a copy of my favourite book. This should make me happy. I should smile and say "Oh look it's Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games! Oh and look there's Rebecca's James' Beautiful Malice, what a good time I had reading those books, oh how much I love them." But no! No I see these books and my hands start to shake and my body begins to quiver and fur starts sprouting all over my body and then I turn into a werewolf. Hang on wait. No that's not right. Sorry I was thinking about Twilight oops. No see what happens for me is I start worrying about the characters that died in these books and how they're going and are they floating on a cloud conversing with the Big Man? Then I begin to have a full blown panic attack and I have to go home and I don't get any ice-cream. I know it's a tragedy.

Please tell me your thoughts. What do you believe happens to fictional characters when they die? Are you stressing out like me? Or DO YOU NOT HAVE A HEART.

xoxo Fangirl Out.