2 Straight to Hell

Of course she wouldn't remember! What in the world was this woman even talking about?! Daphne frustratingly dug her nails into the hard rope beneath her that was intertwined into what created a rough bedsheet, "No," she replied simply.

"Okay, the 5 Grades," the woman said as she held up 5 fingers.

She lifted one finger up, "1 to 5, top to bottom. At the very bottom, there are humans and -"

"There are humans?!" Daphne straightened her back once more at the possible hope of being able to figure out where she was. If there were humans, she must not be too far away from home, right?

"Yes of course there are humans, now pay attention," the woman snapped.

"Humans and centaurs are in grade 5, mainly because they don't have any powers. Grade 4 are the disgusting witches. You do not want to ever get in contact with a witch, although you probably wouldn't even know if you do." She wrinkled her nose at the mention of the grade four witches, showing her disgust towards them.

"Grade 3 are the elves and ghosts. You probably won't see a ghost or elf since they mainly live in the forests. Twos are vampires, fairies, and mermaids." She grinned proudly upon mentioning the fact that she was a two, which made Daphne wonder what the top grade could possibly be.

"You will know when you see a fairy or mermaid. They are the prettiest," she said with a proud smile, "Vampires too. They are part of the elite upper class. Most of the vampires are extremely good looking. You will know." As she spoke, her eyes sparkled, quickly revealing her impure thoughts towards the vampires.

She seemed to get lost in her own fantasies, and Daphne had to call her several times before she finally broke out of her stupor, "What about the ones?"

"The ones. . ." A twinkle flashed past the mermaid's eyes before she slowly responded, "Devils and angels. . . Well, technically only devils. The angels have all died over 70 years ago -"

"How?" Daphne interrupted. At this point, she wasn't even that surprised to hear that there were actual devils and angels in this Healeh place.

"Oh well, there was this war. . . Yeah, some war killed off the angels." The mermaid's eyelashes quivered slightly as she looked away, hiding the fact that she was unwilling to talk about the war since she did not pay attention in history class and did not really know much about it.

"But the devils. . ." The mermaid clasped her hands together excitedly, "They rule the seven villes of Healeh, and all the devils are men. . . Very fine men at that. The dream of all fairies and mermaids is to marry one of the devils. . ."

The mermaid once again got lost in her own fantasy world of the socialite men in Healeh, and Daphne did not want to break it to her that she was not at all interested in her romantic fantasies.

As of now, she had other bigger problems at hand. Witches, devils, angels. . .

The plane crash. Daphne's pupils dilated as a horrifying thought she did not want to think about entered her mind. No way. . . Perhaps, when the plane crashed, she had fallen too far.

Fallen straight into hell.

A sudden gust of wind blew onto her back, and she shivered from head to toe as the thought made her want to burst into tears. She had been a strong and independent woman, but practically anyone would cry if they knew that they had entered this hellish place!

The woman was fast on her feet as she quickly stood up and leaned over to close the window, locking the rusted latch, "Here. I was preparing some soup when you awoke. It's not done yet, but it shouldn't take too long. Would you like some?" She asked as she made her way over to the small kitchen area.

Daphne's gaze followed her as she wondered how mermaids could walk on land. Shouldn't they be swimming in the water?

"Yes, please. Thank you -" She paused as she realized that she did not know the woman's name yet, "May I get your name?"

The woman smiled, picking up the sharp vegetable knife to start chopping the potato on the wood cutting board, "Maryanne."

"Thank you, Maryanne."

The room fell into a short moment of awkward silence, and to continue the conversation, Maryanne asked, "What about you? Do you remember what you are?" She turned around to look at Daphne, her hands continuing to chop the potatoes, "You look like a fairy. Are you?"

Daphne returned her guess with a smile, taking it as a compliment since Maryanne had noted that fairies were beautiful creatures, "I am a human."

The sound of the sharp knife hitting the board stopped and Daphne caught the surprise that appeared on Maryanne's expression, "Human?! In Trystville. . . not a great place for a human to be."

Maryanne clicked her tongue as she finished chopping up the potato and swiped them up against the blade of the knife, walking over to what seemed like a fireplace with a flickering flame on a pile of logs, "You probably don't belong in Trystville, right? The Blacks don't like humans."

She dumped the potatoes into the black pot that was boiling on top of the flame, hanging off of a hook that did not look stable.

Daphne watched her curiously, not used to such primitive methods of cooking. The Blacks? Was that the name of a group of people? Of course she did not belong in Trystville, so she responded truthfully, "I think so. . . There are seven villes?"

Maryanne nodded as she started stirring the pot.

"They all have devils, mermaids, fairies, and things like that?" Daphne refused to lose hope, although she was stuck in this hellish place for the time being. At least so far, this mermaid seemed quite pleasant.

"Yes. . . well mostly. There are only 7 devil families left, and each one rules one ville. The soup should be done now. Can you move on your own?"

"Yes." Maryanne heard Daphne say, who slowly swung her legs over to the edge of the bed and pushed herself up. Surprisingly, Daphne did not feel as much pain as she thought she would, and it was more of a sore feeling like a fever or cold.

When her feet touched the ground, she realized that there was no floor to be exact. . . Well, the floor was a mixture of dirt and sand. She pressed her lips together as she stood up, walking barefoot on the ground over to the tiny table and sitting down on the empty seat.

Maryanne carried the boiling pot over to the table with her bare hands, and the heat did not seem to affect her skin at all as she placed it onto the table. She then walked over to the counter to grab two wooden bowls and a large wooden ladle before sitting down across from Daphne.

"It's good you're here so I added an extra potato. They were beginning to go bad," Maryanne said softly as she filled up two bowls quickly and handed one over to Daphne.

Only upon seeing food did Daphne realize just how hungry she was. Her stomach felt flat after not eating any food for who knows how long. She did not like airplane food and had not eaten any food since boarding the plane, which was probably several days ago in her measure of time.

She quickly lifted the bowl up to her lips, and was just about to devour the warm soup when there was suddenly a hard knock on the door, causing the door to shake from the aggressive pounding.

Maryanne also stopped as she turned around, knitting her eyebrows together, "Who would that be?"

Daphne also set her bowl down.

Maryanne walked over to the door and slowly pushed it open, peaking through the small crack. Once she saw what it was, she immediately gasped and tried to pull the door back shut but it was too late.

The door was pulled open from the outside forcefully, and it hit the outside wall of the cabin firmly, scaring Daphne who jumped up from her seat.

Maryanne ran back into the room flustered, and her gills began to open and close more quickly, which told Daphne that something was wrong. She looked over at the entrance and saw two large men walk in, both wearing black outfits that covered the necessary locations.

The two of them immediately made the cabin seem extremely cramped and tiny, and they had to bend down slightly to avoid having their heads bang against the ceiling. They seemed to be quite agitated by that as one of them asked gruffly, "What are you?"

Just as Daphne was wondering what they meant, Maryanne replied nervously, her voice shaking, "Mermaid."

The two men eyed Maryanne up and down before looking at each other, and both of them shook their heads simultaneously, one of them saying, "Too old."

"What about you?" They turned to look at Daphne.

Just as Daphne opened her mouth to say human, Maryanne suddenly interrupted her and said, "Fairy."

Daphne looked at her confusedly, but Maryanne refused to look at her as she looked at the two black men, who were looking Daphne up and down now.

After a few quick seconds, the man in front said, "Take her," and the two men were onto her.