Ch. 8: Making Friends

"You're in hell, darling," he said curtly, relishing the way Chunhua probably went even paler just at those four words.

Hell? Although her heart was uneasy, she could only assume that he had meant it in a metaphorical sense and thus she forced her self to chuckle before reiterating her question.

"No, but really where am I?"

"You're in hell. And yes, I mean Hell with a capital H."

Chunhua's eyes widened. "So which state?"

"Which state?" This time her kidnapper chuckled before looking at her with a dark expression. "You are a stupid one, aren't you? Is Hell already getting to your mind this early? Jorgen, I thought you said you smelled a fresh Fallen. This one seems to already be a few months old!"

He was yelling at the second man who had kidnapped them, a dim fellow who seemed to be the least valued member of their kidnapping trio. The large man was the brawn, the fellow with the accent was the brains, and the dim one, Jorgen, contributed... his nose? She quickly lowered her head to sniff her underarm and was reassured that her deodorant was still holding strong. Chunhua did not stink!

"No boss," he chirped, "She is a fresh Fallen, not even a day old yet. My nose is sure of it!"

"Idiot!" barked the man with the accent. He gave Jorgen a hearty smack before turning back to Chunhua as if nothing had occurred.

"Ok, so here is what you need to know. You aren't on Earth anymore or the United States. Your soul was eaten by the faceless man, right?"

Chunhua was too shocked to speak, only nodding as the frightful encounter replayed in her mind.

"So the soul eater ate your soul, which is basically a direct pipeline to the Underworld. You fell from the sky and landed in Hell. As you are a human and not a demon, the longer you stay in hell, the more of your soul you lose. After a few months to a year, depending on how strong your soul is, you will become a shade."

"A-a shade?" Chunhua stammered out, barely able to keep up with the information overload.

Unfortunately, the boss seemed uninterested in giving her further information, sneering at the panic blooming on her face.

"Well, your new master will probably explain all this to you so don't worry, ya?" He waved his hand over his shoulder as if they were discussing the weather, and trotted out of the large basement with his other men. Thankfully the didn't turn off the lights and Chunhua looked around, uncomfortable, tired, and thirsty beyond belief. She should have asked for water instead of her location. Then instead of being fed silly lies that only a child would believe, she would be drinking something cool for the first time in hours.

Chunhua had noticed that the spacious basement had more people in it than just herself and the chubby girl and at the moment, several of those fellow occupants turned to look at her. Chunhua looked at the filthy ground shyly, feeling like it was the first day of school. Even in hell, she was forced to encounter awkward moments.

"He's not lying, you know."

Chunhua looked up in bewilderment, trying to locate who had spoken. It was a pale, tired man, his surprisingly long hair and ragged clothing belying the fact that he had been there a while.

"What?" the chubby girl asked in between the gasps of air that came after one cries too hard. Chunhua turned to look at her, surprised the sobbing mess had recuperated enough to speak.

"We really are in Hell. Since your-" he said gravely, until the chubby girl began to loudly sob once more.

"I'm not a sinner, I swear!" she whined, "I've been a good person!"

Chunhua swept a swift gaze over the entire basement, taking inventory of the number of people in the room. There were 26 people total, and all of them except for the two who were sleeping seemed annoyed at her kidnapped companion's excessively noisy distress.

"Why should we believe you?" Chunhua asked quietly, doubtful but trying to go for a gentle route.

The man let out a loud sigh. "That faceless guy really did eat your soul and now you're stuck in Hell forever as a Fallen. Basically, when your soul is eaten it is actually just transported down here to the underworld. But because we are humans, we aren't meant to survive in this wretched place and it slowly sucks the life out of you until you go mad and eventually devolve into a shade."

"Do you have proof?"

"You're a tough cookie aren't you?", the man laughed again and under the grime Chunhua realized that he wasn't all that old, maybe only a few years her senior. He was even a little, dare she say, cute? Since he was seated a good distance away from her, she couldn't get a good impression but she was certain girls at her school would go gaga if they had him for a classmate. His cheekbones stood out prominently from his face and somehow the long chocolate brown locks didn't look foolish on him.

"Alright, look at that man over there, the one curled up on his side. Look for his right foot."

Scolding herself for her momentary boy craziness, after all, that had been what had caused her problems in the first place, Chunhua followed where his long arm pointed. The man in question was rolled up in a ball on the floor with his back to her, but when she saw his evidence, Chunhua could help but gasp aloud.

Where the man's foot should have been was a faint outline as if an artist had begun to sketch it out and then forgotten it halfway.

"How-how is that possible?" Her eyes hadn't left the shocking sight since they had landed on it and she rubbed them to make sure she wasn't hallucinating.

"You're not seeing things. His foot really is missing because he is becoming a shade, enough of his soul has leaked away or been taken for it to start to affect his physical body. I'd say in a few weeks time at most this man will be nothing but a shade."

Her kidnapper's conversation echoed in her ears as she recalled how Jorgen wanted her soul. Chunhua suddenly felt faint and her body sagged down the wall she had been propped up against. Oh god, Chunhua thought as her eyes fluttered, I really am in Hell!

To think it had all started because she wanted to play a trick on Mr. Big. She would willingly break her lucky ladle over her knee and be yelled at by Mrs. Borachev, rather than face such a horrible divine punishment. Speaking of her lucky ladle, a fresh wave of panic washed over her as she remembered that her kidnappers had separated her from her backpack. The purple bag wasn't all too precious to Chunhua but trapped inside the underworld, she longed for the comfort of her stuff.

"Hey, hey, hey!" a voice yelled and Chunhua opened her eyes to see the man yelling in concern. She wondered why for a moment then realized that she had almost fainted and the man was now horizontal from her eyes.

"You okay, there?" he asked, his voice dragging her out of dreamland.

A few of the other people inside the basement looked over at her, but most seemed like unfriendly individuals, especially the pod of girls huddled near a few empty crates. Chunhua could even see one red-headed girl sniff rudely at her distress. She ignored the red-head, quickly nodded to the only helpful man in the basement.

"What's your name, sir?" Chunhua asked cautiously, strangely comforted by the glint of concern in his eye. She had watched enough apocalypse movies to know that it was always a good move to making friends with knowledgable people.

"Sir?", he had a distant look in his eye. Yes, eye. The other was milky white as if he were blind in it, but it only served to make him more interesting to look at.

"I haven't been called that in a while."

Chunhua didn't know what to say, only shrugging. She had never been a woman of many words.

"I'm Noah."

"Call me Cece," Chunhua replied with a grin, not wanting to go through the hassle of coaching people into pronouncing her name and receiving 101 questions about what it meant.

"Cece," Noah said, rolling the name pleasantly around in his mouth. Chunhua looked at the blood-stained wall to hide the blush that came from hearing him say her rarely used nickname.

"Is it short for anything?"

"Nope!"

They smiled at each other briefly before their conversation dissolved into an awkward silence. Now that she had an idea of the world, the implications of what could happen were slowly but surely hitting her. Chunhua realized she had more questions. How could she protect her soul? Just looking at the sleeping man's foot sent shudders up and down her spine. And more importantly, how could she escape from Hell, when no one on earth was aware that it truly existed? Chunhua turned to ask her new friend but before the words could leave her mouth, her kidnapped buddy spoke to her for the first time.

"I'm Abby," she croaked, her throat raw from crying. Her small blue eyes were glassy from crying and Chunhua couldn't help but think of a puppy when she looked at the girl.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Cece."

They shook hands briefly, before comparing stories of how they had been kidnapped by the trio. Abby had been caught just moments after she had woken up, jumped and tied up when she was in the middle of answering Mother Nature's call. Chunhua felt bad for her, chalking up Abby's wild antics to the shock of being caught with her pants down. She gently patted the girl's hand the best she could with her hands tied behind her back in an attempt to show some comfort and camaraderie she felt to Abby. The chilly atmosphere of the remaining people in the warehouse already made her feel closer to Abby, as she felt like they were almost sisters compared to the unfriendliness of the fellow hostages.

It was truly amusing how much easier it was for her to make friends in the underworld rather than high school.

"Stop sugarcoating things for the newbie." someone scolded in a nearby conversation, distracting Chunhua from her budding friendship. Abby had cried so pitifully, Chunhua had assumed the girl wasn't right in the head, but it seemed that underneath, she was quite intelligent and came across as well-spoken in her sentences.

Glancing over at the budding argument, Chunhua was surprised to see the red-head and Noah had been arguing with each other fiercely for a while now.