Jill blinked twice as her eyes focused. She was still wearing her glasses, but her vision was a little cloudy…Maybe she’d fallen asleep?…While sitting up?
She rubbed her eyes, lifting her glasses a little with her balled fists. She then rested those large turtle frames back upon her celestial nose, blinked again, decided her eyesight was well and good, and then studied her surroundings.
The first thing she noticed was that she was no longer in the library. The last thing she could remember was starting to write…something…in her open notebook. She’d been sitting at the library table on the third floor, ready to write, and then…nothing…just this…wherever this was.
She was now sitting in a single room with white plaster walls. She was sitting upon a dark-wood couch with scarlet cushions, but that was the least of the oddness. There were strange and numerous works of art and artifacts on the white plaster walls, and around the weird room were glass cabinets holding all kinds of old and valuable items.
“What?” she asked herself.
Next was the tall arched ceiling above her head, at least twelve feet up, said ceiling smoothed over with white plaster like the plaster over the walls. A small brass chandelier hung from the center of this arched ceiling, its little bulbs providing illumination for the entire room.
She squinted up at the light of the chandelier and shook her head once.
“Where?” she said to herself.
The entire floor of this small yet spacious room was covered by a giant red rug, that rug covered itself by the designs of golden fleur-de-lis.
She had been dressed in her purple sorority tee with her blue jeans and white socks and white sneakers, but now she was wearing a lovely if rather morbid black dress absolutely stitched to the nines with red filigree.
This wasn’t what alarmed her the most, however. She wore soft black velvet shoes stitched with the aforementioned red filigree, and that matched her dress quite nicely, but the tops of her feet were exposed, and the skin of her feet was…well…it was a soft red. Not pink, mind you, but a soft red, like a rose.
She stared down at her hands, and they were normal, same number of digits and well-cut fingernails, but the skin of her hands was also a soft rose red.
“What!” she said to herself, this time in alarm.
She held up her hands in front of her face and tried not to hyperventilate.
“What’s this?” came a male voice. “How did you get in here?”
That voice held a refined British accent that immediately caught her attention. She turned her head to her own left, and there, by a glass cabinet, stood a rather tall man in a grey business suit.
This man was indeed tall, at least six-foot-five, a full foot taller than Jill. He wore his grey business suit well, along with a white button-up dress shirt, a red tie, and fine black dress shoes. His hands were covered by fine grey velvet gloves. He had well-sculpted short black hair in a business cut, but she could not see his face because he wore a mask.
The mask in question was a white mask crafted from porcelain and carved into the likeness of a bearded face, though that face had little white horns molded into the top of the mask itself. However, she could not see the man’s eyes through the dark eyeholes above the aquiline nose of the mask, so she could not tell if he were hostile or not, though his voice did not indicate as such.
“Where did you come from?” asked the man. “My wards should have kept you out. They’re still working, so you must be powerful to enter my domain unannounced and, more importantly, uninvited, yet I sense no power in you…How curious.”
“I…I…uhhh…” began Jill.
Honestly, she had no idea what was going on, who this man was, where this room was, or why she was even here…Plus, her skin had turned red. That was freaky in itself.
“Well, it’s clear you intend to write…Are you an auditor, by chance?” asked the man.
Jill stared down at the black notebook in her lap. Upon it was a black pencil decorated with red filigree, and though she was well accustomed to pencil and paper, neither of these belongings actually belonged to her.
“I assure you that all of my ill-gotten gains were gotten by ills,” shrugged the tall man in the mask. “I never trade a fair deal if I can help it.”
He turned and looked upon her with those dark eyeholes in his contrasting white mask, and then he cocked his head to his own left.
“Still, you should be in Hell where you belong,” he said, and this time there was a tinge of unhappiness in his voice. “Who sent you? Was it Lucifer?…Baal?…Stolas?…Not Asmodeus…Ugh…Tell me you’re not one of Asmodeus’s lackeys. I know he absolutely despises my collection. Why can’t he just be covetous of it like everyone else?”
Jill stood up from the dark-wood couch with the scarlet cushions while clutching her new pencil and notebook. She set them down upon the couch and then addressed the strange man in the mask.
“I don’t even know who you are,” she said honestly.
This man may have been wearing a mask, but his posture and voice immediately gave him away. He sounded truly surprised, but in an offended way.
“You don’t know who…What in the…?” he stammered. “You enter my domain and then act as if you…Wait…Wait, you’re no…”
He shook his head a couple of times as if to fend off a swarm of bees.
“You’re no Fallen!” he exclaimed. “Why, you’re a mortal! What the—!”
She cut him off before he could finish his expletive.
“I don’t even know where I am!” she screeched.
The man held his masked face in his right gloved hand.
“You…are at the Edge of Hell,” said the man. “You may call me Faunus, though that is not my real name.”
Jill composed herself, blinked twice, and then shook her head once.
“That name…That name sounds familiar,” she said slowly. “Are you the woodland god the Romans worshipped?”
“Ah! A scholar,” he replied. “Yes, something like that…Now, you know who I am, so I shall read you and…Goodness of the night…You’re very young aren’t you? My, you’re only nineteen years of age.”
Jill felt her cheeks flush with heat, but considering her skin was now a soft rose red, it wasn’t like her blushing was visible.
“I am nineteen,” she said unhappily. “I’m not a child, though. I am an adult.”
“My, my,” said this “Faunus.” “That must be a touchy subject…Ah, I see. You’re a virgin. I understand now.”
Jill felt a lightning bolt of humiliation run through her.
“H-Hey!” she stammered. “Th-That’s my business!”
“Oh, dear,” replied Faunus. “I see now. My, oh, my…You’re still wearing braces…Ah…You’re what’s called a…a ‘dork.’ Ah…Now, I see.”
“H-Hey!” stammered Jill. “That’s not funny! I…I am not a virgin. I am so not a virgin…I…I’ve had lots of sex. I’m in college, you know. I’m in a sorority. I’m a sorority girl, and everyone knows sorority girls are sluts…so…I’ve had lots of sex.”
“Your own hand doesn’t count, little nanny,” sighed Faunus. “Well, let’s see here…Let’s see who you are, and then maybe we’ll get to the bottom of how you got here…Ah…You…aaaarrrrrre…Jill…Jill S. Smith. Jill Sasha Smith, in fact.”
Jill was taken aback. It was clear this “Faunus” could read her mind, but how that was possible, she had no idea, but…what other explanation could there be?
“H-How did you know that?” she asked.
“All things mortal are known to the Fallen, little one,” said Faunus matter-of-factly. “Looking you over now, I can see that you’ve led a rather dull and uneventful life, though you aspire to be a writer, and some of your writings are…questionable.”
“My life isn’t uneventful,” frowned Jill.
Her life was meaningful and full of events; it had to be…Wait…Fallen?
“Wait a minute,” she said in slight shock. “Are…Are you a demon?”
The full weight of where she was and who she was talking to now bore down upon her.
“Am I really in Hell?” she asked.
“The Edge of Hell,” corrected Faunus. “You’re at the Edge of Hell in my little cabin. How you got here or why you’re now Fallen is a mystery I would like to solve, however.”
“Fallen?” asked Jill.
Her heart leapt in her chest at the very thought of it.
“I’m a demon now?” she asked.
“You have red skin and horns on your head, little goat,” said Faunus bluntly.
Jill gasped as she reached up to feel twisted black horns poking up from her dark hair, and those twin horns were thoroughly attached to her skull.
“But I don’t want to be a demon!” she cried out in stupid reply.
“There are worse things,” shrugged Faunus.
“Like what!” cried Jill.
“You could be damned,” said Faunus nonchalantly. “The Damned are definitely worse off, I think, though that is up for debate.”
“But if I’m Fallen, I’m already damned!” screeched Jill as her rose red hands trembled.
What had she done that was so terrible that she was now here?…True, she hadn’t really believed in Hell before, but clearly it was real, and now she was here, but what she had done to get here…?
“What did I do to be punished like this!” she exclaimed.
Faunus cocked his masked head to his own right and stared through her.
“Oh, you’re a dirty little girl, aren’t you?” he asked. “Your sin is lust, though not in the same sense as others have transgressed, virgin that you are.”
“Don’t call me that,” she frowned. “I told you…I…I’ve had lots of sex.”
“You can’t lie to me, little goat,” replied Faunus. “Honestly, this is a crude way to put it, but you couldn’t get laid if you were an egg.”
“Hey!” protested Jill.
“Yes, you while away your days in writing, and there is, unfortunately, quite a bit of smut within those scribblings, I might add,” said Faunus. “I can see…I can see you have written…Oh, dear…That is graphic…Well…you certainly know your way around the male body, though that’s entirely learned from reading…Children should definitely learn to read at an early age, I must say. It most certainly educates.”
Jill felt deflated like a balloon. This Faunus was mercilessly tearing her apart. He could clearly read her like the open books she so enjoyed…err…reading.
“You’re spending your summer vacation at the library?” snorted Faunus, and this time he sounded offended again. “You should be out riding the males you so fantasize about, little nanny. You’ll never complete that particular education surrounded by books…And your cousin, Maxwell, doesn’t count. Making out with him puts points in your favor, but you never finished the task, so that most certainly doesn’t count. You never even touched each other’s genitals.”
“H-H-Hey!” stammered Jill. “No-Nobody’s supposed to know about that!”
“You are hopeless,” sighed Faunus. “Still, I wonder how you were made Fallen. You’re incredibly dull and uninteresting, though that description may be redundant…I wonder what it would be like to breed you, or if that’s even possible? Hrrmmm…I could put you in my collection. I sense you have no power in you anyway.”
“Br-Breed me?” asked Jill. “Uhhh…Whoa, let’s not…uhhh…”
“It’s not so terrible as all that,” shrugged Faunus. “My Terrarium holds my pets and my children. It’s fair living compared to Hell. Just ask Stephanie.”
“Who’s Stephanie?” asked Jill without thinking.
Faunus waved his gloved right hand, there was a flash of fire and smoke along with the smell of brimstone, and then a very, very naked woman stood beside him. Obviously, Jill was familiar with the female body, but she wasn’t into that sort of thing, so seeing a naked woman suddenly appear before her was a little…disconcerting.
This nude young lady was gorgeous, a white young lady in her early twenties, with long, feathered blonde hair and naturally blue eyes. She had beautiful breasts and an hourglass figure, and she put Jill to shame in the looks department. This gave Jill a sudden, short spike of jealousy, though that jealousy did not last long, mainly because this nude and beautiful woman was currently cowering beside Faunus.
“Stephanie is well-acquainted with the games my children play,” explained Faunus. “She’s borne and nursed several of my grandchildren…Oh, and one child of mine. Tell her how much you enjoy my home for you, Stephanie. Tell her how much you love my hospitality.”
This beautiful nude woman, Stephanie, simply gazed upon Jill with desperate eyes.
“H-Help me!” sputtered out Stephanie. “Please!”
Faunus simply shook his head, waved his gloved right hand, and the nude woman vanished in a flash of smoke, fire, and brimstone, only a short and sharp shriek to mark her passing.
“Ungrateful,” he said in an unhappy tone. “Unbelievable. I give her a home outside of Hell, and this is how she repays me…Ugh. Did our lovemaking mean nothing? Oh, well, back to the Terrarium. Just for that, I sent her right into the center of my children’s camp. I highly doubt she’ll cross me again after this.”
Jill trembled as she shook her head no.
“As much as I appreciate your offer,” she said shakily, “I-I don’t want my first time to be with a demon.”
“Ah, so you finally admit you’re a virgin?” asked Faunus.
Jill frowned as she realized her mistake…So much for looking mature.
“Dammit,” she said unhappily.
“I believe you to be valuable down here,” said Faunus with a nod. “You’re a mortal converted to a Fallen, and you’re a virgin. You would make the centerpiece of my collection…But why are you still wearing glasses? You most certainly don’t need them here…I could also help you remove those braces, you know. They detract from your natural beauty. I believe you’re just socially awkward, not ugly…A ‘dork,’ as it were…Hmm…How do you look in the nude? I would like to see you naked. Take off that dress so I can judge your body.”
“H-H-Hey!” cried Jill.
She covered her chest with both arms and shrank in on herself.
“I can’t just…I can’t just do that!” she said unhappily. “Look, I don’t know what to do, but if I’m a demon now, I’m not going to let you take control of me!…What would you think if I did that to you, huh? Would you like that if I made you my breeder slave?”
“Of course not, but I’m me,” shrugged Faunus. “But you’re powerless, and I’m not, so if I want you, I’ll just take you.”
Jill was young, but she wasn’t stupid. She knew this couldn’t be the truth.
“No,” she said firmly. “If you could just take me, you’d have done it by now.”
“Hmm, true,” nodded Faunus. “It seems you’re not so foolish for your young age. It’s a shame, though. I wonder if I could even breed you?…And if so, what progeny would we create?”
Jill thought about this, got flushed, and then quickly pitched that thought. It was true she was somewhat lustful, but that was only because she hadn’t had the real deal yet. Oh, she’d written about it, but that wasn’t the same, dammit! Even so, she knew better than to make babies with a demon…Well…Maybe marriage? If they got married, then she’d have a demon husband and she’d be a demon bride and…
“Marriage?” asked Faunus as he shook his head no. “Marriage is sacred, something I most certainly am not, little nanny.”
“S-Stop reading my mind!” replied Jill. “That’s really annoying.”
“Then keep me out,” taunted Faunus. “If you really are Fallen, you should be able to prevent me from reading you. Only a divine presence can force a truth from you, but you should already know this.”
The truth was something bitter that she was just going to have to swallow.
“I don’t know anything,” frowned Jill. “I…I know a lot of things back on Earth…maybe…but that’s from reading. The truth is…The truth is I…I don’t really know anything.”
“I could teach you,” shrugged Faunus. “You could live here with me, and you could be my pet, but I’ll treat you differently from the others. I’ll teach you secrets, unlike my other pets.”
“I…I don’t really want that,” said Jill. “I’ll admit that the thought of being naked all of the time and being a breeder excites me a little, but I know better than to want that. That would be fun to roleplay while in a relationship, but not for like…forever.”
“So honest,” said Faunus. “If you’re going to live down here, you’d best learn to lie.”
“I…I don’t want to lie,” shrugged Jill. “Can’t I be honest? Lying is just…It’s so wrong to me.”
“You’re a demon now, little goat,” replied Faunus. “It’s what we do, little nanny.”
“Stop calling me that,” frowned Jill. “It’s disturbing. I don’t like it. You sound like a pervert.”
“I am a pervert,” said Faunus. “We all are down here…I suggest you get used to it. You’ll be staying here for quite a long time.”
“But I don’t even know what I did to get here,” argued Jill. “I…I must have suddenly died in the library…but how?”
“You died in sin,” said Faunus matter-of-factly. “That must be what happened. Your lust was never addressed, and you never repented…Oh, well. I’ll tell you what. Rather than be torn apart and violated by other demons, you can stay here with me. You’ll live with my children, my grandchildren, and my other pets.”
“You…You already made that offer,” said Jill. “I already told you no. You didn’t even change the terms of the offer.”
“That doesn’t mean you can’t change your mind,” shrugged Faunus.
“I don’t want to,” grimaced Jill. “If I’m stuck here forever, at least I’m not constantly naked and…and enslaved…Wait…What are your children like?”
“Oh, they’re satyrs,” nodded Faunus. “You’d be my little demonic nymph.”
Jill’s dark eyes widened at this. There was no way she was taking that offer.
“And be raped twenty-four seven!” she gasped. “Hell no!…No wonder Stephanie was pleading…And you sent her into an encampment of those things!…That’s horrible!”
“Eh…” shrugged Faunus. “You get used to it.”
“You’re just evil,” frowned Jill.
This “Faunus” was truly disgusting.
“I’m a demon, little goat,” said Faunus matter-of-factly. “Oh, and now so are you, so morals are rather off the table.”
“Well, at least I still have some,” winced Jill. “It…It doesn’t matter. Something is telling me that I shouldn’t take any offer from you anyway. I mean, if you really want to have sex, I could be persuaded to change my mind about my first time, but I don’t want to make a trade for it. I’m not a whore.”
“You actually want to…?” asked Faunus in a surprised tone.
He swiveled his head slightly to his right and then stared through her with the left dark eyehole of his porcelain mask.
“Oh, dear Marquis de Sade…” he said slowly.
He stood straight and tall, arching his back slightly as he looked her over. Something had changed in him; she could tell as much. It appeared as if he was seeing her as…as repulsive…but why, she couldn’t begin to understand.
“I think I just had an embolism, and I’m not even mortal,” he said in a disgusted voice. “You must leave my cabin now, little goat. I can’t do this. Not with you…Blech…”
“What are you talking about?” she asked. “I…I don’t understand!”
He walked forward, gripped her around her left arm with his gloved right hand, and roughly yanked her toward the one and only door in his little domicile.
“Ow, ow, ow, OW!” screeched Jill as she was pulled without her consent.
“Out of my home!” he said quickly. “OUT! Out before I do something I’ll regret forever!”
He opened the redwood door of his “cabin,” but he stopped in what could only be surprise as he stared through the open door.
Jill could see into another, identical cabin, and there before her was another, identical Faunus holding another, identical Jill. Her identical twin had a shocked and surprised expression etched upon her own red face, but this only lasted for a second, because Faunus slammed the door shut after that.
“Well…” he said in an unhappy tone. “It appears I may be stuck with you for the moment.”
He let go of her arm and then shook his head no.
“It appears I’ll have to make a fair trade after all,” he said. “I now believe your venture here is a test on my part, not yours…Ugh…How despicable. This must be Asmodeus’s doing.”
“What does that mean?” asked Jill.
“It means we must trade in order for you to leave here,” sighed Faunus. “That trade must be fair, which means I cannot demand your soul.”
“Oh, well, that’s good,” said Jill stupidly.
“Honestly, though, your soul really doesn’t have much value to me,” shrugged Faunus. “I suppose this is for the best then. You’re rather plain, and though you are very young, you clearly have no experience in the games I like to play, regardless of whether you write about it or not…Plus, the rumors that would fly…This must be Asmodeus’s doing…Of course, I haven’t seen you naked yet…No, no. You’ve got to go. You have no experience.”
“Hey!” protested Jill. “I…I do too. I can please a man just fine.”
“Oh, I’m certain those braces will feel marvelous,” said Faunus, and Jill could just imagine the man rolling his eyes, even though she couldn’t see him doing so.
“Heeeey,” frowned Jill. “Stop insulting me…”
“Hmmm…Maybe if I turn the lights off and turn you around…bottom in the air…” he said slowly.
He stepped forward, laid his hands on her shoulders, and slowly spun her around so that her back was facing him. He bent her over at the waist, and there was a brief pause from him, but what he did next was ultimately disappointing. He simply sighed, straightened her back up, spun her around again to face him, and then sighed again.
Jill had felt a rush of excitement for a split second at the thought of “doing it” with him, especially when she had been bent over, and this excitement only grew as she stared up at him. She looked up into the eyeholes of his mask and could now see his eyes, though they weren’t human. His eyes held rust-red irises with golden pupils in the centers of them, and even though this should have horrified Jill, she felt a gush of sudden wanting flowing from below and down her right leg. It was then she realized she was not wearing any undergarments, because…well…you know.
“Oh, you are a little succubus, aren’t you?” he asked. “I had no idea my touch would change your mind…You’re just a little sexual caterpillar waiting to enter a cocoon of pleasure and emerge as a butterfly of pure…”
He shook his head no several times and then took a step back.
“No, no,” he said firmly. “No…No, no, no…Now your sexual frustration is even getting to me…Ugh…So uncouth…What a nerd…I don’t know what I was thinking. My playmates are built like goddesses…I don’t need a…a—what’s the word…oh, yes—a ‘dweeb’ soiling my reputation…a horny dweeb at that…
“This isn’t a test. I see that now. This was a trap. That bastard knew I can’t resist a good collectible, but you’re absolutely worthless. You’re actually detrimental to my reputation…Trying to pass you off as something I would treasure…How ridiculous…
“I want you out of my cabin…Let’s…Let’s just make a quick trade. Give me the bloodstone around your neck, and I’ll send you out of here. I don’t have the power to do so otherwise. There must be a trade.”
“A bloodstone?” asked Jill.
She looked down and suddenly realized she was wearing an intricate necklace made from an unidentifiable black metal. On the chain was an oval setting made of the same black metal, and within that oval setting was a blood red jewel of the same oval shape resting just above the bare tops of her breasts.
“Huh…” said Jill in surprise. “Where did I get this?”
“I have no idea,” said Faunus with a shake of his head. “That little fact is what disturbs me. You were sent to me with a mixed heritage along with clothing, an artifact for the undead, aaaaand a libido that’s far higher than any of my pets…One to actually rival my children, in fact…Absolutely insane…”
Speaking of libidos, a thought occurred to Jill, and it was a naughty one, but it occurred anyway, and she couldn’t help but speak that thought because…well…
“You know, we can make a trade, and we will,” she nodded. “If you can get me out of here, I’ll give you my…uhhh…‘bloodstone,’ but that doesn’t mean we can’t…you know…enjoy each other’s company for a bit…I…I’ve changed my mind. I really like you, Faunus, and…I don’t mind if my first time is with a demon.”
“Oh, dear creatures of the night,” sighed Faunus. “I also don’t know what I was thinking, because I’d sooner choke on a molten spike coming up from the other end than entertain that thought. No, no, no, little nanny. If I take you, eeeeeevery other demon in Hell will know I went slumming. I have a reputation to maintain…Go find a goat demon. They’ll mate with anything.”
“That’s unfair,” grimaced Jill. “I’m not ugly! I’m not, I swear…Uhhh…You want to see me naked? I’ll take off my dress for you, you know. I have a good-looking body. In fact, I’m already hot and bothered…That means I’m wet, if you didn’t know.”
“Oh, Masters of Insanity!” recoiled Faunus. “Oh, I can smell it…Oh, it’s running down your leg. Oh, dear abyss…You have got to go. You’re very presence here is soiling my reputation, and you’re about to soil my rug.”
“Hey!” protested Jill. “I’m practically giving myself to you!…Wait…Wait, I am valuable to you. I’m valuable to you, aren’t I! That’s what you said, anyway.”
He shook his masked head no as he took a step back.
“No, no, this is most certainly a trap laid by Asmodeus,” said Faunus unhappily. “You’re worthless, and he knows it, and even worse, your presence in my cabin may actually do real damage to my reputation.
“Look, every Fallen was cast from Heaven because they refused to let go of a task they were assigned or something they treasured. My capital sin was my collection, and part of that collection is treasuring beautiful women…You do not fall into that category…You really are worthless to me. Look, give me the bloodstone, and then you may leave.”
“Dammit!” cursed Jill. “Wait…Can I at least see you naked? I can fantasize about you later while I’m…err…you know.”
“No,” said Faunus in a firm tone. “The thought of that completely disgusts me. In fact, I never thought I could be tormented any further than I already am…Never mind. Let’s make the trade and be done with it.”
“Oh, come on,” whined Jill. “I’ve never been with anyone, and you’re perfect!…Wait, I know! I’ll…I’ll be part of your collection! I’ll trade you my soul, just like you wanted! I don’t mind being naked all the time! You can take me to your Terrarium, and then we can—”
“I’d sooner drown in my own urine,” said Faunus as he cut her off. “That’s if I could even urinate. Now stop stalling and give me the bloodstone.”
“Dammit,” frowned Jill. “I should have taken the offer when I had it. Can’t you even imagine me naked?”
“I…I don’t want to,” said Faunus with a shake of his masked head. “Well, maybe…I’ll…I’ll make one more deal…Give me your horns, and that should change you back to a full mortal. Then I’ll…I’ll imagine you naked.”
Once he saw her naked in his mind’s eye, then maybe, just maybe…
“Okay…” nodded Jill. “My horns are yours. Take them…I’m feeling a little horny anyway.”
She giggled as he reached up with both gloved hands and wrapped them around her horns. She cried out in sheer agony as he pulled them, there was a tearing sound and a horrible sensation of losing…something…and then both black horns were in his hands.
She wanted to reach up and touch the hot spikes of pain where her horns used to be, but the sight of her hands stopped her cold. Her hands were now the wonderful peach color she’d been born with…
She was mortal again.
“You did it!” she breathed out in excitement. “You changed me back! Now you have to imagine me naked. You have my horns, and that was the deal. Once you imagine me naked, then we can make a trade for my soul, and I can be your newest pet. I can’t wait to make babies with you and the satyrs. It’s a win-win!”
Faunus stared at her through his mask’s eyeholes, and then he shook a little, trembling as if he were terrified, disgusted, or in the throes of some other horrific sensation.
“Oh…Oh, I’m going to vomit, and I can’t even do that,” he said unhappily.
He placed his right gloved hand over his mask’s eyeholes and then shook his head a couple of times. He then lowered his hand, raised his masked face toward the ceiling, muttered something, and looked down upon her once more.
“I won’t be doing that again,” he said in a distinctly unhappy tone. “Just give me the bloodstone. No more of this. Give it to me so I can send you far away. Far, far away. Far, far, far, far, faaaaaar away.”
He walked over to a glass cabinet and set her horns down on top of it. He then walked back over to her and reached out with his right gloved hand, palm up, in order to collect the bloodstone necklace.
This was completely unfair…Why did other women get to be his pets?…She was practically throwing herself at him, dammit!
Stephanie was so lucky.
Jill sighed, reached back behind her neck, and undid the clasp for her necklace. She reluctantly offered the bloodstone necklace to him and then winced. It was clear she couldn’t even get laid by a demon.
“Please?” she whined. “I’ll be a good nymph! I can’t wait to be taken by satyrs! I love satyrs! They can do me from every angle and then some—”
“I won’t do that to my children or my grandchildren,” said Faunus quickly.
“Can’t you change your mind?” she whined again. “I can be really careful with my braces—”
Faunus snatched up the bloodstone necklace, looked skyward, and then gave an urgent yell.
“Will someone please take her!” he called out.
Jill shrieked in terror as a huge skeletal hand shattered the roof of Faunus’s home. The enormous bony digits wrapped around her as she was picked up like a doll and lifted skyward. She could just make out Faunus’s final comment as she rocketed upwards without her own permission.
“Oh, wonderful,” said the masked demon. “That’s going to take forever to fix.”
*****
Jill opened her eyes. She rubbed those dark eyes, lifting her glasses a little with her balled fists.
What a strange dream she’d had! There was this man, and she had been at the Edge of Hell, and…and…Wait…
This wasn’t the library.
She was sitting on a soft, very, very soft, white bench. Upon further inspection, the bench appeared to be made of…cotton balls?…No…No, the bench was made of clouds…
Clouds? What in the…?
She looked around at the perfect blue sky and white fluffy cloud landscape. Everywhere she could see were clouds, and there was singing way off in the distance, beautiful, beautiful singing, and…
She stared down at her hands. Her hands were her normal Caucasian color of peach, though they looked so…vibrant and healthy and sanguine, so full of life.
Her clothes had changed, too. Now she was wearing a pure white robe gilded with golden filigree, and it was loose and comfortable and soft, very soft.
She reached up to feel where her horns had been, but all she could feel was a warmth of light. There was something hovering over her head, but she couldn’t see it, of course.
“Huh,” she said as she stood up.
She felt a very light weight on her back, and that’s when she noticed the white feathers hanging down.
“Wings!” she said in unbridled excitement. “I have wings! That means…That must mean…!”
This had to be Heaven. It had to be.
She looked down at the bench she had been sitting upon, and next to where she had been sitting was a pure white notebook with gold filigree along the edges. Next to it was a pure white pencil of the same design.
She picked up both her newest notebook and pencil and held them up as she grinned in sheer wonder.
“Jill!” came an unfamiliar voice.
That voice was melodic to the point of tears. Jill looked up to see the most beautiful, most gorgeous, most incredible man she had ever seen in her young life. He was clearly an angel due to the pure white wings on his back and the glowing halo over his head, and somehow he knew her, but how, she had no idea.
He had a slightly tanned clean-shaven face, incredible deep green eyes, and shimmering brown hair. He was wearing a robe just like hers, and—
“What are you doing here!” demanded the man.
Even though he sounded a little shocked at seeing her, listening to the melody of his voice made her want to run into his arms and cover his face with kisses.
“Who are you?” she breathed out.
She hadn’t noticed it before, but now her voice was like his, melodic and beautiful, and that was surprising, considering she’d never been able to carry a tune in the past.
“You’re not an angel!” said the angel standing before her. “Why are you here!…Why are you an angel!”
Jill shrugged. She was kind of scared now. Even Faunus hadn’t been this intimidating.
“I…I don’t know,” she said nervously. “I think that dream I just had must not have been a dream after all.”
“I lost track of you,” said the angel. “You had me worried, and now I find you like this!”
“You were tracking me?” asked Jill in confusion.
“Of course!” said the angel. “I’m assigned to protect you.”
“Like a guardian angel?” asked Jill.
“Exactly like that,” nodded the angel.
“Ooooooh,” nodded Jill in reply. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but you are really, reeeaaally beautiful.”
She felt herself get hot and her hands tremble…Was sex allowed in Heaven? Just a thought to put a pin in.
The gorgeous angel sighed and rolled his eyes.
“Oh, Jill,” he said as he shook his head. “You have always had this problem. Lust is a deadly sin, young lady.”
“Is it?” she asked. “I mean, that’s what they say, but I don’t see anything particularly bad about it.”
“It leads to very bad places,” said the angel in a stern voice. “The flesh is weak to sin, and your body is a temple, and you have most certainly desecrated that temple a number of times, young lady…
“You have to understand…Nothing impure can exist in Heaven. Such a thing is immediately cast out. Thankfully, we’re not in Heaven.”
“We’re not?” asked Jill.
“No, this is the Edge of Heaven,” said the angel matter-of-factly.
“I’m not in Heaven?” asked Jill. “Can’t I go to Heaven?…I’m dead, right?…Aren’t I allowed in Heaven?”
“No, not yet,” said the angel. “First of all, I don’t even understand why you’re here, and I know all secrets of the universe. All angels do, which means this information has been kept from me, but for what purpose, I do not know.
“Secondly, you should not have wings. You are not an angel. You…You’re a hybrid of some sort, which makes no sense. I’ve never heard of such a thing…Wait…You’ve been to the Edge of Hell.”
“Yeah,” said Jill nervously. “That’s where I came from.”
“You were a half-demon there!” said the angel in surprise. “Now you’ve come here, and you’re a half-angel, but that’s impossible.”
“Well, clearly nothing’s impossible, because I’m here,” shrugged Jill. “I mean, God can do anything, right? There must be some reason for this.”
The beautiful angel stroked his gorgeous chin with his perfect right hand as he stared off at nothing.
“Hmm, this must be a test,” he said thoughtfully. “Yes, this is a test, but it’s for me, not for you…Interesting…And I can see that the Angel of Death brought you here. Curious indeed.”
Jill felt a supreme disappointment strike her squarely in the heart.
“This is another test?” she asked. “Why do I have to be the human test paper?…Can’t I stay? I want to stay with you!”
“I’m afraid you can’t,” explained the angel. “My duty is to watch over you until your flesh, your Earthly body, passes away.”
“But you don’t have to do that anymore!” protested Jill. “We can be together up here! You’re so beautiful…”
“Jill, you can’t be here,” stated the angel.
An idea came to her, though it was a desperate one.
“I know!” she said in excitement. “We could get married! Marriage is sacred, right?”
The angel sighed and rolled his gorgeous eyes.
“And make Nephilim?” he asked. “I don’t think so. The act of mating with human women is strictly forbidden. To do so would violate my grace, and I would fall, thereby nulling the very sanctity of marriage.”
“Oh,” frowned Jill. “You’re just…You’re so beautiful…To think my first time could be with an angel…”
The angel sighed yet again and shook his beautiful head.
“Oh, Jill, this is your problem,” he said firmly. “This has always been your problem. You want so desperately to know another in a lustful way that you’ve lost sight of what love actually is.”
“It’s not fair!” cried Jill unhappily. “Why can’t I get with anybody! Why doesn’t anyone want me!”
“You need love, Jill, not reckless coupling,” explained the angel. “I can see that you nearly sold your soul to a demon just to be used as a breeding slave. That’s horrific! Why would you do that!”
Her face reddened as she thought this over. Was she really that bad? Was she really that desperate?
“And the offer was to Faunus,” said the angel with a shake of his head. “Such a loathsome creature, that one. He was in charge of maintaining heavenly treasures before he fell.
“How he came to be worshiped as a Roman god was underhanded in its own right. He’d simply wanted to collect the most beautiful women, so that scheme of pretending to care about nature certainly worked to his own short-term benefit. Ugh…What a fiend. What an obnoxious, lying fiend.”
She decided to take a chance and ask some questions because…because she really needed to know. She already knew Faunus was bad—He was a demon—but what about her?
“Am I really that bad?” she asked. “No one wants me. I don’t understand.”
“Your time of worldly happiness will come,” said the angel firmly. “However, you have a lot of penance to do.”
“I do?” asked Jill. “What did I do wrong? Faunus said I died in lust, but I’ve never even been with anybody…I’m still a virgin!”
“Your lust is in your own imagination,” sighed the angel. “For such a being, it would be easy to commit adultery or some other crime against God.”
“I…I don’t understand,” frowned Jill.
“You tried to sell your soul so you could be a breeder slave for all eternity,” said the angel matter-of-factly. “That is literally lust at its worst…And let’s not forget that you just tempted your own guardian angel to fall so you could satisfy that lust.”
Jill winced as she held back tears, but they were coming anyway.
“So what are you saying?” she choked out. “Am I going to actual Hell or not?”
“You just need temperance in chastity,” nodded the angel. “Your time of happiness will come. The man you marry will be right in front of you. You simply need to wait.”
“I’m tired of waiting!” she exclaimed. “I want to enjoy life like everyone else!”
“The Earthly pleasures pass, child,” said the angel. “Eternity is what you need to work towards. I know you don’t understand yet, but as a writer, you have the imagination to.
“Now, you must return to the physical world. You cannot remain here, certainly not in this state. You still have your glasses and your braces, and that is just…odd.”
This wasn’t fair…This wasn’t fair, and…and this certainly wasn’t fair. There was no other way to put it. It simply wasn’t fair. She was being used as a test paper, and she had gotten absolutely nothing out of it.
Another idea came to her, a favor, and she did not hesitate to ask it.
“Can I at least have a kiss?” asked Jill.
Seeing him naked would have been much better, awesome even, but blasphemy would surely get her sent to actual Hell, not the edge of it, and now that she knew Hell was real, she really had no desire to go there.
She wiped at her eyes and gave him her best pleading stare. If she was going to get nothing, dammit, then maybe she could at least have that. A kiss from an angel would at least be—
He rolled his own gorgeous green eyes, stepped forward, and took her into his strong arms. He leaned in and gave her a gentle kiss upon her lips, and then her whole world lit up in absolute glory. Dazed with incredible joy, she could do nothing as he continued on with his plan.
He gently spun her around, reached up, and snatched the halo from over her head. She felt its presence still, though it was no longer above her. He took her left wing with his left, empty hand and folded it back toward him, and then he did the same with the right wing. The halo in his right hand expanded to fit over both wings, and then it shrank just as quickly to form a ring that bound her wings tightly together where they exited her back.
“Ow…” said Jill as the pain struck her. “Ow…Ow…Oh, my God, that hurts! Ow, ow, OW!”
“This hurts me more than it hurts you,” said the angel.
There was a sizzle and a pop as she felt her wings burning at the point where they exited her back.
“I’m pretty sure it doesn’t!” she screeched. “Oh, oh stop! STOP! OH, MY GOD, STAAAAHHHHP!”
Her new wings were seared off by her own halo a second later, and then she was falling, falling straight down through the clouds. Her new heavenly notebook and pencil up and vanished in a puff of mist. Her white gilded robe also vanished in a puff of mist, and she was suddenly very, very naked as she rocketed back toward Earth.
“Oh, sure, now I’m naked,” she grimaced, and then she blacked out.
*****
Jill snorted once as she awakened. Her head was down upon her own notebook, that notebook resting upon the library table she had been parked at. She sat up and wiped the drool from her lips. Her notebook was soaked in such drool, but that was okay. Notebooks were cheap. She could always get another one.
She stared down at the soggy open pages. She hadn’t actually written anything, but there were a lot of doodles. One was of a poorly drawn angel. Another one, right next to that poorly drawn angel, was a doodle of…it was…a rather large erect penis. After that was a doodle of the demon she had dreamed of, Faunus, but he was naked and had an erection. Then there were doodles of her, naked, doing things she probably shouldn’t be doing…with various items and people…
A cucumber is one thing, but what’s with the spatula?
She quickly closed the notebook and shook her head no.
“That’s going in the trash,” she said unhappily.
She stood up, shook her head once to chase off the dregs of sleep, and then blinked a couple of times.
She wasn’t naked anymore, and that was good. No, she was still wearing her purple sorority tee, her blue jeans, her white socks, and her white sneakers.
This wasn’t her time of the month, so she was going commando today, and that little feature was just in case anyone wanted to…you know…take advantage…
“I really am a bad girl,” she sighed. “I definitely need to work on that.”
She shook her head and rubbed at her eyes one more time. She really was out of it.
“Time to go home,” she said to herself. “I think that nightmare took all of my creative juices right out of me…Oh, well. Maybe I’ll write about it.”
She had just finished that verbal thought when a young man rounded the corner. It just so happened to be that this young man was Jeffrey Arnold, a very, very, very, veeery hot senior who played on the college football team. He was in two of her classes, and she had…uhhh…been bad with herself in the shower more than once just thinking about him.
“Oh…dear…God,” she said to herself in a husky voice.
Jeffrey was six-foot-two, blonde with a frat cut, blue-eyed, gorgeous, and all athletic demi-god muscle. Today he was wearing his green letter jacket, some rugged blue jeans, and some black sneakers.
Jill felt herself getting moist, but she pushed down that automatic bodily response through sheer willpower. Having that running down your leg was a distraction.
She nodded once at him, and he nodded back.
“Jeffrey!” she grinned. “What are you doing here? It’s summer time! Shouldn’t you be somewhere else?”
“Uhhh…yeah,” he said slowly. “Yeah, I had to return a book and grab another one. I had the wrong one. I’m supposed to be catching up over the summer, but yeah, my bros and I are heading out tomorrow. We’re headed to the Gulf to spend the summer at my dad’s beach house.”
“Oh, that sounds fun,” grinned Jill. “Too bad I can’t go.”
“Yeah, we’re headed down there wild and free,” shrugged Jeffrey. “You know what they say…‘Bros before hoes.’”
“Yeeeeaaah, I see that,” said Jill.
“It’s good to see you, Braces,” he said with a soft smile. “You’re like the little sister I never had…Well, I gotta go. My bros are waitin’ for me…I like the dye in your hair, by the way. It’s weird, but I like it.”
“Oh, thank you,” grinned Jill.
“Well, see you, Braces,” he said quickly, and then he was gone.
“Braces,” snorted Jill as she shook her head. “Sheesh…Dye in my hair (Snort)…Gish…Geez…Wait…Dye in my hair?”
She started to head toward a restroom to inspect her hair, but she was cut short as another boy came walking into view. It was Ned Burstow, Nerdy Ned, a dorky sophomore who was also in a couple of her classes.
Ned was currently wearing a collared red tee with white stripes across it, blue shorts that showed off his skinny white legs, white socks that went up to his knees, and green sneakers.
Man, that color combination…
He had on big turtle glasses like Jill’s own, and those did little to suppress the sheer dorkiness of dorkness that he was. His face was okay, maybe a little handsome without the glasses, and his brown eyes matched the short business cut of his hair, but good grief…
His face lit up as he spotted her.
“Oh, dear God,” she muttered to herself as he walked up with the obvious intention of giving her attention she did not want.
“Hey, Jill!” he said with a short wave. “Fancy meeting you here!”
“Hey, Ned,” she said out of courtesy alone.
“What are you doing here?” he asked. “It’s summer! You should be on vacation.”
“This is my vacation,” sighed Jill. “I like the library. Most kids today can’t even read. Heck, a lot of people our age can’t even read. I like being the exception…Besides, being here gives me inspiration for my stories.”
“Oh?” asked Ned. “That’s why I’m here. I can’t get old school science fiction anywhere else, and I love to write it, too.”
“Huh…I write science fiction, too,” nodded Jill as she pulled her lips into a slight curlicue. “I also write fantasy…and horror…and romance…”
“Yeah, that’s cool,” said Ned. “I write those, too.”
“You…write romance?” asked Jill in clear disbelief.
“A couple,” shrugged Ned.
“Well…as entertaining as this conversation can be, I’m not feeling well, Ned, so I’m going to take my leave,” said Jill as politely as she could. “I’m not trying to be rude or anything, mind you.”
“Okay,” smiled Ned. “Have a good rest of your summer. Maybe I’ll see you around the library some time.”
“Yeah, maybe,” said Jill flatly. “Bye, Ned.”
“Bye,” he said. “I like your hair dye, by the way.”
“Hair dye?” asked Jill. “I don’t have any hair dye…”
She reached up and touched the top of her head out of instinct, but the moment she felt her scalp, a sharp pain struck her.
“OW!” she cried out. “What the…”
She brought her fingers down and instantly panicked…
There was fresh blood across her digits.
“I…I’m bleeding!” she exclaimed. “That’s not dye!”
“That’s blood?” asked Ned in surprise. “Let me see…”
He stood a few inches taller than her, at least five, so he leaned in and peered at her scalp.
“Oh, that looks bad,” he winced. “I think we should get you to an emergency room.”
“What!” cried Jill. “Are you joshing me, Ned!”
“No, not at all,” said Ned with a shake of his head. “You’ve got two bad wounds up there…What happened? Did you hit your head on something?”
This…was not good.
“I…I have to go to the restroom and look at this f-for myself,” sputtered Jill.
She turned to leave, but she was supremely startled as Ned stopped her by grabbing her left arm with his right hand.
“Jill, wait!” he said with extreme urgency in his voice.
“What!” she exclaimed in return.
“Your shirt is torn open in back, and…” he started to say.
His face was…His expression was…He looked frightened.
“What? What is it?” she asked. “What is it!”
“You’ve got…two more wounds on your back,” he said fearfully. “Your shirt is ripped open in two places and you have—I don’t know—burns or something back there. They’re also bleeding.”
Of course, she automatically knew what was going on. Apparently, her “nightmare” had not been a nightmare so much as it had been “reality.” And, of course, this immediately got to her in an existential way.
“Oh…no…” she said weakly.
And she did indeed feel weak. She must have turned as pale as a ghost, because as she stumbled, as she was about to fall, Ned caught her. She immediately grimaced from new pain in her back as Ned’s arm laid across the bleeding wounds there.
“Oh, no,” she said again.
She felt delirious, like she was losing herself.
“I’m disfigured,” she said in a stupid daze. “No one will ever want me now…”
“Are you kidding?” asked Ned. “You’re beautiful!…You’ll always be beautiful.”
“I am?” asked Jill.
“Yes, but we need to get you to an ER,” said Ned. “Come on, I’ll drive you over to the hospital.”
He stood her up, but she still felt faint. Nevertheless, she was able to gaze over at a trio of library-goers gazing upon their little scene.
“He called me beautiful,” she said with a dizzy nod.
“Come on, Jill,” encouraged Ned. “We need to get you to the ER. I don’t know who you’re talking to, but there’s nobody there.”
*****
The male angel gazed upon the two as they headed toward the stairs.
“I think this will work out for her now,” he said firmly. “She’s finally learned something. I believe she’ll be happy with Ned.”
“Yes,” said the female angel. “I think he may have actually found someone. I wasn’t sure he was going to. It appears your charge is well-matched with mine.”
“Ah, they grow up so fast,” said Faunus.
The two angels looked upon the demon, but he merely shrugged, his hands in the air at chest height, those gloved hands palms up.
“What?” he asked. “I’m here for a book, nothing more.”
BONUS STORY: A POSITIVE OUTLOOK
Jerry whistled a happy tune as he was whipped upon his back. He pushed a giant black-iron cart uphill, that cart filled with charred skulls, but he continued to whistle away. It confounded the demon behind him to no end.
“Faster, mortal!” yelled the huge red and horned beast…so naturally Jerry whistled faster.
The demon did not take kindly to this insult. He continued to whip Jerry harder, this time using the serrated whip. It stripped the flesh from Jerry’s back, yet the jovial man did not falter. Jerry continued to push the heavy cart without a hitch in his step.
“Oh, so you think this is a game, do you!” yelled the demon.
The demon kicked out his giant hoof, breaking Jerry’s right knee in the process. Jerry fell, but he quickly picked himself up, stood upon his mangled leg, and continued to push the cart. More importantly, though, he continued to whistle.
“So you really want to make me mad, eh?” yelled the demon. “It’s the hot iron for you, then! Let’s see how you whistle now!”
The demon took a smoldering iron bar and scorched Jerry’s lips shut. Jerry’s lips melted to his face, and he could no longer whistle, but he bobbed his head from side to side to a tune that only he could hear. However, his tormentor’s red skin turned even redder at this, a boiling overflow of anger aimed solely at Jerry.
“What is wrong with you!” shouted the demon. “You’re in Hell, mortal! In Hell! You can’t be happy! You just can’t!…Why, I oughta break you into tiny pieces, you little…”
There was the smell of sulfur, a puff of yellow smoke, and then the big guy appeared. He flourished his long black cape and brandished his pitchfork at Jerry’s demon guard.
“Get this one out of here!” yelled the boss. “He’s a 1040, and I’m not paying taxes on this guy! He’s ruining our quota! Punt him sky high! Let Heaven sort him out!”
Jerry was grabbed by the scruff of his neck, and then he was punted straight up by a particularly nasty hooved kick to his bare and thoroughly whip-slashed bottom. He sailed up through fire and smoke, straight up through the bare ground, up and up, until he landed with an “OOF!” upon a field of soft white clouds.
He stood before Saint Peter at the pearly gates, but his wounds were healed, and he was suddenly wearing a white robe. Jerry took a moment to appreciate the heavenly music all around him, though the look upon Saint Peter’s face was clearly less than appreciative of Jerry’s unexpected presence.
“Jerry McGill?” asked Saint Peter in surprise. “What are you doing here? Why, you’re a liar and a cheat! You swindled poor old ladies out of their pensions! You can’t be up here!…What is going on down there? Are they not doing their job?”
“What can I say?” smiled Jerry. “There’s a sucker born every minute.”
Jill S. Smith’s Summer Vacation Copyright © 2026 bloodytwine.com Matthew L. Marlott
A Positive Outlook Copyright © 2017, 2018, 2020 100 Tall Tales Matthew L. Marlott
A Positive Outlook Copyright © 2026 bloodytwine.com Matthew L. Marlott
Note: The image for this story was generated via artificial intelligence courtesy of OpenAI.
