[ In exchange for your body and soul, your wish will be granted. ]

That sort of thing was for sure a deal to be made with the devil, but once someone had crawled up from hell, what was there to be scared of anymore? What wouldn't you throw away for even a chance after having every path ruthlessly cut off until nothing was left?

So when Zhang Liling had accepted such a deal, she had expected the worst.

What she got instead was unusual to say the least.

Above her was a wide open incomparably blue sky with fluffy clouds and under her feet was a water-like surface that rippled under her feet. Rather than the hell she expected, it was more like what she thought heaven would appear to be. Most strangely, however, was the lone white door that sat in what only she could assume to be the center of this space.

Liling had tried waking from end to end of the place and somehow always ended back in front of the door. There was no where else to go but through and it didn't look very threatening after extensive observation. And when she pressed her ear to it she could faintly hear some kind of music.

So, against her better judgement, Liling inched open the door. The middle of nowhere door did, actually, lead somewhere. The foyer of a house. The music was much more pronounced now, some sort of smooth jazz or acoustic track that leaked out to the door from somewhere.

The foyer was particularly cozy, with a big soft looking rug on the ground, a sitting bench for you to take off and store your shoes in, and lit with the warm yellow light of an overhead modernish chandelier style. And books. There were books stacked here and there on other pieces of furniture she could see.

I'm sure this can't get much stranger.

"Oh, welcome! Please take your shoes off before you come in, water trails in really easily." The voice, sweet and somewhat struggling to rise over the music, came from deeper within the house. "I'm to the left."

Nevermind, I need to stop cursing my own luck.

Liling finally fully entered through the door, closing it behind her and taking off her shoes on the bench. It actually opened up from where you sat and she found a pair of slippers just her size waiting for her, which she slid on before advancing through the home, looking at the various houseplants and miscellaneous decorations dotted through out the hall.

It was warm here, she could hear a fire crackling and smell it too, along with something sweet wafting through the air. Baked apples? And the low beginnings of a kettle heating, barely a whistle yet.

Following the music brought her to a kitchen, fitted with an island surrounded by cushioned bar stools and with plenty of little storage compartments. And someone facing away from her at an oven, pulling something out of it.

"Um... Hello?"

The figure only turned their head towards her for a moment before smiling in a way that hit Liling in the heart. "Hi! Sorry, one sec. I just have to get this pie out of the oven and I'll be right with you."

The girl went to work, oven mitts that Liling realized were cat paw patterned, pulling out the aforementioned pie and setting it down on a wooden stand to cool, sending a heavenly scent into the air.

Long, silky black hair pulled back in a low ponytail with a baby blue ribbon. Downturned, soft gray eyes left in a rather relaxed expression and one of the prettiest smiles Liling had ever seen. Maybe even prettier than her older sister's.

"Oh gosh, I'm such a bad host I haven't even gotten any mugs out yet and the stuff I made isn't ready yet, I'm so sorry." The girl looks at her guiltily, removing her oven mitts and putting them away in a drawer. "Do you have any tea preferences? Or coffee? I wasn't really sure which to prepare and I always have apple cider lying around but I didn't know if you'd want any so..." The more she spoke the more nervous her face got, the smile disappeared and shifted into an embarrassed grimace.

It seemed the pretty girl rambled whenever she got nervous.

"Well, green tea is fine."

Her face lit up again, almost on que with the kettle's violent whistle. "Green tea, coming right up. Would you like honey or lemon with it?"

"Just the tea."

"Cool, cool."

The girl went into a cabinet while the kettle screamed and pulled out two mugs, one with little fireflies painted on it and the other with different colored apples, and went rifling through another cabinet for the tea before emerging victorious. The kettle was taken off the stove and its contents poured into both mugs before the firefly one was handed to her.

A silence settled while the tea steeped.

"I just realized I haven't introduced myself, like, at all. I think I'm going to kill myself again." The black haired girl said it suddenly, hiding her face in her hands for a few seconds before shaking her head. "I'm all over the place right now, sorry. I'm Annabell, just Anna is fine though. An too, if you're feeling particularly lazy."

Again?

"Liling, just Ling is fine though."

"Oh, I already know who you are- Nope that sounds creepy and weird, um... Yeah, welcome to the Soul Space! The in between of being and not being. When the actual 'manager' of this place I'm in charge by default so... Welcome! I already said welcome, shit."

"... Soul Space?"

"Yeah, you know when you accepted your deal? You signed away your soul so it can't reincarnate and to prevent souls from going all over the place, you get put here. It's like an apartment building that you can't leave, basically. Apart from me there's one more resident above us but you won't meet her unless she wants to see you."

"Why's that?"

"She likes her space so she hides her door until she actually wants visitors, which isn't often. But she's really nice! Considering there isn't really the risk of her drinking your blood anymore."

"Huh?"

Anna waved her hand as if swatting away the question. "Anyways, pie? We don't require food to exist anymore, I just like baking. After you're done eating I can lead you to your section of the place."

"Oh, alright."

Somehow she was more confused than before.