Up From Hell

Chapter 1

I suppose I need to produce a plan of action, Putrigall thought, a letter in one hand stating his recruitment to recover some of the remaining souls left by a hellion who had disappeared mysteriously, and a portfolio in the other hand that contained the case files for all the souls he was assigned. Let me start my plan with the first soul. Putrigall looked down at his portfolio and to evaluate his first soul assigned for redeeming for the Dark One's consumption. Hm, her name is Halbred Wisch. She's 26, has had a rough childhood that involved drugs abuse, and it seems her last assigned Soul Redeemer wrote here that she teeters on the edge of depression. He tapped her file with a long finger, content with what he read. This should be an easy snatch and grab for me.

Putrigall looked up from his file and tucked it neatly under his arm. Fresh out of the School of Soul Redeemers, Putrigall had untainted aspirations to be one of the best Hellions the Underworld had ever seen. He was a class 3 imp, one of the more humanoid looking classes of all the imps. It was well known throughout the land of Soul Redeemers that the more human you look, the easier it is to redeem souls. Putrigall reached up to feel the top of his head where two slick horns protruded from his skull, but stopped when he saw the Gatemaster looking at him strangely. Putrigall lowered his head and averted anyone's gaze until it was his turn to step through the portal to the human world.

Once across, Putrigall looked around. It appeared he was in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by trees and undergrowth. He looked at the sky through the trees and saw that it was getting dimmer, indicating that evening was closing in. Looking straight ahead, Putrigall saw lights and realized that he was not in the middle of nowhere, but near a cabin in the woods. He began walking toward the light, reading more of his file on Halbred as he went. It appears she does indeed live in a cabin. One that her grandparents own and let her stay in until she's on her feet. He scanned the file persistently. Ah, but they intend to kick her out soon since she has been living there for months and has not made any effort to improve her situation. This is something I will definitely be able to use. He flipped through the pages of notes until he reached the very last page.

The last note, made by the previous hellion, caught Putrigalls eye.  What is this? She has not yet found out she's pregnant? Well now, perhaps today will be my only day with this soul. Putrigall's full lips curled into a frighteningly pleased smile. The the though occurred to him that he could possibly earn the title of First Hellion if he could manage to win his first soul in record time. It helped that the rank of First Hellion was currently unoccupied. I've heard this happen thousands of times, a human female in a bad situation finds out she's pregnant and realizes she has nothing to offer the child but is too ashamed to admit it to he family. Why, I'll have her committing suicide before dawn. And with that, Putrigall closed his file and walked right through the closed door, into the cabin.