Up From Hell

Chapter 2

The inside of the cabin was small and dimly lit. Clothes were strewn all about the room, suggesting weeks of little cleaning. Halbred Wisch lay facedown on a small cot crammed in the corner of the room. Putrigall stood staring for a few moments to take in the picture of his first mission. Halbred was a petite girl, small in stature. She had dirty blond hair that was unruly at that moment and cropped short in a bob that barely reached past her chin. As Putrigall observed, Halbred opened her blue eyes and slowly sat up, groaning as she did so. She sleepily let her gaze sweep across the room, looking right through the imp who was invisible to her human eyes. Halbred then stood reluctantly up and drug herself to the bathroom.

Putrigall began looking around the room for something he could use to start his mission. He needed to find something to draw Halbred's attention to that would hint at her pregnancy. His gaze rested on a pregnancy test box that was carelessly tossed on the floor and looked as if it had been nearly kicked underneath the bed. The sight of the box made Putrigall squeal with delight. This is precisely what I need to bring a swift close to my mission. I could not have found a greater tool for this specific situation. This good fortune should ensure my departure back to the Underworld by tomorrow.

Putrigall shuffled through his notes in search of an explanation to his convenient finding. He found a note written by the previous hellion stating that Halbred had received the test from her grandmother, who had attempted to discreetly give the pregnancy test to her granddaughter. She was quite worried about her granddaughter and hoped that Halbred might, over time, come to trust and open up to her grandmother. Halbred had, of course, shown insult as she received such a test. She believed she had taken the necessary steps to ensure no pregnancy would occur and didn't take fondly to the idea of her grandparents trying to guess what things she did in private. Halbred hated how they assumed the worst of everything involving her and felt burning shame every time she realized that their assumptions were almost always accurate. Putrigall knew Halbred was inflicted with depression. He also knew that humans with depression commonly commit suicide when presented with a seemingly immovable obstacle. Even if I cannot convince her to kill herself now, I can at the very least implant the idea of abortion in her mind. After reviewing this human's file, an abortion would certainly haunt her for the rest of her days. She'll kill herself eventually no matter what.

The devilish hellion observed as Habred practically drug herself back to her bed and bent down to pick something up. At first he thought she was bending down to pick up the pregnancy test box, but he quickly realized that she was instead retrieving a small bottle of alcohol from underneath a pile of laundry. Halbred got in bed and started lazily downing the fiery liquid in a way that suggested she was quite familiar with the motion. As she lifted the bottle to her lips, Putrigall caught sight of a strange glimmer of light in the corner of his eye. He glanced in the direction of the strange sparkle, only to find that it had vanished as quickly as it had appeared. It must have been the light reflecting off my client's bottle and onto the wall, Putrigall though. Even so, I should work quickly and be done with this mission. And with that, Putrigall set about plotting Halbred's imminent demise.