Up From Hell

Chapter 4

Putrigall cheered as he watched his plan unfold. Pushing her bottle off the nightstand truly was the perfect and simplest way to draw Halbred's attention to the bright pink pregnancy test box. Not only would this be a fast mission, it was also proving to be practically effortless for Putrigall.  I'll surely have her soul bagged and tagged before sunrise, he thought.

Putrigall held his breath as he watched Habred's glazed over eyes slowly study the box, then grow wide with fearful recollection. Putrigall sat down beside his client and began to very quietly whisper in her ear. "Remember that one night stand you had a few months ago?" Putrigall's whisper was barely audible to the ears of demons, but to Halbred his voice was just a flicker of a thought in the back of her mind. "That poor, ugly boy you crossed paths with even tossed you a twenty for the night as if you were some filthy prostitute. Maybe you really are a prostitute, seeing as how you took the money. You took the money because you were just that desperate for a drink." Halbred's eyes, unmoving, welled up with tears. "You know it's been over two months since your last period. You've had your suspicions, now it's time to find out if they're right." Putrigall grinned smugly as Halbred got up and walked very slowly to the bathroom.

Yet again, Putrigall's peripheral vision caught sight of a glimmer on the other side of the room. Aggravated that he lost sight of whatever it was yet again, he struggled to recall if he had learned anything about strange glimmers in his hellion training. A few minutes passed with no success, causing Putrigall to give up the memory search. He decided he would merely stay wary, in case something tried to catch him off guard.

A distant toiled flush could be heard, and Halbred trudged out with a small white test in her hand. She plopped down on her cot and set the test on her nightstand, anxiously waiting for the test to give her result. The test was one of those fancy digital ones, the kind that take a few minutes to process. Halbred put her face in her hands, rubbed here forehead, clasped and unclasped her hands. Her face was a little paper than normal. It was very obvious that she was nervous.

Putrigall returned to the spot next to Halbred. "Maybe you're being ridiculous. I mean, you? Pregnant? Just the very idea is preposterous," Putrigall whispered in he sickliest, sweetest voice. His plan was to build her up a little before the test finished processing in hopes that she would fall faster and harder. "You can't possibly be pregnant because you just aren't the kind of girl who goes around having kids. You still have a life to live and a kid would just slow you down." A wisp of confidence melted into Halbred's appearance, and she chuckled at herself. She got up and stretched a little, shaking off her previous worries. Halbred grabbed the test off the table and made her way to the trashcan on the other side of the room. Halfway to the trashcan, the test beeped.