Chapter 9 by Zeebop

What Is Lois Answer?

I Want To Be Pregnant

Lois fought, but felt the words ripped from her. The reporter's cheeks burned as her words hung in the dark room. Her secret shame, her innermost desire. The one thing she couldn't allow herself.

And once the words were out, Lois felt the rest of it tumble out of her mouth in a torrent.

"I've always been told to beware having sex. The girls at school who got knocked up, the whore on the streets of Suicide Slum with the rugrats and bulging bellies, the poor young women in the abortion clinics, crying tears over the babies they couldn't afford to have, and...I told myself it would never happen to me. Even when I did finally have sex, I was so careful...and I've kept on being careful, year after year. All the time...all the time wishing I could just let it go, to let it happen to me. To take the risk...no condom, no pill, to feel the flutter in my stomach as I wait for the test, and...I couldn't do that. I still can't."

The room was silent. Even the wind had died down, as though listening to Lois' confession. Then it spoke.

"Interesting. Your turn."

Second question. Lois counted.

"How do I get them back?"

The wind picked up, howling, stronger and stronger, faster and faster, and Lois got the idea that she had struck a nerve...the demon was angry. The reporter smiled in her mind. She had to answer.

"You must offer me something of equal or greater value," Blaze told her. "They are mine through a bargain, and I will not give them up unless it profits me."

The wind rifled through Lois' clothes, especially strong between her legs. She grimaced at the unwanted attention.

"What do you look like naked?" Blaze asked.

Her question hit Lois unexpectedly. She had expected another question about her sex life—her habits, the porn she liked to watch—but that...how would she answer that?

Only one way of course.

The reporter's hands shook as she began to strip. She left the jacket fall to the floor, feeling eyes upon her in the darkness. Took a deep breath as she bent over to take off her shoes. The shirt was next, and the wind picked up and it fluttered away on the breeze, lost from sight.

Lois grinned, bitterly. She was half-undressed already, and there was a choice to make...