Demons | Bill Denbrough

10. Unholy Night

22-year-old Katherine Walker-now Katherine Denbrough's eyes scanned over the new condo.

It was small but it would work until both Katherine and Bill build up their careers.

Bill carried in the last box, closing the front door behind him with just the kick of his shoe. "Okay, that's all our stuff," he grunted, setting the box down.

Katherine smiled. "'Our stuff'," she repeated. "This feels so unreal."

"What does?" Bill asked.

"Being here, married to you," she answered as she opened a small box near the fake fireplace mantle. "It feels like the most unrealistic yet best dream I've ever had."

Bill chuckled. "Being married to me is considered your best dream?"

"Yeah," she answered honestly, unwrapping bubble wrap from a picture frame before placing it on the mantle. The picture was of Bill and Katherine from their recent wedding. "I've been in love with you for so long. And I've made so many bad choices but this feels...right."

Bill walked beside her, grabbing a bubble-wrapped picture frame from the box to which he unwrapped it. "It does," he admitted in agreement. "The day you asked if I would marry you was...terrifying."

Katherine chuckled. "Wow, Billy. Tell me how you really feel," she said, placing another frame on the mantle. This one was Bill and Katherine at 13, his arms wrapped around her from behind while they both grinned at the camera.

"Let me finish," Bill told her with a small laugh. "It was terrifying but somehow when you asked me. I felt...happy for the first time in a long time. And for a moment, I saw us like how we are now. After college, married, and hopefully starting a family..."

Katherine looked to Bill at his words. "Do you want to start a family, Billy?" she asked, her tone now shifting to nervousness.

"I do," Bill answered. "With you, of course, but it's too early to start and you want to wait a few years..."

"No, that's not it. I want a family, Billy..." she trailed off. "Speaking of, I, uh, need to tell you something."

Bill moved his eyes to hers, now concerned. "What is it?" he asked, now placing the picture frame right in between the two. It was Katherine and Bill at their graduation, standing on the front of the stage.

The silence she encounters is deafening with the voice in her own head arguing and yelling at her to speak. In the pit of her stomach she senses the urge to say those words, to get it over with, but every time she feels herself go to do it, they don't come out. There's a secret so wild hiding within her. How is she supposed to say something so life-changing? It doesn't make a difference that he'll be excited about it. None of that matters. It's still complicated to say out loud to herself, let alone anyone else. The anxiety roils in her gut, the worst of it now growing as she opens her mouth to speak, "I'm pregnant."

Bill visibly holds his breath, his chest stops moving for a moment in the midst of the bomb she dropped on him.

"What?"

It wasn't what he anticipated to hear.

She says again, softly, "I'm pregnant."

The quickness with which he fully turns to her and pulls her into a hug so tight it's nearly suffocating, surprises her this time. His arms are encircled around her waist, the feeling of his muscles contracting against her sides making her breath hitch in the back of her throat, and he buries his face into her shoulder.