The History of Yardale

Family Reunion

Damien opened up a portal to Hell and walked through it with Pip. The rest of the group stayed behind, as they thought a big crowd walking through Hell would be suspicious. Once they had walked through the portal, immediately facing a wave of heat, Damien and Pip walked in search of the Pirrups. 

After a while of walking and not seeing Pip's parents, Damien sighed. "Do you even know what they look like, Pip? I thought they died when you were a baby."

"They did, but I've seen a few pictures of them. I vaguely know what they look like." Pip replied, hopeful. 

Damien rolled his eyes. "We'd better find them. I'm not going to walk around Hell all day." 

Just then, Pip's eyes seemed to lock on two people- a man and a woman talking with each other. The man looked like an older version of Pip, and the woman looked like an older version of Sarah. Hoping they were his parents, Pip rushed over to them.  

"Might you two be Phillip and Georgiana Pirrup?" Pip asked upon greeting them. 

The man nodded. "Indeed we are. And who might you be?" 

Mrs. Pirrup stared at Pip for a moment before exclaiming, "Don't you realize?" 

"Realize what?" Mr. Pirrup asked. 

Mrs. Pirrup sighed. "That's our son! It's Pip!" 

It was then Mr. Pirrup's turn to stare at Pip for a moment and come to the same realization. "My goodness! It really is Pip!" 

"Mhm!" was all Pip could think to say, a bit shocked that he was basically meeting his parents for the first time. The three could only stare at each other for a long while, all thinking about the life they could've had if the Pirrup parents had lived. 

"Well then, what brings you here?" Mr. Pirrup finally asked. 

Damien, having been standing to the side awkwardly as the parents and son reunited, answered, "We have some questions for you two." 

Mr. and Mrs. Pirrup seemed to quickly tense up, recognizing the presence of the ruler of Hell. Trying to ease the tension, Mrs. Pirrup asked, "Is this a friend of yours, Pip?" 

Eyes awkwardly going back and forth between Damien and his parents, Pip answered, "Yes! A... very close friend!" 

"Oh, how sweet!" exclaimed Mrs. Pirrup. Determined to learn as much as she could about her son, she asked, "Do you have any other friends?" 

Pip nodded. "One of my best friends is Herbert Pocket." 

Mr. Pirrup gasped. "We knew the Pockets! Good chaps, they were." 

"Indeed." Mrs. Pirrup replied. "A real shame Herbert's mother Sarah died. She was a kind woman." 

"Sarah?" Pip questioned. 

Mrs. Pirrup nodded. "We named your sister after her, we were such good friends! She died shortly after your friend was born, though. Around the same time as us. Hepatitis, wasn't it?" 

"Yes, Hepatitis. Horrible thing, that is." Mr. Pirrup said. 

Damien huffed, slowly getting more irritated by the useless information. He was glad Pip was getting to meet his parents, but he was extremely bored. "Can we get to the interrogating now?" 

"Oh, right!" Pip remembered. "We were simply wondering about your past with Yardale. You two helped with the war robot project, right?" 

The two parents' expressions suddenly became more serious as they recalled their history with the school. "That's risky stuff you're meddling with, Pip. Why must you two know?" Mr. Pirrup asked. 

"None of your business." Damien stated. "Now give us answers." 

Mr. Pirrup sighed. "Well, we didn't know about the project until far after we had graduated. We never helped with building or designing it, but we did test it." 

"It's what killed us, actually." said Mrs. Pirrup. "Shortly after you were born, Pip, we were asked to come back to the school and test out some project. We agreed, thinking we were doing some good for our old school. Once we had began testing the robot, though, it malfunctioned and we were killed." 

Pip didn't know how to react. He was slowly noticing parallels between his parents' death and his own. "Why'd they ask you two to test it?" he asked. 

"Well," Mr. Pirrup started, "after learning more about our deaths here in Hell, we found out that they were attempting to frame us for the project's failure. They said we purposely sabotaged the robot and used that claim as an excuse for the destruction caused. Thinking the excuse was reasonable, the authorities allowed the school to continue the project."

"I don't know why they'd want to continue such a dangerous thing." said Mrs. Pirrup. 

"Why the sudden interest in the project?" Mr. Pirrup then asked Pip. 

"I went to Yardale and found out about it." replied Pip. "A couple of my past classmates and I were wanting to learn more." 

The Pirrup parents seemed shocked for a moment. "Why'd your sister let you go to Yardale?" Mrs. Pirrup questioned. 

Pip shrugged. "I was given a scholarship, and she immediately sent me off." 

"Well she shouldn't have!" Mr. Pirrup claimed. "Ask her about it for us, will you?" 

Nervous to ever see his sister again, Pip replied, "I'll do my best." 

Mrs. Pirrup sighed. "I'm sorry we couldn't raise you, Pip. You've grown to be a good man." 

"A good man, indeed." Mr. Pirrup added. "We're very proud of you, Pip." 

Pip hugged both of his parents for a long while, wishing he had lived with them instead of his horrible sister. He had not known a thing about having loving parents until this very moment. Pip was reminded of a childhood he'd never had where he didn't have to stand and watch as other kids laughed and cried with their own parents. He hugged his parents tight, wanting to hold this moment in his arms for eternity. 

When he said goodbye to his mother and father and left Hell with Damien, Pip imagined a life where his mother and father had never been killed. He imagined a life where he got to be a happy child and didn't have to be lonely and tormented by his sister.