Keep A Promise or Die

Chapter 9

Mrs. Venom arrived shortly afterwards. She wished Chirp recovery, then without a word, took Ivy by the arm and walked her to an area outside the hospital. Then, she looked at Ivy, and said “I think we have to talk.”

Ivy couldn’t keep it in anymore. “Mum, I know this would sound crazy, but listen, this is my entire fault!” When Mrs. April Venom gave her daughter a questioning glance, Ivy gave one last weary puff, and explained to her about her deadly word power, and how she made so many people promise since she was young, and gradually how Chirp ended up like this. Mrs. Venom slowly nodded, “I believe you, and I think it’s about time I told you a bit of… history”

“You see Ivy, when I met your papa; he was the scariest person I had come across. He looked just like you, the same black hair, red eyes, even the expressions, the same. No one liked him, and said that he was a monster. I never understood what got into me, but I asked him one day, ‘Are you a monster, Gerard?’ and he had said, “No, I’m a human who just turned into one’” Ivy looked up at her mother, seeing the distant look in her eyes. “I started to wonder a lot about what he had said to me, and I also started to become his only friend. My own friends began to distance themselves from me, leading me to spend more time with your papa. One weekend, I went to visit him on short notice. He wasn’t home, but his mother – your grandma – invited me in.” Ivy was surprised; she never heard any of this. “The old woman asked me, ‘April, do you have any idea what is going on here?’ I didn’t, so insisted she told me. Your grandma was very hesitant, but I finally managed to get the answer out of her” Ivy thought for a while, “What did she say?” Mrs. Venom smiled at her daughter, “She said, ‘Gerard can kill with words, never break a promise you make to him. If the person broke the promise, they really died”. Ivy’s eyes grew wide, “Really? Like me?” she asked. “Yes, like you. But I didn’t believe a single word your grandma said, mentally classifying her lunatic. Then the next day, I told Gerald that, brushing it off lightly as a joke. But it wasn’t, ‘April, do you remember the incident about the delinquent from Year 12? Or his sudden meaningless death? That was me.’ He had said to me. ‘I made the idiot promise to stay away from my sister, but he didn’t, running to his death.’”

Ivy nodded, “Go on” She pleaded. April Venom smiled again, “I was shocked, wondering if this was Gerard’s idea of a lame joke, but no, soon I got convinced that the he and old woman had been speaking the entire truth. Your papa got into a little fight a few days later, and he made the guy promise something, but after lunch, the person died, in class, just finished. I must have been twisted back then, because, I had said, ‘The creepy kid deserved death’. While I might have looked upon it as justice, Gerard clearly classified it as a curse” I think of it as a curse too, thought Ivy. “But then, one day Gerard did something really reckless. It was the night when both of our families had come together for planning the wedding. My father asked for something, he was being greedy. He wanted the mansion to be in his name. But Gerard insisted that he wasn’t going to make decisions like that now. They argued. Your papa did it – he made my father promise not to mention it again” Ivy thought for a few seconds, and then asked, “So did grandpa ask about it that night?”

“Well what happened wasn’t Gerard’s fault entirely. My father brought up the topic again near the end of the night, but he died instantly. What a greedy man. I never liked my father- he was always trying to do things beyond human methods. But your papa did not forgive himself; he kept on asking me if I could spend the rest of my life with a monster. A monster that killed her father. But I saw my own father as the monster. How could a dead man make Gerard suffer this much? It was the lingering evil of a monster.” Ivy was putting pieces together. “But you and papa did get married”.

“Killing my father wasn’t reckless, my girl, it was what he did – the condition he made – he promised himself never to use his curse ever again” said Mrs. Venom.

“How does that work? Does that mean he’d die if he broke the promise he made to himself?” asked Ivy.

“I have no idea how it works, don’t ask me. Well, after he made the promise, he was slowly starting to thaw, and we finally married. We had you, we were a family. It was like Gerard completely forgot about his ability, he became a carefree man. You two got along so well, I was almost envious. My father never loved me like the way your papa loved you. My own little family – I was so happy, but just when I assumed my life was perfect, the mirage shattered” At this, Mrs. Venom gave a gasp like sob.

“Why?” asked Ivy, feeling that she didn’t want to hear this, but forced herself to listen.

“Nine years. That’s all it took, nine years. He broke the promise to himself, but why couldn’t Gerard see that he was not punishing himself, but us along with him?” Now Ivy gasped.

“That’s why papa died?” Ivy felt tears welling in her eyes, and saw the same in her mums. They clutched each other as they grieved a loved one, and then Mrs. Venom wiped her eyes.

“That’s why; you must try everything in your power to keep Chirp alive”