Chapter 10: Meaningless Promises

We all make promises. We promise we'll do better next time. We promise we won't spend all our money at once. But promises can be broken. And so, we promise not to break our promises. Thus the circle continued, and promises and lies become one and our lives seem meaningless and grey, until somebody adds colour…

Ellie Jones had always remained faithful to her husband. When the two were dating, she was offered his handsome cousin, but she declined.

When the two got married, she was offered his gorgeous best friend, but she rejected him.

When the two had Nadine, she was offered his attractive older brother, but she turned down him.

Ellie Jones had always been faithful to Ben. But that Sunday morning caused everything to change with the arrival of Alex Dale.

Ellie was collecting the post when she looked over at Andrew Dale's lot. It was very shady and mysterious, so she stood there for a few minutes wondering why he'd moved here. Then, Alex arrived.

The door opened, and a man in a leather jacket, showing his toned chest and six-pack, and blue, torn jeans stepped out into the morning sunlight.

"Morning," he said cheerfully, and Ellie felt her heart beat quicken. For the fifth time in her adult life, she was falling in love with another man.

"Morning," she replied. She made a deal of collecting the post and the milk bottle.
"How are you?" he called back, and she turned around, smiling, glad to see he was still there.

"I'm…fine." she said. There was a moment where Ellie gazed at his chest before he spoke.
"What's your name? I'm Alex Dale"
"Ellie. Ellie Jones" she replied breathlessly.

He grinned. Ellie blushed. "See you," Mrs. Jones said before quickly returning to her house.

And then, she peeked back out the window and for the first time, questioned her own faithfulness.

---

Amy woke up the next day, with a contempt look on her face and a man beside her. The first golden rays of morning lit up the bedroom. Then, a wave of morning sickness took over her and she rushed to the bathroom, leaving Andrew to wake up alone, with only the sound of retching to greet him…

---

Terri was lay with her eyes closed, when she heard the door open. She wondered if it was a nurse, but the apprehensive footsteps unnerved her.

"Hello Terri," whispered a voice. Terri felt as if someone had shot her all over again. The person who had pulled the trigger, and began all this, was stood in the same room.

It was a dark and cold room on mornings. Often, Terri would wake to find herself covered in goosebumps, and if she could, she would have shivered.

The person edged closer. "I hope you're well,"

Terri tried to make a noise, a movement, something to attract attention. But the person didn't seem to notice her futile efforts.
"Look after yourself. Next time, you won't be so lucky" the voice told her, and Terri felt the dark presence leave. She sighed with relief. But she wondered about his cryptic message. And his even more cryptic threat. And she could help but wonder, 'next time?'

---

It was mid-afternoon when Ben Jones called over his neighbours to explain his discoveries. It had been a morning of passion, lust and hangovers, but Mr Jones was unaware of all these. All he cared about, what a photograph and a girl named Sophie Wilkinson.

Matt and Amy settled down into the comfortable base sofa in the sitting room, as Ben opened up the cardboard for the second time today. He noted that Amy and Matthew were quite happy to occupy opposite ends of the couch, and no give it a moment's thought. He waited for his wife to return from feeding Kai, and then began.

"I found these by the lake in the park yesterday. Brad Wilkinson was trying to dispose of them" Ben said, carefully spreading the contents out on his dining room table. Ellie turned her nose up at the clutter. She loved cleanliness and it was taking all her mental strength to not try to clean up this assortment of pictures and letters.

"This," Ben said, brandishing a picture of a pretty blonde haired girl. "Is Sophie Wilkinson. I think she was Terri's daughter"

The three friends looked at what he was telling them and noticed the similarities to Brad and Terri, as well as some strange features that belonged to neither of them. But the resemblance was almost unmistakable.

"That's impossible. After Stewart, she was told she couldn't have children anymore," Ellie recalled.

"She became infertile." Amy said, exasperated.

"Well, explain this," he said, and pulled out a rattle, with blue and yellow stripes.
"The rattle could have been anyone's." Ellie dismissed it.

"But why was Brad trying to hide it?" Ben inquired.

"Perhaps it was Stewart or Mary's?" Amy suggested coolly.

"Even if this was possible, it would mean that Terri had a seven year old daughter, who mysteriously disappeared off the face of the Earth" Matt concluded.

"Not if she was killed," Ben said darkly.

"Ben…" Ellie said, looking nervously. "Terri and Brad wouldn't kill their own child,"
"Then explain this," Ben said, retrieving a silver revolver from the box. "Five bullets missing, I counted" he continued, and the three stared in dismay.
There was silence, as the three tried to take in what he was saying.

"I found two more things" he said, extracting a pillow and another photo from the box. The pillow was white, and the name Sophie had been written in elegant script, with a red rose to the left of it. The photo was of a blonde woman, around Terri's age, who looked very pretty indeed.

"Who is it?"

"The only thing on the back is a 5…" Ben drifted off. And the dark mystery seemed even more mysterious, but the answer was right under their noses…

---

It was tea-time when the police raided Charlene's house.

There had been a complaint yesterday about strange screaming coming from the usually quiet home of the Gates. Regarding it as a wild animal, the police ignored the phone call by Catherine Gardener. But they found her body dead, and another phone call sharpened their suspicions.

The police had been informed that a loud wailing and a scream had woken neighbours in the early hours of the morning. Charlene's business was naturally private but today was an exception. The first of many to come.

The whole street poked their noses out their windows as the loud sirens burst into the peaceful street. And as the men in blue pulled up outside the Gate's household, suspicions were aroused and many neighbours decided their gardeners needed a little extra attention. So the people of Appleby Street went outside to listen in on their neighbours business.

There were three sharp knocks against the door. Charlene opened it meekly.

"Hello?" she said, confused by this sudden arrival.

"Miss Gates, We are under orders to search your house after several complaints of loud noises during the times of 1 am till 5 Am." the first policeman said.

Charlene continued to look puzzled, but allowed the authorities in.

The two saw the door to the basement and smiled kindly, when they heard a quiet whimper. Intrigued, the two policemen drew closer, and heard the faint voice of Erin Gates.

"Help..." she whispered quietly.

The second policeman tore back the rug and hoisted open the trap door. And Erin crawled out of the dusty cellar, in the worst state imaginable.

Her eyes were so badly bruised, that they were nearly closed. Her face was pale, and gaunt-looking. Her hair had been cut unevenly, and looked as if it hadn't been washed for days. There was dried blood on her lip and nose, and it looked as if some skin from her neck had peeled away. She was crawling and the two policemen noted the cuts and half-healed scabs on her arms. Her shirt was torn and her trousers were ripped. She looked in tremendous amounts of pain. She clutched her chest, weeping, which was later discovered to be several broken rips.

She stumbled forward and passed out. Charlene felt anger gush out her body, but didn't dare show anything. She collected her thoughts and another great idea filled her.

She rushed forward, feigning sadness and horror. "Oh, my little girl, I thought I'd lost you!" Charlene shrieked.

"You didn't know where your daughter was," the first policeman asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Yes…" Charlene said, thinking quickly. "I left her with my mum when my ex-boyfriend beat me up but I heard that he came and kidnapped her. I had no idea he'd hidden her here"

The policeman looked at his co-worker, and the two shrugged. Unlikely as her story was, they'd solved the strange complaints by the neighbours. As the first policeman dialled for an ambulance, the second officer comforted Charlene.

Then, Charlene wondered what would happen if her daughter recovered and told every one of her mother's wrong-doings. So Charlene decided to take matters into her own hands…

---

Amy sat in the bathroom, with another pregnancy test. She was hoping that if she became pregnant again within the week, Matt would never notice that she'd lost the baby. She checked her watch and wondered about her husband. Was he still with Charlene? And what could her neighbour provide she couldn't?

---

Matthew was walking down the street when he saw Charlene been escorted away by an ambulance. He then decided to go visit his wife. He ran to number 11 and wrenched open the door. Matt walked in and found himself alone in the house.

"Hello? Hello?" he asked the empty house. But nobody was home.

---

Amy checked the test after the allotted time had passed. And to her delight, it was positive. She smiled and quickly discarded the test.

She was skipping towards Andrew's bedroom, when Catherine appeared. Her children were sharing the small guest bedroom in Andrew's house.

"Mommy…do you love daddy still?" she asked.

"Of course, sweetheart" Amy answered, kneeling down to her daughter's height. "Mommy and Daddy had a disagreement. So we're spending time apart" Amy continued
"Will you ever see Daddy again?" Catherine asked.
"We'll see," Amy said.
"Do you promise?" Catherine said, pouting.
"I promise" Amy said, smiling.

Yes, we all make promises. We promise to love, and cherish. We promise to care for and to protect. We promise to respect and guide each other. But promises do make the world spin. And amidst our promises, we all lie: Our personal false truths. We lie about staying with each other forever, till death do us part. But when death claims someone we love, we promise to live on. And it is in this selfish promise, even the most reasonable people become monsters…