Pendant

At your birthday party, you receive a very special present… a family heirloom, passed down for generations, now given to you on the day you’ve turned thirteen. Tears spring to your eyes, knowing what this means. If you put this on, your father will die in the next few days; if you don’t, you will die in the next few days.

This was the curse bestowed on your family ensuring that one parent will never live long enough to see their children grow up, not fully at least.

“Please,” your father says, gripping your hands.

You nod and put the pedant around your neck, a sob tearing itself from your throat as you do.

The story went that long ago, in northern Belfast Ireland, your great, great, great, etc. grandfather lived as many did at the time, which is to stay he was doing all he could to merely survive and ensure his family did as well.

One desperate night, when his child fell ill, he journeyed south to find medicine as he and his family could no longer keep up. He stumbled upon a supply carriage and, thinking recklessly, knocked out the driver with a rock and robbed the carriage. He returned home and cured his child with the food and medicine he had stolen, delighted to have seemingly gotten away on Irish luck.

Little did he know that the supplies on that carriage had been for the royal family who also had a child fallen ill. Upon their child’s death and learning of their driver’s fate, they swore revenge on the thief who had inadvertently spilled royal blood.

In return for a pardon for the crime of sorcery, the royals tasked a witch with finding and cursing your grandfather’s bloodline for the rest of time. For the sake of irony, the witch decided that though his child had been saved, he should not be allowed to see them grow up.