Magpie by Keira Page

Magpie is notorious around the world for committing horrific mass murders. She got her name from her mask but like the bird, she is a sign of bad luck to many. She wore a black bird mask over her pale face and a catsuit on her body. Magpie had many reasons to hate the world the way she did. Many rumours circle about her but only me and her know the truth. The truth is Magpie was once a little girl called Anna who so desperately wanted to protect her mother from her father’s anger. Alas, she was an only child and was too small and weak to do so.

Her father would cut her mother when she disobeyed him and when Anna saw her mother’s wounds for the first time, she hid the knives in her room. Once her father saw the knives were missing, he thought it was her mother’s doing. When Anna was in bed that night, she woke hearing her mother's cries and pleas for safety. Anna leapt out of bed, took the biggest knife from under her pillow and ran into her parent's room. Anna's mother said, ‘Anna no’ and her father turned around to see his daughter as she pushed the knife deep into his heart.

Anna’s mother took the blame for the crime as the abuse she had endured was evident to the police and the judge. However, years of abuse and watching her child kill her husband had broken the mother, she was committed to a mental institution and Anna had to be sent to an orphanage at the age of 10. Anna only had family on her father's side, and no one came for her as they had their suspicions.

Anna bonded with her roommate Laura, the two were each other's only joy in that dark place where they were neglected and abused. Some of the staff wasn’t so bad, the girls always liked Amy. Amy always seemed to find them before something bad was about to happen. They knew Amy was aware of what her colleagues did. There was one caretaker, called John, who always abused the girls at any given chance. He was a large and unsettling man, who always complained about how he could have been a rugby player if not for his shoulder injury.

Anna was 16 when one day Laura had been missing all afternoon, this was strange as the pair stayed inseparable to keep each other safe. Anna was looking for Laura when one of the staff said she had seen her walking with John going to help him with something. Anna’s heart sank as she ran around the building looking for them after half an hour of searching, she saw paramedics enter the building heading to the basement. She followed and saw Laura on the floor, bloodied and beaten, she went to run down but Amy had come up behind her and grabbed her taking her into a nearby room.

Anna cried ‘It’s John, he hurts us, you have to do something’, Amy replied that she wished she could, but she tried her best to keep the kids safe. Anna argued that she had failed to do so. ‘I’m sorry’ Amy said, knowing she had done all she could, but it could never be enough.

Laura died later that day at the hospital, John was dismissed but faced no criminal charges. When he came to the orphanage the next week to collect his things Anna was ready. The night before she had broken into several rooms to find sleeping tablets, she crushed them up and made tea for John which he accepted not knowing what Anna knew. Not long after he felt woozy, Anna told him to have a nap on the couch. John struggled but eventually slumped onto the couch and when he was fully asleep, Anna grabbed a pillow and suffocated him with it. She left a packet of sleeping pills in his pocket and turned the gas on from the stove. She set fire to the kitchen curtains and grabbed her bag to leave, relieved she would never have to go back or be near that man again.

Anna found Amy outside and asked her to take her to see Laura’s grave. Amy said yes and the pair were on their way before the fire alarms started to ring, Anna felt glad she did not have to sacrifice Amy for the cause. On the way there Laura was called about the incident, she was horrified but had given Anna an alibi by stating she had been with her that day. Amy asked Anna why she had a bag with her, Anna said that she wanted to leave Laura with things she cared about. At the grave, Anna left a drawing she had made of Laura and told her friend that ‘I will always love you’.

Anna and Amy went back to the car and Amy asked where Anna wanted to go. Anna explained that the house she grew up in was now hers and she could live there alone. Amy asked to come inside but Anna said no, but she thanked her for always being there for her. Amy expressed remorse for not being able to save Laura, she had always feared a day like that would come. Anna replied that she always knew Amy was trying her best to protect them, but it was not enough.

The home had been abandoned for 6 years, the crime scene tapes still there, although withered in dust and cobwebs. Anna slept there that night, haunted by her past demons. Anna couldn’t sleep that night and went into her mother’s sewing room, reminiscent of happy memories of her mother making her dresses. She found her mother’s sketchbook in the drawer which was full of drawings of birds and dresses inspired by them. She found a drawing of herself as a magpie in a beautiful dress and mask.

Anna decided not to sleep that night, so she created a black mask for her eyes that pointed over her nose like a beak. She put it on as she looked in the mirror and saw her future, a masked woman ready for vengeance. Anna would never be like Amy and her mother she would always do enough to keep herself and those she loved safe. But she was blinded by this false justification she used as an excuse to blindly murder. Over the coming months, Anna learned how to craft her skills as a firebug and a knife thrower, to this date she has never been caught.

I write this now as an old woman, before my passing to express my regret for not being strong enough to protect my little sweet Anna from the pain that consumed her. I write this in the hopes people understand what she has been through. Many people only know her as a villain who wreaks havoc on the world, killing thousands. I will always know my sweet Anna, who only ever wanted to save the people she loved and the daughter who visited me every morning since she came home.