The Magpie Effect - The Magpie Chronicles Book 1 (#Wattys2015)

Chapter 14.2

The misleading thing about our house was that you could always smell the sweetness from the top of the garden path; the smell of sweet pastry and cinnamon and security that beckoned you like the open arms of your favourite armchair. The last thing I ever expected was to open the front door and find chaos waiting for me inside.

But that day, when I stepped into the living room, I was swept off my feet by the raging tempest of Hurricane Edith and Hurricane Mavis. Vivian was practically cowering in the corner like a little wood-hut village in its wake.

Edith whirled around, her eyes almost jumping out of her skull upon seeing me. "Ah, here she is! The little witch herself!"

"Don't call my daughter that," Vivian piped, "please."

I glanced from Vivian to Edith to Mavis, and then began the circuit all over again. "Mum, what's going on here?"

"I'll tell you what's going on, you maggot," Edith began, storming over to me so that I could see directly up her nostrils. "My daughter has been sitting at home crying all day because of you. What exactly do you have against my Carmen-"

"She's such a lovely girl," Mavis put in.

"Shut up, Mavis!" Edith snapped, not daring to take her eyes off me. "In the past week alone you've tried to corrupt her with alcohol, you've tried to murder her, and now you've gotten her banned from a big event that she was thoroughly looking forward to by making up mindless accusations! Vivian, what did you do to raise such a monster?"

"I'm sure there's been a misunderstanding," Vivian began. I could see the tears glistening at the corners of her eyes. "Saffy would never-"

"I'm tired of hearing it!" Edith stormed on. "You should be expelled from that school after everything you've done! You belong in a juvenile attention centre, you just watch me make it happen!"

"Oh, there's no need to-"

"A rotten banana will soon reach out and infiltrate all other fruits in the bowl with its corruption!" Edith declared. "The trick is to chuck all the rotten fruit in the bin!"

"What?" I frowned. "What does that even mean? That's beyond one of the most retarded things I've ever heard."

"Saffy!" Vivian gasped.

"Mum, no. This isn't a time to practise your table manners. This-" I began, and then I gestured wordlessly at Edith, "-hag and her daughter have had it in for us for years! They're trying to turn everybody against us!"

"You see!" Edith speared the air with a sharp-nailed finger. "Witness the corruption for yourself! I've never heard such foul things come out of a minor's mouth. How somebody so young could come up with things like that is beyond me. You've raised a mistress of manipulation, Vivian."

"Oh my god, will you just shut up? You sound like a demented fortune cookie. Why don't you just go away and leave us alone?"

"Have you ever heard a child address her superiors like that?" Edith whispered to Mavis, who shook her head gravely. "It's as though her mind has been capsized by a demon, and now the devil is using her body as a vessel."

"Get down on your knees, mum, the Pope has arrived."

Vivian shot me a fierce glare. Be quiet, it said. "I'll talk some sense into her. Edith, Mavis, thank you for coming over and bringing everything to light."

The two women shuffled towards the door, each of them staring at me hatefully as they passed. "Don't even bother making whipping out your oven mitts this week, Vivian," Edith called over her shoulder. "In fact, perhaps you should hang up your oven mitts for good."

My mother froze, rooted to the spot. "What do you mean?"

"What I mean, is that I'm going to have to politely withdraw your seat at the Book Club. It simply wouldn't do to have such an impure mind sitting at the table with the finer ladies of this town, especially dishing out insights on our nation's literature. For all I know, you've been subtly brainwashing us."

I snorted. My mother lowered her gaze and linked her hands before her, calmly accepting of her penance.

"I always thought your opinion of Heathcliff was beyond convention," Edith said quietly, and my mother squeaked as the front door slammed closed behind them.

The silence that followed felt oddly familiar. This time, however, it was my mother who broke it.

"You told me to say that Heathcliff was a Byronic hero," she said, her voice barely more than a whisper. She stood entirely still.

"He was a Byronic hero, mum," I said, rushing to her side. "He was an anti-hero, but everything he did was governed by his love for Catherine. Mum, you don't need the Book Club. Those women, they're horrible people. You're better off without them."

"They were the only friends I had." There was no disguising the wobble that worked its way into her voice. "And now they think I've been contaminating their minds with warped ideas surrounding Wuthering Heights and that we're both possessed by the devil or something."

I pulled a face. "They're not warped ideas, mum-"

"And what's gotten into you, lately? How could you speak to Edith like that?" Vivian tore around to face me, her eyes scanning over me like I was a stranger. "Why didn't you tell me that you pushed Edith's daughter into a river?"

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "Mum, I didn't-"

"And getting yourself banned from this Halloween what-you-call-it!" Vivian exclaimed, throwing her arms into the air. "It's like you're not the same person anymore, hiding all these secrets. What have I done to deserve this, Sapphire?"

"But I am the same person," I protested. There were tears stinging my eyes. My vision was beginning to blur. "Mum, you're falling for their trap. They want you to think these things!"

"I have my own mind, Sapphire! I can reach my own conclusions!" Vivian screamed.

"Well, your conclusions are wrong and stupid!" I screamed back.

"Oh, now I'm seeing it all! I had no idea that you were so stubborn, Saffy, so malicious!"

"I'm only being malicious because you're making me angry," I growled. "Because you're blind to what those women are really like. Why aren't you siding with me? I'm your daughter."

Vivian stopped. She looked broken. "You're not the Saffy I know, not anymore. I barely recognise you these days."

A tear rolled down my cheek. I could taste the salt on my lips, could feel other tears chasing to catch up with the first. I wanted to disappear and never come back.

I turned on my heels and bolted up the stairs, heading towards the only sanctuary that I knew. I ignored the sound of Vivian calling my name and burst through my bedroom door, and froze as my eyes took in the scene before me.

My room was in complete disarray. The doors of my wardrobe were hanging off, my clothes tossed and scattered about the room as if the wardrobe itself had suffered a nasty bout of projectile vomiting. There were threads of fabric from the bed, slashed and tattered, settling all over the place like dust. My bookcase had been capsized, as well as my DVD stand and CD player, the contents strewn across the carpet and disappearing under the bed. The curtains hung from the railings in shreds, as though some psychotic farmer had taken his rake to it.

Nothing, however, was as frightening as the words that were slashed across my mirror in what I hoped was red lipstick.

Rigatona is coming. The message glared out at me like a personal threat.

A ribbon of fabric fluttered past my cheek. I opened my mouth and screamed.

******

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