The Truth

Victoria sat on the couch of the apartment that she lived in with Va’ynna. Victoria was operating her omni-tool, Vicky asked Sarah what happened to their parents. Finding out that both have passed on, but their father, who passed away after the mother, left a video message to be viewed after his death. Sarah gave Victoria a copy of the video to watch.

Vicky waited until Va’ynna was at work before watching the video, she found that the video required a password to actually view the video, which she just figured it was so only family members could view it. Sarah of course gave Victoria the password to access it.

The video started with a man behind a desk, his hair mostly grey with small streaks of black that are slowly turning to grey. The stubble the man sported was a mixture of grey and black, his eyes are blue. It is clear that the man is Vicky’s father, and Vicky just watched to see what this video would be about, if it was just who got what or if there is a message for her.

Most of the video was who received what from their estate, but towards the end of the video there was a message direct to Sarah. “My dear Sarah, you have done, me and your mother so proud. You are one of the two greatest things we ever had. But don’t worry about us now, I will be with your mother and sister now. Watching over you, I love you so much.” Then it appears the scene is suddenly cut and transitions pass another moment. Her father’s eyes are red, he gives a smile and a final nod. “To my friends and family, until the day you pass, I shall keep an eye out on you all.”

Victoria sat there confused for a moment. The sudden cut and transition was strange to her, the voice of her father at the end was a much different tone compared to the rest of the video, but she could not put her finger on it. She rewinds the video to before the cut, to see if she can notice anything to help here. It takes a few re-watches before Victoria worked it out, her father was tapping on the desk with each finger separately at different rates.

It took Victoria a few moments before she remembered something from her childhood, to avoid people listening in on them at times, Vicky and her father would spell out words with that little method her father just used on the video. She re-watched the video one last time, to see what he was trying to spell, watching carefully she realized what he spelt.

The words he spelt were Magpie, her father’s pet name for her as a child. She stops for a moment, and the realization hits her, the password at the beginning and his tapping of ‘Magpie’ was clearly a sign. She exits the video and reopens it to make it ask for the password again. She types the word magpie as the password, and it now shows a new video.

“Hey there kiddo, figured you would figure that out, my little magpie.” Her father says and he stops for a moment and he begins to look quite sad. “Hopefully it is you watching this, because I deserve to tell you everything, why we did what we did and to ask for forgiveness that I do not deserve.”

“I failed you as a parent, Victoria. We abandoned you believing we failed as parents, since you did not stop stealing things. So I convinced your mother that with Sarah, we should take her and raise her to not be like us. Your mother did not want to leave you behind, but me being the asshole I am, I finally convinced her to leave you behind.” His voice was growing more and more sadden. “I told her you would be better off without us to ruin you further. So it was because of me, that we abandoned you.”

“I fail as your parent, I should never have told your mother to abandon you. Should have taken you with us and actually try to make you stop what we taught you.” A tear rolled down his cheek, as he continued on with his explanation. Vicky also join her father with a single tear at the moment. “I was left orphaned as a kid, Magpie. So I had no choice but to be a thief, so once me and your mother had you, I taught you what I knew. Hoping you could survive even if we died. But as I grew older, I knew what I did was wrong. I truly wished I raised you like a normal parent and not as a thief, I wish I could have given you a normal life, but I failed at that.”

Her father sat there in silence for several minutes before he broke his silence, and looked at the camera again. “Victoria, I believed your life would have been better without me. With me around, you would have continued to steal and I would continue to be proud of that. It is my fault, not yours, on why we left. I hope you can keep an eye out on your sister for me, and make sure she keeps on the right path. Goodbye, Victoria.” The video ends.

Victoria did not know how to react, she always blamed herself for her parents abandoning her and now knows that it was her father’s choice. She did not know how to react to any of this, tears came to her eyes. She stood up from her bed and made her way to the refrigerator, she grab a bottle of whiskey she kept in the fridge and went to the table with whiskey and glass in hand.

Victoria opened her omni-tool again and started to write up a message. (The message was for Va’ynna, explaining that Vicky would be unable to walk her home that day.) Once finished writing and sending the message, Vicky did the only thing she knew to deal with emotional pain, drinking.