MagicAnimalClub: Happenings

7: The Truth

Stampys POV

We stayed in our trees for about two hours, John decided to call for help.
"Dan? Hey Dan we need your help, desperately, I've lost two members of my team and we are surrounded by Seekers," he said, I could tell that even he was panicking.
"We are in the forest, where are you?" John continued to ask on the phone.
"Okay- bring backup, there are at least 200 out there, we've killed about thirty in total but it'll be dark soon."
"Alright see you then. Bye."
"Right so Dan and a group of French soldiers are coming in about ten minutes, there are about 50 of them, and the English are on their way."
I nodded, still in the initial shock. I looked down at Amy's pale, dead body.
"My god.." I sighed, looking at her beautiful face, with blood dripping down her lips. I looked to Ash, he was still bleeding from his forehead. It made me sick to look at.
"Have you got Amy's family's number?" David asked,
"I've got her house phone number, I think that's her family one." I said,
"Give it a ring." David said,
" 'Kay." I said, reaching out my phone. I dialled her number and put my phone up to my ear.
"H- hello is this Amy Lee's family?" I asked,
"Yes, is that you Joe?" I recognised Amy's mother's voice.
"Yeh, it's me. Um, I need to speak about Amy.." I looked over to David, Netty, Tom and James who had tears streaming from their eyes. I'd never seen any of them like this.
"Is she okay?" Her mum asked,
"I... I don't know how t-to tell you this but unfortunately.. Amy died during a battle a few hours ago.. It was quick, she didn't suffer.." I said, closing my lips tight, holding back my tears. Her mum was silent, before there was sobbing,
"Your lying to me!" She cried, I put my hand over my eyes,
"I'm so sorry.." I soothed.
"Did.. Did she scream?" I could say no, but this was her daughter and I had to tell the truth,
"Only for a second."
She was silent for a moment, taking this all in.
"Thank you for telling us this, Joe. I kn-know this must be tough.."
"Listen, I- I have to go. Take care of yourself."
"You too, Joe." She sobbed,
"Goodbye." I hung up. Taking a couple breaths to calm myself down.

"Well done mate, that was a tough one." Tom said, I looked back at him and thought of all the fun times and achievements Amy had had.
800 thousand subscribers, one of the most popular female youtubers of her time, her own merchandise and over 1000 videos... Once upon a time we were a thing. Once upon a time we were together, once I loved her, we kissed once but... But then we never did it again.
At last, I heard a load more bullets being fired, the other group had arrived. I sighed with relief.
"Okay they've been distracted by the other team, now run!" John yelled,
"What about Ash and Amy?!" James yelled,
"They'll be collected. For now, No one tramps over soldiers who died at war, a sign of respect."  John explained, looking down at my two friends.
"Well.. Well we better get a move on." James replied. He was only young, too young to see these things.
We jumped down from the tree, squid looked at Ash, one of his best friends.
"Goodbye mate." He whispered, closing Ash's eyelids, I kneeled beside Amy, put my hand on her cold white cheek, I gazed into her blue eyes, then closed them. I held her hand, before letting it slide out of mine. I put her hair infront of her chest, aware my go pro was still on, I kissed her forehead, a tear fell down my face. I stood up, looked away from Amy and wiped it away. David looked at me for about two seconds before we broke into a tight hug.
"I didn't expect this." He cried, tightening his grip on me, tears flooded my eyes,
"No one did." I replied. We broke apart, David patted my shoulder as he limped beside me.
Netty and Tom ran infront of us, James trailed behind. I saw Tom and Netty look at each other then gradually get closer, I nudged David, he smiled back at me, then moved closer to me saying, "brother." I laughed, "if we all get out we may well be!"
"We have radios you know!" Netty yelled, I heard John laughing in the background.
As we ran James asked questions,
"So captain, tell us about your family" He asked,
"Got a wife, and a kid, Lucy. She's four, she's got.. Short brown hair," he stopped, "pink tails.. Though she's not girly, she wears dungarees and watches people play minecraft and-"
"Do you know.. Who she watches play minecraft?" James asked, smiling at us,
"Some guys... Uh.. Magic animal club or something? I dunno some weird things- child friendly though, I watched one episode and it was fine."
James smirked at us all,
"Do the names Stampy and Squid turn up?" Netty said,
"Oh all the time!" John moaned, breaking the sadness inside of us.
"Sound like weirdos!" Tom added, we tried holding in our chuckles,
"Yeh- but she loves them, she said to me her biggest goal is to see them and show them her pictures." My heart was warmed by that, David and I looked at each other and smiled,
"She drew a picture and gave it to me, it's of all her favourite people, her mum, me, her best friend Chloe and then there's an orange cat-" everyone looked at me, "some kind of octopus thing with a princess hat on." I wheezed, "then there is this bit of cheese with a face, some purple bear thingy." We looked at Netty, "there's a mermaid and a duck, and then there is.. Oh I think there's like a karate person, or ninga, not too sure, she's quite good at art." All of us knew who he was talking about, smiling so hard.
"I'll show you guys it when we get to our base, anyway, let's get a move on- it's getting dark." John said,
"Yes cap'n." Tom laughed.
We eventually got to a clearing.
"We're here." John said,
"A base?" Netty asked, we all raised our eyebrows in confusion,
"Look at your faces, 'Kay I'll show you, we are smart, aren't we." He crawled on the ground, looking through every stone.
"J-John I.. John are you okay?" James asked, before he lifted up a stone by a tree which had a small button on it.
"Oh you clever bastard." David laughed.
The button opened up a small entrance under the ground. Which lead to a huge underground base, about fifty people were already down there drinking from water fountains and eating bread.
"My god," I said, climbing down. We closed the trap door and found a place to sit.
"So- captain. What's the plan for tomorrow?" I asked,
"If nothing goes wrong- fingers crossed, we'll stay here till about three, so you can have a lie in, we plan to attack tomorrow night,"
"Whoop lie in." Netty giggled,
"But guys.. We've gotta ring Ash's mum.." David said, changing the mood.
"Don't.. Don't be too hard on her." I said,
"I'm gonna be as hard as I fuckin' like, she practically abused him! Kicked him out for a man!" David yelled,
"Just.. " I gave up, "ring her." I sighed.
He dialled her number,
"Hello, hello do you know Ash? Your son? The one you kicked out?" David began, I face planted, this was going to go badly, he put it on speaker,
"Ashton Hall?" David rolled his eyes,
"Yes! Your son?"
"Yes I do know him now I have more to worry about tha-"
"He's dead." David said. His mum stopped,
"He.. He's what?"
"He's dead. He died at war. And you ruined his childhood by marrying that sonofabitch who abused them!" David was close to tears,
"Don't you dare say that about my husband! You have no right to lie to me- who ever are you?!"
"My name is David Spencer, your son was one of my best friends, we played games and became popular together, we did YouTube, he had over a million people watching him, thousands of people loved his videos, thousands of people loved him. Thought of him as a strong, independent and loving person. We met up a few times, considered buying a house and living together. Your son traveled all over the world, to events and places because people wanted to see him. Your son gained loads of money and fame, he attended events and.. And you.." David was breaking down, "you let him leave you.. Because you didn't want to leave your husband." Ashs mum was silent,
"Ashton Hall was shot in the head and died, today, just a couple of hours ago." David said, slowly.
" I- I.. " she hung up.
David slid down the wall and sat on the ground, covering his mouth with his hands, I put my hand on his back, sitting down beside him.
"Anyone up for a well deserved glass?" John asked, walking in with a bottle of wine and a stack of polystyrene cups.
"Oh god yes!" I said, taking a cup and pouring some wine into it, everyone took it.
"Where'd ya get this from?" David asked,
"Oh- there's a stash at the other end of the trench."
"Seriously?!" James laughed, "this stuff's not cheap."
"Yeh no one knows who bought it," John said, he sipped the wine then pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket.
"This is my daughters, there's the cat, with his square dog, and mummy and daddy are here.."
A tear drew from my eye, but I wiped it away before it fell.
"Gorgeous," I said, smiling.
"Got a photo of her here." He took another picture out of his pocket, it was of his daughter, Lucy, her lips were crimson and smiling, her eyes were like bright emeralds, her hair was in two pink tails. I immediately felt the connection between the father and daughter.
"She must really love her daddy." Netty said, patting John's shoulder.

After John left I decided not to ring Beth or post a video. I just chatted with my friends.
"You gonna tell John that his daughter's heroes are you guys?" James asked,
"M..maybe. If we all die except one I think that person should tell him." Netty said,
"That's a bit sinister- be positive." Tom said,
"Right babe." Netty replied, smirking.
"Babe that's new!" I teased,
"Mmmhmm, what you two up to?" James laughed.
"Go on give 'er a wee smooch." David laughed, Tom smiled shaking his head.
"Go on! You could be dead by tomorrow!" James added, I nudged Netty.
At last, Tom and Netty kissed on the lips, they didn't touch anywhere but lips, they closed their eyes, but the kiss lasted for no more that a second.
"Whey!! Good on ya!" James laughed, patting Toms shoulder.
After the laughing died down we all sat against the wall in silence. Pondering about what happened today.
"Stamps.." David began, looking at me with his red eyes.
I acknowledged him, looking up, still feeling utterly shocked.
"You and Amy.." He asked, waiting for me to explain. I guess I had to: i kissed her forehead and closed her eyes today.
"So.. Yes, there was a time, about three years ago when we were a thing I guess. When she'd go over to my house a lot, as she didn't live too far away, so I stayed over with her for a bit, and yeh, I guess I did grow to love her. But we never really.. Like.. We never really confirmed ourselves as a couple, not even to each other, then we sort of broke apart.. " I admitted, my nose and eyes tensing.
"Awk," I was surrounded in hugs. We all cuddled up together and went to sleep, caught between the trauma of the day.