A Lost Cause

Chapter 9: Songs and sadness

Tanith POV:

Delilah and Skulduggery were twins?! And the Bellas were looking for a new recruit... but I was still a member. I supposed I had been gone a long time, not going on an Amazon mission since before I first met Valkyrie. But then again, Valkyrie was famous all over for saving the world with Skulduggery, so I wasn't too surprised about Delilah wanting to recruit her.

I turned to Skulduggery. "if Delilah taught you music, I'm assuming you've got a couple songs up your sleeve?" I asked, laughing. "of course. Most of them were duets with her, but I still write in my spare time. You?" He replied, head tilting in what I took for a grin. "naturally. You can't be a Bella if you can't write songs."

"well, what are you two waiting for? One song each." Piped up Dexter, and the others nodded and agreed. I blushed. I hadn't sung in a good twenty years. "Um OK. But I'm a little rusty." I took out my phone, scrolling until I found where my backing tracks were. While I was doing that, I saw Skulduggery go upstairs. When he came back, he had a guitar in his hands. 

"who goes first?" I asked nervously. "rock paper scissors? Loser goes first." Replied Skulduggery briskly. I lost. Dammit. MI set up, donned my Stone and I sang my first original song, Travelin' Soldier, which I had written long before the Vietnam war about my Fiance, who had died in a sorcerer's battle.

Two days past eighteen

He was waiting for the bus in his army green,

Sat down in a booth at the café there

And gave his order to a girl with a bow in her hair.

He's a little shy so she gives him a smile

He said "would you mind sittin' down for a while

And talking to me, I'm feeling a little low"

She said "I'm off in an hour and I know where we can go"

As I sang, images began to form. They were the Bellas, all holding instruments around the guys who gasped, and they began to accompany me. I smiled, as I continued to sing uninterrupted.

So they went down and they sat on the pier

He said "I bet you got a boyfriend but I don't care

I got no-one to send a letter to. Would you mind if I send one back here to you?"

I cried, "never gonna hold the hand of another guy!"

"Too young for him" they told her

Waiting for the love of a travelin' soldier

"our love will never end!"

Waitin' for the soldier to some back again,

Never more to be alone,

When the letter said,

"A soldier's comin' home"

So the letters came from an army camp in California

Then Vietnam,

And he told her of his heart, what might be love,

And all of the things he was so scared of,

He said "when it's getting kind of rough over here,

I think of that day sitting down at the pier

And close my eyes,

And see your pretty smile.

Don't worry but I won't be able to write for a while"

I cried "never gonna hold the hand of another guy!"