Paternal Grandparents' Deaths
~The next morning~
Several hours went by, the bombings stopped. The Pevensies, the Jamesons and Bingo came out of their shelters.
"Peter!" Dawn said as she spotted her boyfriend. "Thank goodness you're alive!" Peter smiled at her. "You too." He replied. "You scared me when you rushed back in your house by the way." She added. "I'm sorry..." Peter sighed.
"Well, I'm glad you're alright." Dawn nodded. Then, Susan, Edmund and Lucy came over to Dawn. Lucy smiled and gave Dawn a hug. "Dawny!" She yelped. "Lucy, Susan!" Dawn wrapped her arms around the Pevensie sisters. "You're alive!" Lucy said. Susan smiled. "Oh thank goodness." She sighed in relief. Edmund hung back. Dawn looked towards Edmund. "Ed?"
Edmund was looking at the picture of his father in his hand. "Edmund, what's wrong?" She asked sadly. Edmund looked up at her. "I miss him...." He said sadly.
"Your father?" Dawn guessed. Edmund nodded yes. Dawn nodded back. "I miss mine too." Edmund nodded again. Jane also joined the Pevensie siblings. Jane smiled at them. "Hi." She greeted. Susan placed her hand on Jane's shoulder. "Are you alright?" She asked. Jane nodded. "Yeah..." She answered.
"Good." Susan smiled. Jane hugged Susan and she hugged her in return. Daniel comes outside carrying Bingo and sees them. "Dawnnnnnn! You know you can't be around themmmmmm." He called out.
"I knoowww." Dawn groaned. "Jane and I are just making sure they're alright."
Daniel snorted. "Yeah, right." He scoffed. Dawn scoffed back and rolled her eyes as she looked away from her brother. Daniel went back inside the house.
"Dawn." Penelope called to her daughters from the house. "We need to go find some survivors now. Let's get into the car." "I have to go." Dawn said. "I need to go help survivors in the town."
Peter nodded. "Okay." He gave her a hug. Dawn hugged her boyfriend back and they got into the car. Daniel got out and followed his sisters into their car. The Jamesons started the engine and drove off from their house. As they were driving across Finchley, Dawn saw the familiar looking house that has been destroyed. Jane raised an eyebrow. "Mum?" She said. "Can we stop?"
"What is it, Jane?" Penelope asked. "What's wrong?" Daniel said nervously. Jane pointed to the house. Penelope gasped. "Oh dear.."
Daniel looked. "Isn't that..." Jane nodded.
"Grandpa Paul and Grandma Anne..!" Dawn said with a gasp. The Jamesons stopped their car. The children and their mother got out and headed towards their paternal grandparents' neighbourhood. Some parts of the road were damaged by the bomb. They saw some neighbours crowding something in a circle and pushed their way. And they saw two figures lying near the sidewalk and couldn't believe their eyes. They were their grandparents. Jane gasped. "OH MY!!!!!" She cried out. Dawn screamed in horror. She knelt down and pulled her grandmother to her lap.
"Grandma, what wrong?" Dawn begged as she was close to tears. "Please, grandma wake up! Oh my God, why aren't you waking?!" She cried hysterically. No answer. Penelope went next to her daughter, crying. Daniel, who was also in shock, rushed to Grandpa Paul's body. "Grandpa, please wake up! Wake up! Please stop! Wake up!" He cried, shaking his body. Daniel turned his grandfather's body to face him. His eyes were open but the life was gone. Jane bit her lip. "Oh...no, no, no...." People that surrounded them just watched. Some were in shock and motionless while some cried. They had the loss of what to do. Penelope stood there crying. "It's all my fault!" Dawn sobbed. "If only we could've came here to help them, this wouldn't be happened!" Jane rubbed her back. "No...It's not just your fault. It's all ours."
Dawn kept cradling her grandmothers body in her arms, crying hysterically. Penelope fell to the ground in a faint. "Mum!" Jane cried as she got her mother. Daniel bit his lip. "Oh no!" He said. One of the ladies tried to wake Penelope up to get her coherent, but she was very pale. Then, air raid warden volunteers came by to hear commotion. They pushed through them, and Penelope fainted again. "Oh God, someone do something!" Jane cried out. One of them picked Penelope up and another rescue worker approached to Daniel. The air raid warden volunteer pulled him away from Grandpa Paul's body and covered Daniel's eyes.
"Don't look, son! Don't look!" He told him. Daniel took his hands off his face.
"Don't touch me!" He said to the warden volunteer. He took his hand away. Daniel kept sobbing over his grandfather's body, refusing to let him go. Jane went over to her brother. "Daniel..." She sadly sighed as she sat next to him. "It's time to let him go..."
"NOO!!" Daniel wailed. "I don't want to!" Dawn was still crying hysterically over her grandmother's lifeless body. "Me neither!!" She sobbed. "I don't want to let Grandma Anne off either!" Jane bit her lip "I know, I know....but...." Jane sighed. "It's time to let them go..." Dawn shook her head and held her grandmother close. Jane knelt by them.
"Why didn't we go to them sooner?" Dawn sobbed.
"I guess it slipped our minds..." Jane sighed. That was when her siblings started crying harder. Jane then started to cry. Penelope finally wakes up with a groan. "Mum.." Jane and another lady helped her mother up. Penelope hugged her daughter. Momentarily, a group of volunteers came by the scene with both stretchers.
"NOOO!" Dawn cried as one man picked Grandma Anne up in a stretcher. "Don't take her away!" Jane grabbed her hand.
"Get away from them!" Daniel yelled when one of them picked Grandpa Paul up. He grabbed onto the stretcher and tried to pull the man's hands off of it, but Penelope went over to her son and pulled him back. "Don't take them away from us!" Dawn wailed as she ran after her grandparents, but was held back by the air raid warden volunteers. She squirmed in their hands.
Jane sighed and went to her sister. "Dawn, look at me..." Dawn looked up to her sister with her now tear smeared face and reddish eyes. Jane wiped her tears and hugged her. The sisters cried so mournfully that their broken hearts could not be back together.
"What will we tell your father...?" Penelope sobbed.
Jane cried. "W-what i-if he's not o-okay?" She hiccuped. "I don't know..!" Daniel said, wiping his tears. The Jamesons all hugged each other. Then, something flew in Dawn's mind. "Hold on." She sniffed and ran towards the destroyed home.
"Sweetheart, where are you going?" Penelope called out.
"I need to look for stuff." Dawn replied. Penelope raised an eyebrow. Jane followed her sister. The girls searched through their grandparents' home. The house smelled of ashes and smoke. Dawn felt something crack beneath her foot. She moved her foot out and saw a broken frame. Nearby was a photograph of Grandpa Paul and Grandma Anne, smiling. A few edges of the photo was burned, but not completely through the photo. Jane went over to her. "What is it?" She asked.
"One of our grandparents' photos." Dawn picked the picture up. Jane took the photo and looked at it.
"Oh, how I miss them..." She muttered. Dawn nodded and wept. Jane sighed and hugged her. And then they continued the search. Jane spotted a silver promise ring on the ground. "Grandma's ring...." She breathed. Dawn looked at the ring. The ring had a little diamond on top. "You can have it." Jane gave it to Dawn.
"Are you sure?" Dawn asked. "What's Peter going to say when he sees it?"
"Just explain it to him..." Jane said.
"No..I can't.." Dawn said. "It's too hard to talk about our losses to him at this time." Jane sighed. "Then don't let him see it." Dawn raised an eyebrow. "But how?"
"You can just put it in your jewelry box." Her sister suggested. "Alright." Dawn nodded. The girls then continued the search and Dawn saw something shiny among with the burned and broken furniture. She carefully took it out from the broken stuff and it was a gold crucifix; with a gold chain. "Grandma's necklace...." Jane said. Dawn nodded. She looked at the necklace and the photo. Her grandmother was wearing the exact same necklace in it. She wondered why Grandma Anne didn't wear it during the bombing, although it was her favourite necklace.
"Can I keep it?" Jane asked.
"Hmm, well...you can have the ring and I can have the necklace?" Dawn suggested. "Alright." Jane agreed.
Dawn put on the crucifix necklace around her neck with her sister's help. And then they found another item near some of the broken china pieces. It was Grandpa Paul's old watch he wore when he was a teenager. "Daniel can have this..." Jane said as she picked it up. "I bet it'll look good on him." Dawn nodded. Lastly, the sisters found a photo near some broken window pieces. It was of their Grandparents' wedding dated back in the late Victorian era. Jane held the picture. "Aw...Grandma looks so gorgeous..." Dawn sniffled. Jane nodded. "She does..." The sisters then went to the back of their grandparents' garden. All the flowers and plants that they worked hard on, were damaged and burned. It looked almost as if the fairytale site has turned into a wasteland. They both burst into tears and left the destroyed house and headed to their mother and brother.
Jane opened her palm towards Daniel and revealed their grandfather's old watch. "What?" Daniel looked at his sister. "We found this along with few other stuff, Daniel." Jane told him. Daniel looked at the watch. The watch was quite intact except that it had a bit of scratches.
"I can have it?" He asked. She nodded. "It belonged to Grandpa Paul." Dawn said. Daniel took the watch and fastened it on his wrist. It fit him perfectly. Daniel smiled a little, but it didn't last. He toyed with the watch and cried all over again.
Dawn pulled her brother towards him and held him close. "Cry, little brother." Her voice cracked. "Cry. It's for the best." Jane joined her siblings' embrace and they all cried together. The children couldn't help but wonder how their father would or will cope. Their mother decided they all needed rest so they drove back to their house.
The Jamesons could barely walk into the house as they were still in shock by their grandparents' deaths. So they all walked a bit slowly, but limped a little. The children helped their mother into their house. As soon as they washed their hands and settled in the living room, the sisters showed their mother and brother the items they found in the destroyed house. Penelope cried again. Dawn held onto her grandmothers crucifix pendant around her neck and cried sorrowfully. Jane bit her lip as she cried, softly.
"How will we ever going to let father know about this?" Daniel wept.
Penelope sighed. "I don't know, I just don't know." She sobbed.
"Oh, gosh, I'm scared..!" Dawn cried. "They died because of me..because of us!" Jane hugged her sister and cried as well. Jane cried. "Oh, how we miss you...."
For the rest of the day, had been very sad for the Jameson family. They became so grievous that they didn't even eat or sleep. All they could do is look at their grandparents' photos and cried for a long time. Dawn, her mother and her siblings were worried about Samuel's well being in the war and how he'll deal and cope with his parents' deaths. Dawn felt as if it was her fault that Grandpa Paul and Grandma Anne were killed in the bombing. They had never felt this grief in such a while.
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