Bell Tolls Three
Rifiuto: Non Miriena
Summary: Orphaned at a young age. No memory to speak of. Ten years later, a young man tells her he can reunite her with her family- for a price. What starts out as a sham marriage, soon becomes real, but what will happen when she recovers her memory? Will he lose her forever? Written: 2005. Found: 2017.
1918
She was found wandering among the fields of Munchkinland, barefoot, in only a nightgown. Her long black hair was down around her shoulders in tangles, and she was shivering as the rains fell harder. Unaware of her injuries- mainly the cut on the side of her head- she continued to wander among the fields, soon becoming soaked through to the skin.
Eventually, she stumbled upon a house; firelight burning brightly in the windows. Hesitantly, she reached up, knocking softly at the door. Several minutes passed before the door opened. "Yes? Oh, sweet Oz!"
The woman was older, with long white hair pulled back in a bun on her head, and she wore red velvet robes; worn though they were, they still retained some of their beauty from years passed. Her dark eyes lit up at the sight of the child, and quickly, she rushed to the girl, pulling her close and leading her inside. As soon as the door shut behind them though, the child collapsed; either from exhaustion, the cold or something else, the woman wasn't sure. As she ordered one of the older children to fetch the doctor, she cradled the girl in her arms by the fire, confused by the quartet of emerald diamonds tattooed on the outer edges of each of her eyes.
They were the most peculiar things the woman had ever seen, and yet, they seemed oddly familiar to her. She knew that people of the Vinkus were often tattooed, however those were blue, not green...
"Mistress Morrible?"
She looked up from her examination as the doctor arrived. Laying the girl among the pillows on the sofa, she stood, backing away so he could examine the child. After a quick examination, the man turned to her.
"Is she going to be all right?"
"How did she come to be here?"
"I don't know. I opened the door when I heard a knocking and she was standing there in nothing but her nightgown. The poor thing must be near frozen, being out in that rain all night. And she has those... strange markings around her eyes..."
The doctor turned back to the child. He knelt down to study the diamonds. A moment passed as he gently brushed his fingers over them. It was clear what they were.
Tattoos.
This child bore four tattoos, two on either side of the outer side of her eyes. He'd never seen emerald diamond tattoos before. Not many people had.
"Fae! Come play with me, please!"
The child looked up from the book she was reading. Her long, raven hair was pulled back into a messy ponytail, with a worn blue bow holding it together. The child was thin, which made her pale skin look even paler. It was discovered that the young girl was somewhat of a mystery; she possessed no memory of who she was, who her family was, where she came from, or how she had gotten to the orphanage.
The doctor diagnosed it as amnesia.
And there was no guarantee she would ever regain her memory.
With no memory of who she was, where she came from or how she ended up wandering the fields of Munchkinland that long ago day, the only thing the child could think to say when the doctor asked her in regards to her name was Fae. She wasn't sure why that name had come to mind, but it had.
She had been Fae ever since.
The other children at the orphanage adored her, despite the strange diamonds tattooed on her skin. Though at first she shied away from them, eventually, she had come to realize they weren't going to hurt her, and that some of them actually wanted to be her friends.
Two months had passed since her arrival at the orphanage. Morrible had looked after the child as best she could, attempting to pull her from her shell, but the girl spent the majority of her time in the meager library the orphanage had, reading the books she had read a thousand times before. Occasionally, she would play with the other children, but the majority of the time, she kept to herself. And on the very rare occasion that one of the children was adopted...
Then it was up to Morrible to go in search of the child; she often hid in the over-crowded attic, watching from the windows as the happy little family ventured out to start their new life together. Tears would slip down the girl's cheeks, and she would hug her knees to her chest, refusing all contact, her gaze never leaving the window. Long after the new family would leave, Fae would stay up in the attic, her gaze attached to the glass, as though she were searching for something or someone. As though she were hoping that the pieces of her missing memory would return to her if she waited by the attic window.
"Please, Fae!"
After a moment, the girl shut her book and put it aside. The ten-year-old got up from her chair, taking the younger girl's hand. She allowed the younger girl to pull her upstairs to her room to play. She took a seat on the child's bed, as the girl pulled out a raggedy looking little doll, and climbed into her lap. The child played for a while before asking,
"Fae? Where are your Mama and Daddy?"
The child sighed, wrapping her arms around the little girl. "I don't know Candle."
"You don't remember them?"
She met the child's blue eyes. "I don't remember anything, really. I just remember waking up and..." She shrugged. "I was here."
"Oh." Candle turned back to her doll before turning back to the older girl. "But don't you want to know who they are?"
The child thought a moment. "I... I would love to know that I had a family who was missing me."