Disclaimer: I own...like, not a lot of people in this chapter. Go figure.

Once Upon A Time
Epilogue

Twenty years later, Constable Ichabod Crane sat up in bed and rubbed his sleepy, blood shot eyes. His wife, Katrina, was sound asleep beside him, and their son was snoring in his cradle against the wall. They had named him Bartholomew, after Katrina's favorite uncle, and he was hardly one year old. Already he had his father's dark hair, but he had his mother's soft, round face through and through.

Ichabod stood up and crossed the room, walked over to where his son lie sleeping. He placed his hands on the edge of the cradle and stared down at Bartholomew, so angelic in his slumber. Ichabod smiled at the boy and then thought of the daughter he didn't know, of the child that his family didn't know he had. But no, she wouldn't be a child anymore, he supposed. She would be at least nineteen by now, if not twenty.

Suddenly, there came a knock at the door, and Joseph Masbath, now a gangly teenager of sixteen, quietly entered the room. He spoke to Ichabod in whispers, saying, "Constable Crane, there are two people at the door, a man and a woman. They're here to see you, apparently."

Ichabod furrowed his brow and glanced at the ornate clock hanging on the wall. "At this ungodly hour?" he asked.

"Yes," the boy told him. "I think they must be husband and wife," he continued, "because the woman looks awfully pregnant."

"What are their names?" Ichabod asked.

"The man only introduced them as the Lutwidges," Joseph said. "He didn't give his first name, or his wife's."

"Did either of them say what they wanted with me?"

"No. But it must be something important."

"Why do you say that?" Ichabod enquired.

"No woman as pregnant as that woman would even step outside of her house in that condition," Joseph said. "And the pair of them looked like they'd been traveling for some time, because there was a carriage piled up with luggage waiting behind them on the street."

Ichabod considered this a moment, then glanced briefly at the peacefully sleeping Katrina. "All right," he finally said to Joseph. "Let's go see who they are."

Little did he know that the people at his door would change his life forever.


And so ends the tale of Ichabod and Rose, but at the same time another begins. I'll be starting the sequel very soon, and hope to post it just as soon as I can. So I thank you all for taking the time to read this and leave reviews. It's good to know that one's work is being read and appreciated. So until the sequel, the blood is the life, Sikerra.