Epilogue
o~O~o
Madison trekked through the snow. She felt the need to go see Jane and see how she was doing. And, of course, she wanted to see Faye. The little girl had captured Madison's heart.
She wrapped her green cloak closer to herself. The wind blew cold against her face.
Springtime was just around the corner. Madison had to remind herself almost every morning.
But if only it would come now! She couldn't help but think.
She crossed over a field that was next to the trees.
Jane's house was just up ahead.
When the small cruck house came into her view, Madison raised her eyebrows in confusion. There wasn't any smoke coming from the house.
Any rational family would have a fire going during the cold winter months. Jane and William had always had a fire going to warm up the house.
Why would they put it out now?
Worry gripped Madison. What could be wrong?
As she came closer, she noticed the cloth covering the entry was thrown to the side like whoever last left had bolted out of the house.
More than worry grew in Madison's head.
Before she could even think of it, she was running as fast as she could to the building.
Her hand met with the side of the entry before she entered. Small drifts of smoke barely came from the coals in the fire, the beds were empty. The whole house was empty.
Just as Madison was going to dash outside to see if she could find the family, a small wail of an infant cried out.
Madison's head whipped to the cradle. She crossed the room and found Faye wrapped up inside the cradle.
"Oh no." Madison breathed. Somethin was more than wrong. Jane could never leave Faye alone for too long with no warmth.
Picking up the infant, Madison wrapped Faye in a blanket nearby and held her close inside her cloak.
She soothed the baby's cries with words she wasn't sure were true.
"Everything will be alright, Faye. Hold on."
Cautiously Madison stepped out of the house with Faye in her arms.
"Jane!" she screamed.
"William!" She called when no answer came.
Scanning over the white fields, Madison's eyes caught a dark spot west from the house. It was a ways away, but Madison began pushing through the snow to it.
Faye had fallen asleep when warmth had seeped into her.
Madison's stomach sunk when she noticed it was a person lying in the snow.
. It was William. Her lungs squeezed and she sobbed. His eyes looked to the clouded sky seeing nothing.
Carefully kneeling down, Madison sat next to him and closed his dead eyes.
"Farewell," she said unable to prevent her voice to crack and tears to slide down her cheek.
o~O~o
The days passed. No one saw or heard of the girl with pale brown hair and brilliant blue eyes.
Days only turned into weeks. And weeks to months.
Faye grew from an infant into a toddler. The more she grew, the more Madison realized Jane wasn't coming back.
This is truly the end, I just couldn't kill Faye. And I thought you'd like to know what became of her.