Alone

         The sky was a clear cornflower blue, not a cloud for miles. The sun shown brightly down on the petite red head peering cautiously out the kitchen door. The girl couldn't have been more than three or four years old, but what she saw that day would change the rest of her life.
          In the green grass of her front yard lay three still bodies, the bodies of her family. A slight breeze lifted a bit of lace here or a lock of hair there. Looking out further, beyond the bodies, the little girl searched for movement, looking for those who had taken her family from her. Even at her tender age, she knew that if she were seen she would end as the others had. Seeing no movement, she inched her way into the yard.
         When she reached the first body, that of her brother Adam, she recoiled in shock. A gaping slash of red spread from beneath one ear to beneath the other. Crawling quickly away from the awful sight, she tumbled into her father. He lay unmoving, face down in the plush grass. Little hands nudged his shoulder to no avail and she crawled slowly to the last body. Her mother lay curled on her side, her arms cradling her swollen stomach. Her crumpled skirts lay limp in the pool of red that seeped from beneath her. The little girl curled into a tight ball and wept for the family she had lost, though no sound came from her throat.
         Time passed unnoticed as the child passed from waking into to sleeping. As night fell the little girl roused herself as the sounds of an approaching wagon reached her. She dashed quickly for the open kitchen door, closing it quietly behind her. She peered out through the lace curtains as the wagon pulled into the yard.
         "Holy Christ, pa! Whatcha think happened?" Jamie Spencer asked from his perch in the wagon bed. His father didn't answer, silently taking in the sight of his best friend and his family lying dead in the yard.
         "Can't rightly say, Jamie, but there's been some strange folk around of late. Boy, you go on into the house and see where the young one's gotten off to. She ain't out here." John Spencer didn't want his ten year old son to see Richard's son Adam.
         "You sure you don't want help, pa?"
         "Naw. I kin handle this meself."
         Jamie took himself off toward the house and his father took a steadying breath before approaching the bodies. It was grim work, putting the stiffened bodies into the wagon, wrapped in blankets. He would take them over to his place where he could make caskets for them. The hardest was Richard's wife, Emily, for he had to also wrap the body of the baby she had miscarried. It was more than his stomach could handle and he wretched beside the wagon.
         Inside the house, Jamie was searching for three year old Marianne. Thus far he'd been unable to find her hiding place, and had searched most of the house. "Mari...Mari, come out here. It's Jamie. Where you hidin'?" There was no response to his calling. Coming back into the kitchen, Jamie thought he heard a shuffling noise coming from the pantry. Walking quietly across to the door he opened it to find Marianne cowering in the far corner, her dress blood stained and dirty. "Marie," he said softly, as if he were talking to a skittish colt. "Mari, come on out here. Nobody's gonna hurt ya. My pa's here and we're gonna take you with us. Come on out." Marianne continued to huddle in the corner, so Jamie inched slowly into the room. The closer he got the more she seemed to shrink into her corner. Jamie was about a foot from her when Marianne began to scream. Jamie covered his ears as the sound hit him.
         John heard the scream from the yard and hurried into the house. Seeing the pantry door open, he rushed in and scooped Marianne up out of her corner. He tucked her tight against his chest, hoping that comfort would still her screaming. Jamie followed him out into the yard. "Jamie, lad, I need you to go check the cows for me. They'll need milkin' and I got this little'un to tend to. Can you do that?"
         "Sure, pa." Jamie wandered off toward the barn and John wondered if the boy would even find any cows. When Jamie returned soon after, he knew he'd been correct in thinking his friends had been killed for their livestock. "The barn's empty, pa. Not one animal in there. I checked the pasture, too an didn't find one of 'em. You spose them what done...this took 'em with?"
         "Aye." Marianne had stopped screaming and now lay limply in his arms wimpering like a hurt dog. "It's gonna be alright, girlie, you'll see. Let's get on home, son, afore your ma gets to worryin'. There's a mighty heap of things to be doin' tomorrow." Jamie scrambled onto the wooden seat and watched his pa adjust the little girl he held. All was quiet on the ride to the Spencer farm but for an occaisional whimper from Marianne.
         The moon shown bright upon the solemn group as John pulled the wagon up to his own home. A young woman stood in the light spilling from the open kitchen door. "John?" Anna Spencer knew without being told that something terrible had happened. Seeing the girl in her husband's arms only seemed to verify her fears. Jamie jumped down from the wagon and ran to his mother.
         Hugging her son, she watcher her husband's face. "Richard and Emily..." he paused, unsure how to tell his wife of her friend's fate. "They're gone, Anna. The boy, too. Found them out in the yard..." he could go no further. Putting her son from her, she moved forward to take Marianne from her husband.
         "Come. child." She spoke gently as she lifted the girl and carried her into the house. She took her into an upstairs bedroom where she bathed her and dressed her in a simple white night dress. Marianne made no sound throughout, but when Anna turned to leave her in the big bed, she let a whimper. Anna turned in time to see the child jump from the bed and run to her. "No!" Marianne shouted. "No!"
         Anna stood in shock as the girl clutched her skirts tightly in her little fists. Placing her hand on the little red head, she looked down, realizing the girl didn't want her to leave the room. "Shall I stay with you?" Marianne nodded, her head rustling Anna's skirts. "Very well, but you get back in that bed, little miss." Anna waited for her to comply and then sat in the rocker beside the bed. Marianne snuggled beneath the quilt and was soon fast asleep.
         The door opened quietly and John looked in to see the puzzled look on his wife's face. "What happened, John?"
         "Best I can tell, some o them strange folk decided they wanted the livestock and killed for it. Not too sure how Mari here escaped their notice. Can't imagine they didn't check the house for goods. My guess is the boy raised the alarm and they slit his throat for it. When Richard heard the noise an went outside, they shot him in the chest. Emily..." he choked. "Oh, dear God, Anna! Looked like they beat her and used her til she lost the babe. She died from that."
         Anna went very pale. "Oh dear God, John! How could they do such a thing to her?" She turned away from her husband, tears glistening in her eyes. Her eyes fell upon the sleeping child, lying peacefully in the bed. "John, Marianne is staying here. I want to keep her with us. She knows us, and Emily would have wanted it that way. There's no one else to take her, is there?"
         John thought for a moment, knowing that Richard and Emily's families would need to be informed. "We'll have to find their families, Anna. They've got a right to know. I want to keep her, too. They might let us, you know. Keep her close to where they lived." John sighed, knowing that keeping her close to where they had lived also meant keeping her close to where they had died. "We'll fight for her, Anna. I promise."
         Over the coming weeks John and Anna would come to find that they would not need to fight for her. Richard and Emily had no family. They had left no one behind when they moved out to their farm.
14 years later
         Marianne stood in front of the kitchen door, looking out onto the waving feilds of wheat. She was silent as she so often was. Fourteen years had passed since the deaths of her parents and her brother, but she still had nightmares about it sometimes. She knew that she often cried out in her sleep, and had for years, but Anna was always there to comfort her. Anna and John had become her family and Jamie was soon to be her husband. Sometimes she wondered what her life would have been like had those men never come looking for work on the farm. Now, after all this time, she was about to enter the house that had once been her home and would soon be again. She and Jamie would live here after the wedding. But first it needed a good cleaning. Anna had volunteered to help, but Marianne wanted to do this alone.
         "Mari? Sweetheart, you alright?" Jamie called from the barn door. He had been tending the livestock and was worried about what might happen when she went inside. He remembered that day when they had found her and the fear and pain he had seen on her small face.
         "I'm fine, Jamie. I'm going inside now. I'll see you at supper." Marianne turned to the door and slowly opened it. The door creaked as it opened, a sign of misuse. Sunlight shown in on the dusty interior of the once warm and happy kitchen. The dust was undisturbed but for the path made by the swinging door. The air was still and all was quiet inside while the birds sangs outside. Marianne stepped into the silent room, inhaling sharply as a spider dropped down from the ceiling in front of her. "Get on with you! You scared me near to death!" Sighing, she rolled up her shirt sleeves and tied on her apron. "I'll start here," she said to herself. "No better place to start than the last place I was."
         Marianne turned back to the open door and took hold of the broom leaning against the frame. Taking a strengthening breath she began to sweep up the years worth of dust on the floor. As she cleaned she began to feel better about the decision to come without Anna. It was time that she faced her past. Far past time.
         Several hours passed as Marianne swept, scoured, scrubbed and disinfected the kitchen of the old farm house. The dishes were all stacked neat and clean in the cupboard, the fine oak table could be seen without it's habitual layer of filth and the linoleum floor glistened in the sunlight.
A work in progess, please rate and review. Any advice would be much appreciated.