Welcome back for the last installment in the Ossuary Music Adventure!

If you missed the first three weeks, you can read them (Ossuary Music, Ossuary Music – Play, and Ossuary Music – Play Again) or here’s a quick recap. 

Recap: You were promised money to buy shoes if you dared sneak into the ossuary and play your flute. This is dangerous both becasue there are guards and because there are monsters, the most notable being the wendigo. You snuck in and found an alcove in which to play but heard a noice. Deciding to play anyway, you drew the attention of a wendigo. But strangely, you also drew the attention of some ghosts who, although freezing the air, protected you from the monster. Playing again, the ghosts drove the monster away and, just before they faded from view, a young girl pointed for you to go deeper into the ossaury.

Readers voted to follower her directions! Let’s see how this adventure ends.

Curiosity wins out over the warnings in your head, and you tuck the flute into the soft carry case that’s slung over your shoulder before following the tunnel farther into the ossuary. Even Alex, the one who dared you to play music amidst the bones, would call you crazy. 

Sounds carry through the tunnel, as dry as the skulls around you. The scrape of dragging feet on the dusty floor, the brittle crunch of bones, sometimes the whisper of what may be voices. Goose bumps cover your skin. 

Up ahead, the tunnel T’s and you begin to wonder why the ghost girl pointed you this way. The only signage is a set of letters and numbers etched into a brick that’s tucked into the wall of bones directly ahead. You’re squinting in the dim light, hoping to decipher it, when there’s a gust of frigid wind that pushes you from the side.

You stumble, bracing for impact with the wall of skulls, but instead, you fall right through them, feeling the brush of what feels like a frosted curtain. 

“Ha!” someone shouts. “Just in time!” 

When you look past your raised arms, you see the ghost girl. Except she’s as solid as the bones and pointing behind you. 

Following the direction of her finger, you find yourself face-to-face with the drooling visage of the wendigo. His wide nostrils flare in both excitement and frustration. He throws his head back and howls, his foul breath fanning your face. 

You scream, stumbling backward. 

“It’s okay,” the girl says. “He can’t see you here.”

As if to emphasize her point, the monster flops onto all fours and starts snuffling at the ground and the wall where you disappeared. Then, flustered, it shakes its head and ambles away.

“Where’s here?” you ask, realizing you’re standing chest deep in bones and are surrounded by other people. You vaguely want to say they were ghosts when you played earlier.  

The girl looks at her toes, guilt writ large on her face. 

“May as well fess up, Jess,” an older man says. 

She shoots him an angry glare, but there’s no real heat in it. 

“Here’s death…kind of?” she says. 

“I’m dead?” 

“Yup. But now you can help us.” At this, Jess lights up and grabs your arm. “You can help us now!” 

You feel like the news that you’re dead should chill you but oddly, your body doesn’t seem to feel much. There’s a light pressure from the bones and Jess’s fingers where she’s holding your arm, but no chill. 

“Ya gotta explain that, Jess,” another ghost sighs in exasperation. “You can’t just expect a person to understand when you pulled them into the bones!”

Jess harrumphs but then begins to explain. “We protect people, you see. The wendigos—yes, plural monsters—they’re yeek.” She shudders. “So, we push them away. But it’s hard. So terribly hard, to be present on that side.” She gestures at where the wendigo stood moments before. “But your music, it makes it easier.”

It’s a lot to process. No one but Jess complains when you sit down on the spot. So many questions! Will your music work when you’re dead? Where did your body go?

***

A day later finds you standing in the same alcove you played music in before, watching Alex search for you. Warmth actually fills you that he’s come looking. But you wish he wasn’t the first one you get to try playing music to protect. 

It’s a wish that won’t go answered, however, because the wendigo already has his scent. As Alex straightens from inspecting the bone shards on the floor, the monster ambles its shuffling way into the alcove behind him. 

You raise your flute and begin to play. 

And Jess and the others go to work. At least this time, you can’t feel the cold, and as Jess’s group pushes back against the monster, you know Alex will make it out alive. 

The End

EEEK! You found the death ending.

When I first started writing these, I decided to always include one death ending in honor of the Choose Your Own Adventure books that I grew up with. Sometimes they’re just sad or sometimes I add a bit of heroism but, this time, I wanted to play with the idea that maybe death wasn’t the fade-to-black end that it usually is for the story. I’d be curious to hear your thoughts on how this ending played out.

Thanks for joining this adventure! Hope to see you next week.

Blessings,

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