The Ossuary: Soul and Bone

Ingrid sat, knees to her chest, looking out her bedroom window. Outside the forest sat still, blanketed in a light mist. The sky was gray and cold. Ingrid turned and glanced around her bedroom lost in thought. Her room was quaint and warm. She didn't own many worldly possessions as she had never found a need for things. She much preferred to spend her time outside running through fields, swimming in creeks, and climbing trees. Her small bed sat behind her, simply dressed with a blanket her mother had sewn.. The patterns of the blanket were a mishmash of old scraps. The patchwork reminded her of the fields worked by her Pa. The walls of her room were simple and bare. A small chest of drawers sat near her bed and her mother's old vanity was stacked high with books that her Pa had brought her to pass the time. Ingrid coughed a deep cough that rattled her chest. She turned to look back out the window. Her entire body ached. Rain had begun to drizzle down the small glass pane next to her. She felt a sadness in her chest as she longed to run through the forest once more. She imagined the feel of the dewy grass beneath her feet and the smell of pine. The sounds of the forest as she sprinted down her familiar paths, worn from years of foot traffic. But it had been months now since she had stepped foot into the forest. Months since she had been able to leave her home at all. She coughed again, and this time it shook her core. She knew had been cursed by the mystery illness that plagued her village. As the days passed on she feared she would perish as many others in the village already had. Despite Pa telling her it would pass, deep down she knew the end was near. She had only grown more and more weak in the passing days. It was only a matter of time. She mourned for a moment. Mourned the loss of her future, the loss of her home, and most importantly she mourned for the unknown. How would her Pa fare all alone to raise her younger sisters Elsa and Brigid? Would it break him to lose her so soon after he had lost her Ma? She lay her head against the window lost in thought when she caught movement from the corner of her eye. Startled, she sat up quickly searching the woods outside. Had she not been with fever she would have sworn she had seen a man moving upon the woods. But no one had dared enter the forest since the keeping. After the plague took the village, the king had ordered the borders to be closed. All citizens were made to stay from work, and keep their families home. Anyone who disobeyed faced severe consequences. For Ingrid, it had been the beginning of the end. The village was sick, people were dying. If not from the illness, then from starvation. After a moment of scanning the woods, she conceded to her bed. Whatever it was, was dark and tall she thought, nothing like mere creatures of the forest. She dwelled on this as she drifted into a restless sleep.