Bones on Mars - A paranormal, sci-fi, fantasy romance

Aftermath

Silence hung over Mission Control. One by one, headphones were torn from anguished ears and computers switched off. One after the other, the controllers shambled from the room, leaving only one station occupied.

One after the other, the lights went out. Microphones ceased their incessant blare.

The mission had been a failure; the three astronauts lost.

There wouldn't be another mission, at least not in the near future.

Sightlessly, Dr. Paulson stared at the screen where the robot camera on PEMAR had been recording the disaster once the in-lander transmission failed.

The landing pod disintegrating, an enormous chunk torn from its side.

A white-suited figure shooting out, spiraling downward and vanishing into the mists that flowed around the rocks in a milky spill.

Then a soundless explosion as the navigator did his job and initiated ejection. Two seats launching into the sky, two parachutes opening, two figures hurtling down.

If they'd been a hundred meters or so farther up, they might have made it.

But the planet's thin atmosphere granted no mercy.

Much too fast, the two figures rushed to their fate, sending up curried clouds of dust as they slammed into the ground.

A controller had remote-driven PEMAR across. Mission-control owed them that much. They'd found all three bodies. Oddly enough, they'd been lying within meters of each other, the parachutes draped over the broken remains like plastic shrouds.

It was better that way.

PEMAR was now back at the base, awaiting a crew that might never come.

With a sigh, Dr. Paulsen rose and shuffled after his colleagues.

***

The Mars winds billowed icy gusts into the shrouds, flapping and fluttering like restless specters trying to escape Fate.

Then the air shimmered. A brownish smear took on the shape of a woman wearing twinkly layers of furry hides, beads and feathers dangling from every possible and impossible part of her clothing.

She wore red high heels and carried a handbag of the same color.

"That was quite unnecessary, you know?" she addressed the shredded parachutes and their grisly cargo hidden within.

"You doubted again, both of you. I read it in your minds. Bones is fine. He believed in me from the start. He's already dreaming."

El sighed. "What am I to do with you two? Well, I guess, you both sort of came around right at the end. That was actually quite touching, the way you wanted me to save each other. And you both used the m-word. And the d-word. There's nothing like a good romance, told by the fireside, eh? I guess, I'll let it stand. Today's your lucky day. Welcome to the dream."

She smiled once more and then faded. Where she had stood, dust and grit dropped away, forming a vast crater that swallowed the bodies of the three astronauts and the parachutes covering them.

When the dust flowed back, not a trace remained on the surface.

Under the surface, cradled in the sand, a skeleton materialized next to the bodies. A seagull shrieked once.

Then darkness.

THE END

(474/21138)

Okay, so this is officially over. What a ride, eh? I hope I tied up all the plot strands; as I said I had absolutely no plan for this one. Only a prompt and a bunch of characters running wild. That didn't stop me from enjoying this crazy tale a lot. It made a pleasant change from all the hard and detailed work of plotting, creating, and editing I have to do elsewhere. Not to mention the marketing. 

And none of my trad-pubbed books can make music. So there. Thank you all for reading and commenting. This felt like the good old times on Wattpad, with comment swarms settling once the chapters came out. I'll now take the time to read those I have neglected a bit -- Yesterday I wrote 3K words in 2,5 hours, and that blocked me from doing anything else. 

Good luck everyone with ONC - and with whatever other writing projects you have!