Chapter 43: Chapter I (Follow the Music)
Spoiler Notice
This page contains spoilers for Chapter 43 of Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil. It details the events of Alice’s search for guidance, her discovery of a supernatural vulnerability, and an emotional turning point.
Summary
Wandering Boston’s noise, Alice attempts to interpret the bouncer’s cryptic command to “follow the music.” She strains to separate a single melody from the city’s chaos until a faint organ and choir lead her to a church. Inside, she is unharmed by crosses or holy space—a mark in her favour. A memory of Sunday mornings with her family surfaces: her sister Catty tracing a promise onto her palm. Slipping out into the church’s graveyard, Alice collapses the moment she steps onto the grass. Her skin turns grey, her body fails, and delayed fear finally hits. A flu-like haze urges surrender, but Catty’s remembered voice commands her to rise. Using a tombstone, Alice forces herself to the gate and out to the street, where she retches and recovers. After an outburst of anger, she calms, reopens her senses, and at last isolates a distinct piano melody—a new song that reignites her hope.
Key Events
- Alice struggles to filter Boston’s overlapping sounds before detecting an organ and choir.
- She enters a church and confirms that holy ground does not repel or harm her.
- A memory of her sister Catty in church provides a fleeting emotional anchor.
- Upon stepping into the adjacent graveyard, Alice’s body buckles; she experiences sapping weakness and a grey pallor.
- The terror she had suppressed since waking as a vampire floods her, alongside a seductive pull to lie down and give in.
- Catty’s voice in her mind commands “Get up, Bones,” giving Alice the will to drag herself out of the burial ground.
- She leans on the church wall and retches; colour returns to her hands as she recovers.
- Alice screams in frustration and kicks a trash can, then collapses on a bench to regroup.
- After sitting quietly, she learns to let the city’s noise wash over her, then discerns the bell-like tinkle of a piano—a genuine song that sparks fresh determination.
Character Development
- Alice: She moves from baffled irritation to methodical trial. Entering the church adds a rule to her vampire ledger (holy ground is safe). The graveyard collapse breaks through her numbness: every withheld fear surfaces, and she nearly succumbs. Her survival hinges on the internalised voice of Catty, demonstrating that familial love remains a lifeline. By the end, she channels anger into resilience and actively hones her supernatural hearing, discovering that hope can be found in a single clear note.
- Catty (memory): Although absent, Catty’s remembered presence and teasing command prove pivotal. The memory of her chipped blue fingernail tracing “Promise. Always. You and me.” reinforces Alice’s deepest tether to her humanity. Catty’s voice—sarcastic yet insistent—functions as an internal survival mechanism, pulling Alice from the brink when the graveyard almost claims her.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
- Mortality rules rewritten: Alice tests and disproves common vampire lore (sunlight may weaken but not kill; holy ground does nothing), yet the burial ground reveals an unexpected and violent weakness—sanctified earth drains her.
- Delayed terror: The chapter underscores that Alice’s earlier calm was a psychological shield. The collapse forces her to face the reality of her undead state, making fear both a paralysing and eventually motivating force.
- Music as guidance: Music shifts from a maddening riddle to a metaphor for finding one’s path in overwhelming sensory input. The final piano melody represents clarity and purpose amid chaos.
- The Alice in Wonderland allusion: Alice’s comparison of the bouncer to an unhelpful white rabbit mirrors her disorientation in a strange new world. The graveyard “Wonderland” nearly buries her, but she claws her way out.
- Graves as threshold: The churchyard is a liminal space where death presses close. Crossing from paving stones to grass triggers the attack, and escaping back through the gate is a literal rebirth onto the street.
Why This Chapter Matters
This chapter delivers the first concrete supernatural limitation Alice encounters and disproves two pieces of folkloric protection. The graveyard episode raises the stakes by showing that a seemingly ordinary patch of soil can be deadly. It also completes an emotional arc: Alice stops coasting on denial and frustration and begins to actively listen—both for the music and, symbolically, for her own inner voice. The sisterly memory deepens the reader’s investment in Alice’s survival, and the final piano note launches the story forward with renewed momentum.
Study Questions and Answers
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Why does Alice collapse in the churchyard, and what does this reveal about her condition?
The sanctified earth—burial ground—drains her strength and leeches vitality from her body. This reveals that her undead state carries specific territorial vulnerabilities, even though sunlight and crosses pose no threat. -
What role does the memory of Catty play in Alice’s escape?
Catty’s recalled voice and the family promise become an internal lifeline. The command “Get up, Bones” cuts through the seductive fog of surrender, giving Alice the will to physically lever herself out of the graveyard. -
How does the motif of music evolve in this chapter?
It begins as a baffling directive amid overwhelming urban noise. After Alice’s crisis, she learns to stop fighting the soundscape and instead floats with it, finally isolating a distinct piano melody. The shift mirrors her growing ability to read the world and signals that a real destination exists.