You feel an incessant tug on your shirt, pulling you away from the tree. It is the dog, who has followed you outside and is trying to save you. Buoyed by the dog's strength, you turn and, holding on to one another, you fight through the wind and rain to the door. Once in the house you slam and lock the door, and you and the dog sleep soundly by the fire, forgetting the terrors of the night.
An ending that isn't violent death. What are you trying to prove?
The fatal endings and this quiet ending all miss the maze sequence and its two more significant endings.
If those are the important endings, why not funnel all readers to them?
A hypertext story is better without a unique ending unless the various branches are devoted to exploring a landscape that gives perspective to the ending. But the branches of this story don't complement each other that way; they conflict.
More authorial decrees? Only two choices? Might there be other modes we haven't thought of?
Sure. But this is another example of the author working with a map (not a story) of alternatives.