A Story Without An Ending

There once was a star in the sky. He shone brightly throughout the night and he thoroughly enjoyed doing so, night in and night out. Then one night he was alarmed to discover he wasn’t shining quite as brightly as he usually did. “That’s strange,” he said, “I must be sick or something.” And he tried not to think of it any further. The next night he noticed that he was even dimmer than before and that his light was only getting weaker with every passing moment. The star became very worried. His fear made his light falter and grow dimmer still. Soon he was barely glowing at all.
As his light went out, the darkness quickly closed in on him. Now the star was really frightened. He searched the night sky for his friends but the night sky was empty. “Help me! Help me!” he shouted but the dark was all encompassing. The sky was black and barren. He could no longer see anything.
Hopeless, the star cried and prepared to go out. But just as the star flickered with his last weak light he noticed a break in the darkness. The black that surrounded him began to ebb away. Another star had appeared out of the emptiness and it was sharing her light with him. She was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen before and she shone brighter than any star he’d ever known. She filled him with a bright and shining hope. Together they filled the night sky with joyous star shine. Being next to her, the star was no longer scared. Indeed, when he was with her he couldn’t even imagine the sensation of fear or sadness. He took strength from her inner light, pure and perfect, and he grew stronger. He glowed brighter than he ever had before. At peace, the star closed his eyes and smiled.
Millennia pass in the single breath of a star and when he opened his eyes again she was no longer there. Filled with uncertainty and terror the star faltered, flickered, and went out. Cold and shaking, he knew he was no longer a star, just a stupid rock, alone in the sky. He was empty inside and ugly outside. The heavens were empty and there was no warmth to be found anywhere. There was nothing left for him, nothing left for a star whose light is dead. There was nothing left for a blackened rock in a black sky except to simply fade off into the abyss, to disappear into the endless nothing of space. But wait…
There in the distance. Was it something? No, it couldn’t be, there’s nothing left out there. And yet, maybe. A light? No, just a speck of dust surely. He closed his eyes again. Still, he couldn’t quite shake the feeling that there was still something out there. Something was silently calling out to him. Something was telling him that he would shine again. Somehow, someday he would surely shine again.