Fan Fiction ❯ The Life and Death of a Star ❯ The Life and Death of a Star ( Chapter 1 )

 

 

The Life and Death of a Star

 

* * * *

 

“Stars shine wistfully

A lover waits for what's lost

Alone in darkness”

* * * *

Murky clouds of dust and gas moved their way slowly through the darkness, creeping together through the depths of space. Tiny particles began to gather together, congregating in one destination. Ever so gradually, over a large span of time, the clouds condensed, and folded inward on themselves, collapsing under the heavy force of gravity. An objective was reached: not destruction, no, but a creation of wonder for the ages to behold and marvel.

* * * *

Somber grey eyes stared back at him from the dark reflections of the pool. He moved his gaze upward slightly, taking in his smooth brow, feathery bangs, and tousled black hair, and onward to the image of the night sky above him.

 

`I wonder which is deeper…the blackness of the sky, or of the sky's watery likeness?'

 

Indeed, the reflection seemed far more mysterious than the dark blanket above him. It was almost as if the water was trying to swallow up the inky night and its stars, trapped and twinkling, along with it.

 

He mused to himself quietly, gazing at the lake, and yet…not gazing at it, seeing all, and seeing nothing. David Morgan had a tendency to live like this, as though he was trapped between two worlds. One world, reality, surrounded him, while the other was patiently clawing its way out of his body, gnawing with a thorough resoluteness at his mind until David was forced to release bits and pieces of it at a time just to ease the intense aching.

 

A ripple passed over the surface, and the moment was lost. The world that had been reflected there was gone, replaced by a simpler one. It still held a night sky, a tree line, and a brooding 32 year-old man clad in a navy shirt and khakis, but the dark intensity had passed with the wave, and relocated itself in his stormy eyes.

 

Another ripple spread across the water, and laughter reached his ears. David turned his head, and saw a young couple further along the bank, laughing and kicking water at each other, flirting and in love. Visions flashed over his mind and he saw himself playing with a young girl with long auburn hair.

 

“You're always so serious, Dave! Lighten up!” The teenager laughed and splashed the cool lake water onto his jeans, twinkling blue-green eyes bright and teasing. She was practically his opposite in every way. She was youthful, joyful, and bright. He was solemn, silent, and dark. That was why they fit so well together.

 

She skimmed her nimble fingers over the sparkling surface and let loose thousands of tiny droplets, directing them toward his face. He shielded his eyes with his hands, and turned his face away, laughing as she spoke to him. “Life was meant to enjoy! The lake is beautiful, and we have a whole weekend to savor it. So…relax!”

 

That had been the best weekend of David's young life, camping and boating in the summer sun, relaxing with his friends, with….

 

“Julia.”

 

He snapped himself back into the present, turning his head quickly from the couple on the sandy bank. He ran his long, calloused fingers through his hair as he took long, slow steps along the water's edge.

 

They met in high school. It was the typical type of young romance that one hears of in any classic love song: Boy meets girl. They fall in love. They spend all their young days in school together. High school prom, football games, dates of burgers and shakes, movies and popcorn.

 

`We were so young.' But then, the younger one is, the harder one falls, and the hotter the youthful passion.

* * * *

As the cloud of dust condensed and collapsed, it gradually warmed. Temperatures rose within it until the cloud formed a heat so intense, a nuclear fusion began in its very core. Energy in the forms of heat and light expanded from the very center, until it sprang outward in every direction. The entire cloud became one expansive, beautiful, glowing ball of heat and flame, burning at temperatures up to fifteen million degrees.

* * * *

David walked up the bank of the lake and continued along its edge, away from the couple he knew was still laughing and teasing behind him.

`Taunting me, more like it…'

He shook his shaggy head of the thought, and loped onwards, hands firmly in the pockets of his khakis.

`The world isn't out to get you, Dave.'

He ignored the youthful female voice that sang from inside his memory. `Sure does seem like it, then.'

He stopped and looked at the hill in front of him, not really seeing it in its present state, empty and foreboding, but envisioning it as it was at another time in his murky past.

“Didn't your mom ever point out constellations to you, Dave?”

He rolled his head slightly in the grass to look at her. She was beautiful, with her long hair spread beneath her, mingling happily with the blades of grass beneath their heads. Her eyes reflected the fairy lights of the heavens as they twinkled. He watched them wink brightly at him from the depths of her orbs before she blinked and turned to stare back at him, shaking him from his reverie.

“No, she didn't,” he replied. He rolled his head back again, and stared at the stars above them, thinking mildly that they were much more beautiful when reflected in Julia's eyes than they ever would be from their posts in the sky.

She pointed upward. “Do you see those three there in a row? Those form the belt of Orion. He was a hunter. He fell in love with one of the Seven Sisters, Merope. But she would not have him, and refused to love him in return. He lived his life alone, hunting, until one day he stepped on Scorpio, the Scorpion, and died. The gods took pity on him, and placed him in the sky with his two hunting dogs and the animals he hunted, so that he would never be lonely again.”

She giggled softly. “Of course there's another version where he was chasing after all of the Seven Sisters until one of the gods had pity on them, and placed them in the sky, so that Orion could not bother them anymore. And when he died, he was placed there as well, as per his last request, in the opposite sky as his killer, Scorpio. But…that one's not nearly so romantic.”

“Oh, there is also the story of Orihime, the cloth weaver, and Hikoboshi, the cattle herder. They met and fell in love, and were granted permission to be married. But they began to slack in their duties to the King, so he separated them, placing one on either side of a great river. Only once a year they are allowed to cross the river to be together.” She sighed. “How tragic, to only be able to see your love once a year.”

David felt her fingers find their way up his arm and to his hand. She intertwined hers with his as she smiled. `I'm so glad we have each other.'

They laid on that hill together star-gazing well into the night, listening to the chirping of crickets, the rustling of the trees behind them, and the gentle waves of the lake lapping at the shore. She told him one story after another, until they both drifted off into sleep.

He smiled sardonically as he focused his thoughts on the hill in front of him, forcing himself into the present.

`Julia was always a lover of tragic romance.' He winced and closed his eyes, turning his head to the ground. `How ironic.'

* * * *

The burning sphere grew and flared, becoming another brilliant pinpoint of light in the depths of a dark, endless space. Its sparkling glow lit up the vast area around it, so powerful that one could view its radiance from incomprehensible distances. Its very essence rang out a declaration of splendor and radiance: “Behold…a star.”

* * * *

David and Julia were married with their beloved constellations looking down on them.

He turned his eyes over to his left, looking at the river that fed into the lake's larger form. The bridge was still there, a dark reminder of a brighter time. It had always been a welcoming spot to him, before he had even met Julia. There was something about the way the bridge crossed over the very gap that transformed a river into a large and beautiful expanse of lake. It reminded him of new beginnings. Though the river changed to a different body of water, it still held its beauty. That was the glorious thing about life. It could change and adapt to new spaces and times, and still retain is glory.

`But sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes…one life isn't quite enough to fill the gaps, and it leaves you empty and hollow. Sometimes a change leaves you more scarred and ugly than you were before…before the river passed into the lake. Sometimes the lake leaves you…'

“Stagnant.”

The word seemed to echo sadly back at him from the lake's surface, as though the waters were indignant at the thought that they might, in fact, not be so full of life as the river. The lake always had been jealous of the other. After all, the river saw change, saw many different landmarks, destinations. The lake would never hold such a luxury. The very water that pooled there resented the lake and its sandy boundaries, for it knew that it would no longer roam like it had in the river, but remain in its still and shadowy grave.

He gazed at the bridge, envisioning the happy couple, the groom kissing the bride, the cheering friends and family on the banks on either side, the minister pronouncing them man and wife.

`Twelve years ago, today.'

His vision blurred and he walked steadily toward the wooden structure. `We promised each other forever. Right here, Julia. You promised me you would never leave me. You promised me eternity!'

He stood at the edge of the bridge and looked out toward the middle of it. `You were never supposed to leave me.' He shook his head as another tear rolled down his cheek. `Why did you leave me?'

He fell to his knees, placing his balled fists behind his lowered head, trying desperately to block out his last memories of her.

“Do you remember that night…that night we lay in the grass on this hill until dawn?” She sighed softly, adjusting the cloth wrapped around her head. “I told you the stories of the stars.”

David swallowed and nodded. She hated being indoors. She had begged him to take her to the lake where they had shared so many happy moments. They sat on the bridge where they were married and talked of times long gone. And when darkness fell, he helped her to the hill…her hill. Her favorite place. He lay on the grass beside her, just as he had done those eight years ago, before they were married, before they finished college, before they lost their first and only child, and before Julia was diagnosed with cancer.

She tangled her fingers in his and he looked at her as she gazed upon the stars. The scarf over her head did little to detract from her beauty. Her auburn hair was nearly entirely gone, due to chemo treatment, and her frame was much smaller but…she was still the lively, attractive girl he fell in love with.

She pointed suddenly at the sky. “Oh, Dave! A shooting star! Quick, make a wish.”

`I wish I could be with you forever…I wish that you'd stay.' He choked back a sob, and blinked quickly, even though he knew she wasn't watching him. He didn't dare say it aloud, for he knew it wasn't meant to be, and it would only make things harder on her.

He watched her close her eyes as she fervently made a wish of her own. When she opened them again she was no longer smiling, but she looked as though she was at peace…as though she had reached an agreement with some higher being. She pointed to the sky again.

“Look…there's Orihime and Hikoboshi. They're so close…they'll reach each other one day.” She looked over at him and smiled gently. “True love is like that. It always brings you back where you were meant to be.”

He felt his heart break a little more, but fought to hide it. If she could remain strong, so could he.

They remained that way, lying together in the grass, like they did so long ago, and fell asleep on Julia's hill.

David awoke in the morning with her in his arms. Her face was peaceful in her sleep and she was covered in dew, her body as cold as the ground beneath them. He held her close and wept.

* * * *

So long as there is still material within the star to burn, the nuclear fusion process will continue, and it will bring forth its light unto the galaxies. When it begins to lose fuel, it fades until it collapses in on itself, forming a small, extraordinarily heavy and condensed ball of cold, hard iron.

Stars of a much larger and more powerful nature have a more dramatic end. When they lose their fuel to burn, they collapse so far under gravity that they form black holes from which nothing, not even light, can escape. There is no deeper, more formidable darkness than that of a black hole.

* * * *

David knelt there at the edge of the bridge, looking at the spot where they promised each other their lives, their love. `You were my everything. You were all I had, and all I ever wanted to have.'

He felt stinging tears run down his cheeks, but he didn't bother with them. His heart wrenched and twisted, and it felt as though unfathomable forces were pressing in on his chest. `Oh God, it hurts.'

He pressed a fist to his heart, longing to do something to heal the gaping hole there. `If I could just get to you…. Memories aren't enough, Julia. I need you with me.' His frame shook in another sob. `I need to find a way to get to you.'

He raised his head and looked back over the bridge before him. He hadn't been able to cross it…not since he lost her. It was too painful to think of reaching a new destination without her by his side.

He lifted a trembling hand to the railing next to him, and pulled himself to his feet. `I just can't cross it without you at the other side waiting for me.'

He wiped at his face with the back of his sleeve and turned slowly, returning from whence he came. He returned on the same day every year, hoping that one day when he came back to that bridge, he would be able to see her waiting for him on the other side.

The stars looked on as David melted back into the darkness, alone.

As he walked away, he could hear her voice ring out behind him, an echo of a memory.

“They're so close…they'll reach each other one day. True love is like that. It always brings you back where you were meant to be.”

* * * *