[dreams] sky's gone out

[thejunipertree]

It is night.
And the sky stretches over my head like a great black canopy.
The news has been full of reports of Mars, how it's looming in the sky like a tiny second moon. A crowd of people has gathered in the park down the winding road from my apartment. The geese and white ducks which normally inhabit this area are silent, gliding smoothly across the water with nary a ripple. They've probably been put off by the teeming human crowds invading their home.

A collective gasp rose suddenly, a gentle sighing that wound through the air. Everyone around me had their heads craned back on their necks, pointing up and marvelling at the sky.

I crushed my smoldering cigarette underfoot and peered with them.

It wasn't the red planet they were gawking at, it was the stars.
Stars, falling down around us in droves. Like nothing else I'd ever seen before. I sat up for a meteor shower once, in a cold February night. The falls were sporadic and occasional, nothing like this.

Now, the sky was coming down around me. Swiftly.
What would happen when all the stars were gone?
My heart sunk low in my chest and an insidious fear swept through my skin.