As Nightfall Comes Without a Star

Tonight's the night. We're all here. Survivors. Stranded. The living in a universe that's already dead. Today is just a formality.

People mined this world once. It's all gone now. Everything's gone. Every element converted to a heavier form. Every heavier form used for energy. Hydrogen to helium, uranium to some element on the periodic table I can't even pronounce…when you can create elements, the damn thing can go on forever.

We can't create anything anymore. Not now. And maybe that's what we've come to see.

We look up into the sky. Night sky…supposedly, it doesn't make any difference now. The difference is about to come. All eyes are on it…a red dwarf. A stable star. Small, but only a few light years away, and therefore able to be seen with the naked eye. It's there…there…

"And there…it…goes."

And so it's gone.

It burnt out two years ago. It's taken two years for us to see it fade. Its light will shine as long as people are there to see it. But it makes no difference.

The last star has gone out. Nightfall has come.

Forever.