The Weight of Stars

My eyes flickered open in the vast emptiness of space, surrounded by an infinite void. Stars shimmered in the distance, tiny pinpricks of light against the dark canvas. The silence enveloped me—a profound stillness that echoed in my mind as I floated, weightless and alone.

As usual, I craved oxygen; the instinct pulsed through me. I opened my mouth, and yet nothing entered. What did I expect? I was in the vacuum of space. A normal person would have passed out without oxygen, but I was anything but normal after all. Who comes back to life after dying?

A warmth tugged at the corners of my consciousness. I could feel it before I saw it—a celestial glow to my left, illuminating the darkness like a beacon. I turned my head to behold two objects: the sun, a radiant sphere, and a dark orb nestled in its halo, hovering at an uncanny distance. As I focused on the darker planet, its features began to reveal themselves—swirling patterns danced across its surface, reminiscent of a sandstorm composed entirely of black particles, moving like a restless swarm of insects.

Behind me, a faint blue planetshine coaxed my attention. When I twisted around, what lay beneath was breathtaking—a seemingly endless ocean sprawled beneath me, a deep expanse where no landmass broke the surface.

But as I turned my gaze to the right, I was met with an unnerving vision. An emerald planet loomed ahead; its singular hue of green felt like a piercing gaze, devoid of any other color, like a crystal sphere reflecting a world unknown. And there, beyond the vibrant orb, glinted an icy white planet.

I squinted, drawn into the peculiar sight that unfolded below. On its surface, a colossal creature lurked, its white form ghostly against the ice, its back arched as if burdened by an unimaginable weight. My racing heart faltered for a moment in awe, just enough to grasp the enormity of the being; it seemed unfathomable that such a colossal creature could be seen from space with such clarity.

Yet almost immediately, my gaze caught a dark mass trailing behind this titan, stretching from the top to bottom of the planet, slicing it in two like a sinister shadow. Thoughts raced through my mind, weaving chaotic narratives of what these worlds could be, but they were drowned out by the growing sensation in my body—a bubbling, unsettling feeling that began in my extremities and surged toward the core of my being.

The silence of space soon amplified the chaos within. My vision blurred; darkness crept into the corners of my eyes, a familiar herald of despair. As the liquids in my veins boiled, I felt my body betray me, distorting and twisting until I became a writhing mass of flesh, a mere vessel of agony suspended in the cosmic expanse.

Suddenly, the heat receded, replaced by an unspeakable chill that wrapped around me like chains. Ice began to form on my skin, creeping inward, an unholy union of fire and frost waging war against my very existence. I screamed—though no sound pierced the void—each silent cry a testament to the torment held captive within a body that refused to yield to death. It felt as though some cruel deity sought to prolong my suffering, keeping me conscious to experience every horrific moment.

As I writhed and contorted, pain lanced through me, a sensation far worse than the drop from a great height. Each heartbeat felt like a countdown to an inevitable end, yet here I hung, suspended between existence and oblivion, ensnared in the warmth of the starlight, watching the planets dance in their eternal orbits.

And then, just as swiftly as it started, the pain ebbed. The boiling and freezing subsided, and in that moment of eerie stillness, I floated, enveloped by the soft glow of the four planets above me, drifting further into darkness, and so I slipped once more into darkness.