From the Heart of a Star.

A Story by Fish

A short story about the edge of the Universe.

There was a long, dark, silence, a silence that only broke when the sound of shattering glass rang out and filled the world around her. Her eyes opened with a pulse. She sat up slowly, her torn white dress sticking to her sweaty skin. Sweaty, and yet she was as cold as ice. She stood up carefully and looked into the abyss. She looked around at the planet she stood on. It was empty, and yet full of life. It was perfectly flat from end to end but visibly round. There were cascading mountains and ice fixtures lined with lush forests, but at the same time, there wasn’t. The ground was soft but hard, colored a dark blue, but also every color there ever was.

She stepped forward and spread her arms, letting her dress flow lightly in the wind that wasn’t there, speaking softly. “The air is like shattered glass, each particle so small you can’t see it and yet you know it’s all around and with each step it pricks into your skin,” Ssani turned her head and made eye contact with the boy who though had just appeared, had been there all along. His circular glasses reflected off the light and darkness that shot in all directions. “Why did you come?” he asked. “I wanted to see it, this is it, isn’t it? The end of the Universe?” Ssani’s green eyes looked out into the abyss. “The end? It would seem that way, but I don’t see how. The Universe, by definition, is generally everything. And whatever isn’t within the Universe isn’t anything. So to have a boundary between everything and nothing is a rather strange concept. It’s like when people ask “well, what happened before the Big Bang?”. You can’t have a “before” the Big Bang, because there was no time before the Big Bang; it was literally the creation of time itself. So the same goes for a physical “edge” of space. To define the end of everything, an infinity, is irrational. You can’t put a stop sign on infinity.” his face was firm and thoughtful. “The Universe gave birth to the stars… and us, from a cloud of Hydrogen to the building blocks of life… a strange journey we’ve taken. But we can’t assume we are right about everything. You seem quite cynical of it all. So,” Ssani turned to the boy she knew to be Sasha. “Why are you here?”

A smile cracked through his face. “How could I not want to be here? It’s absolutely fascinating! To be able to experience the actual edge, the end of every single law, particle, and wave…” he held out his hand as a flurry of particles and everything that ever was and will be fluttered around it. “How could I not want to see that?” he put his hand down and the particles whizzed off into the distance. Ssani and Sasha began a slow walk towards the edge. “You have to admit, though, it’s disturbing.” his brow furrowed. “How so?” Ssani questioned. “We’re witnessing the end to time itself, a place where outside this line there is no rule, no template, but rather stone cold chaos and disorder. There would be no such thing as before or after outside of the line. Every event ever possible would occur simultaneously and always. It would be a truly chaotic and indecipherable place.” he looked out beyond the edge. “What we’re seeing right now, how would you describe it to someone?” he queried. Ssani thought long and hard, looking around the planet that was there but wasn’t. She looked past the edge to see… everything and nothing. In a way, it seemed to appear as a million different sized shards of a mirror spinning around themselves, floating and reflecting all that ever was and will be. “There are no words, and there never will be, it’s simply… indescribable.” she replied.

The two took a deep breath, and stepped forward.

© 2013 Fish

Author's Note

Thank you to Sasha C. for giving poetic answers to make this short work be factual, fancy, and fantastic.

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closed

surreal
this is a cool story

it's like an awakening with a subconscious dream

a cerebral existence where everything has ended
this shows that you are a deep writer

i really enjoyed this

-Dream