The space between us

P r o l o g u e

"When the Sun, Moon and Earth aligned perfectly, creating a solar eclipse...it changed everything. My life. And time itself."  

"The solar eclipse was bright in the night sky, and nobody knew the effect it had on my life, and the effect it had on time, itself." 

•••

Stars blanketed the night sky, various constellations blinking in the dark. Even the littlest of things fascinated Elyde; anything that revolved around the subject of astrology immediately intrigued her. After all, she aspired to be an astronomer. 

Stars. Constellations. Space. Planets. Universes. 

All of it. Elyde loved all of it. She released a sigh, staring at the starry night sky with a dreamy, lost-in-thought expression. She'd never get tired of this view. Never. Tucking one hand behind her head, something from the corner of her eye flashed, and her gaze immediately flicked to the source. 

Only, she saw nothing. Darkness. No sign of a figure, or anything. Curiosity enveloped her, but she casually returned her gaze to the sky. 

It has become more frequent. She would always have a hunch, or a jolt, thinking someone's there, while at the same time she knew  no one was there. 

She always had that feeling that..that she was waiting for something... — no, someone. But who? She didn't know. Maybe it was her going crazy? Was she desperate for company? Elyde knew she wasn't but...

...why is she having all these thoughts?

Quietly and softly, Elyde began to recite a poem her mother always used to sing to her, as a way to make her fall asleep when it was bedtime: 

" Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art-- 

Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors--
No--yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever--or else swoon to death. "  

As the last word rolled off her tongue, the moon cast a bright light over the city, reflecting on some tall buildings. 

Elyde stood up, her hands clutching the railings of her balcony as she leant against it, the wind blowing against her face. She closed her eyes, embracing the breeze. When she opened them, the stars twinkled brightly and happily in the night sky. 

Twilight was soon approaching. Elyde looked at the content landscape of the starry night sky, before returning inside her warm apartment, where she snuggled under her bed sheets, lonely, but relaxed. 

Elyde closed her eyes, the words of the poem echoing in her mind. With that, she soon fell into a soft, gentle sleep.