"A Silver Lining in the Death of Stars"
The red lights are only making the pain worse. It is an immense, earth-shattering pain, in my midsection and in my head. I try to move, but I can't; I try to speak, but I can't do that either. It hurts too much, and my voice obeys me no more than do my joints or my muscles or my bones or my mind.
And yet still there is movement. I can feel myself being lifted up and placed on something - a bed, maybe, or - no.
A gurney.
“Alright!” one of the EMTs says, and several others then roll me into the back of an ambulance, and climb in behind me. But I'm already fading fast, and feeling an inexplicable heat, by the time those doors are shut.
One EMT, a blonde woman, shoots me a curious little look, just as I'm slipping away, and says aloud, “Wait. Wait, I think I know...
”...we're made of that stuff, right?”
I turned around. There was a woman there, red-haired and about my age, give or take, and she was alarmingly beautiful. But how long she'd been staring at the exhibit alongside me I had no idea.
”I'm sorry?”
”I said ‘you know we're made of that stuff, right’?” She nodded at the museum wall, which depicted in detail the births and life cycle and deaths of stars. I pursed my lips.
”We’re… made of stars?”
”Yep. Isn't it awesome?” She stepped up beside me and moved her arm across the diagram as she spoke. “I just watched a documentary about it last night. Stars are just fusion factories held together by their own gravity. They start off fusing hydrogen to helium, and then they keep going on and on, fusing heavier and heavier elements until they're fusing the heaviest stuff. Then they exhaust their fuel and collapse under their own weight, and they blow off their outer layers and pretty much shower the galaxy with all these random elements, some of which are eventually used to create life.”
”Huh.”
”Yeah. I’m Robin, by the way.” She extended her hand, and I shook it.
”Uh, hey. Brian. Nice to meet you.” There was an awkward pause before I said, “Alright, I got one for you. If you replaced the sun with a black hole, what would happen?”
”Depends on its mass.”
”Nope! The answer is - drumroll please - nothing. I mean everything would get dark and cold, but we wouldn't fall in. Earth’s orbit would remain entirely unaffected.”
”IF the black hole had the same mass as the sun.”
”What?”
”What you said would only be true if the black hole in question happened to have the same mass as the sun. Which it wouldn't, because the sun isn't massive enough to collapse into a black hole.”
”Oh. Damn.”
”Yep. Me one, you zero. Sorry, pal.”
”Alright.” I said. “You're on. Whoever gets the most points by closing time buys drinks.”
She smiled at that and punched me in the shoulder, just light enough not to sting. ”Alright, loser. Come...”
“...on,” the EMT says. There is a flurry of activity around me, and there are voices, too, and blinding lights, and a cooling down of that monstrous heat.
One of the paramedics is looking me over. Then he looks to another colleague - the blonde woman - and he shakes his head, slowly.
“This one’s gone, Rachel.”
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CREEPYPASTA VOL 2
HorrorI do not own any of the characters or stories! Full credit goes to the original authors. I really hope you enjoy! Thank you so much for reading!
