In many ways deep space was like his heart… vast, empty and cold.

Many stars twinkled brightly; a brightness he longed to touch but could never reach. Though he was surrounded by life, he could never hold anything in his hands. Everything felt too delicate… too fragile. Anything he tried to grasp slipped away, too fast, too soon. And though he did nothing to hold on, he still felt everything.

Not knowing what feelings were didn’t mean he didn’t feel all the same. He was like a newborn without knowledge of the world. And it was because of this that he felt all of it, too much.

There was an image of a boy in his mind, and it was the brightest star of all, always burning so fiercely, so much unlike him. This boy felt, and fought, for things and concepts that made no sense to him. He held on to his stubborn emotions until the very end, to a force that fueled his undoing; not ceasing to burn as brightly until his own death.

And Keith Anyan didn’t know why or how- but he was moved in ways he didn’t yet have the capacity to understand. All he knew as he watched the light explode and fade into a trillion tiny particles, forever to be lost in the darkness of endless space- was that now…

The brightest, most beautiful star in his mind was gone.

Why…?

Why hang on to those feelings even if it meant to emb