Dead Stars Summary Novels & Stories

Another real thing — something humans can’t touch, can’t ruin. I know someone’s standing beside me. I noticed the second he walked over, but I don’t bother looking. He smells nice, clean, warm — but the moon has all my attention. The stars, too. Maybe it’s the freedom of it all that keeps me staring. “You know one fact about the stars?” I ask, still watching the sky. When he doesn’t answer, I keep going, my voice quiet but steady. “Most of them might already be dead.” The words hang there between us. “Their light just hasn’t stopped reaching us yet. It’s kind of sad, isn’t it? How something can be gone and still look alive.”

In this life, consider it a debt repaid. Finally, on a night one month later, Stellan died. When he went, his lips were still moving. I had to lean close to make out the word. It was Ansel's name. I stood in the doorway of the cell for a long time without speaking. Then, I had his body wrapped in a straw mat and thrown into the common burial ground. It was not an act of cruelty. He simply did not deserve more than that. Daphne died a few days later. She starved to death. From beginning to end, I never went to see her again.