The crack, thinner than the gossamer thread of a spider’s web, suddenly feathered out and drew that previously invisible map of cracks and lines that had been etched into her soul by time, and life, and love.  She collapsed with a gasp of realization into a heap on the ground, with her white dress billowing out around her like the delicate petals of a flower.  Love had overwhelmed her for the second impossible time in her life and it was that love that had prompted her to push against the carefully constructed walls that she had built to hold herself together.  It was that love that destroyed her.

 

Crystalline tears adorned her cheeks as they overflowed silently while she let the shattered shards of her soul fall through her fingers, lacking even the strength to hold on to the pieces.  Life had been too much, and love too strong for her to bear.  In trying to love again, everything had come back, all the pain, and even as she tried to break through her walls, they broke her down.  It all came back, everything she hid from within herself, and she watched him walk away, completely unaware of her, while she gently fell apart on the sidewalk with a small sad smile that lingered around the corners of her mouth to contradict the despair swirling in the depths of her eyes.

 

As it all came rushing back to her, she could not stop her soul from shattering in her hands as she finally realized that she was simply one of them.  All those nights spent staring at the stars and letting their pale beauty wash over her, letting them make her feel alive, and all along she had merely been a star herself.  Their beauty was undeniable, the stars twinkled and shone down from the heavens full of light and she, she was a creature of peculiar grace and light that emanated in everything she did.  People no longer seem to take notice of the stars, and no one spared more than a passing glance for the girl on the sidewalk as she realized the one thing that she should have known all along: stars were beautiful, but they were lonely.  They stand by in silent watchful beauty because it is their task to just look on forever; they are never allowed to take part.

 

As she finally realized that she was no more than a fallen star, she allowed a soft smile to grace her delicate face and raised shaking hands to swipe tears from her rose dusted cheeks.  She allowed herself another moment, just one more, before pulling herself up like a rose blooming dutifully from a crack in the sidewalk into the evening mist.  She raised herself up and moved silently on with her hollow pain, leaving the shards of her soul glittering in the dust on the side of the road where they had fallen from her skirts; for stars are not allowed to merely stop shining.  They keep on twinkling, whether or not anyone cares to take notice, because that is simply what they do; but sometimes, if you listen carefully, they cry themselves silently to sleep.