Venus looks up at empty nothingness. Every night she lays on her back and blows bubbles.

This night, an old, somber man meanders by. He looks up at the iridescent orbs floating up towards the sky. “It reminds me of before,” the old man whispers, “when there were still stars to see.”

Ava Bales is a 13-year-old Creative Writing student. She reads and writes short stories in her spare time. She has won zero awards and her writing has yet to be published.