Woah! I wasn't here a second ago, but here I am now! I think...I was just born! Wow...I wonder where I am?

Opening my eyes is harddd. Pretty, sparkling clouds surround me. They're so shiny...I want to touch one! I move toward one, as fast as I can, but it just goes away! Where is it? Did it run away from me? Oh no..I'm not scary, am I? I can't see myself, so I don't know.

I move around some more. Everything I go towards goes away, and then I can't see it anymore! All of the sparklies disappear...I guess I am scary.

"I'm sorry, sparklies! Please come back!" I wail. "I promise I'm not scary!"

They don't come back. I think I scared them off for good.. Nothing is here except for the sparklies and the empty space surrounding them. And me, I guess.

I wander around some more. I guess I have to give up on making friends with the sparklies. I wonder if there are other objects out there? Maybe I should call them!

"Hello? Is anyone out there? Hellooo-"

"Woah, there kid. You'll suck up the entire universe at this rate."

Somebody else! "Hi! Uh- where are you?"

"Turn around slowly. You'll see me eventually," she says. She sounds like a she. I slowly turn, just as they say. There's a hole where the sparklies don't appear! Is that her?

"I think I found you? I can't...really see you." I mutter. She laughs.

"No problem there. I can barely see you, either."

"What's your name? Where are we? What's my name? Wh-"

"Ohh-kay, slow your roll, kid," she says. I think that means stop asking questions. She sighs. "We're in space."

I gasp. Space? "Wow, space! But what's that?"

"Well," she says, "space is...space. Everything in the universe is here. Space is where everything comes from, and where everything eventually ends."

"What does that mean?"

"You were born recently, right?" I nod. "Where there is birth, there is also death. One day, everything here will stop existing, including you and me."

I shudder. I don't like death...not existing one day sounds really scary...

"I can tell you're scared. Don't worry, you won't die for a long time. You'll probably be one of the last remaining things in this universe," she says, laughing a little. I guess that's reassuring.

"What about the sparklies? Do they die, too?"

"Sparklies? You must mean the stars. And yes, they do die. In fact, we're actually made from massive stars, who died in a really big explosion!"

Stars? That's what they're called? And I'm..a dead star? "Is that why they're scared of me? Because...I'm dead?"

She chuckles again. "You have a wild imagination. It's been a while since I've met someone as young as you. No, you're not dead. And the stars aren't scared of you, you're just sucking them up."

"Huh?"

"We are black holes. We are super massive stars that died in a supernova explosion, and we are infinitely small and infinitely dense. If something gets too close, fwoop! It gets sucked in and can never come back out. Even light itself can't escape us, and it's the fastest thing in the universe."

"That sounds so scary!" I cry out. "I kill everything I touch? I don't want to kill anything!"

"Hey, hey, calm down. It's okay," she says soothingly. Her voice makes me feel a little better.. "As you get older, you'll be able to control most of your black hole powers. I can teach you."

I sniffle. "You'd do that?"

"Mhm."

~☆~

Mom teaches me a lot of things. She tells me about the big, wide universe and everything that lives in it. She tells me about life, but she says it isn't important to know about right now. Black holes don't get to experience a lot of life. She trains me to control my powers, and it's going really well! I have to use some force, and it gets tiring after a little bit, but I can do it!

"You're doing great, Black Hole," she says as I strain to keep away an asteroid. "Push yourself; I know you can do it."

It's so hard! I can see it inching, closer and closer. I don't want to kill anything that might be living on the asteroid! "Hgggnnnh!" I grunt. Fwoosh! Huh? What happened? The asteroid is gone..

"Oh...did I fail?"

"It got sucked in. Don't worry about it too much, we all make mistakes."

She sounds a little disappointed... Maybe I can try the orbiting thing again, but what to use it on..?

Oh! There's a planet right there! It's a pretty one too, it's green blue, and brown and has wisps surrounding it. Hang on..are those voices coming from down there? They sound more like roars...kinda scary.

"Hey, Mom? I found a planet that makes noise!"

"Oh, did yo- woah!" she exclaims. Is that good or bad? "Okay, back up, Black Hole. That planet is special." I do as I'm told.

"How so? Because of the voices?"

"Partly. Remember when we talked about life?"

"Mhm."

"This planet has life on it. It's the only one I've seen so far." She gets a little closer. "It's beautiful..."

Life, huh? What's living on that planet? The blue things? The green? The brown? Or maybe it's whatever is making those roaring sounds! I want to see for myself!

"Hey, can I go down there? I want to see the life!"

"Sorry, Black Hole. You'll suck the planet up if you get too close, even if you try not to. We can't ever go down there."

What? That sucks...I can't ever see life? Well, I guess I can, from this distance...but I want to do more! I want to talk to other life and see how they live! But Mom's right. If anything gets too close to us, it'll get sucked up no matter what. I still wish I could go down there. Maybe one day, I'll get so strong that I can repel everything, and never kill anything again! Yeah...one day...

"Can you tell me more about life, then?"

"I'll try my best."