A small research facility was sitting on the outskirts of Ni’ihau, away from any society and culture. The massive telescope of the facility was pointing up towards the night sky. The facility say, cold and silent. A single researcher was sitting, looking through the telescope. The machine was the most powerful that had ever been invented, letting the researcher see further into the universe than ever before. The images were crystal clear, giving them beautiful views of stars, galaxies, and more. They smiled as they slowly moved the telescope a few inches, changing their view by hundreds of light years. They stopped once the view was locked onto a large, beautiful spiral galaxy.
A large glowing ball with rings starting small and tight before growing larger and larger into two long and expansive tails going in a counter clockwise motion.
“I love this job.” The researcher said with a wide smile.
They made sure the telescope was locked in place before quickly moving away from the viewer, making their way over to a large computer to take a picture. They watched as they began to enter a convoluted pattern of buttons on a large workstation. It wasn’t a simple thing to do, due to the low budget that came once the telescope itself was finished.
“Oh come on, hurry up please.” The researcher said to themselves once they finished.
A very loud hum filled the air as the machine began to heat up. Finally, a loud boom came that slowly fizzled out. The large screen was very slow to download and transfer the picture, very slowly coming up with incredibly low definition, but then it slowly became progressively more and more clear. The definition improved as the researcher wasn’t paying complete attention. Once it was finished, it dinged and the researcher looked up…their body frozen.
The galaxy was gone.
They quickly ran over to the telescope, which hadn’t move at all, not even a single millimeter. They quickly began to move it around slight, seeing if the galaxy had moved at all.
Nothing.
“I…what…where did it go?” The researcher asked themselves.
They continued to stare when the telescope settled on a large cloud of dust. The black and gray dust was floating aimlessly as they stared. It was silent and tense, the researcher having an uneasy feeling in their gut. Their was a small object in the dust, a small ball that looked pitch black. It wasn’t a black hole, the dust wasn’t forcefully sucked inside. It all floated around with no reason, no motivation.
Suddenly, the black ball opened into a blinding red orb, like an eye suddenly opening and staring right back at them.
The researcher shouted and jumped, falling backwards and to the floor. As they fell, they could hear the doors shutting loudly.
“Did we scare you? We thought we were quiet.”
The researcher turned to see a group of people dressed in the same outfit: white lab coats with white pants and black shoes.
“I…did you…” The researcher quickly ran over to the others.
“Did we what?” One of the others asked.
The first researcher was running to to large screen, doing the long and convoluted process again to take a picture as the others watched.
“There was…this galaxy…undiscovered before…but then…it was gone…I went to…find it again and then…I don’t know…this…thing…I swear it looked back at me.” The researcher stumbled and said through quick and short breathing as the other researchers looked at each other confused.
“Jordan, how long have you been up here?” One of them asked.
“A week.” He replied.
“And have you left the building in that week?” They asked.
Jordan didn’t respond as the screen loaded a picture.
The cloud of dust was completely gone as Jordan stared in shock.
“No…no…it was…” He mumbled.
“Jordan, just go home and get some sleep. We know how much you love space and everything, but seriously.”
The researchers were all caring and made their way over, rubbing his head and arms to calm him down. Jordan let out a loud sigh and hugged one of them.
“Okay…okay…maybe you’re right…” Jordan mumbled quietly.
One of the other researchers helped Jordan to the doors, leaving while all of the other researchers went to a multitude of stations and areas to do what they were best at.
“Alright, I think we should go back to examining the supermassive black hole in Sector 6.” The researcher who seemed to be in charge said.
The group all worked together, making the telescope move smoothly and quickly.
“I really wish we had better equipment.” He mumbled to himself.
“Oh come on, we have the most highly advanced telescope in the world.” Another close to him replied.
“Yeah, but everything else his garbage.” He replied.
“Um…Randall and Taylor…we have a problem.” One of the other researchers said.
The two quickly made their way over.
“What is it?” Randall asked.
“Well…the black hole…everything in that sector…it’s just gone.” The researcher said.
The entire team made their way over as the telescope stopped. They did everything they had to do to take a picture, but multiple people working on it made it come much faster.
The team was all huddled closely together as the image pulled up, becoming more and more clear as they waited.
The image finally came up to high definition.
The area was nothing. No planets, no galaxies, no black holes, no stars. It was as empty as space could be, a void of space darker than darkness. It was similar to staring into a dead universe. Existence, time, and quite possibly space had ceased to exist in this void. It stared at them, like the eyes of death and existentialism.
“What…what is that?” Randall asked.
“It…it looks like…nothing.” One of the researchers replied.
The group continued to stand in silence as they stared at the emptiness. The nonexistence.
“Well…maybe…there’s just…a problem…with the camera.” Taylor said with an obviously nervous and scared tone.
“It better not be. Replacing that would mean we’d have to shut down the facility. We can’t afford that!” One of the other researchers shouted.
They were all nervous as the panic was beginning to rise quickly. Randall looked over at a nearby table and pulled himself up to look down onto them.
“Everyone! We will find a way to fix this ourselves!” Randall said loudly as they all turned to stare at him.
“I will go up to fix the camera myself if I must, but we have grown to become a family and we will not let ourselves be seperated!” Randall said.
Everyone cheered as Randall had a smile covering his face. He felt…powerful.

Randall had made his way to the top of the massive telescope, attached by a small harness connected to both the tube and the ground with counter weights. The giant tube of metal with multiple massive pieces of refined glass, all measured to the smallest possible decimal point of alignment. Even off by one digit could be disastrous. Randall was very careful as he avoided directly touching the glass. He found a small box on the side of the large tube, opening it up to see wires. Most of them were normal, but the space itself was burning up. He blew into it to try and cool it down, reaching in carefully to move the wires around and untangle a few. His hands weren’t getting severely burned, but it did start to hurt more and more the longer he kept them in there. He finally got them moved around and back to their right places before shutting the box. He turned to look up towards the night sky, looking at the same place the telescope was pointing. He could barely see twinkling stars and microscopic lights, while the telescope could see so far and clearly.
As Randall continued to stare, he noticed something off.
A small, red light in a sea of white and yellowish orbs. All of the other lights were twinkling, but this one…it was still. It was a red sphere staring directly at him. He could feel a chill run down his body, his soul beginning to cower in fear. His eyes were locked onto the strange light. It was so small and far away, yet so powerful. Randall knew it had to be a massive star…right?
Randall tried to snap out of it as he prepared to lower himself down, but whenever he looked away he felt the sense of being watched. He turned back to look at the red light. He was afraid yet calm. His heart was pumping, but his brain was calm. His eyes were beginning to dilate to an extreme degree as the light glowed even brighter, the sphere seeming to grow. Randall’s body seemed to be moving on their own. He had brought some tools with him, including a small hammer that he gripped tightly. His eyes were dilated to the point that the whites were completely gone. His eyes were pure black as he slowly turned his attention to the glass, staring at the red light. A staring contest.
Randall slowly began to lift the hammer up, but as he did the harness suddenly snapped. He began to fall very quickly to the ground. The researchers standing around heard something loud snap when they turned up. They spotted Randall racing towards the ground, watching his body fall without any emotion. It was like he was already dead as he fell, his body barely moving aside from the falling.
They all tried to run as quickly as they could, but they could only watch as his body splattered violently to the ground. Blood exploded from his flesh as the skin was torn to bits, leaving a pile of flesh and muscle on to of a skeleton. The organs were nothing but mush on the ground and covering the skeleton as the researchers stared.
The blood splattered in an unnatural way, creating a large, red perfect circle around the body.Randall’s corpse was wrapped tightly in itself, like the fetal position but drawn in even tighter until his spine was on the verge of snapping in two. His much remains were a sphere of death inside of the bloody circle as the researchers could do nothing but stare.

“What…what are we going to do?” One of the researchers asked.
Taylor looked around the small group.
They were all sitting in a circle, but all of them were staring at her. They were all young, the oldest of them being a newly college graduate. The others will still in school, while Taylor was in her early 30s.
“It was a minor accident. Everything will be okay.” Taylor said, emotional and wiping the tears from her eyes over and over again as she spoke.
The body had been removed and buried outside, but the circle of blood remained. No matter what they tried, the blood wouldn’t come out. None of them could even say how long it had been since Randall died. Time was seeming to rush by and be frozen at the same time.
“We haven’t seen Jordan in days. He was the first one to notice anything. Why don’t we go see him?” One researcher asked.
“No…we aren’t going to leave until we fix whatever is breaking.”
While they all stood, the computer began to hum and beep loudly. They looked at each other confused as an image began to develop despite none of them doing anything.
They all stared at the screen as the image became clear.
A large cloud of black dust floating around, with a large red star staring intensly at them, like an eye staring into their souls.
As all of the researchers stared at the image, their eyes all began to dilate. Their bodies were straight, rigid, and barely moving as they continued to stare.

Jordan was sitting at his small flat made of white wood, which sat in a small neighborhood of identical homes. He was drinking a cup of coffee, staring blankly out his window. He was staring at the large observatory in the distance, lightly tapping the side of his small mug with his finger.
“I feel fine now…” He whispered to himself as he placed the mug down on the table. He made his way to his bedroom, turning the light on.
The walls, ceiling, floor, and furniture were all covered in red circles. Whether it was chalk, marker, paint, or even blood…everything was covered in circles. He seemed to completely ignore them as he made his way over to the closet. All of the clothing was also covered in the same red circles. He slid on his white coat and white pants, all of which were covered in red circles of differing sizes. He walked over to the small bathroom, everything of which was covered in the same red circles. He washed his face in the mirror with a smile.
“I feel good…I feel fine. I can go back to work.” He said to himself in the mirror.
Jordan made his way through the halls and to the front door. The front half of the home was untouched, at least for now.
Jordan made his way from the home, walking towards the observatory. As he looked towards it…he could suddenly see the telescope shaking and moving. His eyes went wide as he quickly ran.

Jordan burst through the doors and looked inside.
All of the other researchers were destroying everything inside. Red circles were covering every single surface as Jordan looked around. Some were burning all of the paper, others were destroying the computers, and the final ones were doing what they could to sabotage the telescope.
As Jordan watched, he could feel his gaze being drawn to the sky. The stars were all twinkling with small spheres, but then a single red light was staring into his soul. His eyes began to dilate slowly, the blacks filling his eyes. He turned his attention to the telescope, running before jumping into the large metal tube like an animal.
Once everything was destroyed, they crowded around the broken and cracked screen. They were all standing as blood, fire, and destruction sounded them.
The screen became static, blasting loud noise that made all of the people bleed violently from their ears, yet they didn’t react. They stared as the screen was overtaken by a large, blinding red light. They all stared as the light illuminated in their black eyes and covered their bodies in redness, everything else shrouded in darkness.
They continued to watch as no words were spoken, no sound in the air, but the light was still communicating. The people all began to look around at each other. The red light was the only thing illuminating them in a hellish scape, red and black filling the large and destroyed observatory.
Without any warning, the researchers began to violently attack each other. Throwing their arms around and colliding hard. They would throw their heads around to smash into each other without any care for their own wellbeing. The bodies were mindless, emotionless husks flailing around and causing severe harm without any care or thought. After that, their teeth came out as they began to violently bite, rip, and tear into each other. The bodies were torn apart very quickly into piles of bloody flesh and torn muscles. After minutes of minutes of pure carnage, Sarah stood alone surrounded by her dead colleagues. They were perfectly arranged into a perfect circle of corpses. Blood was everywhere as Sarah stared back at the screen. The red light was still covering everything as Sarah stared, her body covered in ripped flesh and blood from herself and the others. Her eyes were locked on the red light, once again communication coming without any sound.
Sarah nodded her head.
Her hands reached up and grabbed her chin and top of her head. Without any hesitation or second guessing, she twisted her neck suddenly to the side, her neck loudly snapping as her corpse dropped to the ground with a loud thud.
The screen was continuing to beat down red light into the circle of corpses with another in the middle. The light turned off of its own, shrouding the room in complete darkness.

At the edge of the universe, a large red star was sitting surrounded by a cloud of dust. It was glowing violently, the star and dust surrounded by destroyed galaxies and dead planets left into small pieces of barren rock.
The star spun slowly, locking onto something that was impossible to see, yet it knew it was there. The star began to move forward in the same direction it was staring, the dust following like it was all one form moving through the universe. As it moved, the dust surrounded a small star floating alone.
After the dust passed through it, the sun was nothing but a barren rock that disintegrated and joined the rest of the dust cloud.
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