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Recipe for Disaster – How to kill a star

 

Ingredients

• 1 painful memory
• 3 broken promises
• a bowl full of distilled water
• a dash of dust, any sort, from an orbiting moon*
• an awareness of the location of the star

 

*if you are on a planet which has no orbiting moon, matter from a large natural satellite such as an asteroid will do.

 

Instructions

1. Forget the broken promises. Let sit for 1 cycle of the nearest known planet around the star, then remember them, in the same order you forgot them. Wait until a clear night where you can see the star.
 

2. Recall the painful memory. Focus on it, let it fester for approximately one hour, or as long as you can bear without crying, whichever is shorter. (Important: if you do cry, do not let your tears make contact with the water or your hands.)
 

3. Completely submerge your hands in the water, and clear your mind. Once you have calmed, remove your hands from the water, and hold them away from the bowl until they are dry. Do not dry your hands by any other means.

4. Sprinkle the dust into the water. You should find yourself unable to recall the painful memory by this point, this is normal and indicates that the process is working.

5. Locate the star in the sky, look at it, focus on it, and close your eyes. Focus on the sound of your heartbeat in your ears, do not open your eyes until you hear another heartbeat, out of sync with yours.

6. When you open your eyes, you will see nothing. The sound of the star's heartbeat will be audible from a clear direction, and your own will be audible from within. Both will be noticeably slower than before. Face towards the star's heartbeat.

7. Take steps forward only when you hear both hearts beat at the same time. Repeat until you see a sudden blinding light, and the star's heartbeat becomes indistinguishable from your own. This may take hours or more, be patient.

8. You are inside the star. It does not know you are here. Take slow, quiet breaths, move cautiously.

9. Reach outwards with one hand, until you feel the heart of the star. It will feel cold, and hard, like marble. Crush it in your hand without hesitation as soon as you feel it, ignoring the excruciating pain. The sound of heartbeats will cease immediately.

10. Turn around the way you came and run. The light will go out, and you will hear your heartbeat again, and you will hear a sound from behind you that cannot be described in words. Do not look behind you. Do not stop running. Do not close your eyes.

11. Run until the sound stops, then slow your run to a stop when you are certain it will not return. Close your eyes, think of home, then open them when you feel the sense of a familiar space.

12. If you find yourself where you began, you have succeeded. Look into the sky, confirm that the star is gone. If you can't find it, it is dead. Remember: do not, under any circumstances, tell anyone that you killed the star. This is your guilt to bear and yours alone.

13. We cannot help you beyond this point. Face the repercussions as they come.