“Where the Stars Go to Sleep”

Where the Stars Go to Sleep

By [Ali Rehman]

Elias had always been a man who chased light. Not the kind you could hold in your hand or see flickering in a flame, but the silent, distant glow of stars scattered across the night sky. From his childhood home, nestled in a valley surrounded by ancient mountains, Elias would spend hours lying beneath the vast darkness, staring upward, tracing constellations with trembling fingers and whispered names.

But the question that haunted him most was this: where did the stars go when the sun rose? They vanished, like shy ghosts retreating from the day. Did they disappear beyond the horizon, or did they hide somewhere closer to earth? The thought ignited a restless spark within him.

As Elias grew, so did his obsession. He learned to climb mountains — scaling cliffs and ridges to touch the clouds themselves. The villagers called him “the stargazer,” a man who chased dreams instead of gold. They shook their heads when he packed his bag at dawn, determined to find the answer to his unending question.

One morning, with the sky still swathed in the quiet blues and purples of pre-dawn, Elias set off on his most daring journey yet. His destination was the tallest peak in the mountain range — a place called the Sky’s Edge, where old legends whispered that the heavens met the earth.

The climb was brutal. Rock scraped his palms raw, the wind bit through his clothes like icy needles, and the thinning air stole his breath in sharp gasps. But Elias was undeterred. Each step was a step closer to the stars’ secret resting place.

Hours passed, and the sun began its slow climb, spilling soft golden light over the jagged peaks. Elias paused near the summit, his body trembling from exhaustion but his heart pounding with hope.

Then, he saw it.

Nestled in a narrow crevice, shielded from the world by stone and mist, were tiny points of shimmering light. They pulsed softly, like the faint glow of fireflies caught in a spider’s web.

Elias’s breath caught. The stars hadn’t disappeared — they had come down to rest.

He approached slowly, careful not to disturb the fragile lights. The cluster shimmered brighter as he neared, welcoming him as if he belonged. Tentatively, he reached out a hand. The lights responded, warm and alive beneath his fingertips, humming with the energy of a thousand nights.

Sitting beside the stars, Elias felt the weight of all the unanswered questions in the world lift from his shoulders. Here, in this secret cradle between earth and sky, the stars gathered their strength. They dreamed the light that would ignite the darkness again, weaving stories into the night sky for all who dared to look.

As the sun climbed higher, one star gently detached itself from the cluster and floated upward, fading into the blue until it vanished, ready to shine anew. Elias watched, tears in his eyes, understanding that the stars were not distant and unreachable — they were part of the world, resting and dreaming just as he was.

But the magic of the moment was interrupted by a soft voice.

“Why do you chase what you cannot hold?”

Startled, Elias turned to see an old woman emerging from the mist. Her eyes sparkled like twilight, and her smile held centuries of knowing.

“I chase light,” Elias said simply. “I want to know where the stars go when the sun rises.”

The woman nodded. “They come here. This is where the stars go to sleep.”

She gestured to the glowing cluster. “But you must remember, star-chaser, that the light you seek is also within you.”

The woman’s words settled into Elias’s heart like a warm ember. As he rested beside the sleeping stars, she told him stories of the mountain and the stars — tales of light and shadow, of dreams and waking, of endings that were beginnings.

“Each star you see is a dream waiting to be told,” she said. “And each night you look up, you are part of that story.”

When Elias finally descended the mountain, he carried more than the memory of glowing stars. He carried a new understanding — that the stars’ journey was not just theirs but his own.

Back in the village, under the vast blanket of night, Elias shared what he had learned. The villagers listened, captivated by the tale of the stars’ secret rest, and the old woman’s wisdom that light lives in every heart.

From then on, Elias no longer chased the stars from afar. Instead, he embraced the quiet light within, knowing that the darkness before dawn was not an end but a pause — a time when the stars go to sleep, only to rise again.