[ WP ] After eons of existence , the universe has reached its final day . In the hours before the heat death of the universe , you are charged with recounting its history to all of its inhabitants .

Once, there was nothing. Well, it seems my first sentence is already a lie. There was not nothing, there was the eternal backdrop of life, there was the cold, the dark. And one day -- can it even be called a day? Time, in the beginning, had no meaning. At one instance, the beginning of time itself, there was a spark of light, the first energy, and it grew. It wanted to fill the void created by the emptiness of death, and so it did. It spread, once a speck, now expanding in all directions -- directions that had just been created. Brilliant, blinding light flowed through the darkness, burning with the greatest intensity our universe has ever known. And then, all at once, the light vanished, leaving a vacuum, another void. 
 
 But this void was not cold, although it was dark. It brimmed with energy, energy filling the great, empty gap created by space. And quickly, this great energy ripped through the empty blanket of our universe. And as it ripped holes through it, they filled with little beacons of the original light. Little beacons that glowed, sending light in all directions. But not expanding. These beacons we now know as stars. Their light spread at incredible rates, trying to illuminate the darkness. That is what light is meant to do, to block out the dark, the cold. For now, the darkness was once again cold. The energy spread out, leaving behind the stars, intense concentrations of light that siphon out energy. 
 
 Not only were there stars, there were planets. At first, these planets were simply a manifestation of chaos. Molten, hot and smoldering. But, like the universe, they cooled down after many, many years. But these years seemed short, very short, as there was no life to measure them. The planets cooled, and a surface of hot, cracked rocks formed. The larger planets gathered air around them, forming an atmosphere. And on some planets, pieces of the surface sank, falling nearer and nearer to the core. The emptiness they left was behind may have seemed eternal, but like the universe, it was filled. And on a few, select planets, the emptiness filled with water. 
 
 Beautiful, clear, glistening water. Now we know, it is only a simple mixture of chemical elements. However, that does not stop it from bringing forth life, and from being a vital component in the recipe of human life. However, it is not the only one. And, on one exceptionally fortunate -- or perhaps misfortunate -- planet, every ingredient came together into a huge melting pot. Sunlight, an atmosphere, water, all in one. And, from that bubbling stew rose life. Not the magnificent beasts of the modern day, but minuscule organisms, writhing in the ocean. 
 
 They began to grow, swim, crawl. Soon, the ocean was not enough, it was boring. So they evolved, grew legs, long and lumbering. And they emerged from the ocean, stumbling onto shores all over the lovely planet known as Earth. They scaled the mountains, mighty and tall. They roamed the luscious jungles, dark green leaves cast over them. They braved storms, dark and looming, and they ran through prairies, rolling with tall grass. 
 
 Each life form, whether it have four legs, wings, or fins, lived in harmony with the others. They went through a cycle, a cycle of beauty, of symbiosis, and each beast lived not a day too short or a day too long. Life appeared perfect, until one, fateful day. One, fateful day, when the most primitive man came down from the hills, when the earliest man made the first too, the fire, the wheel. 
 
 So, man rapidly evolved, radically changed, and all in the blink of an eye, a blink of the universe. And destroyed the Earth, put an end to the harmony. Man climbed to the top, dominated life, and then nearly killed itself. Through a series of innovations, once good, humans sought to improve the quality of their lives, losing sight of their true purpose. To survive, to create offspring. And so, they mucked up the oceans, source of life. They destroyed the land, their home. And they demolished the atmosphere, the very thing that allowed them to rise beyond the waters. 
 So, man left. 
 
 Man left, in search of life beyond the borders of Earth. But man, in the eyes of the vast universe, was infinitesimally small. The universe, vast, ancient and dark, could not be explored. And man would never know if there was anything else. But, in his arrogant ways, man believed himself to be the only sentient being in existence. And so, they began to preserve themselves. 
 
 Man built a dyson sphere. The perfect habitat, for a flawed species. A dyson sphere, absorbing the sun's infinite energy, providing unlimited space. And so, man has lived on, on top of this dyson sphere. 
 
 But men forgot, they forgot the good lord, who they had once revered. Man forgot the God they created for themselves, the very omnipresent being that led them through the harshest catastrophes. Man turned his back on the universe, on the lord, and something struck back. Whether it was bound to happen, or whether it was the wrath of God, is not for me to know, and I do not pretend to understand it. 
 
 As man expanded, sped up, the rest of the universe slowed down. It slowed, coming to a grinding halt. The stars, once raging with heat, flickered, like a dying fire, winking out one by one. The planets, once molten and fiery, now lay stone cold, revolving around dying stars, no longer siphoning out the great light of old. 
 
 Slowly, but surely, everything will fade, merging with the eternal backdrop of darkness, of cold. And so, as the energy of our universe spreads out, reaching equilibrium, we must look out and know the truth, acknowledge it, accept it. 
 
 We, we are nothing. A speck on a great clock, an almost eternal clock. We, who believe ourselves to be the ultimate beings, are not that. We do not know, we do not know of other species, we do not know if there is a God, punish us, we do not know the meaning of our existence. But, we do know that this is the end. 
 
 Looking out, into the darkness, light from fading stars still reaches us, millions of years old. We, with out fancy sciences, know they are gone, we know this is the end. Looking into the vast darkness, let us all join in prayer. Praying there is no lord, for if there is, each human is to be sentenced to eternal damnation. 
 
 And looking out, into the black blanket of nothing, I am glad. I am glad we did not muck up anything else. I am glad that the universe can finally be at peace.
