I am flying, soaring over a city at night, a billion stars are reflected in a billion lights below. I race downward. Moonlight shines, coiling into deep shadows; shadows that writhe and birth monsters. Through windows I watch demons stalk the dreams of twitching sleepers. Of those awake many stare, transfixed, into violent horrors on phones and TV screens. Some cry in dark corners, enveloped by darker claws; some rage into the night; some numb themselves with pills and potions; some smile twisted smiles. The darkness cloaks all of them, sinking its teeth in. But there are others.

In the night I see pockets of light beating against the dark. Mothers soothing, fathers protecting; dreamers imagining,  artists creating. I see people nurturing, speaking, singing, sculpting, acting, dancing, the light of their hearts into the world. Sharing their souls boldly in the face of monsters. Their hearts are the stars in the night below.