The only mistake. The only failure. Sending the world crashing down over our heads.

Engulfed in flames, no one remained, for the earth was gone. Tossed away into oblivion, the sun hovered nervously, the moon was whisked away.

Their sister had been killed.

The other planets mourned. Immaculate and deliberate were they in all their movements, unable to fathom how humanity's many faults contributed to the final, and only, blowing mistake.

For eons they had thrived, always moving forward, never hesitating to hurl themselves into the thick of things. But one mistake conquered them all, so that no longer Mother Earth could bear these things, and in her final rage she gave way to the sunset, letting herself sink into the abyss of night along with it.

It wasn’t always that way; she had survived. Where numerous other celestial beings had failed scorched to bits by meteors and comets.

She was the only one in her family to welcome life, the little children she scolded and played with, welcoming into her dark layers when their time was up.

This was her only mistake, if she had left well enough alone, she would have spun continuously into the void, the infinite space of possibilities, comforted by her brother and sisters.

But she had a kind heart. A warm candle flickered in her, brightening everything she breathed hope into. So to her, it was wonderful, seeing the living things jump and play.

However, there was a bully among them, smarter than the rest, plotting to send its playmates into mother’s skirts…

Humans.

Nasty, wretched little things, dancing and sacrificing things to other planets and stars, but that didn’t bother her as much as their treatment of their own kind.

Chaos rampaged across her time, wars and violence, followed by more war and violence, always bloodier as the humans became smarter.

Soaking her skin red, her ocean contaminated beyond repair, her once soft surface turned hard with concrete, smashing the dwellings she had formed with her own imagination.

She cried out in anguish, she didn’t want to punish the innocent, her favorites of the brood, but the rotten far outnumbered the good, and she released her eternal torment upon them, raging flames spread, her own dark anger fueling it.

When everything had been emptied of her, she realized her mistake. She was left with no creation. She was left with no tomorrow. She had been the undoing of herself.

Yet, she wasn’t disappointed. In fact, she felt only the silence of the world, her family being too far to comfort her. The only thing she regretted was letting her love for life overwhelm her good sense, but in the end, practicality won out, and the rest of the universe was saved. This was not a mistake.

But she was gone. The good gracious Mother Earth, consumed by her own sea, the life she had nurtured since time itself fell to the wayside as she collapsed.

In her spot, remained only a tiny pebble, the very core of her, all exhausted of its fire and left to drift until eternity ended.

The small pebble longed for the power it once possessed, longed for the fiery triumph.

And so it found another host, without life to warm it, and with that final grudge it landed, redeeming the only mistake, and so the universe was perfect.