Johnny Moon and the Night Without Light

No one knew when it began.
There was no warning. No sign.

The moon… was simply gone.

Not obscured by clouds. Not in a new moon phase.
It no longer existed in the sky.

The night grew black as ink. So dark that stars seemed to drown.
People couldn't see their own hands.
Shadows moved, even without light.

The old stories returned.

"When Johnny Moon disappears, it means he's listening to the voices behind the stars..."

Johnny Moon wasn't always a cheerful silver ball.
He was an ancient guardian, a being who kept the night in balance.
But for centuries, he heard whispers from the void between the stars.

"Come to us..."
"Let go of the night..."
"Let the world feel what it's like without light..."

One night, he broke.
He shed his silver glow like a skin and stepped out of the sky.

When he left, the True Shadows emerged.
Not the shadows of humans… but beings that only exist when no one is watching.

Children began to dream of a pale boy with a moonlike face.
He stood by their bedside and whispered:

"I brought the light with me. Do you want it back?"

A secret order, the Guardians of the Night, went on the hunt.
They followed moonless paths, vanished stars, and nightmares that told the same story everywhere.

They finally found Johnny in the Black Firmament, a place where time does not exist.
He sat on a throne of broken stars, his eyes empty and black as an eclipse.

"Why did you leave?" they asked.

Johnny smiled.
"Because the night is finally free."

He raised his hand, and the sky above the earth split open. People saw things that had never known light: writhing shapes, whispering faces in the darkness, cities that existed only in shadow.

The Guardians begged him to return.
But Johnny shook his head.

"You always wanted light. You forgot how powerful the darkness is."

Finally, they made a pact.
Johnny was allowed to travel in the darkness, but some of his light had to return.
Thus, the phases of the moon came into being: sometimes bright, sometimes dim, sometimes completely gone.

But every time the moon disappears completely…
the Guardians say that Johnny is listening to the voices again.

And that the shadows are creeping closer to the world.

And if you ever hear someone whisper your name on a moonless night…

Don't look up.
Don't look back.

For perhaps Johnny Moon has returned to bring the light again.