It had been exactly thirty seven days since Alfred Fowler, 22, had last witnessed the earth orbit the sun. In fact, it had been exactly thirty seven days since anyone had last witnessed the earth orbit the sun. Due to a strange occurrence that perplexed solar astronomers worldwide, the sun disappeared on November 18, 2015 at 5:12 PM [Post Meridiem.] Although science can't adequately explain this mystery, one man claims to hold all the answers.

     “I remember exactly where I was when the sun disappeared,” says Fowler, taking a hard gulp from his glass of bourbon and ice. “I was exploring the inner maze of isolation, growing closer with God – whom I learned happened to be a reflection of my inner self. I was very drunk. Then a loud wind swept through the air like a vacuum from the sky. I looked outside and it was dark – pitch black darkness. Only the ghosts were alive.”

     Baltimore resident Alfred Fowler had apparently been sucked inside such a deep philosophical trance that the magnitude of his contemplation erupted the neurons inside his brain, sending a glitch through the universe via telepathic RVI's [Rays of Vast Intelligence.] Alfred's introspection was so powerful that it caused a giant portal to open, revealing an entirely new dimension unfamiliar to humans and unfathomable to human technology. A chord was struck against the soul of humankind and consequently the universe was permanently warped. And somewhere down the line, the sun was somehow erased from existence.

     “I waited and waited,” says Fowler. “But daylight never came. Darkness overwhelmed the world. It was morbid and beautiful.”

     Fowler works a low-wage job as a clerk at Jerry's Erotic Books. He has very few friends but the ones close to him he cherishes dearly; however, those that know him express a strange distance between Alfred and reality.

     “Alfred doesn't get out much,” says good friend Beansprout Butter-Moon, “Especially over the course of the last year after what's-her-name left him. He's cooked up inside his bedroom doing God knows what. . Well, I guess we know what he's doing. He's exterminating the most important star in the fucking universe.”

     She runs her fingers through her thick dark hair and adds, “He's always hated sunlight. The goddamn selfish prick. Just had to ruin it for those of us who aren't as grim and sadistic as him.”

     Fowler, however, is not entirely to blame for the disappearance of the bright sphere-shaped ball of hot plasma. Government organization AAFO [Anti-Alfred Fowler Organization] has developed a technology so advanced that they discovered a way to infiltrate Alfred's mind. By attaching microscopic body cameras to Alfred Fowler's person, AAFO has successfully been able to follow Fowler's every step. They know every Sunday he takes a long walk through the city. They know his work schedule, family history, bank code, and social security number. They even know Alfred Fowler's most well-hidden secrets. They know what he thinks about at night before he falls asleep.

     For the past few months the AAFO has even gone as far as unscrewing Alfred's water pipes and unknowingly orally injecting him with large doses of mind-altering drugs disapproved by the FDA [Food and Drug Administration] that supposedly over time install a tiny chip into the cerebrum of Alfred's brain. This unknown drug was originally designed to poison Alfred Fowler and lead him into a state of psychological turmoil and physical paralysis; however, the controversial drug displayed unexpected effects. Instead of destroying Alfred's brain cells and poisoning his organs, the drug caused Alfred to gain super-human abilities. The tiny chip that was planted into Alfred's brain contains the ultimate technology to destroy the universe. Alfred Fowler's mind, which holds the power of over one-billion nuclear bombs, is the earth's biggest threat. Greater than Isis and the republican party combined.

     However, like most chemically-enhanced drugs, this drug has many faults. According to AAFO, the more alcohol Fowler consumes, the more it disrupts the functions of the technology.

     “What we failed to consider,” says AAFO leader Jim Guzzard, who hates Alfred the most, “is that Alfred is a miserable drunk. Somehow the copious amount of booze he guzzles down every night fire off signals that throw off the inner wirings of the chip, hence destroying, or rather disappearing, the fucking sun of all things.”      AAFO leader Jim Guzzard shrugs his shoulders and adds, “Our bad.”

     Their bad indeed. Without the sun, the orbiting planets have no center of gravity to rely on; as a result, the solar system has reached a level of anarchism. Rather than orbiting around the sun, the planets are stuck moving forward through unknown dimensions of the universe. Realizing that humanity is doomed, many solar astronomers and scientists alike have committed suicide. The scientists still alive express extreme hopelessness.

     While most earthly inhabitants view the death of the sun through a pessimistic lens, Alfred Fowler sees things under a different light. He states, “The future of humanity is certainly doomed. There's no hope for any of us. But that's not entirely negative. Now is the time to loot stores, take recreational drugs, and have unprotected sex. Now is the time to rip down the curtains and reveal the political frauds that are corrupting our fucked up system. It's time to hug family members and say goodbye to capitalism, religion, and mainstream culture. Some people are so damn focused on the end of the world, they aren't taking advantage of the beauty surrounding them. Nothing we do matters, so why not do anything and everything?”

     Under Alfred's logic and because the earth is arriving to it's inevitable finality, it doesn't matter what I write. I can write anything I want. I can write that I watch seven hours of BDSM pornography a day. Or that the sound of a woman sneezing turns me on. Or that I think Stevie Brand is a slinky-eatin' gun-slingin' pile of potatoes. See? I can write anything and it doesn't matter one bit. Any day now the earth will perish and all that humanity has prospered toward will forever be abolished. Darkness will sweep over the earth like a cold blanket and envelop our mundane universal existence that we have long ago chosen to destroy by the excessive use of greed, power, and fear. Our species will be obliterated from the structures of a fathomable reality. The memories and thoughts that are trapped inside our fiendish brains will vanish like a crumb in Baghdad. Our aspirations, ineptitudes, successes, failures, and dreams as they can be perceived within the human psyche are entirely meaningless in a world that will soon cease to exist in physical format. Possibly there is an extraterrestrial form of life that is unknown to us, a world that exists in a different dimension – in a reality where time and matter do not consume perception. Perhaps there is an unspeakable, all-knowing world where God doesn't symbolize the fabrications of false belief and betrayal; instead, He lies in the heart and soul of humankind. Maybe there's a universe where unconditional love is distributed equally by the ever-lasting dispersement of good will, where kindness and goodness are programmed into the values of those that live under the law of nature. It's highly unlikely that these possibilities claim the slightest degree of verisimilitude, but all we can do as a collected species in a time of chaos and fear is keep our chins high and remain hopeful that the demise of the world does not rule out the possibility that there are alternate realities waiting for us after our time on earth comes to a close. It is us who have the power to change the way others view the world, so do so with the kindliness of a rose petal during war time.