Dear Death,

It's me. I have a few things to say to you, and I'd like you to shut up and listen.

I have not known you as something permanent. I have known you as threats, scares, and almosts. I have known you as the terrible, horrible thing that never comes but keeps promising it will. I have known you as the thing that leaves me paralyzed when I believe you are coming for someone I love.

Too many times you have been there, just peeking out from the shadows but never showing yourself. Too many times you have battled to take people away, but you have lost.

And you will not win.

You are strong, yes. Everyone knows that, everyone has seen that. But I believe that people can be stronger.

I have seen people be stronger. Every threat you left was a battle you lost, and a person that won.

So yes, I will still cry when you come around again, and I will still be afraid. I will still feel my heart breaking when I think you are winning, and they are losing.

And maybe someday you will win, and then to me you will become something permanent, unchangeable, unbearable.

You will also lose. Again, and again, you will lose. 

And we will win.

for my star, who although almost disappeared, will never truly fade away.