Stationary light vanished in cloudless sky

I have a habit of looking up every time I go outside, so I noticed the bright Mars/Venus bright spot to the West and the moon almost directly overhead. There were no other lights or stars visible yet, and the sky was totally cloudless and clear. On my way back in, approximately 3-5 minutes later, I noticed that another bright star had appeared in the West, to the left of Mars/Venus. It wasn't quite as large or bright as Mars/Venus, but it was unmoving. I watched it for just a few seconds, and then it disappeared.
I don't know if my eyes were playing tricks on me, but as I kept watching the Western sky, I felt like I was seeing small flashes of light in the sky, intermittently and randomly scattered around the area. When I watched other areas of the sky, I didn't have this experience. This went on for just a minute or so.