Time Of The Turning

“GASKETS! EVERYONE RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!”

            Lilac and Isabel turned in the direction of the scream. As they looked toward the front of the ship, it became very obvious that something wasn’t right. The sky was dark, but something was wrong with it. It seemed as if the sky there was not clear, but it wasn’t cloudy either. Instead, it seemed as if something large was moving about them. As Isabel continued to look, someone from the front of the ship pointed a light up. Isabel couldn’t believe what she saw. Up in the sky were numerous large objects — not birds — but large men with wings.

            As Isabel watched, one of the large forms dropped from the sky and landed not far from where she was standing. Isabel couldn’t believe her eyes. It was indeed a man, a man made of metal. It was quite easy for Isabel to tell that the man was made of metal, since he had nuts and bolts coming out of his face and his bulky arms and legs shined in the moonlight. On his back, the large metal man had black wings that reminded her of sheet metal. As Isabel looked at the metal man’s entire body, she found that there was a large hole in his chest that allowed her to see the gears that were turning on the inside of him.

            “Grandma, what is that?” Isabel asked as she huddled close to her grandma. It was very understandable that Isabel was afraid. Who wouldn’t be afraid of a large metal man dropping from the sky in front of them, especially at night?

            The large metal man began to move. As each of the man’s metallic feet slammed into the deck, his metal body would shake and rattle. The large metal man lumbered closer toward the girls. As he came closer, he extended his hand as if hoping to grab either Isabel or Lilac.

            “Away, monster!” Lilac shouted. Isabel watched as her grandma raised her hand against the Gasket, telling it to stop. A stream of light, as if from a flashlight, erupted from Lilac’s hand. The light shined brightly and was focused directly at the metal man’s face.

            The light caused the metal man to stop in his lumbering movement. As the light continued to shine on the metal man, Isabel saw that the gears in the chest of the weird being began to slow until they came to a total stop. Once the gears had stopped moving in his chest, the metal man was motionless. Then, with a sudden shake the man broke into several metal pieces and fell to the ship’s deck.

            As the last piece of the man fell to the deck, Lilac closed her hand, which caused the light to stop shining from it. She got on her knee and looked at Isabel. “Are you all right, honey?”

            “What?” Isabel said. She didn’t know what to make of what she had just seen. “What was that thing? What did you do?”

            “I told you that I could purify, remember?” Lilac said cheerfully. “I just released the Gasket of the dark energy that was powering it.”

      “Gasket?” Isabel asked. “What? What is going on here?”

      “I’ll explain later,” Lilac said as she got to her feet. “We have to get to our room, now!”