Pandora

• Suemin Hwang, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2012

The room twisted and churned, swirled and whirled. Everything was distorted like water spilt on an inky page. Everything was swirling towards the source of the water; the machine. Diaz was getting increasingly dizzy and petrified. Chairs, books and pieces of important documents were flying everywhere like tiny droplets of water in a maelstrom. The window shuddered like a rattlesnake warning Diaz not to venture any further. The curtains fluttered madly like the flags of an incoming army as the room shook from their imaginary footsteps. The time machine groaned and grunted, it was a trapped demon waiting to be released. It was dangerous beyond comparison and wished to pull Diaz away. The machine had an unimaginable power. It seemed to pull everything towards it as if it had its own centre of gravity. Slowly Diaz was moving towards it too unable to pull against its superior strength. She felt like she was a poor lonely swimmer encased in a rip, forgotten and slowly being pulled to her watery doom. Diaz had instantly regretted turning it on out of curiosity when her father had left it there while getting tools to destroy this dangerous machine. Her father had told her that this machine must not be turned on because the only way to turn it off was to self-destruct, which was even more dangerous. She had such confidence that no matter what she could restrain the behemoth of a curiosity she had, to obey her father diligently. However sometimes, monsters cannot be stopped.