The Real Time Turner

Chapter 4: Ashley

"Whoa!" Ashley had whispered. Luke had suggested that he and Ashley go to his house and discuss the weird happenings. Ashley was dumbstruck when she saw Luke's house. The words big and huge couldn't describe his house. 

It was a gigantic mansion with pillars and columns around it. It had a huge compound wall with big white gates. Inside the compound wall was even more sightful. There were tall palm trees with small fashionably trimmed bushes and shrubs. The ground was covered with freshly mown grass lawn, and sprinklers set off. The front steps of the house were made of silver coloured marble.

Luke pushed open the large front door and Ashley almost fainted seeing the inside. It was huge than ever, with more pillars and more marble. The hall had an enormous sparkling chandelier hanging from the ceiling. There was a massive staircase that led upstairs from the hall. Luke ushered Ashley to climb, and after at least five minutes of walking, they came to his room.

Luke's room was huge too. Ashley noticed how messy it was. Piles of clothes lay on a chair and the floor. Wrappers of chocolates and other snacks were littered on his desk. His bed was kept unmade.

 Ashley giggled lightly to herself as Luke dashed around his room to make it likeable. Ashley noticed his posters of music bands and to her surprise, saw books on his bookshelf. She smiled slightly to herself as she looked at his books and flipped through them.

She noticed a photo sitting on his bedside table. It was a pretty, middle-aged woman with the same jet-black hair and sea-green eyes as Luke's. Ashley hummed to herself in thought as she realized she had met neither of Luke's parents. She turned to face him who had finished cleaning up the mess [mostly] and was now turning on his computer.

"Hey, who's this?" Ashley questioned Luke, pointing to the photo.

"Hm?" Luke turned with a bright smile on his face. But as soon as he saw what Ashley was pointing at, his smile faded as the brightness dimmed and his shoulders faltered.

"Oh that..it's um, its's no one nevermind"

Ashley caught the hint that it was a sensitive subject and let it go. Then she remembered about his parents. She settled herself on his bed.

"What about your parents? I didn't meet them"

Luke didn't reply for a while and then exclaimed, "Hey Ash, look at this!" which made Ashley jump. Ashley felt funny about her new nickname but she didn't mind. She was shocked when she saw what Luke had exclaimed about.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"So what does it mean?" Luke asked for the umpteenth time.

"I told you, I don't know" Ashley replied, also for the umpteenth time.

They had figured that they had time travelled accidentally, and now the new thing was, there was a note that held a prophecy kind of poem thingy. It seemed highly confidential and super important as if their lives depended on it. They were sure it was the clue and key to getting them out of this mess. It was the solution to their problem. It was the best solution. Except they didn't know what the heck it was.

Luke and Ashley racked their brains, coming up with all kinds of answers.

"Five times you may turn," Ashley recalled. "That obviously means we can turn it five times"

"And get something valuable to learn," Luke continued. "Okay, so we're supposed to learn a lesson or something"

"Fulfill your dearest wish. Okay, so we have to fulfil something"

"And try hard not to perish" Luke shuddered. "Now that's definitely something I would do"

"Alright, I got it" Ashley stated. "Okay, so, we have five turns on the Time-Turner, and we got to fulfil a dearest wish, and meanwhile learn a valuable lesson, and the last line; try hard not to perish- meaning we can only return to the present if we fulfil the wish without dying"