Paradox

Sci-fi short story

A short sci-fi tale of the perils of precognition and temporal loops.

This story was originally published in the Thread of the Past anthology on April 23, 2026. The rights have reverted to me and are now presented here today for consideration in the 2026 Lunar Awards (S11/R3).

Enjoy :)

Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash

Paradox

by Nicholas Samuel Stember

The dish fell from Beth’s trembling hands, exploding into a hundred tiny shards. The crash echoed in the kitchen, startling her out of the vision which had briefly held her prisoner.

“Beth?” her husband asked as he ran to her side and gripped her arm, turning her to face him. For a moment she stared at him, her eyes hauntingly vacant, then a weak smile spread across her lips.

“You had that vision again,” he stated more than asked as he brushed the cold sweat from her forehead, then pulled her into his arms.

She nodded silently and rested her head against his strong chest. “Just as before,” her voice trembled softly. “Why can’t I stop them?”

“Beth,” her husband said with a sigh that quickly became a gentle smile as he knelt and began picking up the larger pieces of glass, “you’ve got to learn to control these daydreams.”

“They’re not daydreams,” she said, a hurt look on her face. For a moment she stared down into his warm eyes, then nodded slowly. “You’re right,” she said, while joining him in the cleanup. Then she reached out and clutched his hand tightly. “But Evan, how can I ignore this one...it’s about us.”

Evan shook his head and reached over to caress the soft curve of his wife’s smooth cheek. “So, you had a daydream that we were both in an accident—”

“But this is the third time I had this vision…and it’s always the same. We’re flying to the business conference and the plane goes down...we die, Evan.”

“Everyone has recurring dreams.”

“But not while they’re awake,” she defended, ignoring the skeptical look on her husband’s face. “What about three years ago,” she asked, hoping he would understand her dread, “when I had the vision that Keith’s boat would sink?”

“So?”

“So... I had that exact same vision three days in a row, and the next day his boat sank.”

“Beth,” Evan said with a tired grin, “Keith’s boat was about to be repossessed. He sank it himself for the insurance and you know it. He had even told us that he was thinking of doing it.”

Determined, she tightened her lips. “That doesn’t change the fact that he did it right after I had a vision about it three times.”

“Beth—”

“What about when I predicted that Tracy would have mice in her house?”

“She’s an experimental psychologist; she brought them home from work.”

“You’re not taking me seriously!”

“What’s to take seriously?” Evan asked, while wondering how soon they should start packing for the early flight tomorrow. “They were only daydreams...coincidences...your overactive imagination taking you for a joy ride.”

“At least Peter listened to me when I had the visions about him getting run over by a triple tractor trailer. He stayed in all day and didn’t come near anything on wheels.”

“Beth,” Evan said, his smile fading, “Peter jumped out of his apartment window the night after. He was an unstable person who thought he could fly twenty stories above ground.”

“So only unstable people believe me, is that what you’re saying?”

“Yes.”

“Please, Evan,” she pleaded as she hugged him tightly. “Let’s stay home tomorrow and not go near the airport. I don’t want to lose what we have together.”

He was about to let her know again how silly she sounded but then looked into her watering eyes and read the desperate love that was laced with fear. “Fine,” he sighed, “we’ll call out sick and cancel the trip.”

The smile that rewarded him was well worth the combined lost weekend’s wages. Beth forgot the mess and kissed him deeply.

“Thank you for understanding,” she glowed, suddenly relieved. “I love you so much.”

He returned the embrace, grateful that she was happy again. “I love you too, Beth.”

“Let’s leave this for tomorrow and get some sleep,” she suggested.

“Well,” he grinned slyly as he gently laid tender kisses on her neck, “we should at least go upstairs.”

She laughed and brought her lips up to his.

#

“So, do you regret missing the trip?” Beth asked as she pulled on her nightgown and jumped into bed, happy that the weekend had passed uneventfully.

“Not at all,” Evan admitted while putting away his clothes. “It was fun getting out of one of those trips to spend a quiet weekend at home with you.”

“And safer,” she added.

Evan rolled his eyes skyward as he hopped into the bed beside her. “At least you should sleep well tonight, no more bad dreams...during the day or night, right?”

“Sure,” she agreed as she took one last look at her iPad. “No flight’s had a problem this weekend as well. When we cancelled our charter flight, the other two passengers must have changed their arrangements as well. So, we ended up saving two other people.”

“Three, if you count the pilot.”

“Wow, you’re right…oh, wait,” she said as her eye caught something in the news on her tablet. “Wasn’t our pilot’s name Devon West?”

“Mhmm,” Evan said with a nod. “Why?”

“I guess I didn’t save him for long, he fell down an elevator shaft in his apartment building last night. “Poor guy.”

“Oh…wow, yeah he was nice.”

Beth started to turn out the lights and leaned over to kiss him.

Evan smiled, then gave her a hug. “Let’s get some slee—” He paused as he turned his head towards their bedroom door. “Did you hear that?”

“Hear what?” Beth asked, looking at him with an amused smile. “Are there ghosts in our house?” She started to laugh, then stopped when she heard it too. “It sounds like someone walking around downstairs.”

Evan nodded as he got out of bed and pulled on his pants. He glanced over at the clock, which plainly read one minute after midnight. At that hour, no one that they would want to see could possibly be in their house. “I’m going to check it out.”

“Not without me,” Beth insisted as she got up and joined him by the door.

“You should stay here. Call 911.”

Beth glanced at her tablet and her brow furrowed. “That’s weird, I had a signal a moment ago.” She reached over to the phone on her nightstand and picked it up and listened. “No dial tone.”

Evan let out a breath and nodded. “Alright, then you’re definitely not coming.”

“No way.”

Evan saw that same determination in her face and sighed...he knew there was no point in arguing. “Fine but stay quiet. If it’s a burglar, I don’t want to let him know we saw him.”

“What if it is?” she asked, her eyes wide.

“Then we call the police.”

She raised her eyebrows at him.

“I’ll try sticking my iPhone out the window to get a signal, it’s probably just our internet service.”

Beth nodded as he slowly opened the door. Together, they quietly slunk out onto the dark hallway, both grateful for the silence that plush wall to wall carpeting afforded them. Quickly they stole over to the top of the staircase and peered down into the living room, dimly lit by the shine of the streetlights through the windows. For an endless moment they remained motionless, their eyes riveted to the first floor. Then they both saw movement in the shadows — there, below, were two men dressed in matching black clothing, trench coats, and blackened sunglasses.

Beth and Evan froze; their faces flushed with shock — this was not what they had expected at all. They watched as the men stalked their living room and then regrouped at the base of the staircase. They talked in low tones as they reached into their coats and pulled out dark objects which reflected the night’s pale light ...pistols! The couple quickly retreated to their bedroom, trying to make as little noise as possible.

“They have guns!” Beth whispered as she closed the door behind them and looked at her husband, her face turning pale.

“I saw, I saw,” Evan quietly replied, confusion racking his brain. “Who the hell are they? They looked like spies from some bad movie.”

“Did you send in our taxes?” Beth asked.

He glared at her. “Beth…really?”

“I’m sorry…I’m scared.”

Evan took her hand in his firm grip, trying to share his confidence…then realized that he had none to spare. “We have to get out of here.”

“Shouldn’t we call the police?” Beth inquired, half panicking. “You said you’d put your phone out the window to get a signal.”

“There’s no time for that,” he urged as he pushed her towards the bedroom window and opened it. “Did you see how they were going back and forth without taking anything? They aren’t here to steal; they’re here for us.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Beth responded shakily. “What would they want us for? They want our computers and other valuables.”

“In trench coats and sunglasses?” Evan asked while helping her out onto the slanted colonial roof. The cool night air blew through her rumpled hair, causing it to flow in her face.

“Sure,” she responded as she offered him a hand to help him out. “Maybe they’re corporate thieves.”

“Corporate thieves embezzle, Beth,” he snapped while swinging his leg out onto the roof, “they don’t steal our stuff—”

The door to the hallway fell in with a bang as the first of the intruders kicked it open and looked straight at Evan, who was still halfway out the window. Before a word could be said, the man in the business suit raised his long-barreled automatic and fired a shot at the window.

Evan was surprised at the lack of noise that came from the gun, as if the sounds were muffled — but not as surprised as he was when he felt the furious stab of pain in his side as the bullet penetrated, tossing him out the window. He clutched his ribs as he rolled down the roof, falling off the side into their newly planted vegetable garden.

“Evan!” Beth desperately called out as she half crawled, half slid down the roof to where he fell, heedless of the shots which silently sliced the air above her head like tiny angels of death. She reached the edge and jumped the twelve-foot drop to the soft earth, feeling a dull throb of pain shoot up her leg as she landed, twisting her ankle. She fell next to her husband who was leaning against the side of their house and held him tightly. “Are you alright?”

“Do I look alright?” he asked sarcastically as he winced from the pain. He took his hand off of his ribs and looked at the blood that covered it.

“What are we going to do?” Beth asked as the two of them struggled to their feet. She felt her ankle throb and wondered if it was broken, “our phones are in the bedroom.”

“We’ll get to the garage,” Evan replied. “Then we’ll take the car to the police station...” His determination faltered as reality struck home. “Of course, the keys are in the house.”

“No,” his wife added, “I always keep a spare set in a loose section of the wall in the garage. Let’s go.”

They hobbled to the garage door and went inside, locking it behind them. Evan pulled himself into the sedan while Beth limped to the wall where the keys were.

“I’ve got them,” Beth said with relief.

“Forget it,” Evan shot back. “They already took out the car.”

She looked over to find that all four tires were flat, and the hood was slightly ajar. “Damn,” she cursed as tears started to form in her eyes. “Who are they Evan? Why are they trying to kill us?”

“I don’t know,” her husband replied with growing determination. “But were not going to be killed without a fight.” He started rummaging through one of the many old forgotten boxes which lined the walls of the garage.

“What are you looking for?” Beth asked.

“That old hunting crossbow that my dad left me.”

“But you never used the thing,” she replied, then lowered her voice when she heard the front door to their house open and close. “You don’t even know how.”

“What’s there to know?” Evan whispered as he finally pulled out the old aluminum crossbow and the one bolt that was scotch taped to its side. I’ve seen my dad do it dozens of times,” he explained. “You pull the cord back like this,” he tugged until it locked in place, “then you place the arrow in position.”

“Bolt,” she corrected while nervously watching the garage door.

“Whatever,” he grumbled. “It was my dad’s sport, not mine.”

Beth looked at the razor edges of the bolt’s tip as they glistened in the ashen light that filtered through the small skylight in the roof of the garage. “But you only have one shot, and there are two of them.”

“I know,” he replied grimly as he put his finger to his lips and ushered her to the wall just inside the doorway. Slowly the couple saw the doorknob turn back and forth as someone tried to gain entrance to the locked garage. Evan pulled his wife down low, hoping not to be seen as the assailants entered.

Once again, one of their doors was kicked open as the two men entered, their guns out and ready. Beth felt her heart stop as they walked right past them, mere feet away. Slowly they strode to the car as one peered into it and the other went right to the spot in the wall where Beth had hidden the key. Her lips parted in astonishment, no one knew about that hole, not even Evan. She tried to make her husband notice that but froze as she watched him raise the crossbow and aim at the one by the wall. The other man by the car had opened the car door and was already half inside. His knuckles whitened around the trigger as the muscles in his arm quivered with tension...they both knew that they would only get one chance.

As silent as the muffled guns, the lethal bolt left the bow and cleaved the air, embedding itself in the back of the man near the wall, just below his neck — severing his spine. Without a sound, he fell lifelessly to the ground. Instantly Evan was up, racing as well as he could to the other man. The intruder attempted to get out of the car, but Evan kicked at the door, crushing the man in the black with the force of the blow. The assailant fell to the cold concrete floor, reaching for his dropped gun. However, Evan could only let out a groan as he sank to the ground, the pain from his wound overcoming him at last. Beth quickly pounced to his side and picked up the discarded crossbow and brought it down on the intruder’s head with a bone-shattering crunch. Weakly, she slumped to her knees by her husband and hugged him tightly. “We got them,” she gasped, not sure if she was in shock over still being alive or the fact that she might have killed someone.

Evan nodded as they gazed at the dead man next to them. “None of this makes sense,” he said while taking deep breaths. “They were here to murder us.”

“Why would someone want us dead?” Beth asked, still not sure if she believed any of this.

“I dunno,” her husband admitted wearily. “Check for a wallet.” Then he picked up one of the fallen pair of sunglasses and examined it, a large crack crisscrossed the right lens. “How do they see through these things in the dark?”

Beth ignored him as she searched through the man’s clothes but only found one item. “All he had was this.” She held forth a translucent red card the size of a credit card.

“What is it?” Evan asked.

“It’s his identification,” came a sternly even voice behind them.

They whirled to find two more men in black standing six feet away, both with weapons pointed at them. Beth reached for the dead man’s gun but was warned back by the two as they leveled their pistols at her head.

“What the hell is this about?” Evan demanded. “We haven’t done anything.”

“Not you directly,” the one that had spoken before admitted, “but you are complicit for going along with it.”

“Do you think that we’re terrorists?” Beth asked, wondering if Homeland Security had gotten their files crossed with another couple. She had heard that such things could happen.

“Of a sort,” the intruder said. “The true criminal is you, Elizabeth Mills.”

“Me?”

“We should have stopped you after your last transgression, when we had to clean up after you with Mr. Kolberg...but we chose to give you a second chance.”

“Peter?” questioned Evan.

Beth’s mouth opened in horror. “You killed him.”

The intruder nodded. “Yes. It became necessary after you changed the natural course of events with your visions. Everyone has a predetermined time of death, and any disruption to that must be corrected. We’ve kept a strong eye on you, to make sure that you didn’t use your…ability…to alter what must be again. But you did, and now we have to fix it permanently. We already took care of the pilot and the other couple who were supposed to be on the plane.”

“The other couple?”

The assailant nodded unemotionally. “Terrible car accident right before we came here.”

“What are you guys,” Evan asked in disbelief, half joking out of fear, “the time police?”

“No, Mr. Mills,” the man in the corrected, “we are the Anti-Paradox Enforcers....but yes, I suppose you could call us a sort of time police.”

“Paradox?” questioned Beth as she nervously reached for her husband’s hand and clasped it tightly, feeling it as cold and clammy as her own.

“Yes, you were both supposed to die yesterday,” he informed the couple, “but you avoided that. Thus, you created a rip in the space time continuum that must be corrected...a paradox. If you two go on living, then the future becomes altered. No one has the right to commit that crime. I’m sorry,” he added unemotionally as they each took aim, “but the timeline must be preserved.” The guns fired...

#

The dish fell from Beth’s trembling hands, shattering with a noise that snapped her out of her vision.

“Beth?” her husband asked as he quickly ran into the kitchen. “Are you alright?”

Quickly she turned to her husband and gripped him tightly, thanking God that they were both still alive and together. But no matter how hard she tried; she just could not stop trembling.

“You have that vision again?” Evan asked wearily as he looked down at the glass at her feet, then he pulled her into a soft embrace.

She nodded silently while laying her head against his chest. “Just as before,” her voice shook with fright. “Only this time it was worse…much worse.”

He studied her with worried consideration, then let out a soft breath. “Perhaps we shouldn’t go to the conference. We could just spend a quiet weekend here at home. It could be just what you need—”

“Yes...No,” she shot back as she pulled to arm’s length, then calmed down when she saw the loving concern in his gentle eyes. “I mean yes, let’s skip the conference, but no...I want to get away from here.”

“How far away?” he asked as he pulled her back close.

“Far…really far…like as in we get in the car and just leave.”

“Beth?”

There was no answer for a moment, and he realized she was crying.

“It won’t matter,” she whispered, her voice suddenly hollow as she thought about how the enforcers had known about her key hiding place, knew they would go for the car before they did. But then her brow crinkled as the tears stopped, a sudden realization coming to her. “They didn’t know about the crossbow…”

“Who didn’t know?”

She glanced up at him, a sudden determination in her mind. “I’ll tell you as we pack for our trip. We’re going to stop at the sports center and get some more bolts for that crossbow of your dad’s…and I can think of a few more things we may need as well.”

Evan stared at her for a moment but read the fire in her eyes and shrugged. “This must have been some vision you had this time. What are we preparing for…the end of the world?”

“No,” she said as she gave him a quick kiss, “just making sure we get to stay in it.”

#

It didn’t take more than twenty minutes for them to pack the essentials and a few changes of clothes. All the while Beth went over what had been different in her vision the last time.

To his credit, Evan held back any remarks, even when she was talking about how he had killed the first enforcer with the crossbow, and then she had taken out the second one using the crossbow as a club. It wasn’t until she mentioned how she almost got the fallen gun in time and then the explanation of who these “Paradox Police” were, that he finally had to sit down on the bed and try to absorb it all.

She zipped up her bag and saw the look on her husband’s face. She wasn’t sure if it was shock or disbelief, but he seemed frozen in thought.

“Evan?” she said as she placed a hand onto his arm, hoping her touch would snap him out of it.

“I…I’m not sure what to really make of all this.” He glanced down at the news app on his phone. “I don’t see anything about the pilot like you mentioned, or the other couple.”

“Of course not,” she tried to explain. “That won’t be reported on until tomorrow. Just like tomorrow night the enforcers will come to get us. But this time we’ll be long gone…and prepared.”

He didn’t move, until she gave his arm a sharp pull, snapping him out of it.

“I love you and I know you’re really confused right now, but I need you to trust me, can you do that? Please?” She reached up and gently moved his face so that he was looking into her eyes, and for a moment he said nothing, but then his face grew stern and he nodded sharply.

“Of course,” he said as he gave her a quick kiss then got up and picked up both their bags. “Let’s do this.”

With a smile she led him back downstairs and into the garage, but as she started to go down the three steps to the concrete floor she froze.

The automatic lights didn’t snap on. They were motion sensitive and always came on as they hit the first step.

“Lights out?” Even asked. “That’s odd.”

She gave his hand a sharp squeeze and he went silent, for a second.

“It may just be the light,” he whispered.

“Maybe,” she said as she scanned the garage, hoping not to spot anything out of the ordinary in the dim light that filtered through the small window along the side of the garage.

Evan slipped by her and went along the back wall to the storage boxes. He rummaged for a few moments, then let out a soft note surprise.

“What is it?” she asked, trying to see what he was doing despite the darkness.

“Oh, I found my dad’s crossbow, but I could have sworn I had an arrow taped to the side.”

“Bolt,” she corrected quietly, but she was no longer looking at Evan, but at the car. The tires were already flat. She quickly tiptoed over to her husband and took his hand. “Something is wrong…they weren’t supposed to get to the car until tomorrow…and the bolt was there last time.”

“We learn from our mistakes,” came the flat voice from the kitchen behind her.

Beth held Evan’s hand tightly as they both looked back at the door to the garage, at the enforcer that was standing there. There was another right behind him, and they both already had their weapons out.

Now that she could see them in the light, she could see they didn’t seem completely human. Oh, they were both average height men who seemed mostly normal, though she couldn’t see their eyes due to the black glasses. What struck her was how their hair seemed to shimmer in the light from the kitchen, as if there was something not quite natural about it, and they both had some sort of cybernetic implants along the left sides of their faces next to their ears.

The lead of the two men, came down the steps, never taking his eyes or aim off of Beth, the other focused on Evan.

“I’m sorry it’s come to this, again, Ms. Mills,” the enforcer said, and by his voice she realized it wasn’t the first team they encountered before, but the second team that spoke to them. “But it seems your extra sensory visions somehow gave us all a glimpse into what went wrong, so we were better prepared this time.”

“But if you remembered what happened, why doesn’t Evan?”

The second enforcer motioned towards her husband with his gun. “He’s just a person, like all the other people in this world, he doesn’t live outside the normal time flow like we do.”

“And to be honest,” the first one continued, “we’re still trying to figure out how you do what you do, but in the end it doesn’t matter. You know how this has to end.”

Beth gripped Evan’s hand tightly. Dozens of different pleas came to her mind in that brief moment, but she knew they would fall on deaf ears, so she said the only thing left to say.

“I’m sorry, Evan…I love you.”

“I love you, too,” was his hoarse reply as the shock of what was happening struggled to enter his reality.

The guns fired.

#

The dish fell from Beth’s trembling hands, shattering with a noise that snapped her out of her vision.

“Beth?” her husband asked with concern as he quickly ran into the kitchen. “Are you alright?”

“Crap!” she exclaimed as she looked down at the shards of glass.

“It’s just a glass dish,” her husband said as he hugged her from behind.

“No, that’s not it!” she said, too angry to cry, too tired to be angry. “It’s never going to end…they’ll keep coming and coming and we’re going to end up right back here. We really are stuck in this time paradox.”

“Not just you,” came the voice from behind them with just the slightest hint of annoyance.

They both whirled to see the two enforcers were already in their kitchen, but this time the guns weren’t out, and they were seated at their breakfast table.

“Who the hell are you?” Evan snapped at the intruders.

Beth grabbed his hand and held him close to her. “The men from my vision…they’re Anti-Paradox Enforcers…they are here to kill us…again.”

“What?”

“No, Ms. Mills,” the lead enforcer said with a note of exasperation, “for some reason your visions are doing more than telling you what’s coming, they are sticking us all into this paradoxical time loop.”

“But then why aren’t we dealing with the first team again?” she asked as she continued to hold her husband back from whatever he had planned. “If the loop kept sending us back to my dish breaking, why are we getting the second team each time now?”

The enforcer gave the slightest scoff at the ‘second team’ comment, but then his lips pursed, and he let out a breath. “Well, it seems this…loop…is resetting you and your husband each time, but since we exist outside the normal flow of time, your effect on us is more…permanent. You and your husband really did manage to kill off the first team.”

“They were often sloppy and careless,” the second enforcer commented half to himself.

For a moment the four of them said nothing, then Evan cleared his throat as his eyes flicked to the knife rack.

“Let’s not go there right now,” the first enforcer said, noticing where Evan’s attention went.

“Seems we have little choice,” Beth said, realizing she was getting just as annoyed as they were, and that was overriding her inner terror. “If we manage to kill you both, will that set us free from this loop?”

The second enforcer pulled out his gun, but the first shook his head.

“No, Elizabeth…may I call you Elizabeth?”

“Beth,” she replied curtly.

“Alright, Beth. There is a way for us all out of this loop, and that’s for your lives to end here.”

Beth took a deep breath. “Won’t that just send me back to the dish drop?”

“Oh,” the enforcer said, raising his hand, “I didn’t mean like the last two times. As you’ve noted, we are now down two enforcers, and I believe the only way for us all to escape this loop is to bring you with us back to our headquarters.”

“Wait…really?” she asked but then grabbed Evan’s hand harder. “I’m not going anywhere without my husband.”

“And we have two vacancies…thanks to you and your husband,” the enforcer said with a forced smile as he stood up from the table. “You’ll both come with us…”

“I’m really confused right now,” Evan finally said.

“Do we have a deal, Beth?” the enforcer asked.

She shrugged and glanced over at Evan and saw the bafflement in his eyes, and it made her anger fade, and a smile formed on her lips.

“We did always say we wanted to really get away from all this.”

His mouth opened, then closed, then opened again, and he saw the love in her eyes and had to smile as well. “I…I can’t wait to hear what led up to this…but I’d go anywhere with you.”

They hugged as the second enforcer stood up as well and put away his weapon, then the first one pulled out a brightly colored device from his coat and tapped a few buttons.

“Beth, Evan…it’s time to leave this all behind. You ready?”

Beth linked her arm in Evan’s as she looked up into his eyes and smiled, then he smiled back down at her, and they both nodded.

A moment later, the house was empty.