Bootstrap Paradox

“Hello…” through static came from somewhere in the room. “Hello? Tori?”

            Tori heard her name, the voice sounded familiar. There was a lot of static and it sounded faint. She heard more static and then heard, “Under the bed Tori.”

            She was sitting on the bed! She jumped up and lifted the bed skirt. She saw an old tape recorder laying there, playing. She reached over, pulled it out and sat with it on her bed. Who had put it there?

            “By now I guess you’ve found me, or well… you,” the voice said. Tori screamed, it was her own voice.

            “How?” she asked the empty room.

            “Don’t ask me how, I don’t know how it works, I don’t have much time because… well, let’s not get too heavy just yet,” the voice said.

            “There is no way that’s me, I don’t remember recording that,” Tori said.

            “That’s because you haven’t recorded it yet,” the voice said.

            Tori gasped and threw the blanket over the recorder, “Can you hear me?”

            “No, I can’t hear you, I just remember what I… you are saying now, because well, I said it already, just yesterday,” the tape said.

            “Okay, this is a prank or something,” Tori said, lifting the cover and examining the recorder, “someone used a voice changer.”

            “Then how would I know what you’re going to say?” the tape asked. “Look everything you’re thinking, I already thought. You’re thinking someone is listening to you and responding in real time somehow. All the questions you have, I had them, I’m telling you, the less you worry about how this works and more you worry about listening to me… well, the better our chances this time,” the voice said.

            “This time?” Tori asked.

            “Yeah, I mean I guess it’s like a time loop, the you version of me will probably have new ideas if you learn something I… we… whatever, if you learn something new this time, at least I’m hoping that’s how it works. If everything is set in stone you’re doomed,” the voice said.

            “I don’t understand, who are you?” Tori asked.

            “I’m you obviously, you tomorrow,” the voice said.

            “Where did you get the recorder?” Tori asked.

            “Under the bed obviously, I asked the same thing, now I realize how silly that question was, but listen to me, I don’t have a lot of time. I need you to do everything I say, exactly how I tell you, okay?” the voice asked.

            Tori scoffed, “Yeah right, Jason?” Tori looked around the room for a hidden camera.

            “I searched yesterday, there is no camera, Jason was not… I mean is not pranking you, okay? Just please trust me,” the voice said.

            “I don’t…” Tori started.

            “You don’t have anything to lose, I’m not going to ask you to do something embarrassing I just need you to be… cautious, okay? If I do ask you to do something outrageously silly… throw this recorder out the window if you want to, but I won’t. By the time you realize it’s real… that… that this is important, it will be too late if you don’t start now, please?” the voice pleaded.

            “Is it…umm too late for you?” Tori started.

            “Yes, I failed, I have some time, but I didn’t listen immediately and I failed, please do it this time and if it works, maybe we can make it,” the voice said. Tori could tell she was crying.

            “Okay,” Tori said.

            “This was the point of the tape I turned it off and tossed it aside. I came back and grabbed it later when I realized… well, we’ll get there. But maybe you’re still listening this time. Whether you are or not, whenever you’re listening, this is what I need you to do,” the voice said. Tori was too curious to just turn it off.

            “The first thing I want you to do is go into the living room and tell mom you’re sick. Tod’s coming over tonight for dinner. The goal is to prevent that through any means necessary, got it?” The voice instructed.

            “Tod? Why?” Tori chuckled.  

            “Trust me, I think doing this would have saved me so much trouble, just make sure Tod does NOT come over for dinner, go now!” The tape shouted at her. Tori shut it off, what was she doing? This couldn’t be real, could it? She didn’t like Tod that much, but he was her mom’s boyfriend, not hers. Was she having some sort of episode? Her subconscious mind was taking over telling her to do things to get what she secretly wanted? Things she couldn’t admit she wanted, like breaking up Tod and her mom? And how could she fake being sick? She hadn’t done that since grade school. Then she remembered Jason. The ultimate in annoying little brother pranksters. He had a collection of prank toys and junk. She ran to his room, unsure why she was listening to the ghost voice of her future self from a tape recorder she found under her bed. Jason was visiting one of his friends until later, so his room was empty. She made her way into his room slowly because he liked to set traps. The stash was in this closet. She knew he had fake vomit. Not the rubbery solid kind either. Really advanced realistic slime type stuff, it was disgusting. He had pranked her with it before but never mom, because he was saving it to use to fake sick. Conveniently for Tori.

            It was a lot of slime in a bucket. It came with little bags to fill up and squeeze in your hand until they burst open. She’d seen Jason do it and then he’d demonstrated it for her when she freaked out on him about it. But knowing it was fake didn’t lessen how gross it was by that much. She wondered just how important it was to stop this date tonight. She thought of the sound of her own voice. The tremble in it, the sniffling. Something really bad was going to happen and she could possibly prevent it with this nasty slime. She gagged her way through getting the job done and went into the kitchen where her mom was cooking dinner. She moaned loudly and flopped down at the table.

            “What’s wrong?” her mom asked, not turning around.

            “I don’t feel good,” Tori groaned.

            Her mom looked back at her and rolled her eyes, “Because you don’t like Tod?”

            “It’s not that, I really…” she put both hands up to her mouth and stood up quickly making gagging noises. She squeezed the bag hidden in her hand tightly. Nothing happened at first so she dug her fingernails in and it popped. Her mom turned at the sound and saw her ‘getting sick’ right onto the kitchen floor.

            “Oh my gosh, Tori!” her mom shouted. Tori hid the baggy behind her and tried not to look at the mess on the floor. She didn’t have to fake gagging as her mom led her to the bathroom to wash up. “Here, get cleaned up and I’ll clean the kitchen, I’m sorry I doubted you,” her mom said pushing the hair off of Tori’s face.

            “I want to lay down,” Tori groaned.

            “Yes, wash off and get in bed,” her mom said.

            “Are you going to leave me alone?” Tori whined.

            “Just long enough to clean up the kitchen, Jason is having dinner at Joe’s house. I’ll put the dinner with Tod on hold until tomorrow night,” her mom said leading her into her bedroom and helping her into bed. Well, that was good but how would Tori listen to the rest of the tape with her mom hovering over her for the rest of the night? By the time her mom returned, and Tori made sure the date was cancelled Tori was pretending to be sleepy. In no time she had pretended to doze off, fake snoring lightly. Her mom checked her forehead, then turned off her bedroom light and left the room.

            Tori snuck out of bed and got the recorder and pushed play again. The voice came back: “… if you managed to cancel the date, good. The next thing you need to do is get Jason and mom into the basement.”

            “I just faked sick,” Tori pouted, “how am I going to get them down there.”

            “I’m not sure how to do that, figure it out somehow because tomorrow it will be too late,” the voice said. Then it sobbed a little bit, sniffling into the microphone, “okay… umm once they are in there board up the door and nail them in there.”

            “WHAT?” Tori shouted.

            “Tori? You awake?” her mom called to her. Tori stopped the tape and shoved the recorder under the blanket. Her mom came in just as she had gotten back into sleeping position and closed her eyes. Her mom came over and felt her head again. Tori breathed slowly and tried to make soft snoring sounds. Once her mom left again she got up and went into her bathroom.

            She pressed play again: “Don’t freak out, this is important! Just do it!”

            “How? Why?” Tori asked.

            “You’re going to want to figure out how to do this and get it done before you keep listening because you will try and talk to them. Don’t do that, they won’t believe you or this tape, trust me and the ‘mes’ I didn’t listen to before. This is the best thing for them just… trust me.”

            “Should I go in there with them then?” Tori wondered aloud.

            “Since you are me, if you believe me then you’re probably thinking you should join them but there’s no way to secure them in there like you need to, properly. The boards dad left in the garage and that big tin sheet he was going to use to patch the roof. Use those, cover the basement door on the outside completely and make sure they can’t get out. The goal is to keep them inside the house okay?” the voice said. Tori turned off the tape. Did she really believe this?

            Faking sick was one thing but trapping her family in the basement? That was borderline kidnapping wasn’t it? And how would she get them both down there anyway? The only time more than one person went down there at a time was when there was a tornado warning. Wait! Could she do that? But it wasn’t even storming. And how would she fake the alarm? Well Jason did have that false alarm blaster in his prank trunk. He wasn’t home yet, so she crept out of her room and back into his to get it. Could she get them down there without her mom checking the weather? Or without someone looking out a window? Maybe. Maybe if it was in the middle of the night while everyone was asleep. Sleepy people get confused and react without thinking. If the alarm went off at around three in the morning, maybe they would just go down there in a panic. She hid in her room until she heard her mom and brother go to bed. She had skipped dinner and was starving so she quietly made herself a sandwich and ate it in the garage. She got everything she would need ready for later. The wood, nails, the tin sheet, which she hid behind the couch in the living room. No one would trip over it there but it was very close to the basement door right between the living room and kitchen. She sat in her room waiting for what felt like an eternity. Then she linked her phone to the Bluetooth system of the house.

            “Sorry mom,” she whispered as she went to a microphone app on her phone and blared the prank siren into it at full volume. The sound was slow and creepy. Like an old movie playing an ‘air raid’ siren. She jumped out of bed leaving the siren next to her phone under the covers.

            “Mom! Jason!” she shouted. They both ran out of their rooms.

            “What the shit?” Jason said.

            “It’s a tornado siren,” her mom said ignoring his swear word in her panic, “get to the basement!” Tori tried to act as panicked as they were and followed her mom to the basement door. They went down together and Tori looked around like she was frantic.

            “What do we do?” she asked.

            “Just wait it out,” her mom said. “Are you still sick?”

            “No, not anymore,” Tori said. Jason looked at her suspiciously.

            “Does anyone hear wind?” Jason asked.

            Panicked Tori pointed to the other side of the basement, “What’s that?” She shouted. They both looked where she was pointing and she took off running up the stairs.

            “Tori!” her mom shouted.

            “Sorry, sorry, sorry,” Tori repeated as she rushed up the stairs. She slammed the door behind her and shoved a chair up under the knob. Just one board would hold it good enough until she got it all up there. Her mom banged on the other side shouting at her. She got to work quickly nailing a long board across it. Once one was up she moved the chair and put up a few more boards and finally the tin sheet. She hadn’t done too bad for her first, and hopefully only, kidnapping.

            After that she went back to her room and turned off the siren and got the tape recorder out and started to press play but then there was a knock on the door. It was three in the morning. She got up and crept up to the door. She didn’t say anything but she did press play on the tape recorder.

            “Next, play loud music over Bluetooth and whatever you do, do NOT invite Tod inside. Don’t let mom yell to him to come in or anything,” her voice said slowly on the recorder.

            Now the person on the other side of the door was banging on it. She stood there waiting on them to stop. Then finally it did stop. But then she heard keys. Tod had a key to the front door. She watched the knob. There was a rattling sound as the key went into the slot. She looked at the lock and watched it slowly turn. She still had the hammer in one hand so she held it up, ready to strike. The knob turned slowly and she ran over and tried to hold the door shut. Someone on the other side shoved hard and she went flying across the room. She landed on her phone. She heard it crack. She looked up at the silhouetted figure of at man in the doorway. His long shadow cast across the floor from the full moon. Her eyes adjusted to the dark and she saw that it was Tod. He smiled at her, too wide.

            “Go away,” Tori said.

            “Tori, it’s just me,” Tod said.

            “Tod?” Tori’s mom called from the basement. Tori grabbed her phone and tried to get to her music app.

            “Jess?” Tod called.

            “Something is wrong with Tori,” Tori’s mom said.

            “Well just ask me to come in and help,” Tod said. Tori frantically tried to work her phone through the broken screen and then finally got it to play. Loud music filled the house, drowning out any sounds coming from the basement. Tod looked angry and Tori got up and walked over to the doorway. He grinned at her and she saw that all of his teeth were sharp. She screamed but couldn’t hear herself over the music. She slammed the door in his face even if he couldn’t come in anyway. Then locked the door. She had to try and call the police or someone. She didn’t know if the future her had made it this far before. She went to her room and could barely hear herself think. She went into her closet where there were no speakers.

            She held the tape recorder to her ear and pressed play.

            “The final thing Tori, the last mistake I made… I forgot that he could cut off power to the house,” her own voice said. Then the lights went out and the music stopped. The tape reached the end. Tori let out a gasp, then took the tape out and flipped it over. She took a deep breath and hit the record button… “Hello?” she paused to gulp down a sob, then continued, “Hello? Tori?”