I came home from work. Excited to meet my ever so distant workaholic wife. She was obsessed with her pipe dream of a project.
An actual time machine.
I contested many times. Tried to reason with her. But to no avail, I think she’s gone a bit mad. But I just go along with it now.
Of course she’ll still be working on the machine in the garage. I opened the garage door expecting to see her elbow deep in electronics and grease.
“Honey?”
Suddenly, I heard a loud bang, and what I assumed to be a cluster of metallic items that clinked together.
The garage door fully open now. Equipment and tools scattered everywhere.
In the middle of it all. I spot my wife. On her knees, back arched and head onto the ground.
There’s a hammer stuck deep in her skull. An explosion of blood surrounded her.
I heard footsteps running away from me. I caught in the corner of my eye a silhouetto of a man. I instantly ran after him. He went into the bathroom. I kicked open the door. But no one was there. The window was open.
How did he leave so fast?
I returned to my wife in horror.
Who did this? Why did they do it?
In her hand was an electronic bracelet. I gently lifted it out of her lifeless corpse. It had a little LED screen
Choose time jump date
It showed 3 dates on it. Today, Yesterday, and the day before that.
No way she pulled it off. Did she?
I had to try to save her,
I wore the bracelet and attempted to navigate the screen, but it didn’t let me choose today’s date or yesterday’s.
Apparently I could only time jump in ascending order of dates. I had to go back to the day prior to yesterday first. I chose it and clicked on the button next to the screen.
The machine whirred. I stood in the middle of its circular design. I looked at my wife dead on the ground.
“I’ll save you”
zoom
bang
I can only describe what I felt as if I had just been spawned in this new reality. Suddenly I started seeing the garage.
As I materialized, a shockwave came out of the machine and gave out a blast. The equipment my wife used to work on the machine all flung away.
I checked my watch. It really was 2 days ago. My wife wasn’t here though. I checked everywhere for her, in the garage and upstairs. But I couldn’t find her. I decided to ring her up.
ring ring
“Hello?”
“I’m so glad to hear your voice”
“Hi honey. What is it?”
“Listen to me. It worked. Your time machine worked.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You need to listen to me. It worked. And someone is coming to-”
My bracelet started beeping. Suddenly. I was disappearing. I couldn’t finish my sentence.
zoom
bang
I spawned back in the machine. The shockwave threw everything in the air. My wife’s body, affected by this, flipped on the ground. She was still dead.
No time to waste.
I checked my bracelet. A red marker covered the first date. 2 more greens to go. I chose yesterday and clicked the button. I needed to be fast.
zoom
bang
The machine whirred, and I was there. I anticipated the shockwave. I checked around me. My wife wasn’t here again.
I called her. I had to make use of time.
“Hey honey. You need to listen to me”
“Um yes? Hi. What is it?”
“Your time machine worked and someone is coming to kill you tomorrow. You need to leave the house. Go stay at your sisters’ for the week.”
“Honey what the hell are you talking about?”
“I don’t have time to explain. You need to trust me”
“So what you said yesterday…. I can’t believe it. It actually worked? My time machine. But someone is going to kill me?”
“Yes. Please you have to believe me”
“Ok then wait. I can’t stay at my sister’s. If I do that then that means I never finished working on the machine. It never would’ve been completed. If you go back now you’d be stuck in an infinite time loop.
Heres what you have to do. Go back in time to the day it happened. Get a weapon with you and stop him before he kills me”
My bracelet started beeping. I couldn’t even reply to her.
zoom
bang
I’m back in present time. I only had one chance left. I grabbed a wrench from the mess of tools around me.
I’m gonna kill this bastard.
I chose the final date.
The machine hummed and buzzed.
zoom
I needed to be fast.
It’s working. I’m going back to when it started.
I can see her. My beautiful wife she’s working on the machine.
I’m almost done materializing.
bang
It happened in a split second.
Oh god.
The shockwave…
The hammer in her hand… blew into her skull. She’s faced down on the ground. Blood all around.
I… did this
I heard the garage door open.
“Honey?”
Oh no. I had to run away. Maybe I could fix this.
I ran into the bathroom.
The bracelet started beeping.
It took me back. Back to the future.
She’s still there. Motionless.
I couldn’t save her.
I check my bracelet.
All three dates are crossed out in red.
I hold her in my arms. Defeated.
I notice on the back of the bracelet, engraved in writing.
‘The past is already set in stone. It’s only the future we can change’.