THE PARADOX EFFECT

The van had been driving for at least twenty minutes now. Simon figured that they had driven out of the city center as the time between stops at traffic lights was getting greater each time. In that time Simon had managed to slid his left shoe off his foot and moving painstakingly slowly he had managed to slide his left leg up and out of the zip tie that loosely bound his ankle. He had tried to force the zip tie that held his wrists, but even after he had pushed and twisted and pulled until he had cut his wrist-skin he was unable to break their bind. He gave up on trying to free his hands. My legs will have to do. He thought to himself.  Unbeknownst to them, Simon kept his sight fixed on the two men who watched over him in the back of the van. They were arguing over something in their own language. It was a heated exchange that demanded their full attention. Even the driving chimed in every now and then. As far as watching Simon was concerned, their guard was down. Simon adjusted h...

Susan's entire body tightened as the man who had tried to kill her slid into the booth beside her. His name was Madison McCormack. His friends called him Mads to his face and Mad behind his back. That latter of his nicknames most accurately described him. He was well known for his irrational and fiery temper. Everyone who had spent any amount of time in his presence had known him to take explosive offence at even the slightest off-hand remarks. It was five years ago that Mads had sold Susan the hot-shot that had almost sto. It was common practice in the drug world to cut class A's with thinners to increase the volume of product. The majority opted for baby-teeth, a powered gum numbing agent designed to alleviate the pain of teething in new borns. But other, more creative and adventurous dealers experimented with cutting their product with anything from rat-poison to powdered drain cleaner. Sometimes these chemicals actually increased the high, or they at least added a new dimen...

It was the intense throbbing pain at the back of his head that Simon first noticed. Everything was black and there was no sound, but that pulsating back there ached so much it seemed to have a life of its own.  Sound was the next sense to return. Gently at first, muffled. There was a dull hum, perhaps tyres on a road? There was also talking, three voices, each distinct, but not one of them discernible. Simon tried to open his eyes. It was hard to know if they were open or not. It felt like he had opened them, but there was no light, there was darkness. As the stinging at the back of his head spread to engulf his neck he focused on the voices. The more he listened, the more his hearing cleared. Chinese? Japanese? Definitely an asian language of some sort. Simon couldn't be sure which one. He tried to move his hands, but he found them held firmly in place behind his back by what felt like a plastic zip-tie. He tried to move his legs, but there was a similar bind at his ankles, t...

Susan kept her foot pressed heavy on the gas. The car moving at least forty miles an hour faster than the recommended speed limit. As she drove, weaving dangerously in and out of traffic, she thought about Michelle and just how close to the edge she was. Susan had been there, too many times to remember. She had felt the drowning sensation of being sure that she would never be able to quit her dependency on illicit substances. Yet here she was, well over a year dry and not a single moment of weakness, not a single thought of returning to her ways of old.  Susan grabbed the handbrake, spun the steering wheel and drifted around a tight ninety degree angle corner. I'm probably lucky the road is a little wet, might not drift so well if it'd been a dry day. Susan expertly controlled her 90s model Oldsmobile as it fishtailed coming out of the last hard corner. Susan had grown up in rural Ohio, where she had too much spare time on her hands as a youth, growing up in a place where the r...

It was only four strides from the finish line when Simon Fischer felt an immense pain in his leg. Prior to the pain he concentrated on his footwork, reminding himself that the key to winning a sprint is to spend less time on the ground and more in the air. Amateur runners typically took fifty to fifty five steps to complete the one hundred meter sprint, while professionals like Usain Bolt, could complete the distance in as few as forty one.  Today's training session wasn't about speed, it was about technique, it was about ensuring every stride was executed as flawlessly as the last and repeating this over and over and over again until it became a secondary muscle memory, until Simon's legs took on a mind of their own, allowing his thoughts to be calm and free from distraction. Having a clear and focused mind was an imperative part of the professional mindset, something Simon had studied extensively and practiced daily.  Simon was in a fasted state, his last meal was eaten ...

Susan had no idea that in as little as twelve hours she would hold a gun to a strangers head and have every intention of pulling the trigger.  Susan had always considered herself a pacifist, she loathed confrontation. At the first sign of argument she was quick to back down. But by nightfall she was to learn just how far a mother would go to protect her daughter.   As she inched along in backed up traffic murder was far from her mind. On the contrary, her every thought was consumed by the exceedingly happy thought that Lucy is flying in tonight! Lucy, her eleven year old daughter lived with her father in Las Vegas. Susan hated that she had lost the custody battle when they separated all those years ago. She understood why the judge had ruled in his favour, he had, after all, filed for divorce on the grounds that Susan was a habitual narcotic user. And she was. Was being the key word. Now, she is no longer. Susan glanced down from the glacially moving traffic to the crook of h...