A. L. Kaplan

Category: Short Story

  • Stained

    Ropes dug into Calynn’s wrists, her hands long since numb from their prolonged bondage. Small, superstitious people, the villagers feared her. She was different, marked with the violet eyes of legends. For sixteen years she’d lived with these people, laughed, cried, and worked besides them. Only once did she fail to stain her eyes dark. Now they sought her death.

    It took four days for the priests to ‘examine’ her, another two to march to the killing circle with a parade of witnesses. Each step left a numb hole in her heart. Children she had once played with taunted as she was dragged to the chopping block. Of all she had endured, the look in Daniel’s eyes hurt the most. How quickly love had turned to hate.

    Hands forced her head onto the block and her nostrils flared. The scent of blood, soaked deep into the ancient wooden rings, was still strong even after nearly fifty year. Something pulled at Calynn, pulsing, calling her name. Hundreds had died on this stump, all of them guilty only in looking different.

    Visions of deaths long past surged through her mind as they tied her down. Her heart quickened. Only one had escaped the slaughter. It wasn’t until now that Calynn understood Nana’s dying words or the pain in her dark-stained violet eyes. Voices fluttered in the wind, calling, straining for release.

    “It’s time, Calynn.”

    Lighting burst from Calynn’s hands, breaking her bonds and releasing the slaughtered souls. It was time.

  • Ape Case

    “Please, believe me,” I sign.

    Kate looks skeptical. Can’t say I blame her. Who expects an orangutan to claim to be your human boyfriend? If I don’t get that antidote soon, I’ll be stuck as an orange haired ape for the rest of my life. I don’t want Kate to be my zoo keeper. Besides, I have to stop Jimmy.

    DNA experimentation is always a risk, but Jimmy and I came up with a safe shape-shifting elixir. He just wanted to test it one last time. Boy was I a fool. Never even saw the tranquilizer gun. Next thing I knew, there was Jimmy, walking across the Whitehouse lawn toward the president. Jimmy hates this administration. I had to warn him. Maybe I did go a little ‘ape’ when I climbed onto the lawn and jumped the guards, but I had no choice. Now I’m the one stuck in this zoo prison. Jimmy was still out there.

    “Please,” I sign again. “Just get the vial of antidote I hid outside the park gate and you’ll see. The president’s life is in danger.”

    I pace the enclosure, waiting for her return. My heart pounds. I only have a few minutes before I’m stuck as an ape. Finally, Kate walks in, a small vial in her hand.

    “This what you’re looking for Paul?” her blue eyes match the liquid in the vial. “Thanks for telling me the hiding place. Jimmy and I would never have found it without your help.”

  • Freedom’s Globe

    Ramone shivered, his head pressed against the glass. Every limb felt numb, as if they belonged to someone else. Candlelight flickered in the distance, illuminating familiar stone walls. He knew this place, had been there often. How many times had he snuck into this chamber as a young student to shake the globe? Had there been another poor fool trapped inside when he had done that?

    An old man toddled into view and leaned toward the glass until his eye filled Ramone’s vision. The chastising gaze made his heart fill with shame. He should never have tried to make a portal without supervision. He should never have taken yet another dare, all for the sake of adventure.

     “Ramone?” said the wizard, “Good heavens, boy, we thought you long dead. So glad you survived.”

    Ramone’s glass prison echoed with the booming voice, then the air began to shimmer. A moment later he found himself sprawled at the old man’s feet. Afraid to look his master in the eyes, he gazed back at the fist-sized glass globe on the pedestal. The snow crystal, or globe of shame as it was more commonly called, seemed to laugh, the freezing blizzard still swirling within.

    “I trust your little adventure has prepared you for serious study, Ramone. The wizard towers are no place for slackers or dare seekers. The balance of the universe is in our keeping.”

    Ramone nodded, thankful to be alive and looking forward to a simple, uneventful life.

    For now….

  • Freedom’s Landing

    Still propelled from his cliff leap, Ramone smacked face down onto a snowdrift only to look up into a maelstrom of flakes. Nothing but swirling white met his eyes. The sweat on his body froze into an icy sheen that fell in crackling shards as he moved. Ramone’s belly twisted. At least in that dreadful island prison he hadn’t frozen. Fifteen years, wasted, imprisoned for opening a portal into the wrong world. All he wanted was to go home.

    Beneath him the ground lurched, tossing Ramone into the air before dumping him back into the snow. Earthquakes and freezing cold. What hellish world had he landed in this time? He brushed away as many flakes as he could and trudged forward. There were no more spell components, but he’d come too far to give up now. Eyes down and half closed against the biting wind, he continued moving. It was all he could do. All he had left was hope.

    Something hard smacked his forehead, nearly knocking him over. Ramone looked up, his brow wrinkled in confusion. Behind him the storm raged, but in front, a bright open space. There was no rock, no wall, only an invisible barrier. He pushed against the smooth surface, moving along its length while his heart galloped. Step by step he broke trail through the snow drifts, stopping only when he reached a set of prints identical to his own. Tears streamed down his face, freezing as they fell. A rat, caught in a crystal cage.

  • Freedom Jump

    “Quae me domum ad locum regione viarum.”

    Ramone spoke the words of the spell as he ran, praying that the improvised components he had collected would work. Powdered rat liver just wasn’t the same as that from a hippogriff. Same went for the cockroach legs he had substituted for locust. But it was all he had.

    Vines tangled his feet, sending him crashing into the hard packed dirt and rock. He muttered curses as the spell slipped from his grasp. Ignoring the lancing pain in his knees, he scrambled to his feet and continued to run. Only once had he seen the outside of the island prison, fifteen years ago when they had shipped him here, but he had heard plenty of stories through the years about the snake infested jungle and deadly cliff that sandwiched the place.

    That same cliff loomed ahead. The other inmates called it the leap to freedom. Ramone had no more desire to die than he wished to rot in a dark stone cell. He wanted true freedom. It had taken years to dig a tunnel under the walls. Now his only hope lay in a handful of junk and a half remembered spell. Behind him the hounds closed in, close enough to hear their panting.

    Grasping the last of the components, Ramone repeated the spell.  This was his last chance.

    “Quae me domum ad locum regione viarum.”

    He leaped from the cliff’s edge just as the portal opened and disappeared into the void.

  • Toucan Rescue

    “Damn it, Winona, leave that thing alone. Humans are nothing but trouble.” Sam flapped his wings and clicked his long yellow beak. The vine they stood on swayed with his movement. “My cousin went to investigate a human and was never heard from again.”

    “This one doesn’t carry a thunder stick. He isn’t even fully grown. Poor child looks absolutely terrified. See how he’s running, crashing into every bush and bramble?”

    Sam plucked a nearby berry, ignoring the human and those chasing him. “The silly land dweller won’t live for long. There’s a jaguar fifty feet ahead.”

    “Look out! Look out!” Winona dashed after the child, swooping low over his head. “Turn around.”

    The human stopped, hiding his head with his featherless wings and gasping for air. His eyes widened at the sound of running feet and began to leak fluid. Winona didn’t need to think about it. She swooped down, grabbed one of his flailing limbs and yanked him to the side. At first he resisted, but finally, he followed her to a nearby hiding place. The child crouched behind a rock just as a whole herd of humans came into view. These humans waved thunder sticks, yelling as they barreled right into the waiting Jaguar.

    The boy closed his eyes, trembling at the sounds of battle. Once the jungle had quieted, he pulled a young toucan from his bag and held it out to Winona and Sam.

    “Goodness,” said Winona. “I told you this one was different.”

  • Dominator

    Flies swarmed the carcass and I cursed. This was the tenth heifer that had been ripped to shreds. A low rumbling growl made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I spun away from the remains and came face to face with Fang. His lips curled back, teeth gleaming. Five other coyotes circled the carcass. What devil drove these beasts to confront a human in broad daylight? And since when did coyotes hunt in packs?

    Fang glared with an almost human hatred. I raised my gun, shaking so hard the shot went wild. The coyotes didn’t flinch. Gramps thought the wild horses were a problem, thought they would ruin the field and contaminate our cattle. At least horses didn’t kill. I fumbled to reload, dropping a cartridge. Fang leaped before I could raise the weapon. I stumbled back, tripping over the carcass. Sixteen was too young to die.

    Something flew over my head, crashing into Fang. Dominator, the chestnut stallion that led the wild horses, trumpeted his challenge. A strange reddish hue glimmered in Dominator’s eyes and the white patch on his head shone like some weird third eye. His sharp hooves made short work of Fang and the other crazed coyotes, trampling even those who tried to flee. Was this the same bold colt I had spotted only two years ago? I stared in wonder, thankful to be in his favor. Dominator seemed to nod once with an eerie intelligence. Then he trotted off.

  • Strange Adoption

    Perri pounced on the snake as it struck, snapping its neck with his hooves before anyone else could react. He smashed the serpent until bloody pulp littered the forest floor. No doubt another carnivore would soon take advantage. An odd thrill raced through Perri’s limbs.  It felt good to protect his family.

    “Oh dear! Oh dear!” said, Henrietta, his adoptive mother. Her panicked squawks rose in pitch as she ran in circles.

    Tom’s big red waddle trembled like Jell-O. He stood rooted to the ground, every feather on his body fluffed out. The snake’s head lay at his feet, its deadly fangs millimeters away. Perri stopped Henrietta and nuzzled her until she calmed.

    “Papa, snap out of it,” said Perri. He gave Tom a nudge. The big turkey nearly fell over.

    Tom closed his beak and backed away from the snake. “I’m alive,” he whispered. Then his voice rose in volume. “Dammed good thing I insisted on taking you in after your mama died. Henrietta would have left you shivering in that clearing for sure.”

    An indignant squawk escaped Henrietta’s beak. Perri rolled his eyes. Nothing like a near death experience to alter memory. Tom constantly reminded Perri what a burden he had been as a clumsy young fawn. Henrietta had been the one who had insisted on caring for Perri. Even so, both turkeys had raised him, kept him safe from danger. They made a strange family, but a family none the less.

  • Elak Dŏd

    Startled awake by the clanking club on the cell door, Johnson’s body trembled. He blinked, disorientated. Then the guard’s ugly face came into focus, staring through the bars. Today was execution day, FRY-day as the guards called it. Seething hate churned in Johnson at the audacity. Death wasn’t the end, not for him.

    Only moments ago he had been walking down a beach with his dream girl. He could still smell her perfume, feel her silky hair, hear the waves crash, and taste the sweetness of her lips. That damn guard yanked him away too soon. Well, he knew how to find Sarge. He knew how to slip into his dreams and twist them into a nightmare. No one would ever know what killed him.

    The man they called Johnson would die today, as had the other shells he’d inhabited, but he wouldn’t. Life and death had no meaning for Elak-Dŏd. He’d jump to his new vessel, the young man at the beach. Already Elak-Dŏd had manipulated others at the resort to pay for his needs.

    And the woman, she was a young spirit, just learning to dream-walk. Already she strode his dark path. The look in her eyes had shown him a future he had never thought possible. She was the one. For her, he would do anything.

    This time there would be no mistakes, not with centuries of experience. The Dream Guardians would never find them. If all went as planned, Elak-Dŏd would finally have children to battle that pompous clan.

  • Hit Job

    “Get in. He wants a word.”

    Sweat trickled down Amos’s back, but not from the heat. The carriage creaked as he and Seth climbed in, carefully averting their eyes from the figure seated on the other bench. A dark straw hat obscured the man’s eyes, but there was no doubting the anger in his posture. Seth’s hands shook like an old man and he clasped his bag, the one that held his camera. They both jumped as the reins snapped. The rhythmic clopping of the horse’s hooves offered no comfort today.

    “Your partner is already gone. Seth will leave tomorrow night,” said the Amish patenonkel. “The three of you should never have returned after your rumspringa if you weren’t going to abide by the rules. Neglecting to pay my tithe from your illicit photo studio is bad enough, but photographing my niece?”

    Chills ran down Amos’s spine. For three years they had run the studio without paying the mafia one cent. Now they were toten because he fell for a beautiful brunette with hazel eyes. She had looked so seductive in that black dress, her bonnet clasped between her teeth as she undid her bun. Just the thought set his heart pounding with desire. The pictures had been beyond gorgeous.

    “Punishment is necessary, Amos, but Emma shouldn’t pay for your transgressions. From now on you shoot for me.”

    “Yes, sir.”

    “Good. Don’t be late tomorrow morning.”

    “Sir?”

    “For your wedding to Emma. You owe me healthy enkelkinder.”