Also due to demand I have created a paperback version of "Love Notes". The book contains "Love Notes" and nine other short stories that also appear in "Apollo's Flame". The book is available at Amazon.com for $5.99 and will be available at Barnes & Noble and other retailers soon.
Last but not least, It is my pleasure to present my short story "October 7th" in honor of Edgar Allan Poe's birthday. Enjoy...
October 7th
October 5th:
While waiting for a cab outside Camden Yards I was bumped by a peculiar man in a beige trench coat. Immediately I felt different, very strange. I thought It might have just been some bad clams and stress from a long day at work. We were testing waste material from a UN team that was monitoring nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea. I was planning on going down to the waterfront but took a cab home and decided to rest instead.
As I arrived home my cat was sitting on the kitchen counter staring at me with a smile, an evil smile. I noticed my favorite slippers were missing. I suspected the cat of stealing them, but he's just a cat how could he possibly do something like that?!? At that time I had developed a cough and a fever. I took some aspirin and had some tea before going to sleep.
October 6:
I awoke to find blood spatter on the wall and ceiling. I quickly looked at the bed and checked myself, but nothing. Across from the bed was the cat, with that evil smile, licking his chops. I felt what I thought was two pin holes in my side. I ran to the bathroom to vomit and then call the police. "Stay away from me you blood sucking cat!" I screamed at him.
As I returned. The blood was gone and the cat was still sitting there like nothing had happened. Wagging his tail licking himself just like he does after he eats. I sprayed luminol on the ceiling and got my black light out but there was no blood. I don't know how he did it, but he made that blood disappear.
Then I noticed a symbol on the wall. A purple circle with an orange triangle in the middle. The writing below looked like ancient Egyptian. I looked up the symbol on the internet. It was the symbol of alien society that was thought to come to the Earth thousands of years ago and operated under a deep cloak of secrets. They had a logic above the capabilities of humans. It was thought that they lived among us since they had first came. They possessed a strange type of energy thought to be atomic which humans just in recent decades had discovered.
All of the sudden I became very dizzy, I decided I needed to go to the hospital but I was unable to reach for the phone. Instead I passed out on the floor. As I faded out of consciousness I saw that damn cat running over and then he poked me with his paws. Probably checking to see if I was dead yet. To think I took that little bastard in from the cold last winter.
I woke again hours later in a pool of my own vomit. I ran to the fire escape. The cat was laying on my bed sleeping like nothing had happened. As I made it to the street I ran out screaming,"help, help, the aliens are trying to kill me!" People just ran away! I became weak and fell face first in the alley. The cat watching on from the window above with that evil smile on his face.
I was able to get up and run away somehow. I saw a path drawn out, it was 2 yellow lines that went down the hill to a circular building with a triangle on top. It was the hospital but I can't go there the damn aliens are there. The plan seemed to come to light now. The man in the trench coat drugged me, the cat watched over me and now they were trying to send me to this "hospital" that's where the cat came from. Cats are the alien species. They must be able to take human form and now that I know the truth they had to kill me. I became dizzy again and fell down. As I looked up I saw what I thought were lights from a police car. Maybe I'm saved after all.
October 7:
I awoke again, tied to a bed needles in my arms pumping their poison into me. Men in white coats standing over me, the coats looked just like the man in the trench coat except his was beige. They were asking me questions, trying to keep me awake so they can scan my brain with their lights. The lights round with triangles in the middle. They walked out of the room and all I could see was their coats, their faces blurry and their hands were cat paws with sharp claws.
So it looks as if the end is near. Here I am strapped to this bed with the lights blinding me. Forced to stare at their disgusting symbol as it scans my brain. I wonder how the hell I got here, veins bursting, the walls closing in on me and I'm powerless to stop it. So my tongue slithers down my throat as I choke...and so it is, they win, those bastard doctors, the man in the trench coat... the aliens! The worst alien of all, that damn cat the one I took in only to have him murder me. They have programmed my body to betray me and so it has. I'll see all you bastards in hell!
Note from Doctor Morrows:
Subject Alfred expired at 5:00 Hours October 7th. Cause of death: poisoned by radioactive isotope. Subject suffered from extreme paranoia found wandering the streets of Baltimore in a state of delusion. Warned of an alien civilization taking over the Earth. We have classified his death as a murder and possible terrorist attack. We have turned all data of subject Alfred to the FBI. It is also entirely possible that he may have been exposed to it in his lab as well. We were unable to determine either theory and will leave it to the proper authorities.
Supplemental note: some of the staff attending to Alfred complained of fever and anxiety. An unusually high number of them in fact. I believe it can be attributed to the stress of dealing with such a difficult subject. Seeing him in the condition he was in and the way he finally died. The hospital has adopted Alfred's cat. Call it strange but this cat appears to be smiling. I think he will be good for the patients.
Story Notes:
A few things inspired the writing of this story. First the date, which was the date Edgar Allan Poe died. He was found wandering the streets of Baltimore. Second was the cat, which spawned from Poe's quote,"I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat". He also described veins popping as a symptom his wife suffered from tuberculosis and later died which inspired the end of the story.
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