The Scales Read online

  Contents

  Title

  Copyright

  Dedication

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  22

  23

  24

  25

  26

  27

  28

  29

  30

  31

  32

  33

  34

  35

  36

  37

  38

  39

  40

  41

  Epilogue

  Rate and Review

  Links

  Also By Paul Sating

  About the Author

  Acknowledgments

  Contact

  RIP Chpt 1

  The Scales

  Paul Sating

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any situations or similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Copyright © 2019 Paul Sating

  All rights reserved.

  No parts of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  ISBN-13:

  Cover Art By: Kessi Riliniki

  To Kevin Baker - you are the kindest soul the world has known … even when you act like a princess. That’s exactly why I love you, brother!

  1

  The nausea made it difficult for Serenity Johnson to tell what was poking out of the sand.

  Whatever it was, it didn’t belong here.

  Serenity squinted against its glint. Her head swam from the heat and something undetectable.

  The endless brown desert landscape stretched toward Sunrise Peaks, shimmering waves dancing above sand distorted the object. Serenity tried to make it out in better detail.

  Definitely the heat. They'd need to start home soon. But ‘home’ was boring; as lifeless as the rest of the depressing town. Serenity was in no hurry to get back to her dull life of chores and the endless loop of conversations with familiar faces.

  Out here she could let her mind wander to another place, full of exciting people, sights and sounds--a world of new adventures. Arching her head back, Serenity inhaled. The scorching afternoon air filled her lungs with the deep breath but didn’t stop her from pretending she was somewhere, anywhere, but the Tri-Counties.

  "If only that were real," she mumbled to no one in particular, but especially not Jerrod, her older brother, who sat a few hundred yards away, sleeping in the shade like he always did. When he wasn't playing games on his phone, he checked out from the world. All the way out here, there was no hope of getting a cell signal. Devoid of video games or use of his phone, Jerrod defaulted to hibernating, his muscular arms crossed over his thick chest.

  Serenity shook her head. They hadn't come out here so he could catch up on his already copious amount of sleep. They escaped Rotisserie so she could get out, get away. From home and from their mother, Ida. Back there, she couldn’t think. She couldn't breathe. In the Scales, she found a refuge.

  Closing in on the object, Serenity slowed. She wished she felt better. This nausea crashed into her again. She’d have to get out of the sun soon.

  But she felt more than nausea. Something with an edge of…

  …paranoia.

  As if she could…

  No, that didn't matter right now.

  Serenity knelt, reaching for the silvery item. It didn’t belong here. It was too new, too unlike the rest of the rusted metal piled around it. The Scales was a dump, a waste yard for scrap metal, decay, and neglect. Its attraction as a place to escape was weakening the closer she came to leaving for college. Nothing new about the Scales.

  Until now.

  As Serenity examined the thing sticking out of the sand, she couldn't shake the feeling of being watched. Standing, she looked around. It was impossible to see anything between the conduction waves and piles of junk, so if someone was watching from a hiding place, she wouldn't be able to detect them. And there was no reason to ask Jerrod if he felt it too. He was dead to the world under that small, shaded corner of scrap metal.

  The object looked sharp enough to slice her hand open if she wasn’t careful. But it fascinated her. There was something to it, something not right. Everything was old, given up on long before she was born. This was too new to belong in the Scales. Like someone had recently buried it.

  It almost looked…

  Inching closer, Serenity opened her finger and thumb, hoping she could pinch it without drawing blood. Before she clamped down on it, the shining piece of metal disappeared into the dry earth with a sucking sound.

  "Shit!" Serenity jerked back. A strand of curled hair fell into her eyes and she tucked it behind her ears, suddenly aware how vulnerable she was, standing out in the open like this.

  "Did you find something?" Jerrod groaned as he sat up in his shaded corner. She’d woken him. Now he'd be a grouch all afternoon. A tired Jerrod was almost as annoying as an overbearing mother. Serenity risked a glance away to where Jerrod sprawled, impressed with how flexible he was for such a big guy and even more so by the fact that he hadn’t lost his fitness since he’d been home from college. He stretched his long arm toward the sky, cellphone in hand, trying to get a cell phone signal. When would he ever learn?

  He wouldn't, Serenity realized. That's why he's home again.

  Biting her lip, she struggled with whether to dig into the dune or give in to common sense and walk away. She leaned forward, listening for anything that something was alive under the sand. But nothing in the Scales was alive. This place was as dead as dead got. Well, except for them and a few kids who came here to drink and smoke pot, out of sight from their parents and the sheriff deputies who roamed the Tri-Counties.

  No sound except for the constant wind rolling off the mountains. Serenity wasn't even sure what she was listening for.

  Ffffft! It came from underneath the sand.

  Scrambling to her feet, Serenity backed away from the dune.

  Ffffft!

  It sounded like slowly ripping multiple pieces of paper all at once. This time, behind her.

  Right behind her.

  Her skin warmed as her fight-or-flight instinct kicked in.

  Ffffft!

  Off to her left.

  Ffffft!

  Her right.

  The sound circled her underneath the sand.

  "Jerrod," she called as loudly as she dared. Her voice cracked. The thing beneath the sand might hear her and she wasn't willing to risk getting its attention. When he didn't respond, she called again. This time she added heat that only a younger sister could get away with. "Jerrod!"

  Around and around. Whatever it was, it continued orbiting her in a wide circle, well out of reach. Too far away to stomp on it. The sand rose and fell back in on itself in a high, wide path. Then it disappeared. Gone, as quickly as it’d appeared. Serenity breathed in slow, deep breaths, trying to calm herself and clear the fog in her head.

  She bent over, hands on her knees.

  Ffffft!

  She bolted up.

  The sand bulged again as the creature moved in a wide circle once more. Faster with each loop. She’d never seen an
animal move at this speed.

  Where was Jerrod?

  Her thumping heart drown out all other sound.

  Her nausea worsened. The swelling in her gut threatened to evacuate her body. Now was not the time to pass out.

  The racing pile of sand disappeared into the underworld again. The hump gone.

  Serenity spun. Nothing.

  Pounding in her chest.

  The unfiltered sun beat down.

  Just the sound of a desert wind.

  It was gone.

  Jerrod's footsteps grew louder. "What's wrong?" Irritation stained his voice. He was close enough to see the wide circular mound of sand. How could he not understand what was happening?

  Serenity thrust out her arm, hoping he'd be smart enough to know she wasn't playing. "Don't. Move." Serenity emphasized each word.

  He kicked up thin clouds of brown sand. "You're being wei—"

  "I said, don't move, Jerrod!"

  "Okay! Okay. Shit, man."

  "There's something there."

  "So what?"

  "I don't mean junk, dummy. Something is moving. It was in the dune over there," she pointed. "Something metallic. And when I went to pull it out, it sunk back in before starting to…circle me."

  "Stop screwing around."

  “I’m not,” she snapped. Older brother or not, she wasn’t in the mood to back down from him.

  Silence. “I don’t see anything.” His voice was softer now.

  Back and forth, she scanned the rolled track of sand searching for signs of the animal. "I have no idea what, but there’s something there." Her voice shook even as she tried to control it. She dared a glance away at her brother.

  Jerrod stood outside the collapsed trail, his legs spread wide like he was about to mount a short pig. His arms flared out to his side like guys did when they were trying to appear intimidating to other stupid guys. Under normal circumstances, he would have looked moronic. She couldn’t care less about how dumb he looked. Her attention was on watching and listening.

  Jerrod eyed the trail, neither backing away nor coming for a closer look. By his expression, his brain was working overtime. "Porkchop?" he asked, using the nickname she hated, the one only he got away calling her. "I’m not sure how that circle got made. But I don't see anything. Are you sure it wasn’t a reflection off some scrap metal or something? I mean," he continued, laughing, "we're surrounded by it. This" —he jabbed a finger at the circle trail— "could have been here and we just didn’t see it."

  No, that was wrong. She wasn’t imagining this. Even if it was trying to scare her away, whatever that thing was, it was real. It didn’t matter what Jerrod said. Someone, something, watched from a hiding place. The sense of paranoia remained as did her nausea. It was still here. Close.

  Jerrod laughed, lightly this time. "Do you think—"

  Ffffft!

  "Shut up!" Serenity barked. A thick wave of nausea made the world rotate.

  “Shit!” Jerrod yelped as the bubble of sand popped up and raced around Serenity again.

  She didn't move. "Grab the Gator. Get as close as you can."

  Round and round, the burrowing animal circled.

  "What the hell—"

  “Please,” Serenity pleaded, crying, half from fear, half from frustration. “Get the Gator. Hurry.”

  She didn’t need to turn around to know he was sprinting. The desire to run and catch her fleeing brother surged through her but her feet wouldn't cooperate. She was alone with whatever was under the sand now.

  The all-terrain vehicle was a hundred feet away, parked in the shaded area where Jerrod had slept. An eternity passed before he started it. Serenity took a deep breath as she watched that pile of sand race around without pause. The choking rumble of the Gator's engine was the sweetest sound she’d ever heard. Within seconds, spinning tires tossing sand filled the still afternoon. Jerrod gunned the engine. Breathe returned.

  The Army-green Gator rumbled closer. Jerrod slowed as he approached, waving his free hand wildly, his eyes wide.

  Why does he always play around? He knows I'm scared.

  Now, both arms. He yelled but the whining engine garbled his voice.

  Something was wrong.

  What?

  Closer.

  Serenity turned.

  What she saw made her piss her shorts.

  Out of the sand, a creature, the brightest silver coating she’d ever seen, shot into the sky. It had no arms or legs. Even though it towered over her, part of it was still submersed. Serenity winced when it loosed a piercing screech that split the world.

  Frozen. This was it; her end. Before her life even began. She closed her eyes. And waited.

  Terror.

  Tears cut a warm path down her cheeks.

  And right before death touched her, Serenity felt her brother's hand clamp onto her arm, yanking her sideways and almost clear across the Gator. Jerrod held her tightly even as he jerked the vehicle away.

  “Fuck!” Jerrod shouted as that horror behind them released another scream that seemed to come from all directions at once. The Gator jerked when he tried to clamp his ears against the sound and steer at the same time.

  Against her instincts, Serenity sat up and looked behind them. If death was coming, she needed to see it. The creature was erect, standing in the same spot as if anchored. It was hard to make out a lot of detail, the way the sun reflected off its skin, but the creature was as tall as the trees back at the house. Serenity couldn’t see arms or legs. It looked like a giant snake, just one capable of standing straight up. The most disturbing fact was that she couldn’t see a head. Not against that reflection.

  Whatever it wanted, it didn't pursue them. As the Gator choked and jerked its way across the firm sand, her heart slowed. Had that horror came at them, it would have easily caught them. “It’s okay,” she whimpered, reaching over to touch her brother. “It’s not chasing us.”

  “Wha—why not?”

  She didn’t know. She didn’t care. Whatever that thing was, it now slowly slipped back into the sand. Only the top of what looked like its head poked out. Seconds later, even that was buried in the earth again.

  Serenity continued watching for any sign of pursuit, just in case it changed its mind. But the creature didn’t come. Half a mile away, she turned to face forward.

  As they raced back toward town Serenity heard a buzzing and swatted at the mosquito. Too late, the burn of the sting was already hot under the skin behind her ear. She scratched where a new bite would rise by morning. After what just happened, it was the least of her worries.

  Getting away from the Scales, her last sanctuary in the world, was all she cared about right now.

  2

  “I knew something was wrong. I felt it in my bones. What in the heavens did you two do?” Ida Dorsey snapped. Her short frame filled the room with an air of dominance.

  Serenity swallowed hard, like choking down a baseball. Her mother had that effect on everyone, though Serenity got it daily since Jerrod left for college. She shifted her weight from foot to foot, trying to meet her mother’s eyes. Doing so was like staring into a deep cave. You knew there was an end to the darkness in there somewhere, but no one dared to explore its depths.

  Ida stared--no outrage, no chain of questions, no accusations. She didn’t have to. The small room was filled by her presence, not even five and a half feet tall, but feeling like a colossus just the same. Her legs spread wide as if she was readying to tackle the largest football player in town, hands on hips, Ida Dorsey was a force that moved the world. Serenity fidgeted.

  “Momma,” Jerrod whined.

  Serenity ground her teeth, wondering who he thought his act fooled. He was a grown man, a college student. Did he think this air of innocence fooled anyone? Nothing fooled Ida Dorsey, who folded her arms across her chest.

  Serenity couldn’t deny the sliver of pleasure she felt at his defeat, even though she had more important things on her mind right now.

 
Like that thing at the Scales.

  Serenity spent the entire trip home trying to find the words to explain the monstrosity. But how did you explain something that shouldn’t exist? She was still struggling with why the creature hadn’t chased them down. The Gator wasn’t that fast. In fact, it was a piece of garbage, beaten by years of joyriding abuse at the hands of Jerrod. If that thing had wanted to attack, it could have caught them.

  What that monster was capable of doing to them wasn’t something she needed to think about. If she did, the details of the trip to the Scales might just slip out, and admitting what happened at her only retreat in the world was the last thing on her to do list. She wasn’t giving her mother any more ammunition. No sense in dwelling on it. They were safely home.

  Ida stood like a mountain. The most powerful force in the room, The most powerful force in all of Rotisserie.

  “The next time your lips part.” Ida leaned toward Jerrod. “An explanation better fall out.”

  Outside, a lark chirped its own threat as Jerrod did the smartest thing at that moment; he stayed silent, a rare case of good judgment.

  Serenity looked out at the brown front yard where Jerrod parked the Gator and shook her head. He wasn’t thinking when he’d raced it to within feet of the house, skidding to a stop and leaving two trails in its wake. Did he not imagine, even for a second, driving like that would clue their mother that something was amiss? The entire race away from the Scales, she thought about what she would say. She needed to approach her mother with extreme caution unless she wanted to be watched like a hawk for the last few weeks of her high school life. Jerrod didn’t have that concern, home temporarily from the stresses of college. He didn’t give any consideration to the consequences.

  “Serenity?” Ida possessed a laser focus with her gaze and her words. A cataclysmic combination. Serenity’s throat clamped. Telling her mother what happened would be the end of her already-pathetic social life. Dodging Ida was such a chore though.

  “We were at the Scales.”

  “What?” Ida’s tone went icy. “I told you to stay away from there.”

  Jerrod burst into the conversation. “We were bored, and I’m an adult, Ma! I can do what I want.”