A scary Saturday sample from Dark Clouds
By Scott Bury
Men and women sat around the table, unmoving. Their eyes were unfocused and their mouths hung open. In the dim light, Matt thought he recognized some of them: politicians and diplomats from other countries. He had read something about the Prime Minister holding a conference to prepare for a diplomatic initiative he had cooked up. Matt could just make out dozens of other bodies lying still on the floor or crumpled on top of each other against the walls.
And at the head of the table, in the biggest chair, Matt’s mother, Helen sat on the Prime Minister’s lap. She was stroking his artificial-looking gray hair, and he was looking toward her, but his eyes were unfocused and his jaw was slack.
Behind Helen was a group of women of different ages, sizes and races. They laughed and pointed at the people at the table, and at Matt as well, shrieking their amusement. Matt could not understand anything they said.
Helen spoke without looking at Matt. “You took your sweet time getting here. I hope that I wasn’t too rough on little Teri, was I?”
“Teri’s fine. You know you can’t hurt her.”
Helen looked at him as she tousled the Prime Minister’s hair. It was strange—it was the first time that Matt had ever seen a hair out of place on the PM.
“No, and I know I cannot hurt you, either. Not that I would ever want to, dear!” Helen stood. “How are you? It’s been such a long time since we’ve seen each other. Why don’t you ever visit?”
“What are you doing here, mother? This is extreme, even for you. You’ve never tried one of your stunts with a government before.”
“Sure I have. You remember the nineties, don’t you? Bob Rae?”
“Okay, never the national government. I’ll give you five minutes to undo what you’ve done and get out of here.”
“I don’t think so, dear. I’ve worked very hard on this project. We all have, haven’t we, girls?”
The coven behind her cheered and laughed.
A man sitting in the chair beside Matt fell face-forward onto the table.
“And it will be so rewarding. You know, I’m just sick about what this government of ours is doing these days. Aren’t you? I know your politics don’t agree with this man’s.”
“Politics have nothing to do with this stunt, mother. You think you can control him now, but it’s going to backfire on you.”
“Oh, son, it wounds me that you have no confidence in your mother.” Helen looked angry now. Her red hair stood up around her head and her eyes glowed yellow. “I can change the direction of history.”
“You can do nothing but cause disasters. I’m shutting this down, now.” Without taking his eyes off his mother, Matt reached across the table to snuff out a candle.
The red glow from the brazier flickered. Outside the windows, the sky became noticeably lighter.
“Matt, stop it! You will love my plans.”
Matt snuffed out a second candle, then a third. Sweat ran down his face. The red glow died away and light from the clearing sky came in through the patio doors.
One of Helen’s coven, a short, young woman with long hair like a squirrel’s tail, shrieked and sprang toward Matt. She spat on her hands, rubbed them together and flung the spittle toward him, screaming a curse. The spit mixed with the sweat on Matt’s face.
“You can’t hurt him, Sarita,” Helen said. “The devil himself knows I’ve tried.”
Dark Clouds
Matt always knew when his mother was about to arrive: the wind would swirl from every direction at once and dark clouds would mass in the sky.
He and his pretty wife, Teri, try to get out of the way, but as the Witch’s Son, Matt is drawn into a spider’s web.
He has to use his special abilities to spoil the Witch Queen’s plans—but the price for that is to be paid in blood.
Fortunately, Teri has a few special abilities of her own …
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Scott Bury
can’t stay in one category.
After a 20-year career in journalism, he turned to writing fiction. “Sam, the Strawb Part,” a children’s story, came out in 2011, with all the proceeds going to an autism charity. Next was a paranormal short story for grown-ups, “Dark Clouds.”
The Bones of the Earth, a historical fantasy, came out in 2012. It was followed in 2013 with One Shade of Red, an erotic romance.
The Eastern Front trilogy tells the true story of Maurice Bury, a Canadian drafted into the USSR’s Red Army to face the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Army of Worn Soles, the first volume, was published in 2014, followed by Under the Nazi Heel in 2016 and Walking Out of War in 2017.
e lives in Ottawa with his two mighty sons, two pesky cats and a very understanding wife.
You can find more about Scott Bury, and contact him through his BestSelling Reads author page, his website, his blog, Written Words, and on Twitter @ScottTheWriter.
