Sold at Auction

by Nicolas Calcagno

About the Author: Nicolas Calcagno is a Argentine-American writer and journalist based in the Baltimore area. His short story, "A Bath with Lehllon," can be found in the horror anthology, Monsters Among Us.

Excerpt

The sandstone cliff face cracks, and chips rain down off the rim through light and brutal heat into the canyon. They crash onto the paved parking lot of a café—the only sign of humanity—for hundreds of miles of rocky mountain desert. A group of oversized ravens briefly scatter from the commotion before regrouping. A cloud of dust appears on the horizon a visually indeterminate distance away. Minutes pass as the dust stirs up through the waving lines of heat, getting closer, but the ravens are undisturbed. More time passes, and finally, the birds move again, hopping a few feet away, as a little electric blue Mini Cooper pulls in front of the Outlaw Café.

Penny steps out, putting on his sunglasses and furrowing his eyes at the birds.

“It’s too bright, is what it is,” he says to the ravens, it seems. They regard him in reply.

Walking past and into the café, he cringes, surprised, from the din of the restaurant. He takes his sunglasses off.

Loud, over some unseen speaker system, plays the music of Glen Campbell, while a pretty, leathered waitress of middle age attends to a handful of chatty tables with her shaky hands.

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