E’steem: Little Girl Lost Sample Chapter

The second book in the SJS DIRECT 2017 catalog is E’steem: Little Girl Lost. In this E’steem series adventure, The Devilish Diva helps a lost little girl in Times Square find her way home.

E’steem: Little Girl Lost is a story inspired by a picture I saw of some DC Comics cosplayers talking to a child. And after I saw that picture, I wanted to do an oldschool superhero story about the obstacles a hero faces in their quest to do something simple like helping a lost child. With all the epic sagas going on at Marvel and DC, we don’t see these kinds of stories in comics anymore and it’s a shame. Superheroes were originally designed to be people who made every effort to serve the people in their communities and help those who can’t help themselves. The way I see it, we need more stories like this. Unfortunately, the comic book industry won’t give them to readers.

If I had the money, I’d pay to have a cover designed based on this picture for Little Girl Lost. But due to a lack of funds It’s just gonna have to be a basic Black one like Witches of Eastland. Enjoy the sample chapter!

Chapter 3

The air gathers under my bat wings while I make the turn around the antenna at the top of 4 Times Square. As I start my descent into the cross roads of the world, I smile looking down at the throngs of tourists rushing out of the theaters and gathering in the pedestrian walkways. Since we have a couple of days off next month, maybe I’ll ask John if he wants to go to a Broadway show-

Hold on. One of these kids just doesn’t belong here. One of these kids just isn’t the same.

Among the children wearing jackets and sneakers coming out the theater showing Frozen, I spot a little black girl wearing a nightgown tucked into a pair of rumpled jeans and a pair of untied sneakers. Someone’s out way past her bedtime. I better keep an eye on her.

While she stares blankly into the screen of her Smartphone, she walks blindly into the crowd of tourists not looking where she’s going. As I land on the rooftop of one of the theaters and rush across the moldings on the edge, I notice a man in a hoodie, baggy jeans, and sneakers looking at her. He smiles and brushes the elbow of his friend and they start following behind her. When the girl turns into the alley behind the theater on 45^th Street, they rush up behind her and snatch the phone right out of her hands. Before she can start screaming, they’re bolting up Broadway.  Time to scare some crooks straight.

As I rush across the rooftops I change myself from my human form into my demon one. Long black horns shoot out of my forehead, my brown eyes turn into reptile ones, and my fingernails and toenails change into black cloven claws. Before the men get halfway up the block, I jump off the rooftop and land right in front of their path. “I don’t think that belongs to you.” I tell them. 

“OH MY GOD!” One of the thugs screams on seeing my demonic visage. 

With his fight or flight response kicking in, the terrified thug grabs his friend and starts getting ready to run. “C’mon man, let’s get outta here!” He pleads.

Unfortunately his partner isn’t feeling as repentant. He yanks out of his grip and reaches into his waistband for a nine millimeter pistol. “Man, I ain’t going nowhere!” He insists.

“But she’s a demon!”

“I don’t care if she’s Mother Theresa!” He barks. “This phone is worth over three hundred dollars! I’m not giving up that kind of payday for nobody!”

The thug fires a series of shots that echo in the alley. I see the bullets coming at me and catch them before they can even hit me. In any other situation I’d just let them bounce off me, but the last thing I want to do is ruin my new nightgown. “Ouch.” I chuckle as I present him with his bullets.

The man’s eyes grow wide watching me I drop all the spent rounds on the sidewalk. Before he can fire a second round of gunfire, I rush over to him with a burst of super speed and snatch his gun out of hand. When I hold him up in the air I notice a wet spot forming on the front of his pants. “The phone.” I say crunching his gun up in my hand. “Or I do to you what I just did to your gun.”

As he watches the pieces of his former pistol litter the sidewalk, the thug nervously hands me the child’s phone. After I take it from him, I toss him into his friend and laugh as they tumble onto the sidewalk. While the terrified criminals scramble to their feet and scurry up Broadway, I hurry back down the block to reunite the little girl with her lost iPhone. 

E’steem: Little Girl Lost will be coming out this April in Paperback and e-readers everywhere!