Previews of Work in Progress

I hope many of you were able to take advantage of my free Kindle Book promotion for Josephine: Out of the Darkness Into the Light earlier this week.

I have started a couple of Children's Books for a fall release. (Titles and covers may change)

    
I am currently also working on a new fiction novel, which I previously mentioned. You will find part of the first chapter below for you to look over and make comments on. The book is called: Sia: Screams In The Night.

 Chapter One

 Sia jumped up in bed with a startle. What, what?  Another piercing scream breaks the night silence followed by a young girl begging, “No. Please stop, please you’re hurting me.”

Sia went over to the bedroom window and raised the blinds.  She looked out into the darkness but saw no one.  The basketball court, that is directly below her second-story apartment was empty, and the small children’s playground next to it appeared to be too.

She heard it again even louder this time.  The girl’s piercing cries cut into Sia’s soul.  She knew every bit of pain the girl was experiencing.  Sia couldn’t pinpoint the girl’s location so went out on her balcony hoping to get a better fix.

The sound seemed to be coming from behind the two L shaped buildings that surrounded the basketball court and playground, separated from the townhouse complex behind it by a small grassy area, a 6-foot fence topped with barb wire, and a row of 20-foot pine trees.

A man’s angered voice exploded into the silence.  “Welcome to your future Willow.  Now shut the hell up.”

Willow’s gut-wrenching cries went on for over a half-hour.  Sia wanted to find and help this desperate girl, but fear stopped her.

Sia picked up the receiver on the phone and was about to call the police when the night went silent.  She put the phone back in the cradle and waited a few minutes to see if the cries started again

No more pleading cries to stop. No more piercing screams.  No more male voice.  Did someone closer intervene? Did she get away, or is she lying out there hurt, maybe dying?

Sia knew she should go out and see if the girl was okay, but she couldn’t, she just froze near the window. The reflection looking back at her was a wisp of a girl barely five-foot-tall and less than one hundred pounds, no match for anyone.

Sia started to make excuses why she couldn’t go check it out.   “It’s so dark, and what if that man is still out there, he could hurt her too.”

Sia, unable to fall back asleep, tossed and turned the rest of the night.  So many thoughts kept racing through her mind.  How would she carry on not knowing where the girl was, or if she was injured, or maybe dead?

If she isn’t there, when daylight comes, perhaps the man dragged her away and put her in his vehicle. If she died, did he toss her body somewhere far outside of town?

Sia finally got and scolded herself.  “I should have gone out last night, found the girl and confronted whoever was hurting her.  I should have at least tried.”  Sia felt in her gut, by the sound of the cries, the girl was possibly being raped again and again.

At nine in the morning, Sia finally found the strength to go outside.  Slowly she went towards the fence that was behind both buildings and walked the entire fence line but saw nothing, not a trace that anyone had ever been there.  She glanced through the fence into the townhouse complex. 

Did it happen over there? Maybe that’s why she couldn’t see anyone because they were on the other side of the fence behind all these tall pine trees. Surely, you’d think, someone closer by would have heard the screams too and come to her aid. But, would they?

Sia returned to her apartment and sat down at the dining room table to drink her coffee.   As she looked out the window her doubts began to surface once more.  “Maybe it wasn’t real.  Maybe it was all just a nightmare?  But, the screams pierced my heart, so it had to be real, didn’t it?”