FIRST RESPONDER — by James H. Summers
A self-published franchise in evolution — from blood, to signal, to echo, to empire. Personal hunger becomes systemic predation, then mythic domination.
Author Statement — James H. Summers
I don’t write to provide comfort. I write to expose nerves — to press on whatever a reader hopes fiction might avoid. These books weren’t meant to entertain safely. They were built as a threshold. Only those willing to cross it will understand why they exist at all.
Series Arc — BLOOD → SIGNAL → ECHO → EMPIRE
BOOK I — BLOOD / The Waffle House Incident
He feeds on proximity — and attention. Intimate, fluorescent, American roadside horror.
Tagline: “He didn’t crave blood — he craved attention. The blood only made it easier.”
BOOK II — SIGNAL / CotD Extraction
The hunt goes digital. He consumes through access. Humanity reduced to usernames.
Tagline: “He no longer needed to touch people to consume them — he only needed their connection.”
BOOK III — ECHO / The Warehouse of Lost Voices
Rooms that remember. Architecture soaked in trauma. The environment hunts back.
Tagline: “Some places don’t hold people. They hold everything they ever felt.”
BOOK IV — EMPIRE / Deb’Orah Ascendant
Predators become rulers. A cult monarchy engineered from the broken and the faithful.
Tagline: “She didn’t rise to power. She waited for the world to kneel.”
Mood Excerpts (Press-Ready)
Book I — The Waffle House Incident
Setup: A late-night diner. Coffee cooling. He watches her like a surgeon studies a body before the first cut.
He could count on one hand the number of times he hadn’t thought about her in the last minute. The smell of coffee sat beneath something far more intoxicating — blood. When he saw the thin red line on her arm, he didn’t fall in love. Predators don’t. He fixated.
“He didn’t crave blood — he craved attention. The blood only made it easier.”
Book II — Signal
Setup: Cafés and login screens. A laptop boots in four seconds. Enough time to decide who vanishes first.
To: CotD — Subject: ID Request. He stalks usernames now. The world used to smell like blood. Now it smells like packets and cached remorse.
“He only needed their connection.”
Book III — Echo
Setup: A condemned building that refuses to be empty.
Inside, silence feels staged — and then it hits. Not sound, not sight: memory. Children, fear, sweat, dust. Names whispered through bone. Some places don’t hold people; they hold everything they ever felt.
“This wasn’t a room. It was a memory that refused to die.”
Book IV — Empire
Setup: Deb’Orah’s rise is not survival — it’s architecture.
She found the lost, bitter, wounded — not to save them, to shape them. Tonight she rests. Tomorrow she begins to rule.
“She waited for the world to kneel.”
Predator / Power Evolution
Phase I — BLOOD (Predator): Personal, physical, intimate violence. A creature of proximity.
Phase II — SIGNAL (Operator): Digital access. Remote consumption. System-level threat.
Phase III — ECHO (Conduit): Trauma-soaked spaces respond. The world begins to hunt back.
Phase IV — EMPIRE (Sovereign): Deb’Orah consolidates rule. Cult. Throne. Coronation.
Franchise Thesis: This is not a vampire story. It’s a power story. Personal → Digital → Structural → Mythic.
Rights & Contact
Rights: All rights fully controlled by the author.
Contact: darkfictionauth@gmail.com | www.PeggyLanders.com
Cultural Backers & Creative Partners: Recognized on the site’s partner page upon alignment.