The Devil's Origins: Devil's Dolls, #0

By William Baker

Blood, ashes, and bones.

That's all she saw.

When she awoke amongst the debris and dead bodies drenched in a mysterious substance, she found two things.

A single initial on her half-burnt uniform's nametag.

And all her memories erased.

Abandoned, confused, hungry, and cold, K trudges on into a small town she doesn't recognize

Failing to consider that she looks like an escaped, dangerous convict…

That her appearance would turn heads, raising dangerous questions she had no answer to.

But there is something about her new self K learns the hard way.

Her powers are anything but human.

And they can get her in a whole lot of trouble.

Soon, all hell breaks loose, and K is entangled in a murder she never wished to commit.

As she tries to escape the consequences of her actions, K is met with a choice she never thought she'd have to make.

Follow the instructions of her anonymous benefactor, or starve, die, and worse…

There is only one thing K can be certain about.

Someone is watching her every move.

They know what she's done.

And they won't stop until she pays what she's due.

K's deadly chase has only just begun.

This is the prequel Part 1 and 2 to the Devil's Dolls series by William Baker.

• Language: English
• Publisher: William Baker
• Release date: Apr 24, 2023
• ISBN: 9788293985204

Book preview

The Devil’s Origins

Devil's Dolls: Prequel Part 1 & 2

William Baker

Stories of Wonder

Copyright © 2023 Stories of Wonder

All rights reserved

This is a work of fiction. The characters, names, organizations, places, events and incidents are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

ISBN-13: 978-82-93985-20-4

Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Access Granted: Your Invitation to the Vigilante Insider's Club

Part 1

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Part 2

Chapter Six

Heartfelt Appriciation

Access Granted: Your Invitation to the Vigilante Insider's Club

Books In This Series

About the author

Access Granted: Your Invitation to the Vigilante Insider's Club

Welcome to a hidden alley of suspense and clandestine justice.

Your invitation immerses you into a veiled world where vigilantes rule and secrets abound.

By accepting, you enlist for coded messages delivering sneak peeks, secret cover reveals, and encrypted invites to contests and giweaways, directly from the shadows to your inbox.

Pledge your allegiance, and a thrilling revelation from my next release will await you.

Join my Vigilante Insider's Club

Part 1

The Devil's Origins

Chapter One

When she woke, she wasn’t sure what she was looking at.

Something bright and burning blinded her eyes, making it almost impossible to see. She closed her eyes again, and the light went away. She wanted to keep the light from her eyes, but she knew she couldn’t keep her eyes closed forever.

She blinked repeatedly, rapidly closing and opening her eyes until they adjusted to the view in front of her. When she finally realized that she was looking at the sun, the rays had already begun to hurt her eyes.

She sat up quickly, crying out in pain. She wasn’t sure why she was staring directly at the sun. She wasn’t even sure where she was or why she was even sitting outside. Yet, she couldn’t shake the feeling something terrible had happened.

She rubbed her eyes as hard as possible to get rid of the pain. When it was finally reduced to a dull thud, she opened her eyes again and focused  on her surroundings.

The sky was bright and blue. There were barely any clouds, and she could feel the sun's warmth radiating down on her. It would have felt nice if her mind wasn’t in a muddled state of panicked dysphoria.

It would also be nice if there wasn’t a burned down building next to her.

She looked down at her hands. They were pale and covered in some kind of black goop. She’d never seen it before, but it was disgusting. Quickly she reached to wipe it on the grass, only to realize there was no grass beneath her.

Instead, nothing but charred rubble.

A sudden flood of rotten, burnt stench climbed into her nose. It was as if seeing the debris around her had caused her nose to flare up and smell the horrors that awaited her. She gagged without meaning to, covering her mouth with the back of her hand, and got to her feet.

When she stood up, rubble covered in black shifted suddenly onto the ground behind her. The noise scared her, and she jumped a little. This caused her to back up and step on something, which cracked under her foot with a loud and definitive crunch.

She looked down slowly.

Underneath her bare feet were the charred remains of human bones, crushed underneath her weight.

She screamed and backed as far away as she could from it. She rubbed her bare skin on the ground no matter how charred, just to get the feeling of the bones crushing underneath her skin out of her mind. When she backed into a tree, she was still so traumatized from the bones that she just slid down the bark and began hyperventilating.

The heavy, dense bark tore at what she was wearing and bruised her skin as she slid down, but she didn’t care. She was more focused on the horrors in front of her.

From what she could see, there had been a horribly intense fire here.

It looked like there had been foundation. Something that revealed that there had once been a building here – a building with people. If she focused hard enough, she could somehow see some of the skeletons of the bodies scattered around.

She could smell the stench of rotten flesh in the air. Burned flesh and chemicals. She covered her nose with the back of her hand, letting the black goop from her palms drip onto her pants.

Tears ran down her face as she took in the situation around her. The truth was… she didn’t have any idea of what had happened. Had she caused this, or was the fire an accident? Did she know anyone in the fire? Was she the only survivor? Was anyone coming to help?

Hell… she didn’t even know her name.

She felt the tears gathering at the corners of her eyes, and she let them come. She pulled her shaking knees to her chin and buried her head in them, rocking back and forth as she cried. She had no idea what to do next. She had no idea who she was. She wasn’t sure whether she should stay where she was or leave.

And she also had no idea if she was responsible for the horror before her or not.

When she finished sobbing out every ounce of hydration left in her, she wiped her snot on her knees and slowly got to her wobbly feet. She looked down at herself to try to understand as much as possible given the circumstances.

She was rather slim and muscular, like an athlete. She seemed to be rather tall as well. Not towering, but not small. Looking at the body that belonged to her, she felt a strange sense of familiarity. On her tattered, bright orange jumpsuit, she could see a torn nametag right above her chest. Only a single initial remained