Demon Puppet

Prologue

 Rubble crunches beneath Leo’s feet as he steps over it. His wings fold against his back; one of them is bent painfully, a result of a broken bone that healed incorrectly. Everything from flying to unfurling to even moving the wing hurt, but he had grown used to it. Barely.

His black eyes scan over the ruins. This place had been abandoned for nearly a hundred years. More than half of the old prison was still standing, but the other section of the building was crumbling to the ground.

Something caught his eyes. What looked like a small toy was pinned beneath a fallen brick. Leo knelt down and brushed off the dirt. A pair of black stitched eyes threaded into pale canvas stared back at him. A doll, he thinks. His lip barely twitches in the ghost of a smile. He lifts up the brick and pulls the doll out.

A loud crash makes him look up. He shifts immediately and bares his teeth, revealing his demonic face. He looks around.

A think silhouette stalks towards him. He stands up and shifts back to his somewhat-human appearance. “Who’s there?” He calls softly.

A lanky young man lurches out of the fog and falls at Leo’s feet. He reaches up and snatches the doll away from Leo before looking up. Leo recognizes the dark-haired man immediately.

“It’s about time someone found that,” Doll-eyes growls, wiping his lip.

Leo reaches down to help Doll-eyes to his feet. “You’re still alive?”

“If this is life,” Doll-eyes mumbles. He turns around to face what was left of the Prison. “I can’t say the same for the rest of this place.”

Leo glances at Doll-eyes before walking over to the large door. Out of the entire prison, one vault remained standing more than the others. The elements, wind, fire, earth, water, even time had no effect on it.

Vault 120.

Leo slowly reaches down and pulls the door open.

As if he had set off a chain reaction, there are multiple noises. Doll-eyes leaps back in disgust and surprise as skeletons of massive wolves tumble out of the vault before crumbling into dust. His eyes widen. “The pack,” he exclaims, horrified.

Leo nods. “Trapped inside the Vault with no food, no water, and no moonlight,” he murmurs softly. “They must have been in so much pain…” He counts the bodies—what’s left of them. “Still, none of them thought to kill and eat the other. All twelve of them are here. They are a pack through life and death.”

Leo glances at Doll-eyes, who has grown silent. “And what of our young Warden?” He asks.

“Stolen,” Doll-eyes growls. “By Hero. She believed everything he told her, even though I was there with her.”

“She left her duties here,” Leo says softly. “With no one to feed them, the rest of the monsters died. Only you and I are left.”

“What about the vampires?” Doll-eyes asks. “And the rest of the ones in the maximum vaults?”

“Too much of the maximum vault crumbled to the ground,” Leo murmurs. “You can see for yourself. The vampires died from the sun.”

“Draco and Seungri?”

“Gone. I haven’t seen them at all.”

“But you came back.”

Leo huffs. “A sense of nostalgia.”

Doll-eyes suddenly growls and punches the wall of the Vault, cracking it beneath his knuckles, but not breaking it. Those stone walls would never break. “Hero took Noelle from me,” he snarls. “Hero is responsible for all of this.”

Leo’s face slowly starts to shift. “He is,” he agrees.

“I want him dead!” Doll-eyes roars, revealing his demon puppet fury. He whirls around to face Leo. “I want him to pay for this! I want Noelle back!”

Leo tilts his head. “I will help,” he says quietly. “I have a few…broken…bones to pick with Hero.” He reaches up to rub his aching shoulder.

Doll-eyes looks at the doll in his hand. He finally had control over himself—over whatever he could do. He was immortal, and now he could do whatever he wanted.

There was only one thing he wanted to do.

His black, cross-stitched eyes flash red. “Noelle,” he says softly. “I will find you. And I will end him.”