The Christmas Bell: Rachel's Story

By L.A. Detwiler

Even wretched, evil girls have stories to tell.

 

From the USA Today Bestselling author L.A. Detwiler comes the prequel to the horror novel The Christmas Bell.

 

When Rachel's family decides that she's too broken to fix, they abandon her at the Redwood Asylum. Tormented and tortured by an evil man disguised in a doctor's coat, Rachel realizes there are some horrors worse than death. But when a girl who understands her mental struggles shows up, Rachel will be lead down another equally dangerous path. 

 

Will Rachel's thirst for revenge for her twin sister's betrayal lead her to redemption or down a dark, winding path full of evil?

 

Every villain has a story. Grab this short story prequel to The Christmas Bell to see where the horrific fate of the Mills family began.

• Language: English
• Publisher: L.A. Detwiler
• Release date: Dec 17, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393448273

L.A. Detwiler

L.A. Detwiler is USA TODAY Bestselling author and high school English teacher. Her debut thriller, The Widow Next Door, is a USA Today and International Bestseller with HarperCollins UK/Avon Books. Her second thriller, The One Who Got Away, released in 2020 with HarperCollins UK/One More Chapter. The Diary of a Serial Killer's Daughter released in 2020. L.A. lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, Chad, their five cats, and their mastiff named Henry. Her writing has appeared in several women's publications and online magazines. She also writes romance under Lindsay Detwiler, including her popular Lines in the Sand Series. Join her Readers' Club with this link: http://eepurl.com/gkZ2Sf

Book preview

Chapter One

1955

The sun shining in a contradiction to the grayness inside of her, Rachel settled on a single truth that she would clutch for the rest of her days: she should have killed herself rather than let them bring her back to the demented place.

Rachel pressed her nose up against the glass in the car window, her dad stoic as he drove through the iron gate into the dark forest surrounding Redwood Asylum. She’d been there once and swore she’d never let them bring her back. She’d do whatever she had to do to stay away from the malevolent stone walls that had suffocated her last time. Yet, there she was, the car driving up the winding path as the silence of the place crept into her bones. Most forests touted wildlife, a serenity. The forest surrounding Redwood reeked of death and sounded like decay to Rachel.

She thought about running away. She could jump out of her door and be lost in the thick forestry before Dad had time to react. She should have run when she had the chance back at home. Still, she’d thought it would be different. She thought that maybe, just maybe, her mother, her sister could learn to love her. To see her. She thought it could be different.

Where there used to be hope, now hatred and hurt manifested instead. She now dreamed about her sister squirming under the end of a butcher knife, her mother hacked to pieces