Not long ago, in a town too small to matter and too quiet to notice what hid inside it, there lived a boy named Taurine.
He looked ordinary.
He laughed at the right times.
He worked a part-time job.
He kept his head down.
But Taurine was not born.
He was made.
Seventeen years before he ever opened his eyes, something stirred in the depths of Hell something ancient, prideful, and cruel. The King of Hell did not create children out of love. He created weapons.
Taurine was shaped from the King's DNA… and a rib torn from his own body. Flesh sculpted with intent. Power engineered with purpose.
And then he was sealed in sleep.
For seventeen years, he lay in darkness.
Until he woke up.
The first breath he ever took tasted like sulfur and ash.
The second tasted like freedom.
He ran.
He didn't understand how he knew what "up" was only that he had to reach it. He tore through the veil between realms and collapsed under a Mississippi sky, gasping in humid air that burned his lungs in a way Hell never had.
Mississippi.
Small towns. Open roads. Pine forests.
A place he thought no one would look.
For a while… they didn't.
By nineteen, Taurine had learned how to pretend.
He learned how to smile at customers.
How to make small talk.
How to suppress the pulse of energy beneath his skin.
But power doesn't shrink.
It grows.
And the older he became, the heavier it felt like something clawing from inside his bones. His strength sharpened. His senses widened. The air itself seemed to hum around him.
And somewhere far below the earth…
They felt it.
Hell
"Mr. Satan… we found him."
Dan stood kneeling before the throne a structure carved from something that might once have been alive.
The King did not look up immediately.
"Where?" His voice was quiet. Controlled. That was always worse.
"Mississippi, my lord."
A pause.
Then the faintest smile.
"Send one of the lower demons."
"Yes, my lord."
"And Dan…"
"Yes?"
"Do not fail me again."
The temperature dropped twenty degrees.
Mississippi
"That's one black coffee, sir?" Taurine asked, keeping his voice even.
"Yeah, that'll be all."
"$3.94 with tax."
"Thanks."
"You too."
Routine. Safe. Normal.
He locked the café door behind him and stepped into the evening air.
That's when he felt it.
A presence.
Heavy. Watching.
He didn't turn around right away. He didn't need to. His senses mapped the shape behind him tall. Massive. Trying too hard to hide.
Instead of heading toward his car, Taurine walked toward the tree line just outside town.
If this was coming… better it happened away from people.
Bootsteps followed.
Good.
Deep in the woods, he stopped.
"How can I help you?" Taurine asked without turning around.
A low chuckle answered him.
"Well, well. I was hoping i'd be harder to spot."
Taurine finally faced him.
Seven-foot-three. Shoulders like concrete slabs. Eyes too dark to be human.
"You weren't," Taurine said calmly. "It's not subtle when a giant follows you."
The demon smiled.
"Your father wants you."
Taurine's jaw tightened.
"That's not going to happen."
The demon's grin widened.
"I was hoping you'd say that."
The attack came instantly.
A wave of raw energy slammed into Taurine's chest and launched him backward. His spine shattered through a tree trunk. Wood exploded. Bark ripped through the air like shrapnel.
Before he could regain footing
A fist collided with his face.
The world blurred.
He tore through five trees before embedding into the sixth, breath crushed from his lungs.
Pain bloomed.
And something inside him answered it.
The demon charged again.
Taurine ripped himself free from the splintered trunk and moved on instinct. He drove his fist forward with everything inside him.
The impact was sickening.
His hand punched straight through the demon's torso.
Silence swallowed the forest.
The demon stared down at the arm impaled through him, black blood spilling over Taurine's wrist.
"You are… not hidden," the demon rasped. "You are a beacon."
Taurine yanked his arm free.
"I'm maybe the first," the demon continued, collapsing to his knees. "Not the last. Each one stronger than me."
A wet smile.
"And no one you love… will survive it."
The body dissolved into ash.
The woods were quiet again.
Too quiet.
Taurine drove home in silence.
I can't stay.
He threw clothes into a bag. Grabbed cash. Didn't look at anything long enough to regret leaving it behind.
As he reached the door
The room flooded with light.
Blinding. Pure. Violent in its brightness.
When it faded, she was standing there.
Wings spread wide.
Not soft and feathery.
Sharp. Brilliant. Bladed with light.
"Hello," she said. Her voice carried something ancient beneath it. "My name is Betty. I witnessed your fight."
Taurine's eyes narrowed.
"And?"
"And you killed a demon far above your visible power level."
He laughed once. Dry.
"Visible?"
"I was sent to investigate you."
"Then investigate," he said flatly. "I'm busy."
She stepped forward slightly.
"I can read your mind."
"Try."
She did.
Her expression changed instantly.
Confusion.
Then strain.
"I can't…" she whispered.
Taurine stepped closer.
"You're not strong enough."
For the first time, doubt flickered in her eyes.
Interesting, she thought. He feels… sealed.
"I suppose I'll be staying with you," she said carefully. "Until I understand what you are."
"What I am?" he echoed.
"Yes."
His eyes darkened slightly.
"You first."
Outside, she watched him walk toward his car.
"Can you fly?" she asked suddenly.
He paused.
"No."
She blinked.
"You have that much power… and no one taught you to fly?"
"No one taught me anything."
For a moment, something shifted in her expression.
"Fine," she sighed. "Focus on your back. Your shoulders. Feel what's locked there."
He closed his eyes.
At first, nothing.
Then
Pain.
White-hot and ripping.
Bones shifting. Skin tearing.
Dark wings erupted from his back not radiant like hers.
Black.
Massive.
Terrifying.
Betty staggered backward.
"That's impossible…"
Taurine opened his eyes and leapt.
The ground cracked beneath him.
Air caught his wings — and suddenly the earth was falling away beneath his feet.
He climbed higher.
The town shrank.
The wind roared.
And for the first time in his life…
He felt free.
When he landed again, Betty was staring at him like she had just witnessed something forbidden.
"How did you do that?" she whispered. "It took me weeks to form mine."
Taurine flexed the black wings behind him.
"I wasn't made to struggle."
Far below the earth, the King of Hell smiled.