The punch slammed into Claude's gut for the third time tonight. His skinny body crumpled against the cold street, broken glass cutting into his back through his torn shirt. The narrow alley reeked of blood and garbage, but Claude was used to it by now. This place had seen him get beaten up more times than he could count.
"You little piece of shit! How dare you steal from my store!" The big guy's voice was rough and angry.
A heavy boot kicked Claude's ribs. Crack. Something definitely broke inside his chest. The pain shot through his whole body, but Claude bit back his scream. He'd learned a long time ago that screaming only made things worse.
Three huge men surrounded him like hungry wolves. One of them held a baseball bat covered in blood, the streetlight making it shine.
"Look at this..." One guy searched through Claude's pockets roughly. "Nothing but old bread crumbs. Pathetic."
Claude tried to get up, but the store owner pressed his boot down on Claude's back, crushing him into the pavement. It felt like his whole life was being ground into dust.
Blood filled his mouth—from his split lip or just from how bitter his life had always been, he couldn't tell. He could feel one of his front teeth getting loose.
"P-please... I was just hungry—" Claude's voice came out weak and raspy. He looked up at them, desperately searching for even a tiny bit of mercy.
"Hungry?" All three men laughed like it was the funniest joke they'd ever heard.
"You think I care? You can starve to death for all I give a damn! Go die somewhere and stop bothering normal people!" The man spat next to Claude's head.
"Boss, what should we do with this kid? Throw him in the river?" one of them asked.
"Don't waste the energy. Just dump him with the trash. He'll die on his own soon enough anyway."
Claude closed his eyes, feeling tears mix with the blood on his face. It wasn't the physical pain that hurt the most—he was used to that by now. It was the question that kept haunting him every single night:
What did I do to deserve this? Why does the world hate me so much?
Claude had never known what it felt like to have a mom hug him or a dad protect him. The orphanage where he spent his first ten years was more like a prison. The food was moldy and made him sick, the beds were damp and smelled awful, and the people who were supposed to take care of him treated him like garbage.
Love was something he'd only heard about in stories.
When the orphanage got shut down because of some corruption scandal, Claude was thrown onto the streets like trash.
For seven years, his life had only one purpose: survive. He ate scraps from garbage cans, slept under bridges or in doorways, and always had to watch out for danger lurking around every corner.
"Come on, let's leave this trash," one of the men said, giving Claude a lazy kick. "What a waste of time."
Their footsteps faded away as they disappeared around the corner, leaving Claude alone in the alley.
Slowly, Claude pulled himself up, his whole body shaking. He couldn't tell if it was from the cold cutting through his bones or the anger that had been building up inside him for years. He wiped the blood from his mouth with his dirty hand, leaving a red streak on his pale skin. Looking up at the few stars barely visible through the city's smog, he whispered:
"If... if I die tonight, I want to be reborn somewhere better. Somewhere where life isn't this cruel. Where I don't have to fight just for a piece of bread."
It was an empty wish, a prayer he never thought would be answered. But it was all he had left—one tiny thread of hope in the darkness.
The city center should have been alive at this hour. Neon signs from tall buildings flickered like colorful lights, cars flowed in endless streams with horns honking, and crowds of people hurried to their destinations—home, friends, or just to lose themselves in the city chaos.
Claude walked through it all like a ghost who didn't belong anywhere.
The full moon blazed overhead, making his pale face look ghostly. Each step felt heavy—not just from being tired, but from carrying the weight of a life that had been nothing but suffering.
Why do I keep walking? Why do I keep trying? Won't it all end the same way anyway?
These thoughts swirled in his mind as he passed a crowd waiting for the night bus. They all had places to go, homes to return to, people waiting for them. Their faces looked tired, but there was still hope in their eyes.
While Claude... he had no one. He was like a leaf blown away by the wind, tumbling without any direction.
"Hey, move! You're in the way!"
A man in an expensive suit shoved Claude's shoulder hard. He didn't even look back, like Claude was invisible. Claude stumbled and almost fell into the busy street, but no one cared. They were all too busy with their own lives to notice the street kid standing there like a monument to loneliness.
Claude stopped in the middle of the crowd, staring at the clear night sky. Strange. Not a single cloud, but he could feel something... different.
"Weird weather, isn't it?" a woman nearby said to her friend. "Feels like a storm's coming, but the sky's completely clear."
Claude frowned. He felt it too. The air seemed... charged. Like something big was about to happen, something that would shake the whole world. A strange feeling gripped his heart.
And then, without any warning, the sky exploded.
CRAAAACK!
A massive lightning bolt struck from the cloudless sky, so huge and bright that the entire city turned white in an instant. The flash was so intense it left purple spots in everyone's vision. The thunder that followed was so loud that windows in the surrounding buildings rattled, some even cracking. The ground shook beneath their feet.
"ARGH!" People screamed in panic, covering their ears, some throwing themselves to the ground. Chaos erupted in seconds.
Claude stood frozen. He'd never seen lightning that powerful, especially from a perfectly clear sky. The flash didn't just disappear—it kept blazing at one spot in the sky, radiating energy. Then the light began to take shape, forming a huge circle that spun like...
"What is that?!" someone screamed hysterically, pointing up with a shaking finger.
A portal.
A massive gateway had formed from the lightning strike, spinning with energy that made the air vibrate and produced a low humming that made ears ring. Its color was purple-blue, with ripples of light spreading outward. From inside the portal, something began to emerge slowly, like it was being pulled from another world.
First came the wings. Black wings that spread wide, each at least thirty feet long, made of dark feathers that looked like they were woven from the night itself.
Then the figure emerged completely—a tall humanoid creature, much taller than any human, with skin pale as marble that reflected the portal's light, long silver hair that flowed like a waterfall, and eyes that blazed with cold, deadly golden fire.
An angel. But not the kind from church paintings with white robes and holy light. This was something dark, terrifying, radiating such immense power that anyone who looked at it felt like a tiny ant whose life could be crushed at any moment. The air filled with the smell of sulfur and electricity.
The creature descended slowly, its black wings beating with movements that were both graceful and terrifying, each flap creating waves of cold air. It hovered low above the crowd that had frozen in terror, some wanting to run while others could only shake.
Its golden eyes swept across the area with obvious disgust, like the humans below were dirty insects.
Claude felt his heart pounding against his ribs in a crazy rhythm. But it wasn't from fear—strangely, he felt... drawn to it. Like this creature was the answer to every question that had haunted his thoughts, the key to freedom, or maybe... destruction.
The dark angel opened its mouth, and the voice that came out would change Claude's life forever. It wasn't just sound but pure vibration that went straight to his bones.
"Greetings, you pathetic humans."
The voice echoed through flesh and stone. Claude could feel the tremendous power radiating from the figure, a force that could destroy this entire city in the blink of an eye.
The crowd around Claude began whispering in terror, their whispers gradually rising to sobs and screams. Some tried to run, but their legs seemed frozen, paralyzed by overwhelming fear. Others fumbled for their phones to record, their hands shaking violently, still unable to believe the nightmare happening before them.
Claude stood in the middle of the chaos, his gaze fixed on the dark angel hovering above. For the first time in his life, he felt something different from his usual despair, something that wasn't pain or hunger.
Hope? Fear that made his pulse race? Or maybe... opportunity? A chance to change his tragic fate.
The dark angel looked down, its sharp golden eyes meeting Claude's for a split second. And in that moment, Claude felt something he'd never experienced before—like his life, which had been nothing but a nightmare of suffering and loneliness, was finally about to change. A new destiny was unfolding before him.
Whether it would be better or worse, he couldn't tell. But tonight would be the night that changed everything. The night when his meaningless existence finally found a purpose he didn't understand yet.
The dark angel's lips curved into what might have been a smile, and Claude felt his whole world shift on its axis.