My wings opened. I caught an updraught and was thrust back.

My back erupted in a furious burn. I howled, out of instinct, before biting back the pain. My feet staggered, finding firm ground. My wings gave out. Blinded and useless senses, struck dumb from an overwhelming pain.

Don't think about it!

Don't think about it!

You're a demon, for devil's sake!

Some Prince of the Underworld, I was - hunched over in agony on the ground.

Wait.

The ground.

Pavement.

The streets!

I froze. Realization set in, a pit plunged in my gut. I was exposed and vulnerable, abandoning the security of the skies.

I dated to look up, to see if I had aroused any unwanted attention to myself - then again, who would miss a giant humanoid with wings clumsily plummeting from the sky?

The two worlds were not meant to mingle, let alone acknowledge the other at all. Besides, the demons chose the underground. The mortals chose the surface and as for the angels... Well, they claimed everything above.

Those arrogant bastards.

Though, despite their angelic propaganda, many angels fell to the Underworld daily. Because of this, I couldn't help but question their courtly rulings and authority.

So easy to fall, yet so hard to ascend.

Funny.

I could feel their eyes. They were watching. And even if I chose now to fly away and hide, they still would know of my existence. Besides, I was already compromised, not to mention, my wings had already given out. There was no use making a getaway now.

Then, all at once - tires screeching, headlights glaring, a horn blaring. A giant mass heading towards me, trying for a blistering stop - a car.

I reached out, a desperate attempt to lessen the blow. I set my feet, planting them firmly, bracing for impact.

The power was so staggering, I skid with it. Something of the two opposing forces colliding had resonated, the unmistakable sound of a thunderous crash - metal clanking and the piercing whistling of tires on pavement.

Then, a warped sort of noise, a low hum rippling reverberating throughout the streets. And when I gathered the courage to look, I found the source of the sound to be from my own lethal grip of the car's hood, nails dug sharp, puncturing through and into its steel. A brilliant, green ring of light rippled outwards into the air. My hands had ignited, enveloped in vibrant, green, flickering flames.

I stood there, frozen in place for a few seconds, trying to catch my breath.

The summoning of my power was completely unintentional and involuntary, yet in the heat of the moment, I had somehow triggered them.

What kind of hysterical strength was this?

Was this another symptom of my adolescent changes?

How had I not felt a thing? Not a single pain prevailed, nor was there a single evident scratch on me.

To this, something grew inside, a resilient, glowing sensation flourishing in my chest. It was so hysterically impossible - a laugh crept from my throat, dark and heavy, a howling fit of manic laughter.

My teeth grit. My eyes set and narrowed.

My nails dug further, grasping for a more solid hold. The car attempted to backtrack, the wheels spinning in reverse. And despite the resistance of its tires, the car began to move. Slowly, yet with building momentum, it moved - not backwards, yet forward. Towards me, at my own will and command. With all the demonic power vested in my being, I swung.

The car went soaring, flipping across the intersection. It tumbled recklessly, toppling onto other cars.

Debris flew. Blaring alarms erupted. The car landed, sitting on top of others, upside down. The tires spun helplessly.

And the sound of the collision was grand - glass crashing, metal crunching, screams piercing.

Other vehicles swerved to avoid the destruction while others, blocked in by the heavy traffic of the city, had nowhere else to retreat. The most thrilling was the sounds of the mortals screaming. I definitely had their attention now.

I couldn't deny the exhilarating feeling - humans, fearing me, stirring up an immense, frenzied panic.

And suddenly, awareness overcame me - an awareness of how much power I truly capable of.

My own hands, my own strength, my very power.

And it sat in the palms of my hands - twitching and flickering and tingling. Something of it felt... different.

A good different.

I could actually feel its energy, surging through my veins, outlining in a visible green aura. It was a prickliness at my fingertips, an itching temptation.

So much power, manifesting itself, engulfing me.

So much power I was unaware I even had - proof I had only been underestimating myself my whole life.

Tom was wrong about me - or maybe he was just trying to make me believe that. All of this time, cast aside, living in his degrading, miserable shadow.

"We are not brothers, Marco."

I clenched my fist, curling my fingers into my palm. The fire remained relentless. Simultaneously, something had happened.

Aside from the uproar of chaos I had just caused, I noticed a subtle quaking of the ground below me. It was a rumbling tremor - cars shifting, trembling slightly off the pavement. Every car, every vehicle - all under some sort of greater control, yielding to flames of a widespread fire.

And when I decided to test my theory, gradually raising the palm of my hand up, the more gravity seemed to obey. Sounds of clanking and clattering seemed to emit from them - sounds of the cars' interior metal shuddering, rattling, seizing up.

They began shaking more violently this time, easing more and more off the ground. In the midst of all the vehicles surrounding me, I witnessed them all become weightless. Cars lifted into disarray, a disorderly state of confusion, going rogue and directionless. They levitated off and about, bumping clumsily into each other, slowly colliding and then rebounding off another. It was as if gravity had hitched. Time froze.

They hung in the air like marionettes, and I was the puppeteer.

The sight of it all tugged at my face, bringing a devilish, sinister, dangerous grin. And in one clear, swift motion, my fist, consumed in the fire, dropped.

The result was chaotic.

The mass destruction resounded throughout the city. What had once been a tremor had now physically shook the surface, an alarming quake that could be felt from below, sending vibrations to the Underworld.

Cars littered the intersections, either laying on top of other cars, completely turned over, or set ablaze by flames. Smoke rose to the sky, filling the air.

Screams took upon the streets once again, amplified among a larger scale now. Emerald fires lit up the streets, and in its light, people scattered, running like petrified ants.

The chaos of my own making.

All this time - my whole life, I had simply just been wasting it all away.

I'd been so careful all this time. I'd been so careful to hide what was really true of myself. Wasting my whole life trying to avoid the natural demon urges, the biological, unstoppable craving to shed blood.

All because Tom thought I couldn't - or maybe that was just his fear talking, pushing away any doubt that I could be better than him. The more he tried to hold me back and reject me, the more I found myself rising above and proving him wrong.

I was a demon! My true power was always there within me, laying dormant for years. It was all so evident and clear in that moment, I had to laugh.

How funny it was - how painfully hard it was to push it all down to thrive for good, how hilariously easy it was to let it all go to be who I truly was all along.

It was all so simple, the answer right in front of me the whole time - being feared was so much easier than striving to be someone worth being admired or loved.

I was born for this. I was meant to be feared, to feed off of it and to wield it.

The marvel of my work was short-lived, however, when I was seized. A sudden grip to my throat and I went plunging backwards and taking a blow.

The impact was violent enough to leave my indent in its architecture. My head struck brick and for a fleeting split-second, was met by a sudden flash of white pain in the back of my eyes, whiplashing against a wall.

All at once, the pain came back to me. It took effort to open my eyes at first, yet when I did to behold my attacker, I found my brother looming over me.

Tom.