Don Nadie

# HELLSPAWN HUNTER ## Synopsis **When the gates of Hell crack open over his hometown, seventeen-year-old Kael Draven should have died with everyone else. Instead, he made a deal with a dying demon—and became something the supernatural world has never seen before.** Kael's father was a legendary Hunter who died keeping secrets. His demonic bond makes him an abomination in the eyes of his father's former allies. And Vex'thul, the ancient demon sharing his headspace, won't shut up long enough to let him figure out which side he's supposed to be on. **Vex'thul the Unbound has survived three millennia by being paranoid, ruthless, and absolutely insufferable. Now he's stuck in the body of an idealistic teenager who thinks "heroism" is a viable career path.** Together, they're humanity's most dysfunctional defense against the supernatural apocalypse. Kael wants to save everyone. Vex wants to survive everything. Neither is getting what they want. The Hunter Academy doesn't train half-demons. Vampire covens don't trust monsters with consciences. Exorcist orders shoot first and ask questions later. And somewhere in the shadows, the conspiracy that killed Kael's father is pulling strings that could unravel reality itself. **Armed with unstable demonic powers, a demon who treats life-or-death situations like a running commentary track, and a stubborn refusal to accept that some people can't be saved, Kael is about to learn that the hardest part of hunting monsters isn't the fighting—it's deciding which monsters deserve to live.** In a world where humanity's protectors might be the real villains, Kael Draven will discover that sometimes the only way to save the world is to embrace the darkness within. *Because when Hell comes calling, sometimes you need a monster to answer.*

Alex blinked slowly. His brain struggled to process the scene. Then his gaze shifted to the man, the one proposing. Daniel Foster. The so-called cousin. Alex let out a quiet breath. “What the hell…” His voice wasn’t loud, but Lily heard it. Her head snapped toward him. For a brief moment her face froze. Then her expression turned cold. “Alex?” The crowd also noticed him. Students began whispering. “Who is that?” “Wait… I think I know him.” Alex walked forward a step. His eyes moved between Lily and Daniel, still trying to process what he was seeing. “Your cousin?” he asked slowly. “So… cousins propose with rings now?” Daniel frowned slightly. Lily’s face immediately darkened. “What are you doing here?” she snapped. Alex stared at her in shock. “You don't remember? I just got out today.” Her brows furrowed. “You shouldn’t be here.” Alex tilted his head and he scoffed loudly in disbelief. “Why not?” “Because you belong in prison,” Lily said looking irritated. The words hit him like a slap as he took a step back. The crowd gasped. Alex stared at her silently. “Prison?” he repeated quietly. “Yes.” Lily crossed her arms. “You’re a murderer, Alex. And murderers belong in prison.” The crowd erupted in whispers. “Murderer?” “Wait… I remember now!” “That’s him!” A girl pointed at Alex. “He’s the student who killed someone in a car accident three years ago!” Another student laughed. “Holy shit it really is him!” “So he’s out already?” “Why is he back here?” More people started whispering and pointing. Alex could hear everything clearly as he clenched and unclenched his fist. But his eyes never left Lily.

Blake glanced at everyone in the room. Despite how they just treated him, he went down on his knees to beg them, throwing the shame and the hurtful feeling he was having at that moment through the window. “Please help me, my sister is dying. Even if you don't pay me for being a substitute husband on the wedding day like you promised, I will pay back every single penny” he pleaded. Maria kicked him hard on his stomach, making him stumble on the ground. “Were you assuming that I would give you a ten million you didn't work for? Are you stupid or pretending to be stupid?” she fired. Maria used Blake to save her face that day, a year ago. He was just the perfect person she needed, he was a cleaner, and it also felt like he needed money. Promising him money was the only thing that got him married to her. He is just a wretched pauper, she would never give her money to someone like Blake. “How do you intend to pay back if we lend you the money? From your part-time jobs?” she taunted. “Is leeching off us not enough? Now, you want more?” Mrs Jones added, bursting into a cynical laughter. “What have you done for us? You couldn't afford your tuition fees and dropped out because of that, what should I expect from someone of your caliber?” At that moment, Blake knew that they would not help him no matter what. Standing up with a shallow sigh, he peeked at them and shook his head. What was he thinking? **** Just when he thought life has ended, Blake found out that he was the owner of a company worth trillions of dollars. Will he seek revenge or hide his identity from his In-Laws?

Brian Patrick, a humble delivery boy, was falsely accused of siphoning $15 billion dollars by his ruthless boss, Morgan Harris, sent to jail for fifteen years and finally released as a poverty-stricken, boy. He re-united with his family only to be informed he had been an adopted son and a bastard all the while. Family despised him to the path he threaded; friends tagged him a total loser, a failure, a poverty-stricken nobody and a nuisance that shouldn’t be associated with. Those he worked for refused him his paycheck for the sake of his history as an ex convict and his ragged looks and he ended up scavenging dustbins for survival. Because of his poverty, his father-in-law, Fanny Luis, the richest tycoon in Rio Hondo, divorced him and betrothed his wife, Melissa in an arranged marriage, with the son of a billionaire, despite saving her with his kidney, when she was down with a kidney failure. “I promise you some day, you and your family will bow before me and hail me the world richest man,” he had told his wife when she divorced him… Later, about taking his life, he was called “Boss” by tycoons, big wigs and billionaires, who knew his true identity. Soon his true identity was revealed to him; the true heir to the Saint Don Group, the richest oil and gas conglomerate in the world. Everyone that saw him bowed at his feet, his wealth and charming looks pulled the most beautiful girls and his net worth commanded more than thirty trillion dollars. He became god of wealth. If only his haters had known he was the world richest man, perhaps they wouldn’t have underrated him. But now he would be taking his revenge on those that treated him like a piece of rag.

On the day their daughter died… Lyra chose to comfort another child. Brandon spent seven years loving a woman who slowly stopped loving him back. He endured the coldness, the humiliation, and the pain of watching another man and his son replace him and his daughter inside their own home. Still, he stayed. Because he believed that even if Lyra no longer loved him… she would always love Maggie. He was wrong. On Maggie’s sixth birthday, Lyra abandoned her sick daughter to celebrate another child instead. When Maggie collapsed in Brandon’s arms, Lyra still refused to believe the truth. “You used your own daughter to manipulate me!” she screamed in disgust. Meanwhile, Maggie’s tiny body trembled violently as her failing heart slowly gave up. “Lyra… please…” Brandon begged brokenly. “I’ll kneel if I have to. Just take us to the hospital…” But Lyra looked at her dying daughter with cold disappointment. “I’m ashamed of both of you.” Then she abandoned them on the side of the highway. As Brandon desperately carried his little girl toward the hospital, Maggie smiled weakly through her tears. “Daddy… don’t cry anymore. When I reach Heaven, I’ll ask God to send someone who will love you better than Mommy did.” Moments later, her tiny hand slipped away forever. That was the moment Brandon Hale died too. The gentle husband who forgave everything disappeared forever, replaced by a man driven only by grief, revenge, and the truth behind his wife’s betrayal. But when Lyra finally realizes the horrifying mistake she made… It’s already too late. “Brandon… I’m sorry…” she sobbed at his feet. “I never wanted Maggie to die…” Brandon stepped away from her trembling hands, his eyes empty and cold. “It’s too late.”

Silence. Like a nice bucket of shhhhhhhhh. Everyone shut the effing fudge UP! That's all I've ever wanted. *Sigh.* But silence comes in different flavors. There's mint - the peaceful kind that wraps around you like a blanket. The kind I chase at 2 AM. I've cried once. Just once. With a bucket beside me, watching heroes with super suits and impossible strength tear each other apart. Somehow that feels less broken than my reality. Then there's the suffocating silence at school. Not an ice cream flavor. This one tastes like metal and shame. High school is my personal hell. Empty wallet, empty lunch tray, empty seat beside me like I'm radioactive. Empty soul on Wednesdays because middles are always the worst. *The usual.* But Emily made the silence bearable. Mint-flavored again. Until she broke something between us. *Snap.* One moment she's whispering secrets with me, the next she's weaponizing them. She scattered my private thoughts, added her own twisted lies. The betrayal burns hotter than the stares drilling into my back. I went from invisible to spectacle. Being a ghost feels like luxury when you're dodging spit balls and "accidental" lunch trays. But somewhere between my third panic attack and contemplating switching schools... *Something shifted.* Like in those games you play, when your character suddenly glows and the screen flashes: "New Skill Unlocked" And it wasn't just in my head. I tested it. Small things at first – a pencil moving across my desk when I focused hard enough. Then books. Then someone's lunch tray right as they walked past Emily. *tap tap tap* I used to think rock bottom was the end. *Well ladies and gentlemen,* it's just a really messed up spawn point. And now? I don't stumble from cliffs anymore. I swim in gravity, and dive head first.