The man had sat Ashton down on the bed carefully handing him the plate, he was tall about six foot something. He had to kneel down to be eye level with him, looking him directly in the eyes Ashton noticed the dangling earring that bounced around with his movement.

“How are you feeling?”, he asked, gingerly morphing his face into one of concern. “How’s that arm, as well, it got you pretty bad.” The nervous chuckle at the end didn’t make him feel any better, Ashton respected the attempt though. The awkward silence between the two was thick enough for him to choke on. Every question he had already asked had been deflected by the cat in such an off putting way, that this dude was the holder of some great information.  To Ashton he looked like some regular guy, another college student, but he owns a talking cat so he must be different in a way. “ Listen man,” the mysterious man broke the silence hestating for a beat before continuing, “I need to apologize for what happened to you.”

“What ?”, Ashton let slip out softly.  The cat took a passing glance at both of them before putting its head down in disappointment.

“Now Kai, I didn’t spend all this time making you look glorious, for you to come confuse him more.” it meow’d grumpily. The tall man shrugged his shoulders trying to hide his embarrassment, he stopped to think for a moment before speaking again. 

“Sorry I’m not used to doing this,” his voice sounded very blank, and tired. “Most corruption victims don’t live to tell the tale.”  He stood up now, looking down upon Ashton with a serious scowl that burned the gentle face from before. “My name is Kai Anderse, I’m the guy that killed that monster last night.” Ashton eyebrows sprang up to the top of his forehead, before he could put a word in, Kai resumed to talk. “Now what that thing was, it was a Corruption, a spawn of the forgotten. Those things, roam around dimensions looking for beings to eat. They are looking to consume the flow , that’s inside of them.”

“I’m tracking,” Ashton nodded very slowly, “ Kinda, so can you tell me what flow even is ?”

“ It’s how we feel, it’s our sense of style, it’s our groove, every living thing has a flow, if that being can harness that is another thing.” He took a deep breath closing his eyes, “ That’s where I come in, and many like me, the drifters.” Blue lighting crackled off of his arm arc down, bending the space around him to his fist, Ashton, in awe, jumped back away from the display. Lifting a trembling finger to point,

“So I’m guessing that right there is flow, huh?” he nervously chuckled, shaking terribly. 

“Yes that was.” Kai exhaled deeply, the radiation of energy slowly dissipated.  “Drifters hold this power within them allowing them to keep the peace between the dimensions. To fight off, Corruption.”

The low hum of the sparks still reverberated within the air on mention of the monster’s name.

“What does that have to do with me?” Ashton asked out of concern,  the anticipation was killing him. Ashton was still waiting on Kai to answer, touching the bandages on his arm caressing them. To Kai he looked sad, confused, as this was something more for him to deal with. Anxiously, Ashton looked to the cat, that for someone who talked so much is saying nothing, for help. 

“ You’re one of us now, too.” Kai began to talk, but the words fell onto deaf ears. All that his eyes took in were the movement of Kai’s lips. He felt a deep breath passing through him, the eyes beginning to strain as his body tenses. Hearing the muddled words of Kai trying to snap him out of it, Ashton cupped his head holding it low. Visions of the Corruption standing over him drooling, smiling even, that it had caught him. Just the thought of having to see more of those ugly things, perturbed him so much. 

“There are more of them?”

Kai nodded. Looking uncomfortable answering.

“So I’ll die then? I can’t fight like you, I can’t do anything.”

 “If you use flow you’ll be fine, brother”, Kai patted him on the shoulder, keeping his touch brief, but comforting. “I was like you once, A run in with a Corruption changed my whole world.”

“How did I become a Drifter, then?” Ashton reluctantly asked.

“It scratched your right arm, you made contact with the Infinite, and now you are  connected forever.” He took notice of the hungry boy’s blank stare at the plate of food. “ Ok, I see where your head’s at.” Kai chuckled and hopped up from the bed, strolling out the door with Mr.Whiskers close on his heels. “ When you’re done come up and we can talk more.”

Once Kai had taken his first step outside the room Ashton created a vacuum where his mouth was, gorging himself on the savory taste of lukewarm pizza rolls. It only took about ten seconds until the massacre was over, and Ashton was licking his fingers. As he did so he mulled over Kai’s drifter summary, he knew that wasn’t the full story. That being said, even if it’s 000000.01% true that means he’s changed, his worlds changed. Flow? Corruption? It just sounded make believe, but what he saw last night, even this morning, was an eye opening experience of sorts. 

“Intriguing, right ?” Whiskers giggled with a sly grin across his furry face. Ashton really thought about saying ‘No’ and walking out the door, but he found he wasn’t capable at the moment. Fact was, his mind is very intrigued, almost breaking his neck with his approval. He swallowed the ball of food down, coughing a little bit as it passed his lungs. All his life he had hesitated in everything, and that hesitation brought him here.

Or this could all be some bullshit prank, some secret induction ceremony where they all laugh at him with cameras rolling the second he came upstairs. Ashton had to weigh the options; A. This is real, B. This is some prank show , or C. He is still asleep.  He could safely rule out C, seeing as how full he was, but B that’s gonna be hard for him to prove that one. With  a 50/50 chance he hopped out the bed once more, but this time he’s going to walk up those steps no more playing around. With fire hot on his heels he walked up the steps, each thud up them quelled it quicker than he gained the courage.

As he popped into the kitchen, he saw Kai sitting down at the table with a mug of coffee drinking it while watching videos on his phone. He took his seat right across from him, breathing out a deep sigh, like he was stuck in a dust cloud and finally found clean air.

Kai took a nonchalant drink of his coffee, scrolling quietly, waiting.

“What’s it like being a Drifter?”, Ashton got to the point.

Kai smiled, taking another sip.

“Where do I begin ?” he chuckled lightly.

---

————————————————————————————————–

The air smelled stale, hollow even, but the lasting impression was that of complete shadow. The five of them knew it was a hallway, but from this end it looked like it never ended. Unmotivated they sat on the wall just outside the entrance looking in strewn about onto random perches of rock, waiting. The clean hit of fancy shoes clapped across the ground echoing down the hall. Each step was louder and sharp than next, advancing slowly in a rhythmic beat. Swaying out into the moonlight was a fancily clad man white curly hair, that seemed to glow luminously in it. He wore a long tuxedo that flowed over his lanky extremities, gracefully, you could even see thin stripes of black laced into vertical lines. His Sunday’s best shoes are as shiny as the jagged razors in his mouth, yet with all of this glamour you still couldn’t see his eyes. The curls fell down in front of his face like a thick jungle, but he didn’t seem to mind, his face was always a steely mischievous smile.

One of the figures stood up, revealing their face to be covered with a hood and a mask. The frame of their body was hidden beneath the encasing cloak. The mask was like that of a court jester, purples, yellows, and greens stained it in vibrant diamond shapes. The eye lines were surrounded by a rim of gold. They approached, but as they got closer they felt the waves of the man’s otherworldliness radiate off of him. 

“So, what news have you got for me today?”, he asked dancing off of each word, yawning between some. 

“That Corruption you sent, it attracted the attention of a drifter in the area.” they spoke with twinges of anger hissing out.

“Calm yourself, now,” the abnormality took a deep sigh, tilting his head back. “This is why it’s easier to have you all take care of these things, I don’t wanna be that person that said I told you so.”, trailing off into exactly that, “I told you so.”

The mask let out a frustrated grunt, at the beings teasing.

“Stop playing around, the Corruption was taken out by that same drifter.” The mask cursed in annoyance, stomping their foot down.

This caught the beings attention. His mischievous smile grew wider, chattering as his force covered them all in pressure. In an instant, he fixed himself up, taking a deep breath. 

“I thought it went out of control, but if there’s a drifter that strong then…” he turned his face to the moon, “Then we just have to take a more aggressive approach.” Refocusing his glance at the mask,  “Means more work for you anyway.”, he scoffed and walked back into the tunnel.

The rest of the figures began to sit up off of the perches, grouping behind the mask. Watching him leave. 

“Don’t let your personal feelings get in the way of this operation. Don’t make me regret my choice.”, the tunnel echoed complete with a blood curdling chill. The mask was determined not to fail, their life damn near depended on it.