by George Fry
Eventually, I was adopted by one of the caretakers parents. By that point I was old enough to hide my identity on my own, and with them, I could live a semi-normal life, all while secretly keeping in contact with Locke, to never lose that connection to my true identity.
Then, five years ago, more demons showed up. I couldn’t believe it, I didn’t have to hide anymore, I could finally be myself, but that was just a stupid pipe dream. Demons wreaked havoc across the country and became public enemy number one. I was heartbroken.
Now more than ever, I had to keep my identity a secret. If I ever wanted to be accepted into human society, I needed to hide my demonic side at all costs, not just for myself, but to protect my grandparents too, so when they died, I didn’t have a reason to hold back any more...
Acceptance... buried underneath all the negativity and demonic urges, that's all I really wanted.”
“Um… shit…”
Catherine’s story was a lot for Drifter to take in, but at least now, he finally understood.
“Well, I told you mine, what about yours?”
“What?”
“What’s your deal?”
“It doesn't matter.”
“But, I want to know. Please, Drifter. Who are you?”
After everything that happened, she still had the gall to give him the angry eyes.
“F-fine… but, keep it between us, okay? I hate sob stories.”
“Sure.”
“My memory ends at about five years ago. The early days are a bit fuzzy, but what I recall was that I was running from something and that I was a mess. Until, one day, I saved the life of this upper class lady from a demon. When she asked me my name, I couldn’t remember. She said I was some sort of drifter and like a dumb, retard, I just took that as my name.
She was so thankful, she hired me as her family’s personal bodyguard. From then on, I lived with them in their fancy manor in Little Aston, protecting the neighbourhood and by extension, the city from demon attacks.
They may have been rich twats, but they were nice rich twats. Life was good, for a short while, but I soon remembered why I stayed on the move in the first place. Those demons... they weren’t just attacking Birmingham for no reason, they were after me, or more precisely, my sword.
Fighting them was easy, but each new foe was more dangerous than the last. I did everything I could to protect my new family, but then… all hell broke loose. On a trip to the city, hundreds of snake demons rained down from the sky and those things, were monsters.
Murder, mass destruction, they even devoured their victims. Within minutes, the entire city fell into chaos. No one was safe and no one could stop them. I was paralysed. Do I stay behind and protect my family, or defend the city, saving as many people as I can, slaying as many demons as I could find?
I was completely overwhelmed. I had never experienced an attack of this scale before. Then, he showed up. That horrible, serpentine shadow, Nahas.
I could barely make out his form, or even strike it. As the world was dying around me, he grabbed the woman who took me in and held her up like a toy, taunting me.
I’ll never forget what she said to me then…
‘Don’t be afraid.’
Before I could even ask what she meant, Nahas ripped her in half before my eyes and tossed her body away like trash. After that… I broke... and everything went white.
When I regained consciousness, I was standing in a crater, surrounded by nothing. The entire city of Birmingham... gone. All I could do was run away… it was a miracle no one saw me.
I found out later, a massive explosion of white light erased the entire city. Since those snake demons were there, everyone assumed they were the culprits, but I knew. I wasn’t deluded.
I destroyed Birmingham.
Ever since, I’ve taken special care to keep my powers under strict control, to never use any more than what’s necessary, so something like that never happened again.”
“Woah… no wonder you’re so good at wielding that sword’s power. But, what happened after that? What have you done all this time?”
“Nothing… I avoided people, fought demons and gradually stopped caring about anything. Along as there were demons around, I could never live peacefully. And you know what the worst part is?
I can’t even remember her name...”
Catherine sympathised. There was a reason why Drifter was the way he was. Still, his story made her shudder.
“If Newport hadn’t been evacuated before hand, I could have caused a second incident...”
“Guess you’re not so different from humans after all.”
“Yeah… we're both a couple of fuck ups.”
“There you are.” A familiar cop car drove onto the field, as Richard greeted the two.
“When you said you wanted a lift, I didn’t expect you to be halfway across the damn island.”
“Alright. It’s time to head back, Catherine.”
“Back where?”
“To the others.”
“I don’t know…”
“Locke’s waiting for you.”
“Locke’s alive!?”
“And better than ever, you won’t even recognise him.”
“You, didn’t kill him?”
“We’re all stuck in this boat together. You got the guts to come with us?”
“Of course! But, before that… can we make a quick stop. I want to put some proper clothes on.”
“Oh… yeah, let’s do that.”
As the Sun was setting, everyone gathered by the bridge entrance, waiting for those two to return. The car came over the horizon and parked in front of them. Catherine with her new shirt, jeans and boots exited the car, with Drifter following. She didn’t bother with the hat, as it wasn’t needed anymore.
Catherine was confused at first, but upon hearing his voice, she immediately rushed over to Locke, overjoyed that her big brother was finally free of his prison. Drifter was shocked too, mostly at how many of his enemies returned to help when he wasn’t around. It was a little embarrassing.
“Geez… and all because some little blonde cunt, refused to leave me alone.”
“You couldn’t get rid of me if you tried.” Dale replied, apparently, having done some clothes shopping of his own.
“Drifter.” Alexander called. “Those monsters that showed up were definitely snake demons.”
“So, Nahas really was behind this?”
“Yeah. If we don’t find that son of a bitch, humans and demons will never be able to live together.”
“Well, I’m not much of a detective, so I’ll let you handle that shit.”
“Wait, what?”
“I’m better at punching things, you just point me in the right direction.”
Drifter walked on by, toward the bridge.
“Hold up!” Dale called. “You’re not leaving without me!”
“What…? Yeah, sure…”
“Or me!” Amanda added. “This Nahas guy sounds like a real piece of work, so I’ll do whatever I can to help bring him down.”
“Alright… I mean… one more couldn’t hurt…”
“Wait!” Called a voice.
“What the fu-! Oh...”
“I… want to go to!” Catherine pleaded. “Just like how you learned to control your powers, I want to learn how to control mine! I want to fight for all the demons out there who just want to live in peace, like Pad and Spinal. I want to show the world that there are demons out there that aren’t monsters.”
Drifter sighed. “Goddammit…”
“Was that a no…?”
“No way!” Dale interrupted. “As if we’d turn down an offer from someone as strong as you, right Drifter?”
Drifter saw the determined look in Catherine’s eyes. He had developed a fondness for her, one he’d never admit to, but before he could accept her, there was one final question that he needed an answer to.
“How old are you?”
“Twenty?”
“Thank God... didn’t want to babysit another kid.”
Drifter, Dale, Amanda and Catherine. Victims of a cruel world that took everything from them, have now finally found the will to fight back. They all followed different paths, but somehow, those separate paths managed to converge together. Now, they're walking the same path, a path that hopefully leads them to a brighter future.