Drew stared unblinking as the entity entered the room. It wore a long, brown, flowing robe that brushed the ground. Its sleeves were oversized to the point that it hid the being’s entire arms and hands. An abnormally large head sat atop a pencil-thin neck. Its angled eyes were pitch black and the size of oranges. They gave the alien a sinister look, as if it were always angry.

Its ears were absent, with only holes where they would normally sit. It had a tiny nose above a small, lipless mouth. There was not a single hair on the alien’s head.

The being strode silently into the room as it studied Drew and Matt. Behind it, levitated a large pink chunk of what resembled uncooked meat. The alien suddenly stopped, yet the raw flesh continued toward them. When the chunk was within a few feet of Drew, it suddenly fell to the ground with a loud thump.

EAT

“Holy shit!” Matt blurted and flinched backward with a hand to his temple. “It talked in my head!”

The alien passively gazed at the excitable young man as Matt backed away toward the wall. While Matt seemed frightened by the being, Drew only felt a rising anger. He struggled to rise to his feet so he could attack the thin, frail looking alien. However, without chi, his body betrayed him.

Eventually, Matt regained his courage. With a scowl and narrowed eyes, he waved his hands above his head. A small spark of a fireball began to form above him.

Get him Matt!

Suddenly, a wave of mental pressure emanated from the alien, which froze both he and Matt. The fireball dissipated, and Matt slumped against the far wall to the ground with a gasp.

EAT

I t repeated the command, and the pile of raw meat suddenly lifted back into the air. It slowly floated toward Matt, who remained frozen as he was pressed against the wall. As the chunk neared his friend, Drew saw that it was aimed directly at Matt’s face.

It continued to close until the edge entered Matt’s open mouth. Despite being frozen and unable to move, Matt’s jaw suddenly closed and ripped off a strip from the side. Drew saw his throat bulge as the raw meat was forced down it.

After a moment, the pressure was released and they both slumped forward and breathed hard to catch their breath.

“Ewww…” Matt complained. “I can still taste it.” He began smacking his mouth and spitting red phlegm onto the ground beside him.

EAT

After the last command, the chunk of meat again dropped to the floor. The alien turned for the door, and then silently exited the room. The wooden barrier slammed shut behind it and Drew heard the sound of a latch sliding into place.

The cell was completely silent after the creature left, with only the sound of their breathing within the chamber. Matt turned to Drew. “You think it's trying to poison us?”

His anger was still running high, and he wanted nothing more than to kill the frail-looking creature. However, he took a calming breath and answered, “No. It could’ve killed us both with zero effort. It obviously wants to keep us healthy and alive for some reason. Maybe you’re right and it wants to question us or something. Although, I don’t know how it’ll understand English.”

“It’s obviously a mind mage, fam. If it can force thoughts into our head, it can read them too.”

“I didn’t think about that.” Drew admitted. “If it can actually read our thoughts, then it doesn’t need to torture us to learn what it wants. It already knows.”

Matt threw his hands up in frustration. “Then what the hell does it want with us?”

Drew shrugged, the most movement he could make in his present condition. They continued to sit in silence, staring at the chunk of meat on the floor, which was illuminated by the crystals in the room’s corners. Drew tried and failed to fall asleep. Instead, all he could think about was his family and friends.

Did they escape? Did Carol save them? Are they in cages right now, like we are?

“Uh… fam?” Matt broke the silence. “I think that meat it forced down my throat is doing something.”

Did it actually poison him?

“What’s wrong?” he asked in concern.

“Uh… It’s actually the opposite of wrong. I think my core is refilling with chi.”

What?

“What do you mean? How?”

“I dunno, fam. All I know is that when I tried blasting that bastard with a fireball, I was running on empty. Now, my core’s like a quarter of the way full.”

“You think it was the meat?”

“What else could it be?”

Drew made a sudden decision. “Can you feed me some of that meat?”

“WHAT?!” Matt cried in disbelief. “You actually want to eat that crap? What if it ends up killing me?”

“Then we die together. We’re on an alien world, who knows how many light-years away from Earth, and we aren’t getting back home. But, if that meat can refill my core, then I can take one of those bastards with me. The next time it comes back, we’ll ambush it.”

Matt began absently nodding along as he explained his reasoning. When he finished, Matt had a smile on his face as he reached down and picked up the slab of meat. “Ewww,” Matt grimaced as he daintily held it between his pointing finger and thumb.

He dangled the food in front of Drew’s mouth. Surprisingly, the meat had no odor, what-so-ever. Drew leaned forward and bit gingerly down on a corner. The meat was room temperature, slimy, and had the grit of loose dust and gravel from the stone floor. It also tasted just as bad as all the cooked beast meat they had eaten back on Earth.

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Is this just monster meat that’s uncooked?

Drew mechanically chewed until he was able to finally swallow. His throat was sore and his mouth was entirely dry, despite the slimy texture of the food. “Water,” he coughed as he tried to keep the bite down.

Matt obliged and summoned water directly over his mouth as he tipped back his head. After many gulps, his thirst was quenched, and he regretfully leaned forward to bite off another chunk of meat. The taste was awful and the texture displeasing, however, sustenance was not the goal. If this worked and refilled his core, he would gladly eat the disgusting food.

After Drew’s stomach was full, he waved Matt away and hunched forward. He tried to focus internally on his core, but found it difficult without any chi to aid him.

For ten minutes, he prayed for the act to work, for his core to be refilled. Finally, when he was sure he had wasted his time, a trickle of chi entered his core.

His domain exploded outward, and he let out a sob as he felt his energy return. He could once again sense everything within the room. Drew slowly climbed to his feet and stretched as he started to think more clearly.

It worked!

Drew whirled around and grinned at his friend’s shocked expression.

“Woah…” Matt muttered.

“It works!” Drew exclaimed, unable to contain his excitement. “Go ahead and eat some more, Matt. The next time that thing comes back, we’ll ambush it from the sides and take it out!”

While Matt forced himself to eat more of the raw beast meat, Drew began to tour their cell as he healed his half-melted body. It was something he could finally do, now that his core was no longer empty. His domain brushed up against the stone walls, ceiling, and floor, but could not pierce through. Drew’s senses abruptly ended at the strange glowing symbols that were carved into it.

The door to their cell was equally impenetrable to his domain. Drew strode forward toward the wooden entry and traced his fingers along the grain. It felt just like wood. When he traced the carved symbols with his fingers, it seemed the same. He could discern nothing different about the luminescent symbols that were gouged out from the wooden planks.

Let’s see if it’s stronger than I am.

He remembered that a handle was placed on the opposite side of the door, and it hinged inward from the right. Drew suddenly reared back and kicked the left side of the door. Even with all his strength and a thousand pounds of mass behind him, he rebounded back into the room.

The door never even shook.

Now that his core was no longer empty, he cycled chi throughout his body. Drew’s strength tripled, and he launched himself toward the barrier.

Nothing happened.

Over and over again, his feet slammed into the door. When that failed to produce a result, he dropped his body’s enhancement and attempted to pry it open with force. However, no matter how he tried to wedge a summoned blade in the crack between it and the wall, it refused to slip past the symbols.

Fire bounced off the wooden doorway, while a laser and cold spell had no effect. Within his domain, Drew sensed as the chi disappeared the second his spells touched the strange runes. Finally, he slumped backward in defeat. The door remained unharmed.

Matt laughed. “I told ya I tried bustin’ through. Did ya not believe me?”

Drew shrugged. “I had to be sure. How stupid would we feel if I could’ve broken through the door, but I never even tried.”

“Fair.”

Now that he was no longer using the chi within his core, it began to slowly fill. To pass the time, he chatted with Matt.

“You know, I think that was just normal beast meat.”

“No way.” Matt shook his head, adamantly. “I’ve eaten waaaay more disgusting monster meat than I ever wanted to, and I never noticed it refillin’ my core.”

“Yeah, but we always cooked it.”

“Yeah fam, it tastes bad enough when you cook it, who would want to ever eat it raw?”

“That’s my point. What if we were cooking the chi out of it.”

Matt gave him a look.

“I’m serious. Lots of stuff gets cooked out of food when you heat it. What if chi is the same? Just look at us, we have chi throughout our entire bodies enhancing it, right?”

Matt gave him a dubious nod.

“What if the monsters are the same? Maybe we’re absorbing that chi when we digest it.”

“You think the monsters were refilling their cores when they ate their friends?”

“Probably so, although I don’t think they used much chi until they evolved.”

“I’d still rather recharge from a battery.”

Drew laughed. “So would I.”

Their cores continued to refill while they waited impatiently for their captor to return. Hours passed as they anxiously remained on guard together. By the time Drew heard the door’s latch slide open, their cores had long been refilled.

Drew quickly summoned a laser spell and held it at the ready while Matt began forming a fireball above him. When the door fully opened, they released their attacks upon the alien revealed.

His laser sliced across an invisible barrier, but failed to penetrate, while Matt’s fireball simply bounced off of it. Next, Drew tried to create a gravity spell around the entity, but it was unable to form. The being had its own domain which not only prevented him from sensing it, but also blocked his spells. Finally, Drew formed microwaves that he blasted at the entity.

They had no effect.

Screw this.

Drew cycled chi throughout his body while he summoned a four-foot-long blade within his hands. He rushed forward and raised it above his head. At the last second, he brought it down with all of his strength.

It had no effect.

Drew’s hands and arms stung as the blade vibrated from impact. To his frustration, the alien had yet to even react. It continued to slowly walk deeper into the room and ignored their feeble attempts to kill it. Drew beat at the alien’s shield repeatedly while Matt continued to condense his fireball. Drew was slowly forced backward as the alien advanced.

Finally, Matt finished forming his plasma ball and shouted, “Take this, you bastard!”

For the first time, the alien reacted. It raised its arm, so the drooping sleeves of its robe covered its large black eyes. It was so bright, Drew was forced to squint his own eyes as well. The plasma slammed into the alien's barrier and slid down to the ground below.

Drew slumped in defeat.

If even plasma can’t break through, what hope do we have?

WEAK

Suddenly, both Matt and Drew were frozen. Just a look from the alien was able to stun them, and they both slumped limply to the ground. The gray being turned to stare at Matt for just a moment before it focused on Drew.

FOLLOW

Suddenly, the pressure from his mind released and Drew was able to move once more. He quickly rose to his feet and formed another blade. However, before he could even move, his body froze once more and extreme pain assaulted him. Agony traced up and down his body as he fell to his knees and his head hit the floor beneath him.

The torment continued for long minutes until it suddenly ceased without any preamble. His body was released from its rictus stance, and he took great gasps of breath.

FOLLOW

I guess I follow it.

Drew once more rose to his feet, no longer eager to attack the impossible entity. When he failed to attack it again, it turned and slowly walked back to the door. Drew followed cautiously behind it.

When the alien reached the door, Matt suddenly gasped. His friend took in great lungfuls of air as he sat upon the ground. Drew paused. “Aren’t you coming?”

Matt shook his head. “That thing told me to wait. Sorry fam… I tried.” he hung his head low in embarrassment.

“It’s ok. I guess I’m going to finally find out what it wants with us.”

“Good luck,” Matt mumbled.

With that parting wish, Drew turned and exited the room.