Alex shuddered in pleasure as he drank greedily, his eyes slowly regaining focus when he saw exactly what he was eating. Alex was on top of someone, his teeth deep inside the neck of a man who was limp and pale under him, growing colder by the moment. Alex jumped backwards, his teeth tearing from the man's throat as he did so, and he let out a loud, frightened yell as he stumbled onto his behind.
"AAAH! WHAT THE FUCK!!!"
Alex was shivering not from the cold but from his own actions as his mind raced with thoughts and he struggled to piece together what had just happened. His memory seemed to be foggy with the details, but from what he could recall, he was being attacked, and then he felt so incredibly thirsty, and he was drinking the most delicious thing he had ever tasted. Licking his lips, he could still taste the intense, amazing flavors of what he had consumed, but he coughed and tried to spit out as the horror of what happened set in.
"I-I killed him! I killed a guy, a-and I ate him or drank his b-blood…" As he mentioned the blood, he felt a pang of desire inside him; the memories of how good it was to drink that savory sweet flavor made his gums ache and his mouth water.
Quickly, he clamped a hand over his mouth as he felt himself start to drool a bit. Holding his hand over his mouth, he could feel protrusions. After carefully feeling around in his mouth, he could feel his two top lateral incisors were sharpened to vicious points and had extended to over double their length. Alex's mind raced to find some, if any, explanation for the situation. 'What's happening to me? I died. I remember that then I woke up dead again? But not dead, I healed.' Quickly he felt along his neck where the crystal had been impaling him a few minutes ago; he was unharmed, no injuries at all; in fact, he felt great.
'I definitely died in the car wreck, and the way I woke up should have been a death sentence as well, but I'm perfectly fine, if not better. Then… then he attacked me, and… I um, I defended myself. Yes, I defended myself with my um teeth that are sharp now?' Alex buried his face in his hands as he tried to reason with himself, but nothing seemed reasonable anymore. 'Am I in some kind of hell, some kind of sick afterlife where I'm a monster?'
He uncovered his face and forced himself to take deep breaths he hadn't noticed, but he had been holding his breath. 'Wait, my breath? I held my breath for how long there? I don't think I was ever breathing, not since I woke up.' More worry filled him as he tried to remember panting for air as he dodged and avoided his attacker, but he couldn't remember much, only remembered taking in air to expel it when he spoke. With fear gripping his heart about what answers he may find, he held his breath waiting, and as the seconds passed and turned to minutes, which then became so long he lost count. He couldn't feel any tightness in his lungs, no need to breathe, or desperation building.
His heart sank, and he reached up to his newly healed neck again, pressing fingers firmly next to the throat to feel for something, anything, but nothing was there—no pulse, no heartbeat. Panic gripping him, he clawed at his chest but felt nothing, just still pale, cold skin. He ripped open the tattered rags; he seemed to be wearing the change in attire the least of his concern right now as he touched and pressed against his chest, smearing blood from his hands as he tried to find any heartbeat. 'Oh god. Oh god, what is this? It's real, I'm really dead, but then why am I here? Where is here, and who was that?'
Alex looked over at the corpse of the man who had attempted to kill him. The man was middle-aged, average-looking, and dressed in rags. He was covered in dirt and grim, and even before his death, he had a fair amount of blood on him. 'Who are you?' Alex shakily started to get up. He slowly approached the man, looking down at his empty eyes and pale corpse. He swallowed nervously before attempting to speak but found no air and had to force a breath to speak.
"I don't know why you attacked me, but I don't regret what I did; I only regret it came to this. Please be at peace."
Alex reached down and closed the man's eyes, the cold flesh reminding him of his own as he shuddered and backed away, turning his back on the man. He sat down with a deep huff of exhaustion onto a rock outcropping. Of course this wasn't physical exhaustion; he felt fantastic, but mentally Alex was a mess. Memories of what happened kept playing in his mind, and the time he was blacked out started to clear up in his mind as he hung his head and ran his fingers through his hair as he heaved a deep sigh.
'I'm dead, right? So undead maybe? A zombie? I'm not rotting, or will I start to? I didn't eat the flesh; I really just drank the blood, so a vampire? Too many questions, and I don't have anyway to confirm anything.'
As he thought this, he glanced over to the corpse again, and the variety of blood soaking into the ground. Taking a deep breath, he smelled the air, and a wall of sweet, savory deliciousness assaulted his nose and made his mouth water. His gums hurt again, and even though he never remembered them retracting, his two upper lateral insicors grew again. His eyes sharpened as the smell hit him, and he locked in on the blood pooling in the ground; the red seemed to glow softly in the pale white light of the crystalline cavern. He quickly stopped sniffing the air, the smell making him want to lick the blood from his skin and clothes, and as he calmed himself down, the blood looked normal again, like it had before.
'Woah, that's insane. Definitely some kind of vampire; no zombies I saw in movies could do this. I'm a fictional monster from a storybook, which makes no sense, but what makes less sense is where or why I'm here.' Alex inspected his surroundings; other than the corpse, the cave was mostly empty except for the various white, dimly glowing crystals lining the cavern. The cavern had a few different outcroppings and offshoots, so there may be more if he explored.
Standing up and started to wipe away as much blood as he could. It didn't help much, but it did make Alex calm a bit and take stock of the situation. After he did what he could, he walked over to the corpse and crouched down. The man was wearing dirty rags for clothes; they seemed handmade like his own. After a quick search, he found a few silver coins in his pocket. Alex held them up to the light of the crystals and couldn't make out their origin at all. As he finished his search, he began to think. He could sit and wait and maybe starve if that's still possible, or he could start exploring and maybe get killed by something or someone else.
He shifted from one foot to the other, the thought of waiting already leaving his mind just as quickly as it arrived. He steeled himself, and then he took another deep breath and tried to focus through the assualt of blood scent hitting his nose. 'Focus, I need to do the eye thing again; if I can then maybe… yes!' While focusing and controlling his senses, he could see the light of the room fade slightly, and the red hues of blood gave off a gentle glow. Now that he paid more attention and held the focus longer, he could see specks of blood that left a trail towards one of the tunnels.
'He had blood on him already; he came from that direction; I can see it so clearly.' Alex was about to walk off when he paused, and he reached down, grabbing the bloody pickaxe from the man's stiff hands. 'He might not have been alone, and if they are as crazy as him, I might need this. But then again, he had blood on him before, so maybe they're dead already?' The thought didn't give Alex much comfort, and he brushed blood off the handle to get a good grip before he started to walk off towards one of the tunnels, leaving the corpse behind.