Warning - Blood and Death
He awoke with a metallic taste everywhere in his mouth, a foul smell penetrating his nose, coming from all around him, and a wet and sticky substance covering both of his arms, along with the lower part of his face. When he opened his eyes fully and adjusted to the dark, he realized what had happened.
What he seemed to have done.
Before him lay both his parents, still in bed, blood soaking the sheets where they lay. Both had their throats torn out, with obvious teeth marks in the wounds. He stood still, a mix of shock and concern at what he saw. Searching through his memory, he found nothing to explain why he was here, in their bedroom, or why their blood covered him.
He stood there for what felt like hours, questioning. Trying to find anything that could clue him in to what travesty had happened. With nothing to go on, he decided to try from a new angle. He ran from their bedroom to where his sister should be. She had just had a party the day before, and should have gone to sleep, but she was all he could rely on for help, he thought.
When he arrived there, past the kitchen, he paused before knocking. What if, just like his parents, she was also dead? But what if she wasn't? Would she believe him for even a second when he tells her that he just woke up in front of the scene, with no memories of before? Surely not. She'd probably call him a monster and run before calling the police. Why hadn't he called the police yet? Surely they could help.
Overthinking, he didn't even remember opening the door and walking in. Slowly, he turned his head to where her bed lay, and saw the same scene he had seen before. Blood everywhere, his sister lay still in her bed, lifeless. He realized at that moment that he was completely alone.
After seeing what had happened, he went to the bathroom to wash off the blood covering his arms and face. He should have done it earlier, it was impacting his train of thought. Turning on the lights, he looked into the mirror for only a second, only to be shocked at what he saw. He didn't recognize who was staring back at him. Hurriedly, he turned around and bolted to his room downstairs.
Opening the door, he saw who he originally was, his real body, lying peacefully in bed, asleep. He was in shock. What was happening here? Why was his body asleep, yet he himself was right here, in a different body, staring at himself? Everything was starting to become more and more confusing. And then, out of nowhere, a voice materializes out of the darkness.
"Kill him, prove yourself to be more than human. Destroy your old body, and become one of us. Become one of…"
Everything after that was a blur. He remembered calling the police, and getting hauled off to a jail cell. After that, he was pulled into an interrogation room with a single officer. He was questioned for a while, before being sent back to the cell. After what could have only been days, he was brought before a new interrogator, someone dressed more like a businessman than an officer.
"I've heard numerous things about you, kid." The man stated, his voice echoing around the room. "If half of what you told them is true, we've got quite the problem on our hands."
The man introduced himself as a third party agent of an undisclosed party, following up on the case at the request of the police. He was brought in because of the concerning things stated about the case, all of which pointed to a suspect who only had the memories of someone else,
"So tell me, who were you before you occupied this homunculus?"
"I was… the only one who wasn't killed by this body's hands." The words came out of his mouth without emotion, the only pause there because of him only starting to come to his senses.
"I see," the agent stated. "So you didn't listen to the Solsguard's wishes to become a full ghoul. While that is commendable, we do still have quite a few issues that need to be resolved."
"Wait. what did you mean by homunculus? What is the Solsguard, and why would they want me to be a ghoul?" The man was completely confused, he knew something was wrong, but hearing all these things were making him realize that things were a lot worse than they had seemed, and he had no clue what he was dragged into.
"A homunculus is an artificial body that is created by the Solsguard, a clan of Vampires, to create ghouls that they can take souls to occupy and make loyal servants to their clan." The agent explained slowly, making sure he understood everything. "What happened to you is exactly how they go about it. They find a typically small family, usually around 4-5 people, send in a soulless ghoul to kill the family, and the last person alive has their soul ripped from their body, and sent into the ghoul to rip apart their own body, thereby sealing the soul to the artificial body, and making a loyal servant."
The man was shocked. What the agent had told him completely upended what he thought he knew about the world. How could something like this have been covered up, with nothing being said at all anywhere on the internet or on the news? But then again, who even believes in vampires, or any forms of fantasy anyways. He surely didn't until it happened to him.
Seeing the silent thought the man was in, the Agent continued. "With what you've gone through, I'm sure it's a lot to process. Both being told that fantasy you would only read in books is true, and all the things you've gone through. From here, however, there aren't many paths that you can go through."
The agent started to explain. Since he had been away from his body for too long, the body had slowly collapsed and was completely dead. From now on, the only path he had was the artificial body, but it had its own issues.
"So what you're saying," the man said slowly, "is that if I were to continue living, it would have to be in this homunculus, which is only able to live on by eating the flesh and blood of living beings?"
"Yes," the agent admitted. "Not only that, but due to the fact that you called the police and they have you admitted and proof that this body is who killed the entire family, It seems that you will be facing the death penalty. So from here, the only option is to either come with us, and we can experiment and see if there is any way to fix your new body, or to die a peaceful death. Which do you choose?"
The man thought it over.
"Death."
"That's what I figured. I can tell when a man has no life left in his eyes, and yours seems to have left a long time ago. Even when coming in, I knew what your choice would be, but I only have one question."
While talking, the agent pulled out a revolver, and pointed it at the man's head.
"How long have you felt this way?"
The man smiled for the first time in what felt like a lifetime.
"I haven't felt alive for almost 11 years now."
That was the last thought he had of this life.