Oh crap! I'm a ghoul!
Aiden woke up in a dark wet room. The iron smell of blood was everywhere and for some reason it seemed appetizing to him. Pushing that disturbing thought aside he checked and instantly knew where the bloody smell was from. The floor was soaking wet with it, strangely there were no corpses. In some places it was ankle high.
As Aiden tried to stand up he realized that he couldn't straighten his back and that or stand on his legs. He had to stay on all fours, oddly he felt it was only natural to stay like this. Instinct told him staying close to the ground made it easier to sneak up on prey.
He started moving through the cellar( he assumed) trying to find a door and he doh.d rows of coffins lining the wall. Aiden approached them and lifted the lid of one to see what was inside. He saw a pale faced man staring at him. Before he knew it he was hit with a slap that sent him across the cellar smashing through what he thought were barrels of wine but we're filled with blood. He finally slammed into the cellar wall and was knocked out.
When Aiden woke up again he had a collar on and was in a cage with other creatures that were also collared and he knew instinctively were like him. Ghouls. This was the first time he got an idea of what he looked like. A deformed humanoid creature with a hunched back and abnormally large arms to act as a second pair of legs and massive hands tipped with claws in every finger.
He knew he used to be human, they all were once human.
Week's went by while he was in the cage. As the day's passed new undead would be put in the cages. Like him they were all collared.
He heard one of the lesser Vampire guards who were guarding the undead say that the collars helped lesser vampires control the ghouls more easily since ghouls had more will than zombies or skeletons. Older vampires had no need for the collars since their will was much stronger than a horde of ghouls combined.
He also overheard the reason why the vampires were amassing undead. The progenitor of this line of vampires was going to attack a city and try to destroy it in one night. Since all undead were vulnerable to sunlight.
The progenitor himself though could walk in the sun. And his direct descendants could as well. But not further than the third generation.
The attack would happen in a month's time. In the meanwhile the lesser vampires were raiding villages, killing everyone so that they could be used to create either new undead( zombies and ghouls) or New vampires. But the second one was unlikely since very few people could survive becoming a vampire. If it didn't kill you you became a vampire if it killed you you become a ghoul.
Being a failed candidate to become a vampire was the reason most ghouls still had Will but that would fade with time usually. Aiden was a special case where the ghoul retained its full willpower. Every 1 out of a thousand ghouls could retain their will indefinitely. It meant that aiden had potential to evolve beyond a ghoul.
Aiden would observe the guards every day and listen in on their conversations. Most of the time it had nothing to do with anything that interested him but sometimes he would here news and gossip about the truly powerful vampires and he would store the information for future use. As the month passed the cages around him were filled with hundreds of other ghouls. Most of them would try to break the cages but when they get too noisy the guards would pacify it with the magic in its collar, all they had to do was enforce their will upon the ghoul and the collar would start weakening the ghoul to a half dead state.
A few others were like him having retained their will and non of their memories, observing the guards and waiting for their moment. He didn't know if they understood as much as he did but they were much more intelligent than the others.
Finally a day came when a bunch of guards came into the prison area escorting a few "Ancients" to inspect all the cages. Ancients are what the guards called the oldest vampires they are right below the progenitor in power. Most ancients are the progenitor's offspring, those that weren't were once part of other clans.
After the Ancients inspected all the cages all the ghouls including Aiden were forced to follow them as they left. The guards had opened the cages for the ghouls. Hundreds of them were forced by the will of one Ancient to follow obediently. Aiden was trapped inside his body struggling to move it against the will. His body didn't listen to his commands.
As they marched he saw that they had kept all the ghouls in the basement if a gigantic Gothic castle.
They were also joined by a horde of zombies and skeletons, hundreds of thousands of them. With lesser vampires leading them. There were also numerous other troops made up if lesser Vampires and others like their cattle which were humans that were enthralled to serve as food for for the vampires, thralls which were also humans that were enenthralled but they weren't for food they were usually guarding the castle during the day and at night they were toys for the vampires. Now they were forming up to make an army of enslaved living humans.
When the zombies and ghouls saw the living they started to get restless. But they were quickly put under tighter control.
Aiden found that his hunger grew when he felt the presence of the living humans.
His sharp teeth get increasingly itchy and his claws longed to rear Into flesh.
Aiden quickly controlled his urges.
He knew that if he wanted flesh he would have to wait for it.
He wondered what had changed in him to make him so bloodthirsty.
After a few hours of marching the vampires led the undead horde into a cave system that was big enough to house an army.
Here they wanted out the day and started marching again at Sunest.
The army would reach the target city tonight. And by morning the city would be nothing but graveyard.
Once the city came into view the army of undead started sprinting for the walls huge meat golems were sent to target the gates and the ghouls and vampires climbed the walls. Before the defenders knew it their walls were breached.
The massive wooden gates of the city were smashed into splinters.
Then the horde of zombies and skeletons swaddled throughout the gates and started breaching the houses and killing all who were inside.
The Ancients went straight for the noble quarter of the city to choose new toys for themselves.
Aiden was running around and looking for a way out. The screams of the living had jolted something inside him.
He wouldn't kill innocence.
As the dead killed the living Aiden found a sewer and climbed inside. If there was a way to escape his masters it was most likely inside the sewers.
Aiden hurried through the sewers in the direction of the city walls. There must be an outlet for the sewage.
He started hearing harsh whispers.
"Shut up you sow. And shut up that daughter of ours too!! Do you want the dead to find us!!"
Aiden found a noble and what was probable his wife and daughter skulking through the sewars looking for a way outdo the city.
Aiden decided to follow them.
They might lead him to a way out.
Following the nobles in the dark started up Aidens urges to maim and kill but he controlled himself well. He needed them to show him a way out.
The minutes went by quickly in the darkness of the sewers. Though the three bibles were having a tough time, slipping and sliding in the putred sludge.
Eventually they came to a sewer outlet. It was barred so that no-one could sneak into the city through the sewers.
Luckily the male noble had a key that could open the a gate in the bars.
Once on the other side the man found a stray zombie had been wandering around outside the city. It came at him.
He turned around and grabbed his daughter.
With a swift push she fell to the ground I'm front of the zombie.
"Father!! Why!!" she screamed as the zombie neared her.
Before the undead creature could get to the girl Aiden and pounced on it and crushed its head with his claws.
When Aiden turned around to look at the girl the mother and father pair had abandoned their daughter to her fate.
Aiden looked at the girl to see how she reacted to what had happened.
She was sobbing quietly with her eyes closed and awaited her death.
"Sooooo.... Hi"