A day passed, which stretched into weeks, but his father never returned. The silence of the cave grew heavy, broken only by the drip, drip, drip of water from the ceiling. Elias, his anxiety growing with each passing hour, finally decided to leave the cave and search for his father.
He ventured out into the forest, his senses heightened, his steps cautious. He soon noticed faint trails of blood on the grasses and twigs, marking the path his father had taken. He suddenly realized he had developed an acute sense of smell, able to discern the distinct scent of blood, a scent that was both intriguing and repulsive.
He followed the scent back towards the village, his heart pounding with a mixture of hope and dread. But what he met with upon his arrival was deafening silence and a scene of unspeakable horror.
Bodies of villagers lay scattered everywhere, their limbs twisted at unnatural angles, their guts spilled out in grotesque displays. The stench of death and decay was overwhelming, a sickening mix of blood, rot, and fear that hung heavy in the air. It was a scene of utter carnage, a massacre that made his stomach churn. Then, a familiar scent assaulted his nostrils, a scent that sent a shiver down his spine. It was his own scent.
Memories of that day, the screams, the violence, the overwhelming rage, started flooding his mind, threatening to overwhelm him, to push him to the brink of madness. He saw himself, a blood-soaked child, tearing through the villagers, his eyes burning with an unholy light.
He did all this... It's no wonder they looked at vampires in disgust. Elias felt a profound wave of self-disgust, a deep-seated hatred for the monster he had become. The weight of his actions crushed him, leaving him hollow and broken. He henceforth vowed, with every fiber of his being, to never again harm a human.
Soon, another scent reached him, faint but familiar. It wasn't his own scent. It was a scent he knew well, a scent he never thought he would ever encounter in this place of death and horror. It was his mother's. But why was she here?
Driven by a desperate hope, he cautiously moved through the carnage, his eyes searching. He then stumbled upon three tall wooden poles that stood stark against the blood-soaked ground, their surfaces stained crimson which carried familiar scents: his brother Elijah, his sister Lilith, and the village chief.
He didn't even have the strength to think anymore. The shock and grief were too much. He could hear the screams of the dying villagers echoing in his head, a constant, torturous reminder of his actions.
He left the village, a lone figure shrouded in grief and despair, and continued his endless search for his father. During his long and arduous journey, Elias was hunted, enslaved, beaten, spat upon, treated as an abomination by the very beings he had sworn not to harm.
He also made a horrifying discovery about his own nature. He couldn't stomach normal food anymore. Every attempt to eat it resulted in revulsion, the taste and texture feeling like rotten refuse. Instead, he found himself plagued by an insatiable craving for blood. The temptation to give in was immense, a constant battle against his own instincts. But he clung fiercely to his vow, refusing to taste blood, enduring the agonizing hunger as punishment for what he had done, until the day he met someone he was willing to risk his life to protect: Josh Montgomery."