1 Len is a free Ghoul!

Len was feasting on some lab-grown human liver when the room suddenly shook. His lunch, cups, beakers, and chairs flew through the air. Red lights flickered on together with a loud alarm. Another crash could be heard and suddenly everything started to float.

-Severe Hull Breach in Ankara Storage Facility-

-Gravity Module Damaged-

-Storage Facility Emergency Shut Off-

-Unable to restore Artificial Gravity-

-Emergency Protocol activated-

-Initiating Awakening Process of Emergency Staff-

An emotionless mechanical voice kept repeating the messages. At the same time, Len felt an oppressive feeling vanish from his mind. it wasn't just the feeling of weightlessness. The invisible shackle of absolute obedience to his master had been released.

A crazy grin formed on his face and exposed his yellowish teeth. What did that mean? It meant he was free! Whatever just happened, it must have killed his master. 300 Years. He had been turned into a ghoul and forced to serve that bat for 300 years like a loyal dog.

It was not even glorious, like in the ancient books. Watching these parasites creep around at the bottom of society clinging to their vein image of glory long past. In modern society where the earth's government was an absolute surveillance state, they had no way to hide their deeds.

What glorious hunters of the night? What dark lords of charm and seduction? They were the ultimate loser who had to hide in the shadows and feed on the mutated rats and slugs in the canalization.

The moment they peeked out their heads and so much as touched a human, they would be surrounded by troops of enhanced soldiers and blasted into the nether realm.

Immortal unless beheaded or staked in the heart? A blaster shot with UV light would directly turn them to dust. Even before humanity made its big jump in technology and entered the space age, Vampires had to do their best to hide from people and feed off cattle or unlucky bums.

And below their pitiful existence was Len. Turned into a ghoul during a road trip with his girlfriend. Bound to be an immortal servant to the monster that ate her and feed off human flesh and corpses to survive. Disgusting, yes, but you would wonder what people can get used to.

As times changed it became a lot easier to find unprotected corpses than getting food as a human. A sad fact but a true one. He had seen a lot in the past centuries, as dystopian fiction became reality and people could only flee earth to look for a better future.

At the start, it was hard to cope with his situation, but 300 years was a long time to come to terms with himself. Len could only look at the bright side since he had already been turned. Ghoul life came with perks. He became incredibly ugly but gained strength and speed above that of an enhanced human.

He didn't share the typical weaknesses of a Vampire like crumbling to dust in the sun. Which was the whole reason Vampires chose Ghouls as their servants in the first place.

There was no shortage of food for him, only Vampires were severely restricted by the picky palate. if a bloodsucker dared to attack a human, their surveillance chips would immediately summon the security forces and end their sorry lives. Nobody cared about corpses.

The question was, what would he do with his newfound freedom?

-Artificial Gravity Restored-

Len smashed on the ground, together with the chairs and beaker that had been floating around.

"Let's take a look at what is going on first," he told himself, grabbed his liver, and left the organ cultivation lab.

With two chomps, he swallowed the rest of the meaty goodness and stepped out on the brightly lit hallway. Usually, these were pitch black because no human was awake. Was it because the emergency staff was released from cryogenic stasis?

What if he met one of them? Because his master was a timid weakling, Len was originally supposed to keep their existence a secret. it was not hard, since the ship was working automatically, and was supposed to do so for another 1900-something years.

Len remembered the advertisement.

"The spaceship Ankara. The most advanced colony vessel at the time of its departure. Holding 10 000 human colonists. Equipped for a 2000 year-long journey to Hurble-79, an earth-like planet of Astora Corp." or something like that.

However, his master was gone. There was no need to hold back anymore. The ghoul had spent several decades roaming the ship freely and knew his way around. Following his well-trodden path, he aimed for the Storage Facilities, only to be stopped by airlocks.

Every way he tied to take was cut off. The whole part of the ship was closed off. Although he was happy his master died, he was curious about what actually happened. he decided to look for the emergency staff.

...

A group of people in orange full-body suits were arguing in front of the gravity module.

"We should wake up the captain." a female engineer stated.

"We can't make such a decision!" her colleague refused.

"The captain is the only one with the authority to correct the course!"

"She's right. After losing the storage facilities we have to make course corrections. We might even need to change the destination."

"...fine, but that's on you guys if Astora asks for reparations."

"Yeah, yeah, let's hurry and wake up the captain."

"I can't let you do that." they suddenly heard a croaking voice from behind them.

They turned around and saw a hunched humanoid creature with black deep-set eyes and pallid skin with a yellowish diseased hue.

"A ghoul!?"

"Shit! We have a Vampire on board!"

The three tried to pull out their blaster, but they were too slow, Len had already rushed at them, and his claws easily cut through their flesh and bones. the three had barely enough time to realize what was going on before they rested in pieces on the floor.

Oh now! How could he do that? So cruel! So inhuman! What a psycho! Might have been things people would have said. they might have been things Len himself had thought back then. but this was his existence for over 300 years.

He had long come to terms with not being human. Why would he have to adhere to such standards? looking at his twisted claws, covered in fresh blood, he started shaking.

The ghoul had just eaten, but he was suddenly overcome by an urge. A hunger triggered by the warm sensation on his skin and the heavy iron smell of the blood. His long tongue snaked from his mouth to lick the blood off his finger.

As the taste flooded his mouth, the was no holding back and he voraciously devoured the dismembered emergency staff. His belly bulged to a monstrous volume after he completely swallowed three people.

He finally came back to his senses after overgorging. In his hazy mind, he wondered what had happened. He had never experienced something like this before. Not to mention fresh blood or flesh, he had never felt the urge to even devour bones.

As he tried to think about the reason, he fell asleep.

Chaotic dreams filled his mind and he struggled in his sleep. When he finally managed to escape these fever dreams, he awoke in the middle of the hallway. The blood on the floor had dried up and his tummy had deflated.

As he tried to sort his thought, he found that he had memories and knowledge, he was certain he never learned or experienced. He remembered a date with his boyfriend. Telling him of his hopes and dreams as he decided to join this colony ship as lead engineer.

These were definitely not his memories, he was a guy! h also knew exactly how the gravity module worked, the moment he looked at it, although he was way too old and had never learned anything about this advanced technology in his life.

It was the memory of being awoken and repairing the gravity module, that made him realize, that these were the memories and knowledge of the people he had just devoured.

What was going on? Something like this had never happened before. he thought about what had changed and only came up with the death of his master.

Right. What if the shackle was more than a way to control him as a ghoul, but also an inhibitor? Len knew, that vampires could absorb the knowledge of their victims through the blood. Was this similar?

Would this happen every time from now on? Gaining free knowledge was great, but the chaos of foreign memories gave him a terrible headache.

Len stumbled back to a small maintenance room, where he could escape from the terrible artificial light of the spaceship. He enjoyed the embrace of the darkness and set down, to slowly try and sort out the memories in his mind.