Caleb Hollows

 As a child growing up in a small town of Nottin in central Ohio, the Hollows family had a peculiar reputation within their small community. Their mother was a freelance artist, though for most folks, her works are rather macabre and quite unsettling works that was said to be both eerie and so real at the same time. In particular, one of his mother's paintings was a portrait of a dark and twisted jester that she had recently painted when he was six. His older sister was no different either, an aspiring musician, with musical talents that seem to stir up the deepest parts of an individual's memory, and cause the blackest of hearts to beat once more. Talented family, but one with a deep curse. A curse that fully manifested after their father's disappearance in Chicago, due to an investigation that went wrong.

Shortly after their father’s disappearance, Caleb began having strange visions in his dreams. Vivid, real, and nightmarish. He couldn’t comprehend what was in those dreams, but as each day passed, these visions only grew stronger. Caleb began to write these visions down, in the form of a story, resulting in his very first manuscript and a novel later in his adult life titled, “Slasher”, describing a man’s descent to madness as he begins to see the world around him as monsters and corpses, eventually leading to the protagonist’s downfall as a serial killer. Shortly after finishing the first draft, a string of random murders would unfold around Nottin, leaving the local police puzzled. By the time the serial killer was arrested, a total of twenty victims had been found, and a notebook with scribbled-up words that read:

For most readers, the Slasher book was assumed to be inspired by a real-life event near Caleb’s hometown. But none knew that he wrote his first drift many weeks before the serial killer arrived in their town.

As the years passed, Caleb left his small town, moving to New York to become a journalist. While writing daily articles for the New York Times, Caleb continues his pursuit of creative writing. His first novel, “Slasher,” became a popular seller at the time, and he began to write more novels. His most popular novels are a series of books called “Cold Cases”, detailing paranormal and mysterious cases that FBI Agent Alan must uncover. A character based on his own father. With the final novel of the series being titled, “Cold Cases: Last Nightfall”, which detailed the death of the protagonist and left an ending that has left most readers feeling unsatisfied.

Following the negative reception of the series finale, Caleb would pivot to a more supernatural horror element. "Children of Dusks" and "Plague Bride" were two famous novels detailing lost children kidnapped by a supernatural entity and held hostage in a manor for a profane ritual. Though that particular series ended on a cliffhanger for years, as he was stuck in a bind in figuring out a resolution to the series. All was well for Caleb at this point in his adult life. He had a successful writing career, and though his internal demons tormented him, it paled in comparison to what the Asylum will throw at him...

He didn’t know how he arrived in this wretched manor. One moment, he was signing autographs and promoting his upcoming book, “Final Rites”; the next, he was tied up in a chair and sat in front of a typewriter. He awoke in an Asylum, belonging to Doctor Joseph Hoffman and his faculty team. They introduced themselves as fanatical fans of his books, but felt disappointed when he didn’t finish the series. The Doctor emphasizes very strongly the importance of finishing ‘Final Rites’ with an ending that, as he states,

For days Caleb was stuck in that white room, trying to type the final ending to his book. But none of them were pleased with the end result, and with each failed draft, they punished him until he got it right. It started as a few punches and shouts, till knives were brought out, and then the far more horrifying reality set in for him. He wrote for his life, till his nails bled, till his eyes grew red with weariness. There was a moment where he escaped from the White Room, but what he saw outside of that room shattered his own perception of the world. He began to see these people as corpses, monsters with fangs and inhumane expressions. There was so many blood, so many screams and laughters mingled together in his ears. His mind seems to snap for a moment, as reality and fiction distorted around them. He saw the serial killer, the one that he wrote when he was a child. His twisted disfigured face and rusty cleaver.

In his complete psychic breakdown, as monsters from his writings and the monsters that kidnapped him mingle together as one. There was one constant that anchored him. His father. The father that disappeared, the man that Caleb admired. He wrote his final piece, an ending where the Children of Dusks would be saved by the evil Plague Bride. Caleb wrote that the children would be saved by FBI Agent Alan, who was investigating the disappearance of the children. In the ultimate finale resolution of all his previous books, Agent Alan sacrificed himself to save the children. With the final sentence written, Caleb passed out from blood loss.

Post-Embrace

There was a low chance that his son may survive the embrace, but Alan wasn’t sure if it would be successful. But it was a lot better than watching his son die in front of him. 

Everything was red and blurry, he drifted from consciousness as he heard otherworldly screams. He was being carried out of his chairs by his father and a small group that aided him. It didn’t feel real. He felt fire in his veins fire, something was happening to his body, as if a beast was eating him from the inside. He passed out once more…

Caleb awoke once more, just outside a large door. He was laying in the ground, his father was fighting a horrible monster. But he couldn’t get the full picture, as someone began to drag him away from the asylum. A cloaked woman that threw him behind the seats of a car. The last thing he saw was his father being killed by the doctor before passing out from the pain.

Days passed, Caleb finally awoken, barely. Underneath the sewers of Baltimore, Caleb barely survived the ordeal of the Embrace. Like a wounded animal, he rested there and consume rats to sate his blood thirst. If it weren’t for Abigail Baker, a Nosferatu under a life boon from his father, he would’ve surely died or turnt feral. A life boon to save a father’s son, a childe’s unlife. The fledging spend weeks under the sewers, drinking blood bags offered to his adoptive sire. By the time he was strong enough to walk, Abigail was under obligation of her life boon to help teach the Fledging how to survive. She taught him all that she knew, it was the least she could do for the childe of an old friend. Teaching him three cruical disciplines to allow him to survive as a thin-blood, celerity, potence & obfuscate, with an emphasis on stealth and escaping more so than combat. Though strangely enough, Caleb would later on develop auspex, mainly due to his pre-disposition to seeing glimpses of the future when he was a mortal.

A year passed, and Caleb would be forced out. He was given enough training, now to see if he had what it takes to survive in this new world.