AU ARC : THE HUNGER BORN FROM DEATH AND REBIRTH
at the age of twenty-four, emerson joined the eden police department. most people in town are surprised, and some even laugh at the idea, but for him, it is a chance to prove himself. this line of work is respected, and having grown up around the circle, as most folks in eden did, he knew all the whispers about silas jackson and the old jackson plantation, but his mother kept him away from it, pushing him to have a better life for himself.
those who doubted emerson did so because he always carried a strange reputation as someone who was too intense, too observant, and too quiet, but he's good at police work. his training officer, sheriff gus granger, now older and semi-retired, notices immediately how much potential emerson has in him, but knows also his sensitive nature might make the job difficult for him.
within months after he finished his training and was promoted to a rookie patrolman, emerson began to notice bodies appearing around eden. they all had identical forms of identification: the bodies were drained of blood, small markings on the necks, and it was obvious that no animal had been around them. in addition to these identifiers, the bodies were found in various locations around the town, such as near the bayou and in abandoned buildings. as a whole, the department suspected they were some form of ritual killings, and granger always believed it was linked to the circle of ravenous hearts. emerson, on the other hand, was the first to go against him and suggest that it was something worse.
the break comes when emerson investigates the abandoned eden train station alone. it's there that he meets her, marcline vallee, a woman claiming to be over two hundred years old. her claims continued as she explained that she had been living beneath eden since the 1800s, and the circle of ravenous hearts were once her worshippers, but emerson doesn't believe her.
a week later, emerson pursues a suspect into the woods near miller's landing, but once he gets there he's finds something far worse than he could have ever imagined. a small nest of vampires, and before he can escape, one attacks him through means of opening his throat and breaking his arm. the attack doesn't last long, but the blood loss from his neck wound is fatal and that's when he encounters marceline again. she offers him a chance to survive, but survival comes at cost.
the offical reports claim that emerson mire died that day, attacked by the suspect he was chasing after. only one person in eden knows the truth, but that truth is guarded by an old hunger that will haunt emerson for the rest of his undead life.
