There really are people who consider themselves vampires. I've met two, and I saw both of them walking around during the day. They were both very friendly and intelligent (I met them separately, and they didn't know each other).

I'll share a story about one of them. I met him because he was a poet, active in the local poetry community, and we had mutual friends. He was unusually short, squat and oddly proportioned, kind of like a dwarf but not quite so small. (I'm 5'9" and the top of his head was even with my shoulders). He dressed in pretty ordinary clothes; he worked for the state in some nondescript office job by day. Not into the Goth look at all, though he did wear an unusual pendant on a chain around his neck. I recognized it as an ankh, which is an ancient Egyptian symbol for eternal life that shows up a lot in New Age books.

My partner does sound for theaters, and he got me free tickets for something called "The Passion Of Dracula," which I'd seen before many years ago off-Broadway. He had to run the board, so I needed to invite someone. I invited this "vampire" fellow, who I ran into socially a lot, to go with me; I figured it would interest him, and I was curious to hear more about the "vampire" trip.

Before the show we had coffee in a cafe across the street from the theater in Harrisburg (so he did drink other things). Right next to our table was a fishtank with only one fish in it -- a huge iridescent pink one with a gaping mouth that would lunge at the glass if you went too close to the tank. You could literally see its brain, which was oversized, veiny and pulsing, through a translucent lump on top of its head. It looked like some kind of creature from outer space in a 1950s B movie. It seemed to have it in for me in particular; I sat on the side of the table that faced the tank, and it kept staring at me. The counterman had told me, when I commented on the unusual fish, that they'd tried putting other fish in with it, and it had eaten them, so now it got to have the tank all to itself. My companion enthused: "cool fish!"

There was nobody else in the place except a thin, pale girl writing in a hardback journal at a window table. She was doing the Goth thing -- dressed all in black, rings in her nose and in a couple of spots on both ears, her short hair dyed bright red with a green streak in it. She kept looking at us nervously and then looking away. My "vampire" friend told me she was a "donor." After awhile she came over to talk to him. She ignored me completely and stared at him wide-eyed, with a kind of awe. She said she liked the ankh pendant he wore. She was clutching her journal to her chest, with the front cover facing out toward us, and I noticed it had the same ankh on the cover. Their conversation had buzz words in it whose meaning eluded me. After a few minutes she left, seeming more nervous than ever. I asked the "vampire" about his ankh. He pulled the bottom end of it off, and it had a sharp steel blade inside. It's apparently a very popular item in the "vampire community," used to draw blood from consensual "donors."

I asked him what vampires do in the way of health precautions. His answer was a little vague -- knowing the medical history of anyone you "partake" of, for instance, which I imagine amounts to just asking. They apparently don't actually bite, but use something to draw the blood -- like a syringe or clean razor blade -- and wipe the area first with alcohol. To me it still sounds fairly risky to either party.

They have some sort of document of ethics and safety called The Black Veil, which he told me varies a little between vampire groups but not much. Later I Googled it out of curiosity, and there are versions of it all over the internet. They also have so much lingo that you need a glossary to read about them, and there are vampire glossaries all over the internet too.

By the way, the Dracula show was a lot of fun. But it wasn't nearly as eerie as the discussion beforehand.

I don't move much in the same circles as I used to, so I never run into him anymore. That was the only occasion when I ever spent any time alone with him, and he was perfectly nice to me. I hadn't been scared of him before that, but I was, a little, afterwards.

(c) 2008 by Jack Veasey

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Jack Veasey, known here at Eons as Ponytail, is Group Manager of the horror and science fiction enthusiasts group Midnight Movies, which is having a Halloween celebration throughout October: view link