Vampires are in vogue these days. Vampires have even hit late night talk shows. Young, pumped, brooding, and overly sensitive is the vampire of today. What attributes to wrap up into a love story and soap opera all at once.
The idea makes for a romantic setting, but vampires can only be romantic and sensitive in a made up world of fiction. Somewhere where Vampires are more than human. Throw in moral and ethical decisions and the stage is set. What mere human could make a decision as well as a Vampire.
While the world is swooning over Vampire hunks and hotties, and wondering how exciting it would be to be a vampire, perhaps reality is different. Having special powers, never growing old, and lifetimes of knowledge to draw on to do the right thing at the right time sounds exciting.
It was not until the last hundred and fifty years or so since the world has changed and modernized. The world has changed, we have not. We are for the most part the same people that walked around any previous time you wish to imagine. We have our faults, and we have our pinnacles of shining humanity. Most of us live our life somewhere in between. Most of us live a life of neither overly wonderful, or terribly unjust. How many lifetimes living a Vampiric life are enough for an average person? What if a real Vampire walks the street outside your door at night. What would a real Vampire really be like?
If there were real Vampires, its existence would be one of fear, boredom and misery. There would be brooding deep feelings, but they would not be from feelings caused by human/vampire relationships. How many killings before a Vampire starts going insane. Experiencing distress from boredom and frustration. Imagine living hundreds of years, watching generation after generation making the same mistakes the over and over. Watching people treat each other badly for years on end, would make the most brutal Vampire want to stop living.
What about one Vampire creating another Vampire? Vampires do not have sex, although according to folk knowledge are extremely sexy. How frustrating would that be, and how it would twist your view of life, even a Vampire’s life? What Vampire would want to create a Vampire? Vampires being immortal, would need to be very particular about who has the correct personality to thrive and survive as a Vampire. Not to mention being a friend and good company across the decades.
Vampires living with the fact that they are a murderer, no matter who your victims are would be difficult. A Vampire finding someone to trust would be almost impossible. Think of all the ulterior motives that people would have for wanting to become a Vampire too.
Existing through decades, or centuries, moving from place to place as people usually became suspicious of your lifestyle. Curious about unexplained disappearances and strange deaths in the community would make Vampire life difficult. Then their is a problem of old people recognizing a Vampire because a Vampire does not change. A Vampire would have to be constantly on the move.
Worrying constantly about being discovered by accidently while asleep. No matter how much money a Vampire could afford to pay someone, greed or guilt would eventually make that someone turn on their employer. After a few lifetimes, money would cease to be a thrill I think. Then there is the problem of bank accounts, always closing one account and opening a new account somewhere else.
The pathetic aftermath cleaning up after feeding would be disgusting. I can’t imagine the stink and feeling of being covered with coagulating blood after feeding. Killing anything in that manner is not as easy as in books and movies. People do not lay down and die. Our will to live is very strong.
As Vampires ride the wave of fame and fortune, at least for their creators in movies and books, reality is a along way from fantasy. Looking a little closer to home, how does our individual reality compare to the person we think we are? How do vampires measure up to our idea of us?
