I used to have a fear of vampires, blood sucking, soulless creatures of the night. I’m not sure when it began but I am sure I was quite young and watched a movie that if I had had more observant parents, they would not have let me see. I had nightmares as a child of vampires chasing me, cornering me in my bedroom and attacking.
It’s been a phobia that I’ve kept to myself most of my life after getting reactions like, do you think vampires are real? And then I saw some. In Boulder, Colorado. They were a pack of about 10 walking towards me. They seemed odd, out of place. They wore dark clothes of leather and ripped blue jeans and they were a range of ages – from 40’s to a young teenager.
I was scared but didn’t want to make it obvious by crossing to the other side of the street. So I continued to face my nightmare. I looked straight ahead as they surrounded and then passed by me. One of them laughed, a full laugh and swung his head back with his mouth open wide. He had fangs.
Later a Goth friend told me that there are people who actually want to be vampires and they get some kind of cosmetic surgery done to have fangs. This would explain why my demons were walking around in broad daylight, a big no-no for real vampires.
What I feared most about vampires was not that they would suck my blood and kill me (unless, of course, they wanted me to join them for eternity), but rather that they could have complete control over their victims. Not once in all those movies did I see anyone resist the seductive and manipulative mind control. The vamps always got people to let them in the house.
As I’ve grown older I fear real death more than that of the living dead. But I think the issues are the same. I don’t know if I will ever be able to accept that life, my life or anyone else’s, is out of our control.
