Real Vampires Walk Among Us

At least, that’s what they’d like us to think.

There is a subculture of people who like to drink blood during sex. They embrace the darker side of their humanity and believe they have the power of seduction.

They call themselves vampires.

“Self-identified vampires realize humans are a mix of light and dark,” said D. J.Williams, a sociologist who has studied the phenomenon.

“There is the socially desirable self that people show in public and then there is the shadow self that may not be as nice, not as optimistic. It varies from person to person, but generally vampires don’t pretend it’s not there: they acknowledge it and try to manage it.”

Although they don’t have fangs or a coffin, they do need to feast on us mere mortals to survive. They believe they lack internal energy and need to feed on others to survive. Some are content soaking up the high that comes from a rock concert, but others prefer to suck blood — from a willing donor.

The vampire will use a scalpel to make an incision in the chest from which to suck the blood. Many times they will develop long-term relationships with their blood donors. This subculture is not restricted to teenage goths, but contains members from almost every demographic, every race, every religion.

“They see themselves as normal, regular people in normal regular jobs: they are teachers, lawyers, accountants, they may be parents,” he said.

“They have normal lives but there is this aspect to needing to take energy from time to time and in certain ways.”

However, they are often negatively stereotyped because of worries about blood-borne disease or concerns that they might be a psychopath.

Contact the author here: mick@morningquickie.com