The Truth About Vampires

Vampires. Blood-drinkers. Nosferatu. The living dead. Nightwalkers. Day sleepers. We are known by many names, and almost everyone has heard of us. There are many myths concerning those of us that feed upon the living. Here, though, I will reveal the truth to those of you that wish to know about vampires. Why? You ask. Why would I give you hard truths and dispel all the rumors and fiction about vampires? The answer is simple really. I am tired of being thought of as a monster, an uncaring murderer who feeds upon the living to sustain my so-called evil existence. I am willing to share the truth with you so that I may one day be viewed as just another living creature and not a vile monster that strikes terror wherever I go.

I suppose I should start by telling you who I am. I am known as Vinnie. I was born Vincent Dominique Franco Popodopolis. That is correct. I was born, not created. I will touch upon that later as this story unfolds.

One of the reasons for this soliloquy is to give facts versus the current fiction about me and my kind. To begin with, vampires are not a different creature from the average human. Just as the Doberman is no less a dog than the Boxer, vampires are just a different breed from mankind. I know that this comes as quite a shock, but it is true. Dogs are easily distinguished in their breed because of defining characteristics. The same is true when you look at the differences between a man and a vampire.

Vampires are not immortal as is currently being sold in most stories about us. We age just as you do. We just age at a much slower rate. Our life expectancy can make it seem like we are immortal, when in truth we are just very long lived. It makes it difficult to live among humans who generally only live sixty to eighty years, but it is possible. We just have to use a lot of aliases and move around at least once or twice a century to avoid suspicion.

I myself am over four hundred years old give or take a decade. After the first hundred years, one tends to forget how many birthdays have passed. You may judge time by the year where as I judge time by the period.

Since I have already breeched the subject of our non-immortality, I will reveal something else that most vampires would rather you not know. Not only are we not immortal, but we are also capable of injury and even death by many of the same things that can kill you. I know that in the stories that you may have read or the movies you may have seen it is portrayed that we are indestructible or that our wounds heal quickly, limbs grow back and all that nonsense. The rest of my kind is more than willing to let you believe this rubbish because it usually keeps you from ever trying to fight back because you believe it will be useless.

The truth of the matter is that blades, bullets, fire, explosions, drowning, etc. are just as lethal to us as it would be to you. The current belief of our indestructibility has happened because we can control the functions of our bodies down to the last blood vessel and nerve ending.

It can appear that wounds don’t affect us because we can internally staunch the flow of blood and turn off the pain, but we still have to take the time to heal just like you. If a wound is terribly grievous, then no matter how much we try to control our body internally, we will eventually die.

I would not suggest hunting down any suspect vampires and trying to put this to the test. There are other characteristics that we have that make injuring a vampire difficult if not impossible. Our physical prowess makes us stronger and faster than you. We can move very quickly for short bursts that can make it seem as if we can just appear out of or disappear into thin air. It also makes it damn near impossible to hit. Of course since we can move at this high rate of speed we also have the reflexes to be able to control such quick movements. Any attacks upon our person from one of you seem slow by comparison and are easily avoided.

Although we are physically stronger and faster than you we still are bound by the same laws of physics that you are. In other words, contrary to popular belief, we cannot fly. This misconception may have come about when some one saw a vampire leap up an incredible distance and naturally assumed that we can fly. It is really just an incredibly high (to your standards) jump. Another way that we may seem to fly might be if someone were to see a vampire leap off of a tall cliff or building and land without harm. Here again it is just a matter of physical prowess and reflexes. It is the same as if a child sees an adult jump up or down an impossible distance. The child is mystified because he knows that he can’t achieve the same feat.

I know that you are waiting for me to tell you that we do not really drink your blood either. I wish I could say that that was true, but it is not. That is one of the few things that the storytellers have told correctly. We do have to feed upon the blood of the living to survive. For reasons that are unknown to me (even at my prolonged age), vampires’ digestive systems only get nutritional value from blood. We can eat and drink as you do but is does not actually sustain our bodies. Without blood a vampire will slowly starve no matter how much food he eats.