Vampire Post 2: Electric Boogaloo

Yeah, don't mind the title up there, I've not gotten much sleep lately.

Here it is, though, the second part of my vampire tale. I was really worried about trying to make it super scary, which is why I'm posting it rather late in the evening, but that isn't really what I needed to do. I simply set out to illustrate how vampires used to be versus what they have now become.

So this may or may not be creepy, depending on what floats your individual horror boats. Hopefully, though, I've given you a reasonable alternative to the modern "vampire."




“In retrospect, I suppose it was obvious that the thing in the gloom beyond the firelight wasn’t human, but the mind, when faced with something beyond normal comprehension, glosses over the horrible so that it can continue to function.” Dr. Gilbert took a long deep breath. “If it weren’t for this amazing feat of the mind, we all would have gone insane in that very moment. It doesn’t really matter, I guess. It got them all anyway.”


Dr. Gilbert sat behind a long metal table in a gleaming white room. Across from her sat a panel of men and women, all studying her every action and word.

“That doesn’t explain how you were found wandering alone, covered in dirt, and clutching an iron artifact from your dig site.” A member of the committee said in a soothingly imperative tone. “Dr. Gilbert, Amanda, please tell us what really happened.”

She looked at them each in turn, silently begging them to be released from the duty of retelling. Even as she implored, the horror of that night welled up unbidden, pulled from her memory while she fought to keep it repressed. Dr. Gilbert let out a quick shuddering sob, like a child after a vivid nightmare, and then she straightened in her chair and closed her eyes.

She remembered every detail of that evening, but how could she tell them what had really happened. How could she look at these educated men and women and tell then that she and her team had accidentally released a monster from its prison under the earth.

Even as she remembered it, she could hardly believe it herself. But the longer she had stared at it, the longer she envisioned it in her mind now, she was sure that the face looking at her with dead eyes was a not human. At a glance it might have passed for human, but her eyes had lingered while everyone else was running around in a panic. Her eyes had seen the eyes that were too dark, the face that was hollow and the thin colorless lips that couldn’t quite stretch over the blood smeared teeth.

No, this thing was not human and it had not been for a long time.

Even as it held her gaze, it rose and then disappeared into the night. She could still hear it though, moving through the brush. It didn’t try to hide its steps; she could follow it easily as it moved around the camp and started to drag her colleagues off into blackness.

The image of those ghastly sunken eyes were burned into her mind, freezing her there beside the hot fire pit. Not even the bone chilling screams of the others could move her from her place. Someone had run to her, grabbed hold of her for help and was violently jerked away, pulling Dr. Gilbert to the ground with them. Their blood ran over the rocky soil, pooled under her but still Dr. Gilbert remained still, transfixed in utter horror.

It was only the sudden overwhelming quiet that snapped her out of her trance. All around her were the torn bodies of her interns and workers. And there, across the fire, was the thing, the man she had dug from the ground. He stood there and he smiled at her, then he was gone.

She didn’t remember much after that. She wasn’t even sure when she had grabbed the iron spike from the storage shed or how she had finally come to be in the institute. All she remembered was that smile, and the hidden promise behind it.



“Dr. Gilbert? Please tell us what happened that night.” Mr. Soothing Voice repeated his question.

“A vampire killed them, doctor.” She sighed. “Or maybe I did. I’m not sure.” They weren’t satisfied with her answer, but while they spent years trying to figure her out she would be locked away behind the thick walls of the institute. She would be safe for at least that long.