Fun Fact: Vampires Are Real

During the month of October, you may see vampires, but only pretend dress-up ones for Halloween, or in Hollywood movies like Twilight and Dracula. But did you know you could be living next door to a real-life vampire right now?

Uploaded to Wikipedia by Mr. ryan mccleary https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dracula.png

Okay, so not the kind of vampire that murders humans, sleeps in coffins, and lives forever. Phew.

That's not to say the real-life vampires of New Orleans, Buffalo, and other parts of the US aren't a little creepy. Some even wear fangs, and many congregate in secret at night. 

But according to researchers, real-life vampires are normal humans like you and me. They just suffer from a mysterious and extreme form of anemia that first develops in puberty and causes them to crave the taste of blood. Practicing vampires don't bite the necks of unsuspecting victims, though, but instead enjoy medically-safe blood donations from those who are willing to help. There are also reported to be "psychic" vampires that drain the energy of others (both near and far) through hand movements and other mystical techniques.

I read some articles about this strange, mostly-nocturnal community online and discovered comments from people interested in vampirism and from those already practicing it. While I can accept that some or most real-life vampires in modern society provide no threat to anyone and are just trying to get by in life, I came across some online comments that were pretty frightening, like this one: "It's not advisable to meet a Vampire you have to be very strong they are unusual, you can sometimes feel drained or energetic it depends upon us. Very soon you will find many of them because day by day human are becoming so low on energy due to senses pleasure."

It's difficult not to note some of the more terrifying (but hopefully corner) cases of vampirism in an article like this. Some of the most brutal serial killers in history were known to drink the blood of their victims, like Peter Kürten and Richard Trenton Chase.

Let's hope the average vampire of today is a sensible, law-abiding US citizen, but until vampires come out in the open and put down their fangs, they will continue to strike fear into the rest of us.