I like the newer romantic vampire stories that have appeared on the market in the past 10 years or so. I’m not interested in vampire horror movies where vampires are just raging monsters, calculating or cannon fodder, but then I’m not into horror movies in general. And children dressed up like vampires is just cute. However, vampires are something we all have to deal with at some point in our lives and not just via entertainment.
The term vampire has come to symbolize anything that does not generate its own life force, but takes it from others. Like leaches or parasites it feeds off living victims and must use other creatures in order to live. While some forms of life that are in this category are symbiotic with those life forms, bacteria in our digestive systems, for instance, most are harmful and to be avoided. The same can be said for friends, acquaintances, or family that life off of others and refuse to fend for themselves.
Vampires are those who use others to get what they need. They can never just be themselves in a group, they have to ‘stir up trouble’ or pick a fight and once the emotions are flowing they feel better and step back. Or they instigate some activity and never have the money to pay their share. Or they need you to do or be something that you don’t want and in the end you find out they could have taken care of the situation themselves, they just preferred that you do so they could reap the rewards and not have to put out the effort. These are Vampires. They suck the juice out of life and give nothing back. They can be seen as emotional black holes. You give and you give, but they are never satisfied and never happy. They have an endless need for more.
When you meet a vampire, recognize them for what they are quickly and disentangle yourself as quickly as possible. They appear to offer amazing wisdom/experience/excitement but in the end you get very little and are left spent and wondering what happened.