When the vampire is not really a "vampire" ...
Scientists and doctors are trying to explain the inexplicable every day. The newest theory of vampirism says that vampires are actually ... sick humans. Many doctors say that the modern vampires are the people who suffer porphyria. They further claim that in pass times, people who suffered porphyria were proclaimed vampires and stabbed through the heart or burned on the stake. The porphyriac shows the following symptoms : excessive hair growth, extreme sensitivity to light, tightening of skin around lips and gums, which would make the incisors more prominent, sores and scars that break open and will not heal properly. The disease would likely cause the victim to only go out at night, in order to avoid the painful rays of the sun. Garlic would cause the symptoms of porphyria to become more painfully severe. The fangs and immortality still remain a mystery to the scientists and doctors.

Elin Hoffstrom's ~ "Darkness"
The total evil is to feel it, to see it in everything. Now, everything is darkness and just darkness, a place where no light exists. It wasn't always this way. Long ago there was light everywhere, in everyone, but most of all, the light was in me. Now everything is different. My beloved is now gone forever. You have to know the truth of when my Light die and the Darkness took over. Maybe it is just me, or maybe it was just a dream ? You must know how I became the maiden of Darkness. How life was ripped away from me, and how death took over ...
It was a wonderful day, a day of life and Light. Everything was so beautiful, especially the Light. It felt like it all was for me, and me alone. It had rained for several days, too many days. Oh, how I longed to see the light. As long as I remembered the Light, I felt the warmth, how it rushed through my blood every day. But as the rains came, so did the cold. I wished it would disappear, because Love was out there, it lived in the warmth. That, I was sure of. Nobody could survive in the cold, and no one was allowed to be in the cold outside. Nobody had forbidden it; no one had said the words that stopped them. Everyone just knew that Darkness was hidding in the cold. No one wanted to know about it, everyone lived like it wasn't true. I knew that I couldn't survive locked up much longer. Shut in to the silence and dullness. I was longing for excitement. Then, when I thought it was too late, then the Light came. I just wanted to run outside, sing at the top of my lungs and dance for joy. I whirled around in the drass, laughing, breathing the moist air. I didn't know how close Love was. Before I knew it had the Light gone and night was falling. There I were, alone. Everyone had run from the Darkness, locked themselves in, hiding from danger. I shouted, screamed. The sound of my voice died and silence took over again. Suddenly, there he was; Love. He whispered his name. I remember how his name echoed in my head to the sound of my heartbeats. He followed me to my door and as mystically as he appeared, was he gone. Oddly enough, I remember everything from the Light, but not the names nor the time. It's like they were taken from me. Now I know that it was the Darkness that killed them. Name and time only exist in the Light. Now the things that hid behind their names have no meaning to me. Only Love has a place in my memory.
I know that the Love was there long before the Darkness came. He was there only for me, and no one knew of our love; it was our secret. That blessed feeling. He promised me eternity, heaven, a new life. If I'd only known that the Heaven was Hell and my new life was the Darkness, in all eternity.
I would have done anything for him, given him everything. And I did. Now it is too late. I promised myself to him. He took me. Suddenly everything whirling around, Light became Darkness, day became night. Everything was new and nothing was the same. I saw the Darkness, and I saw all the evil. Nothing moved me to emotion; I didn't feel the pain or the suffering. Love became just a word among others. A longing started to grow in me, a thirst. He looked at me; the love in his eyes was long gone. The thirst was there, continuing to grow. The thirst had taken the place that Love once owned in me. He welcomed me into the shadow. He took my hand. We slipped in to the Darkness. Thirsty, thirsting... He looked at me, "I know". He read my mind, and it didn't matter. If only I could satisfy my thirst... The Darkness came closer around us. We were pushed togrther. We were in the shadow. They moved around us. I saw them. The thirst, I thirsted life, not like in the Light, however. One couldn't win over this thirst; it had to be put out. I was drawn out of the sahdow. I took one of them; I took him back to the shadow. Then I drank the life, I feasted. I felt how I woke to life. Now I was one with the Darkness. No way to turn back, the hunt meant everything. I was drawn to the lives, and I knew they were to be mine. Love's quest was over now, and he wasn't Love anymore; he was merely one of my kind. Darkness was everything.
Some faught us. They were equipped with crosses and herbs. Some of them thought that would help, some of them DIED ! The hunt of lives was everything. The Love and I, always hunting. In the Light Love never got older, never changed. In the Darkness he was never the same. The Darkness had start ripping out his power. I knew it. Neither of us did ever say anything, still I knew it. It must always be a pair, always. It was soon going to be my turn to be the Love. We never had to say anything. Sometimes I talked to them, before I drank their lives. He sometimes played around with them. He seemed to enjoy it. "Let him play, his time will soon be over anyway", I thought to myself.
Then the time came when he couldn't go on. His eyes were only reflecting sadness and pain. He wanted to stay in the window as the sun rose. Uncountable times had I dragged him away from the Light, when he just stood there and let the sunrays burn him. He knew all too well that it meant death. That he didn't eat was also a big problem, even when I brought them. He was slipping away. He dreamed of standing in the window as the sun rose. I have lived a long time without the Light and seen many with this dream, yet never this strong. When I asked for an explanation the only thing I got was a tired look as an answer. He was closing to the end of the line, one could see that clearly. It started to seem like not even the lives I got him was enough, he just stayed in the shadow. I weren't ready yet, even if I knew it had to be done.
When the Light came the next time, I just left him there. I turned around and saw the first rays hit him. He looked relieved. Now, another kind of hunt would begin. I'd have to choose one of them. Build a love; I would become Love. It wouldn't be hard.
The Darkness didn't scare them anymore. They carried their own Lights. They lit up the Darkness. I crept in the shadows, searching and eventually finding. It was hard not to let the thirst of lives take over. There in the shadow he sat. He weren't like everyone else; the shadow suited him. I knew he was the chosen one. I followed him, accompanied him just like my Love had done to me. I couldn't stop the thoughts; "Was I one of the chosen ? Or was I just taken when there weren't anyone else ?". A question never answered. Why bother with how things could have been ? Darkness is my home.
Soon I was Love, and he loved me. Now I had to move fast, he was to become one with the Darkness and the shadows. He said he would give anything for me. I remembered how I once given my Love everything. Now history was repeating the mistake. Mistake... I saw his innocent face, was I going to repeat it all ? Was it my turn to drive someone into the Darkness ? I hesitated, and something had taken control over me. At first I fought it, but it was no use, nothing was to be done. I looked at the Innocent, he wa afraid. He backed away from me; my arms were reaching for him. He run to me, into my arms. Now it was too late. My body was drawn into the shadow. Now everything rushed by, the innocence disappeared from him; his eyes were empty, dead. The only thing I could now do was to guide him, show him the way of Darkness. Once again I stood there in the shadow, as they were moving around us. I let him loose. He was drawn by the instinct. Now everything was over, he was one with the Darkness.
Now I lay here. Soon the rays will lick my body. I'm so tired. He has done his best, and he knows what has to be done. He has already gone. Now I am alone. The shadow I am lying in is starting to fade. Soon the Light will be here. Sweet Light...