My Obsessive, Yet Healthy Relationship with Vampires

I have always had an interest in vampires and the like, pretty much anything paranormal. Honestly, it was driven by absolute fear derived from an occurrence when I was six years old. You see, I grew up in a 150-year-old farm house in southeast Michigan on four acres of property that was surrounded by a quarter mile of cornfields in every direction. At night, it was a dark and scary and I had a very vivid imagination. One night, as I lay in my bed, attempting to comfort myself enough to fall asleep, I heard a strange voice, near demonic in nature, speaking in a language I didn't recognize. As I listened, I realized that the voice was coming from the pillow I lay my tiny head on. As I lay there, frozen in sheer terror, I felt the sensation of long, bony fingers pressing out of the calico fabric of my pillow, pressing against my face and attempting to grasp at my cheek bones. That was enough to release me from my rigor, running terrified to my parent's bedroom.
That is the only incident that I remember, but I've always been a little nervous after dark. I don't watch scary movies by myself, but I am a voracious reader, especially when it comes to the supernatural. My less fearful and more curious attitude towards things that go bump in the night started only about two years ago, upon moving to Athens, Ohio.
According to a rating by the British Psychical Society, Athens is considered the 13th most haunted city in the world. I know that we are focusing on vampires for this class, but I really like to broaden and use the terms 'paranormal' or 'supernatural'. After all, when vampires are discussed, we often question where their souls are, and aren't ghosts simply lost souls? Once I discovered that Athens had a reputation for hauntings, my morbid curiosity got the best of me, and I delved into researching websites and collecting ghost stories from around southeast Ohio, the majority of which come from within the city limits of Athens. For some reason, through discovering these stories, which in earlier years I would have avoided like the plague, I came to grow comfortable with the supernatural. Not that I would actually go out and attempt to communicate with them or taunt them, but I have to admit that I don't think I would run screaming any more if one came to me.
Of course, vampires have always been appealing to me, owing to their power, grace and overt sexuality. I eat rare red meat a lot, I love sushi, and I must admit that I don't think drinking blood would be the worst thing in the world. I started reading vampire fiction long before the Twilight craze, but my love of it was strengthened again when I began to read Twilight for the first time. Two years have passed since the book was placed in my hands, and my obsession with these beautiful monsters and the tales that each individual creates based on them has grown tenfold. I almost cried when I read the book list for this class. Never in my dreams could I have picked a better subject matter to analyze, interpret and write about myself. As a matter of fact, after reading the Twilight series, I had so many ideas crammed into my head that I had no choice but to start typing, and within a few weeks I finished my first novel, dedicated primarily to werewolves, but still with the presence of a very unique vampire. I started a second novel last year, but I've had a block for quite a while. I made it through a very good sex scene and got stuck, but I'm sure after all the new reading I've been introduced to through this class and all the exercises that stimulate my creativity, I'll be able to go on. I'm already working on a third novel - which is all in my head at this point.

Yes, I am obsessed with vampires, their stories and folklore - however, as you can see by my two previous posts, I have a very healthy sense of humor about the whole situation. Some fans of Stephenie Meyer's best-sellers have gotten so upset by the 'How Twilight Works' post by The Oatmeal that they have made nasty comments directed at the creator, making themselves look quite pathetic. Do I believe vampires exist? Lets just say that I believe that somehow, somewhere along the line, someone was given a very good reason for coming up with such a wicked, sexy beast.