At night I begin to sag.
My eyes become leaden
And my brain turns cotton.
Then the rage burns,
And a spark lights in my woolen mind.
The cotton burns away,
And leaves me with naught but the wretch,
Shows me nothing but the horror,
Nothing but the loss of life.
The product of thirty years;
A degree, a job, a family.
A passion or a dream.
In thirty years loved ones die,
Pets run away, friends drift apart,
Boys turn to men and girls to women.
We spend thirty years,
Not just within the Vampire’s clutches,
But begging the Vampire to catch us quicker.
We don’t resist.
We beg for it to drown us in its infinite darkness.
If it weren’t enough,
To feed off of our life and passions and hopes and dreams,
To watch us grovel for its attention,
The Vampire mocks us
And laughs at our unperceived pain.
When ensnared in its inky grasp,
The Vampire exiles us to the prison within the glistening skull,
A labyrinth, wrought with wretched mares and enticing succubi,
Tempting and devouring us, teaching us to desire them.
The Vampire is cruel, taunting us with sweets and desires,
Then poisoning us with spinning needles.
What can be done against a malevolent spirit?
If it were only the spirit itself,
The fight may be winnable.
Alas, the Vampire has assimilated among us.
From youth we are educated on the importance of the Vampire.
We are taught that it is good,
And they tell us that we are to give it more.
How can we win a fight,
When we are against ourselves?
How have we come to this point?
We accept the Vampire as the way of life,
Ignoring the parasite that has plagued us since the beginning of time.
We do not search for a solution.
We promote it, love it, and help it to steal us away in the night.
Physicians prescribe pills to force the Vampire upon you.
Parents impose the leech onto young children.
Is it easier?
Are we just pathetic animals,
Trying to follow the path of least resistance?
We are lazy,
We are beasts,
No one cares about the Vampire.
No one will help me.
Is there a solution?
Is it hopeless?
Am I condemned by god and nature alike to suffer?
Can I escape?
I can force my eyelids open,
I can chug drinks and pop pills,
I can exercise and eat and cry and scream.
But it is all fruitless. Because…
In eleven days I will fall,
Lest I be the most willful of my peers.
On the eleventh day the Vampire will inevitably envelop me.
Dragging me into its foul dimension, only to return to searing sunlight.
Only to return to the burning brightness of disappointment.
The Vampire has grown with me, I have known nothing if not the Vampire.
With the Vampire it began, though it never taunted then.
With the Vampire I will end, and all I know will end with me.
The Vampire consumes all. It's an inescapable truth.