Interview with a Vampire

Lara Schroeder records the tale of how she found a vampire, and the interview she had with him in her own home.

It's not the craziest thing I've ever done, but it's probably up there in the top ten somewhere.

I invited a vampire into my home.

It was this way. I was at a bar -- okay, so it was the not-so-classy Royal Albert Arms Hotel Beverage Room on Albert Street -- when I overheard someone talking about vampires. Real vampires. In Winnipeg.

My journalistic curiosity was piqued.

"There are too many vampires in this city," the guy said.

My ears perked up.

"I know this guy, he lets his roommate drink his blood. It's gross. They're everywhere," he added, and then started talking about something else.

I spent the next month wandering around asking everyone I met if they knew any vampires. If they're everywhere, I thought, then somebody other than that drunk must know about them.

I gave complete strangers my phone number just because they claimed to know vampires. I talked to the strangest people I could find. I found out I have acquaintances who had been called "psychic vampires" -- people who get their energy by sucking it out of other people. I asked everyone, and lots of people promised to try, but no one ever called back. I'd almost given up when I got the message on my machine.

"Hi. I understand you're looking for vampires to interview. You can call me Saturday night around eight," said a male voice, and he gave a phone number. No name, nothing about being a vampire. Just a time and a number.

When I talked to him, I found out his name was Eric (he wouldn't give a last name), and he agreed to an interview. While he didn't come right out and say he was a vampire, he didn't say he wasn't a vampire, either. We talked about where it would be good to meet, and he was most comfortable with coming to my place.

I agreed.

So there I was at eight o'clock on a Wednesday night in November, inviting the vampire at my door into my home.

My first thought was, "Boy, this guy is tall." Shortly after that my mind added, "and really gorgeous."

He had that intense romantic look that makes vampires of myth and fiction so attractive. And he had absolutely to-die-for long blond hair. He was also pale and wore black, including a huge pair of Doc Martens that took forever to unlace. (I have hardwood floors. I'm not about to let any old vampire who walks in off the street stain them with his muddy Docs.)

We sat down in the living room, I offered him a drink -- of pop or beer, not blood -- and we started the interview.

to hear Eric click here

LS:
What makes you a vampire?

Eric:
Primarily I think the opinions of others. I'm not really one to catagorize myself. A vampire isn't just the sum total of one's life. I'm also a godfather and a tutor and an employee and a student, but vampire is how a number of people see me, at least when they first meet me, and quite often, after they get to know me even more so. In the past two weeks I've had three relative strangers refer to me as a vampire, including one young lady in a coffee shop who wrote a poem about me and gave it to me.

LS:
Is any of the folklore about vampires true for you? You told me on the phone that you go out during the day. What about garlic, coffins, and the stake through the heart?

Eric:
Actually, I think the stake through the heart would kill me, so it's not really a myth. Anyone who loves Italian food as much as myself would probably not be repelled by garlic. I've been in a coffin, but not as a vampire. It was just silliness, fooling around. I sleep in a bed just like everybody else.

LS:
Do you drink blood?

Eric:
Yes.

LS:
Why?

Eric:
The sharing of blood between two people is a very strong bond. I mean, most worthwhile relationships in life are, if not founded in blood, by blood relations, familial relationships, or what have you, at least, they're strengthened by it. Symbolically also it's almost like a birthing with another person. Yeah. And I guess also on the mental and spiritual aspect of it, in terms of obtaining it I find it very valuable because it helps for me to break down some of the fears and anxieties I have between what I perceive to be pleasure and what I perceive to be pain. I'm really not all that interested in defining my experiences in terms of those two and I feel that the more one's able to open oneself up to pain and even just view it not as pain but as experience, the more one is capable of experiencing. I mean if someone lives a life entirely frightened and in avoidance of pain, what would they achieve? What is it to avoid dreaming for fear of nightmares? I think that's an unfortunate life indeed.

It's just one further way in which I sort of push my boundaries and there are those who might find the way I push those boundaries unacceptable, but I don't really know whether pushing my boundaries by tying myself to a bungee cord and jumping is necessarily something that's up my alley.

LS:
Is there a community of vampires in Winnipeg?

Eric:
I think there is. I've bumped into them at least. Yeah, I'd say there is.

LS:
Where do vampires hang out?

Eric:
There is of course the obvious, The Crypt. I don't know if you can get more obvious than that. But also, friends' houses.

I tend to be a little more private in terms of my vampire scenishness. I'm not really big on cliques as a whole. Even though the vampire scene is a fascinating and a beautiful one to observe, well, cliques can develop even among the nicest people. If you can find something about vampires being warded off by cliques then I would certainly apply to that. More than a crucifix, a clique will drive me screaming.

LS:
What about AIDS? Is drinking blood dangerous, or are you immortal?

Eric:
I might be. (he laughs) I haven't discovered it and I haven't wanted to test it. Yeah, it's dangerous. I'm not entirely sure as to increased rates of transmission or anything like that. But I tend to be a fairly monogamous vampire, because for me, it's an act of intimacy, and for me, intimacy is either with close friends or within the confines of a monogamous relationship.

LS:
Do you only drink the blood of other vampires?

Eric:
It's all, obviously, consensual. I'm not a hunter of humans. And so yes, I guess on one level it would have to be because it's a consensual act. But on the other hand I've done it with people who don't necessarily apply that sort of symbolism or metaphor within their own lives, who have their own reasons for drinking blood. But it's pretty well a mutual act.

LS:
How do you obtain the blood?

Eric:
With a knife, seeing as how I don't have fangs. (laughter) Where it is on someone else is really up to them and what they feel comfortable with. With myself it tends to be forearm, upper arm, shoulder, chest, I think once or twice abdomen. I don't fool around too much with the neck and that's just because I've seen a few accidents happen that, although they didn't involve necks, produced far more blood than I was capable of consuming at one sitting. I'm quite sure the people at Misericordia hospital remember me well. Although I'm fairly happy to say that no one that I've ever done it with has ever had an accident.

LS:
Earlier you said that vampirism draws into "a core which all of us have." What did you mean by that?

Eric:
The symbol of the vampire for me, and the psychology of the vampire for me, I think has been a very positive one in my life, because it gives me a rolemodel I can relate to. Growing up I couldn't relate to the "All-American Kid" kind of metaphor: everything goes smoothly, they are always in a happy relationship, what have you...Really nothing much else gets offered in terms of trying to cope and find patterns with other ways of being within yourself. I haven't been diagnosed, but I'm virtually certain that I am at least mildly manic depressive, which would throw a whole new swing on the Partridge family symbol that seems to get offered all the time and unfortunately is of no help except to people who already live the lifestyle of the Partridge family.

I find this symbol helpful because it -- it's a means in some ways of coping, and I think in some ways it's led me to some very positive coping. I think, to be honest, one of the reasons why strangers will relate me to a vampire is because I tend to be more serious in my outlook. I make no pains to hide my depression when it strikes, I wear black, I occasionally skulk about, mope about.

I find it very curious that we should take all of these very very human, and very very natural, and very very at times beautiful human characteristics and combine them into a symbol which many people associate with a monster. And I think in many ways I've decided rather than take the Prozac rout to happiness, or at least a consistant state of being, I've decided to say, "Well, I guess if being depressed occasionally and not always being cheerful, and not always smiling, and not always being a happy shiny member of a clique is being a monster then I guess I'll be that monster and lurk on the outskirts and be the vampire to other people."

I don't think I've ever been more balanced in my life, and I think that it's about time that more people come to grips and explore their negative emotions, because they really aren't something to be frightened about unless you're hiding them. So to get back to your question about that core that exists in everyone, yeah it does. Everyone has within them emotions of anger, frustration, depression, and the secret is to find positive, creative, and even beautiful ways of expressing them without hurting other people. I'd rather sit around in dark coffee shops and write dark poetry about being depressed than eventually snap at the post office and bring a rifle to work one day.

LS:
So what is a vampire?

Eric:
Quite reasonably in many ways, the first question people ask is, "Do you drink blood?" But that really represents, for myself at least, only one per cent -- if -- of what being a vampire is all about. If you were to take the mythological creature and plunk one down and interview that, I'm quite sure yes, the drinking of blood would be very important, but you know, no more than a really good reuben for everyone else. I mean there's the different psychology, the different way of viewing life. And if you were to take someone like me and view them as a stripped down version of that mythological creature, then I too would also have to say that the actual blood aspect -- although I do it for different reasons, you know, I don't literally feed myself on it -- but again it represents a smaller portion when viewed up against the whole different approach to life. Vampirism isn't a way of eating, it's a way of living.

to hear Eric click here*

*Eric is reciting part of "Eden" by 10,000 Maniacs.

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