Walking alone down the street at night, with nothing but the dim lights of the closed shops to guide you. It is a street that you know well, and you’ve done this same thing many times before. You usually feel safe and unafraid, as familiar territory tends to grant peace of mind. Tonight however, you feel as if someone is watching you. You pick up the pace without trying to seem to obvious. Truth is, you’re kind of embarrassed by this uneasy feeling. It’s a fairly good neighborhood after all, and the odds of something happening are slim to none. Regardless, the hair on the back of your neck is standing up and you decide you would feel  a lot better if you got home quickly.

vampire

You hear a noise, like the fluttering of wigs and glance away from the street you’ve been following. It was only a moment, but when you look back there is a man leaning against a building up ahead. Strange, you think, there wasn’t anyone on this street before. You avert your eyes to the ground and prepare yourself to pass him when suddenly he is in front of you. The corner of his mouth turns up into a little smile and you notice that he’s very good looking close up. You mutter an ‘excuse me’ and attempt to step to the side, but without seeming to move he is directly in front of you once again. His eyes lock with yours and your breath quickens. Something is wrong about this person, very very wrong. You can feel in him qualities that you’d expect to find in a wild animal, and his skin is too pale; a tone you would only expect of someone in the hospital on their death bed. His eyes are downright terrifying. You realize all of a sudden that you should be running, the fear takes hold of you and every fiber of your being is screaming at you to get away from him as quickly as possible…. but you haven’t moved an inch.

He moves fluidly and takes you by the arm. Your body moves without your consent and you find yourself being led into an alley way. When you reach this more secluded area, his smirk turns slowly to a full grin, and reveals glistening sharp fangs. When they sink into your neck, you feel the most pain and the most pleasure you’ve ever felt in your life; sifted together like a sick chemical cocktail in your veins. You look up at the vampire one last time, then everything goes black.

May we reconvene under the blood red moon,
-Black Widow

Vampire

There are certain things that you can dress up as for Halloween that NEVER seem to go out of style. They are myths and legends of times so long ago that we don’t even really know how they came about, or how the original tales went. Because they’ve been through so many generations, they have adapted in our popular culture time and time again to whatever we currently think is impressive or cool. So needless to say, being a vampire this Halloween would earn you a few thumbs up from friends, family, or co-workers.

First things first, whether you buy your costume or make it, there will be one crucial thing that will not be included; your fangs. If you don’t really care, and you’re just whipping together a costume for the sake of having one, there are a multitude of plastic inserts that go over your top (and sometimes bottom) row of teeth for less than five dollars. But these are uncomfortable to wear and you have to take them out every time you want to talk, eat or drink. Then you’re faced with the problem of where to put the saliva-covered plastic when it’s not in your mouth. Really, it’s just unattractive. For about $20 though, you can get a pair of perfectly natural looking tooth caps (I prefer ‘scarecrow’ brand) that you can mold to fit your canine teeth. After that short process is done, they are easy to snap on and off, but also hold tight when they’re in. You can speak and even eat with them in, and they look so real it’s concerning. Did I mention that they last for years and years?

Anyway, another thing you might want to consider is whether or not to paint your face. There are a lot of make-ups available to give yourself a completely blanched look, or to simply make your normal skin tone look paler. I would recommend the later, as it would look more natural. But the big question is ‘what do I wear?’

The current vampire craze sweeping the nation is that of young (looking) vampire teens in love. I read the first book to that series to see what all the fuss was about, and to be honest I really hated it. But hey, if Stephanie Myers can get non-readers to start down a path that eventually leads towards better literature then I won’t complain too much about it. Not here, anyway.

If you wanted to be one of her vampires, all you would need are regular clothes, and copious amounts of glitter. (As her vampires somehow avoid the fate of bursting into flame like most others and just sparkle in the sun instead) But say you wanted to actually have a decent costume, there are a few other routes you could take.

The ‘goth’ vampire is what most of the store-bought costumes look like. They usually feature a lot of black, with splashes of vibrant color like purples, reds, or sometimes blue. Velvets, pleather, and silken fabrics are often employed and they range from the usual caped blood-sucker, to the long flowing dress, to the corseted punk-esq. vampire. The prices aren’t bad for these, and they generally make a good impact. Adding some fake blood around your lips would add a nice touch as well for your Halloween costumes

But if you wanted to go above and beyond, you could take to heart the vampire lore that they are immortal, and pick a time period to dress from. There are hundreds of patterns, if you had the means to sew one of these masterpieces yourself. (If you sign up for the Joann’s newsletter you’d get coupons in the mail to help you, because these generally involve a ton of fabric.) But if you were going for the win at a party with a costume contest, this might very well earn it for you. Victorian-era vampire costumes are the most impressive and visually stunning of all of them, they also seem to be the most ‘authentic’.

It doesn’t really matter what type of vampire you decide to be this year, as long as you make the extra effort to ensure your costume doesn’t suck. Ha!