Member-only story
The Vampire
Vampires must be invited in
There was once a girl who believed she was bad.
She simply decided her evil was an unarguable fact one day. It’s like the idea drifted down from somewhere “up there.” Still, it was something she came to accept. She had a feeling. She had suspected she might be bad for a long time before she knew.
But believing she was bad was a heavy weight to carry. It was so heavy that it sucked up most of the energy she put into trying to pretend to be good.
Because you have to pretend you’re good. If you don’t pretend you’re good, the bad will move in and set up shop.
What do those old scary stories always say?
Vampires must be invited in.
Hers has been loitering just outside the doorway for awhile. She’s been busying herself with other things as best she could.
Be good. Be good. Be good.
Pretending to be good is a tiring endeavor. But if she stops, she’ll have no choice but to let that vampire in, because being all alone is much more terrifying than the flash of fangs in a dark room.
That’s what she thought.
She decided to listen to that old adage as best she could: “Fake it til’ you make it.”
She’d read stories over the years about the tendency for method actors to go a little mad, dealing with psychological problems long after they left the movie set. She began to wonder if method acting could work the other way around. Could she just pretend she was good until she was? Would she simply wake up one morning and notice the sun shining a little brighter? Can the Big Bad Wolf become a man?
She decided that the life of a chameleon was her best shot at success. It was more of a slow becoming than a direct decision, at first. But once she realized what she was doing, she couldn’t argue with the way her subconscious had decided to cheat at the game.
On her never-ending journey to make the Bad Girl into the Good Girl, becoming a chameleon could be advantageous. It was kind of like trying on clothes, one outfit after the other, until you found one flattering enough to hide your bulging stomach. She would become a master of the Switch. She would…
