Zeitgeist Shadows

The interviewed smiles at me.

"Just relax," he says, comfortingly. "I know you'll do just fine."

I smile back, and watch the studio around me all melt a little.

"I know I will," I say.

I'm not leaving anything to chance, you see. I've got no intention of talking to these people and just letting them decide for themselves. Oh no. Now isn't the time for people to start making those kind of decisions. I'm going to make sure they form the right opinions, the opinions I need them to have.

Outside the world is blowing up again. London is finished, I think. At the end of this evening, I'm going to leave here, and start looking for a smaller town, somewhere I can begin again. I'll find a local shop and stock it with useless 'True Blood', which I'll devotedly buy and pour down the sink. I'll be a member of the local WI and explain to them all that vampires are just like normal people, really, and I'll rip the throats out of any Sabbat who try and mess with my home.

London is finished.

The cameras are beginning to turn, and I learn forward towards my interviewer, holding his eye. My tone is earnest, but light.

"You know, most vampire myths are just that," I say "Myths. Most of us are really just people, like you. We do have problems with our diet, which is why so many myths have grown up, and why so many people are afraid of us. But underneath it all, we're not very different from humans."

A wave of gentleness and concern washes out from me. Everyone who listens to me knows that I'm sincere, that I care, that I want what is best for them

Like I said, I'm not leaving anything to chance. No one is having an emotional response that I don't want them to have. That's what the powers of my blood do.

Maybe London is finished, but I'm not. I'm only just beginning...