May 15, 2007 (The Lantern / Zack Timmons)  -- A group of vampires stand, each doing their best to evolve through interaction with one another. When a challenge arises, hands come out and a game of "rock, paper, scissors" decides their eternal fate.

April 4, 1995 (The Fortean Times) - A man of 75, walking Jockel, his Dachshund, in Berlin on 4 April 1995, was attacked by a 43-year-old man who bit him on the neck, shouting "I am Dracula!" Passersby overpowered the attacker and handed him over to police. He said he had been drinking.

The victim went home and died an hour later from a heart attack.

All around, the mourners gather
My dread grows as the stroke of midnight
Falls against my stained soul
It severs me, and in darkness
My essence drips to the thirsty earth
In abject fear,
I beg for forgiveness
Now alone
My fervent plea falls upon blind eyes
This is my salvation

Fantasm
August 26, 2001

The following text is a translation of one of the oldest surviving versions of the story of Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia -- known to his friends as Vlad the Impaler, or Prince Dracole. It was printed in Nuremburg in 1488.

I should certainly be pleased to play the part of Dracula again on the screen (surely it is the immortal role par excellence?), although I have many times refused to accept it. Nowadays I think the public identifies me with this part, and if I have sometimes refused it, it was for fear that, like the unfortunate Bela Lugosi, I should spend the rest of my life unable to play anything else.