"The Vampyre" is a short story written by John William Polidori and is a progenitor of the romantic vampire genre of fantasy fiction.  It was first published on April 1, 1819, by Colburn in the New Monthly Magazine with the false attribution "A Tale by Lord Byron." The name of the work's protagonist, "Lord Ruthven," added to this assumption, for that name was originally used in Lady Caroline Lamb's novel Glenarvon, in which a thinly-disguised Byron figure was also named Lord Ruthven. Despite repeated denials by Byron and Polidori, the authorship often went unclarified.

I'm a lowly rat
in a vampire movie
Oh, woe is me
who'll bite me first?

Will it be Tom
So cute and curly,

Or pretty Brad
who looks so hurt?

These hunks from Hell
are all around me,

And how their fangs
do make me squeak.

Sweet little Kirsten?
Won't even pet me

She just says 'Yuk'
Though she's very sweet.

Oh, thank you, Larry
Liz Smith, I love you.

And dearest Oprah
How good thou art.

The modern idea of the vampire is open to many different possibilities. What defines a vampire? And where did these traits come from?

To live, to die, to rise again

Like a corpse with a Christ Compex: born again with immortal blood, setting loose upon the world a killer, a thief of life

Keeping the coffin builders busy

Am I beyond redemption? Beyond forgiveness?

Yes, I am, for I love what I do. Drinking from the Scarlet river, holding the power of life and death

I want more, always more.

An occational twinge of guilt, quickly lost in the heat of the kill.

Repress the urge to jump to the hightest point and shout with all my might