June 4, 2007 (Herald-Sun / Michael Carr-Gregg) -- Mary Ward was an English nun who founded the Loreto Order in 1609 and one can't help wondering what she would have made of the latest internet kill fantasy: Police are investigating comments from a Loreto College student at Ballarat, posted on a site called Vampire Freaks.

Well, here is the part all the skeptics love. This is how medical research, cold hard facts, can prove that there are no vampires, rather, they can disprove corpses of old are vampires. Perhaps. They can only offer you convincing evidence that everything "vampiric" is normal. They can neither disprove or prove. Believe what you want.

So languid in your carefree world,
My voice lost to the wind.
Watching, waiting.
We danced through the cobalt night,
And it was right for just a minute.
For a moment I soar,
As I picture you here;
A friend.
Yet your voice speaks against your face;
Your words like fire,
The dark mist of dreams burnt off by your laugh.
I swear it won't be like this again,
Until I see your smile
And forget your laugh.

Howling Stars
September 14, 2001

June 28 2007 (Reuters / New York) -- In the cutthroat business of real estate, U.S.-based firm Baytree Capital Associates has been chosen to market Dracula's Castle. Archduke Dominic Habsburg, who lives in New York state, and his family retained the private investment firm to market Bran Castle and the surrounding property in the Transylvanian region of Romania.

As vampires gain in popularity, they start to appeal to a different kind of person as well: the self-styled vampire hunter. The long-running popular television show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, about a group of teenaged vampire fighters in California, has influenced this subculture. While for many, it's just role-playing, some take this game with deadly seriousness.