A Collection of Short Works

Pseudovampirism

A description of the malady that affects Jacob in The Hallway.

---

Pseudovampirism is a disease caused by a bacterium that is found all over the globe, but most humans are immune to it because of a very common antibody that prevents the disease from even making minor changes. Those who lack it can catch this disease that gets in through cuts that become disgusting and infected for two weeks, but heals nonetheless. The first sign of the disease are mild forms of thought and mental disorders and speech issues, but those recover for a while but get worse when fangs grow in. The first physical sign is change in eye color, appearing at around 6 months into infection. The color change is mostly due to hemorrhaging of blood vessels in the iris; other causes are unknown. Fangs come 7-10 months after initial infection, and the victim is driven insane and inhuman with a voracious desire for human blood. The victim often will starve to death a few weeks after serious effects come in, but some may last for months or years, very few recovering from the mental issues and living their whole lives with just the physical changes and infrequent spells of vampiric rampage.

Victim Description:

Skin color- pales over time of infection

Eyes- mahogany/maroon color, sometimes bloodshot

Fangs- top fangs are canines; bottom fangs are second incisors; both pairs grow in around the time mental problems become serious

Eats/drinks- able to eat normal food and drink, but once disease is serious, all they want to drink and taste is human blood, but they drink water as well and sometimes eat food if they can sense their own starvation

Weaknesses While Alive:

-Can be killed by stakes, guns, fire, drowning, any ways a human can die, as they are still human and not a pop culture vampire

-Sunlight is not fatal, but victims develop sensitivity to it in the eyes and skin, therefore can get sunburned easier than well humans and get headaches from too much light of any source

Notes:

-Victim often dies very fast once disease has set in depending on hardiness of human

-Sometimes are stronger than prior to the disease

-Disease cannot be passed on by bites or blood ingestion/transfusion unless person whom the original disease victim takes lacks the antibody that makes them susceptible to the disease

-Susceptibility to the disease can be passed on by genetics depending on gene dominance

-Are loners, often found roaming

-Some use weapons to help retrieve blood

-Very few hallucinate demonic creatures; this is their brain trying to cope with the mental effects of pseudovampirism, and is a sign that they are still partially sane