Doing It for the Gram...

She checked the picture one last time. She had a few tricks she almost always turned to. Eyes opened just a touch wider than normal and looking slightly up at the camera. It made people subconsciously think of babies or puppies or kittens. Cute things. Helpless things. Slight smile with lips parted just enough to barely show her teeth. It said open and friendly without coming across as too thirsty. The slight head tilt that tightened her jaw line and elongated her neck. Elegance and vulnerability. That's the message. 

Dark red lips. Eyes so inky black you could almost see a hint of a rainbow reflected on their surface. Skin pale and perfect porcelain. Her hair was pulled off of her face and a complicated array of braids cascaded down her back. Those didn't show in the photo. People would have wanted to know who did her hair during a pandemic. There would be no way to convince people she did that herself. 

She posted the photo #DidNOTWakeUpLikeThis #FilterFun #CovidLife

The likes and comments came quickly. People were so bored right now they seemed to just be waiting for any new posts. 

Don't even bother asking, she never shares the name of the filter

She doesn't have to tell you everything, let it be a mystery!

She shouldn't post pictures with filters if she doesn't want to tell us which they are!

Oh! Do you think this is the new @kylestyle filter?

Kyle often published a filter within a few days of a photo of her going up. People assumed they were working together. She didn't correct them and he certainly wasn't going to say her photos weren't his work. She had used his filters once or twice just to try them out but they weren't quite as good as her images. 

The bickering between fans of hers was nothing new either. She had noticed early on that people followed her either because they loved everything she did or because they hated it. There seemed to be very few middle ground people. Which made sense, she guessed, why follow someone online if they didn't evoke strong feelings in you one way or the other?

She wandered into the kitchen to check on her steak. She had taken it out of the refrigerator to get the chill off. She had watched a cooking video on YouTube last week that emphasized that the perfect way to cook steak was to let it come to room temperature first. The celebrity chef had seemed very pleased to impart this knowledge on his adoring crowd and the comments under the video seemed to reflect back that it had been some sort of brilliant secret kept from them until that very moment.

Game Changer! Epic! #BestSteakEver

Nothing online was neutral. It was either the best or the worst. 

Her phone buzzed as a text message came through. "Saw the new photo. Lovely, but dangerous no?"

"Maybe. But what is life without danger?"

"Longer."

She laughed and caught her image in the large mirror that hung in her living room. It was supposed to make the room seem bigger. That's what the interior decorator had told her. She wasn't fooled by simple illusions, but she did like the ornate frame. It was very Eastern European in style.

She wondered how much longer she would be alone here in her apartment. How many more days they would all be away from each other with only reflections and the internet to keep them company.

She hadn't been sure at first how she would fare. If she could make it. But after a few months she realized it was nice. She was relaxed. She was able to just be herself. How long had it been since that had happened? 

Years?

Decades?

A century or more?

She leaned closer to the mirror and smiled her full smile. Fangs out. Yes, this one made her look thirsty alright. 

She hadn't realized how tired she had been. Tired of the daily need for glamour. Making herself look older. Giving herself a few blemishes. A few wrinkles. Aging along with her friends. Though she wasn't. Not really. She would be this image for as long as she lived. They didn't really have a childhood. Not like the humans. More like any other wild animal. A year, maybe two before reaching maturity. Predators did not do well if they stayed prey too long. 

Her people had avoided photographs and film when it was first invented. Knowing that an image preserved would be hard to explain as time went on. How did they look exactly the same? A painting could be hidden away for a few decades and then called an ancestor. They were more personal and private. But photographs and film? So easy to share and watch. So they avoided them. Which lead to legends about not being able to be captured on film. Or reflected in a mirror. It wasn't that they couldn't, more that they felt they shouldn't. Not next to humans anyway. Not in a way that might show the differences. 

It had worked for a very long time. Hundreds of years. But now that there was a camera in every pocket, a security camera on every corner. A selfie must be taken at every event. Well what was there to be done? It was tricky. Look like them. Blur your own edges. The glamour they had used for a millennia to entice their prey now she used to lull them into belief that she was just like them. She had taken the makeup tricks she had used to look more human to make them look more glamourous. Made a career for herself. A very lucrative one. The wolf not only in the henhouse but welcomed with open arms.

Not that she thought of them as prey anymore. Not really. She found she could survive on other food sources. Though she did crave the blood of a crusader every now and again, this was fine. Really. She picked the steak up and drained it of every drop of blood left in the meat. It was better at room temperature that was true, but there was nothing like the warm pulsing blood direct from an artery. Maybe she missed it more than she really wanted to admit. But she did like living without fear of wooden stakes and beheadings. 

She remembered the first time she had posted a shot without any of her personal filters. Just her. It had been reckless. It had been stupid. But she was so tired of the #HalloweenFun filters that everyone was using. #VampireHotness Please. She'd show them #VampireRealness. And it took off. 

Entertainment shows starting following her Instagram account. 

Make-up artist to the stars shows off her best work...and it's on herself!

Her phone buzzed again. A text from a local publicist. They had asked her to get a vaccine on camera. Post it to her Instagram followers. They wanted to show the world it was great thing. She had turned them down. Very politely. She had said that she would talk about how great the vaccines were and that everyone should get one as soon as possible but that she did not feel right taking one from someone more deserving. Someone who really needed it for themselves. The publicist adored her answer.

Though she had to admit she was well past the age group currently eligible. But their vaccines weren't going to work for her.

Not that way.

What she was going to need was the blood of someone who had been infected and recovered. 

She had a friend who worked for a research hospital who was working on getting her a dose. Just like everyone else, it was a waiting game right now. Just a different one. Why did it have to originate in bats? She wouldn't have even been vulnerable if it had come from chickens or pigs or even monkeys like their other diseases had. But bats? Well, that was different. So she would wait until she got the call that a dose was available for her. 

But for now she was enjoying her time. Relaxing at home. Enjoying the quiet. Loving the ability to be herself. Posting her photos on Instagram.

I don't care what filter she uses, I would sell my soul to look like that. 

Do you think she bathes in the blood of virgins? Ha ha jk

She didn't. 

Not anymore.