Let there be night
The lingering shadows of the night began to retreat at the approaching golden rays of dawn. She awakes from her slumber at the characteristic sound of the small alarm clock that’s situated on the teak cabinet, which stands beside her bed. Faithfully, over many years, this trusty little clock has heralded the start of many new days charged with positive expectation. So why should today be any different? Why should her luck change so badly? How could fate be so cruel?
Brimful of joy and hope she gets out of bed, stretching her arms widely while emitting a slight yawn, before opening the brightly coloured curtains to greet the light of a new day. With this action the energy and warmth of the sun beams reassuringly around her bedroom. How could something that begins with so much light be the prelude to so much dark?
The conditioning of years guides her to follow her habitual routine, as she quickly moves into the shower causing the final soporific vestiges of sleep to be washed away, with the ebb and flow of the currents of revitalising water, that flow over her soft skin. ‘It’s a new dawn – it’s a new day’ she sings to herself as she smiles, in anticipation of the good fortune that she imagines awaits her today. But you never can tell – can you?
Having enjoyed the benefits of a fruit breakfast and chamomile infusion she leaves the protection of her home and steps out into the embrace of the coming nightmare. What makes this so sad is that she thinks she’s going to be safe in the daylight. But looks can be deceiving.
She arrives at the appointed rendez vous and sits down on a blue and grey speckled office chair that’s a clone of a million other such chairs that can be found in many thousands of similar office complexes around the country. Everything seems so normal. Such a bland setting for such an impending catastrophe.
Naturally she’s a bit nervous. This is, she thinks, to be an important meeting for her career development. For a long time she’s been seeking a role in a Human Resources department. She likes people, she gets on well with people and practically everyone likes her too. She’s highly talented and she’s got lots to offer. Oodles to offer. That’s why he noticed her.
Incisor dealing
He’s calculating. He’s cunning. He’s an adept compulsive liar with a cruel streak that when utilised has rapier-like sharpness. And he wears a charming mask of charisma that has proven, through regular use, to be his most prized weapon of all. Too often, too many of his quarries have forgotten the age old warning given to remind us that sometimes the Devil can appear, to those he intends on duping, in the form of an angel of light. Everyone likes angels. You can trust angels. And today is to be no different. She too, victim number ‘who-knows-how-many?’ is to fall the same way.
A cut above the rest
Vampires don’t really exist. At least, not as they’re portrayed in the movies. The real vampires are human beings with dark personality traits, which are identified by psychologists as the Dark Tetrad, consisting of psychopathic, malignant narcissistic, Machiavellian and sadist personality characteristics. Just like the fictional vampires though, they are quite dangerous... and very cruel. Causing heartbreak and tragedy wherever they go.
Let us prey
The good thing about being someone with dark personality traits is that you don’t come across as one. People never suspect you – at least not until some damage has already been done. But by then you’ve got all - or most - of what you want and you can move on. It’s funny, in a black-humour kind of way too, because vampires and dark tetrad individuals are very similar. They’re both parasites. They’re both able to exert powerful influence over individuals (and sometimes groups) to bring them under their sway. They both lie – very convincingly (confidence tricksters are called confidence tricksters because they’re very skilled at hoodwinking people in order to gain their confidence). They’re both callous and have no concern or compassion for their victims, as they inflict suffering upon them without compunction. They’re also totally self-centred. And as in the movies, where disbelief in vampires is no defence from them – so too in real life believing that ‘no one could ever pull one over on me’ is also a great handicap to an individual’s safety and security, where a dark tetrad individual is concerned. What's more, just as the vampires like to lord it over their human victims, so too do dark tetrad predators relish exerting control over, and manipulating their unwitting hosts.
Test the spirits
Anyway… back to the story. He puts on his most angelic smile. ‘Hiiiiii’ he says as he greets her. She rises to meet him. With feigned courtesy he motions her back to her chair and, artfully, pretending innate gallantry he gently moves it back under her as she resumes her seated position. This impresses her. A real gentleman! They talk about the job. He’s done his homework well. He knows about her aspirations, he even has some background information on her likes and dislikes, and he talks convincingly about how close he feels to her. About how much alike he says they are. It’s like they share a ‘special bond…a very special bond’ he continues. ‘It’s something spiritual’ he adds, his words dripping with contrived honesty (and somewhere a demon laughs – it’s something spiritual alright, but not the kind of spirit she expects). He knows that people like people who are like themselves – or who are like they’d like to be like. He can be witty. He’s clearly very intelligent. What a disarming combination! And all the while he’s ascertaining what he can persuade her to give up to him. How much he can get – and how quickly he can get it. Be it money, contacts, support, her emotional dependence on him or sex – or all of these things. Many others have fallen this way. And it wasn’t a problem in the past when it was a male victim he was working on because he can adapt his approach and change the ‘relationship’ from that of paramour to that of a ‘brother’. It’s quite easy really, especially when you’ve done it so often.
Trancefixed
Of course, he’s not really a director of the company he tells her he’s recruiting for. What’s more – it doesn’t really exist, but that’s a minor problem for him. In actual fact, as far as a career is concerned he’s always found it difficult to hold down any job for long. He keeps falling out with people. Which is one reason why he started doing this. And the other reason is – it’s just so much fun! But she doesn’t need to know about that. And if she ever does find out, chances are it will be too late by then, anyway. Because if she gets any doubts and starts to ask questions, he knows he’s adept at humiliating people with his perverted intellect and mercurial mind and, what’s more, he often does it in company, to make the pain more hurtful. Plus, he can always fire off a malicious lawsuit to intimidate her if the need arises - that always works. So with the confidence born of a lifetime’s experience he fixes his sugary gaze on her. On cue she melts at his beguiling manner. She’s transfixed – or trance-fixed. And as he continues to weave his convincing story she succumbs to its embrace. Like an unwitting insect bewitched by the scent of a Venus flytrap, her aspirations act as the bait and she remains oblivious as the cage begins to shut tightly around her.
Necking
As the weeks go by, for some reason they always meet at her house. He says it’s because he can’t introduce her to rest of the team yet. It’s because he’s got ‘bigger plans in mind’ for her, he tells her. Human Resources is not a big enough step for her, he effuses. She’s flattered. And she feels that an emotional, even romantic attachment is beginning to develop between them. He tells her that he feels the same, but out of respect for her he says they shouldn’t ‘rush into anything’. This means he values her, she concludes, and as a result she lowers her final defences and he notches up another sexual conquest to his list. His wife will never find out – and if she does he can always blame the woman. He’ll think of a reason, if ever such a situation arises. It shouldn’t be too difficult.
He tells her about the expansion of the company, and how he plans to make her a director, with him. ‘Imagine, me and you together’ he says. What a team they’d make! ‘We’ll be unstoppable’ he adds. As he winks at her she fails to notice the dark clouds that have begun to gather outside, blocking the light of the sun. It’s daytime – but it just got very murky.
In order to present her to the Board as a potential director, he explains, ‘of course’ she’ll need to have ‘demonstrated commitment to the company’ already. ‘Conveniently’, he says, ‘they're just about to release some shares’. He apologetically says that he ‘shouldn’t really be telling anyone this – due to insider trading rules', before adding: 'but our relationship is different’, whilst convincingly explaining that he feels sure that ‘God will understand, and that makes it alright’, words uttered with a very saintly look on his face. An appeal to holiness always works - when you go for the throat. And somewhere nearby the Devil chuckles gleefully.
Vlad to be of service
Three days later she goes to the bank with a spring in her step and a smile on her face and withdraws two-thirds of her life savings. Luck is certainly smiling on her today, she thinks to herself. She’s right – except that it’s bad luck that’s doing the smiling. And it’s less of a smile and more of a grin. She meets him at the appointed place. It’s where they first met; in the rented office, only she doesn’t know it’s a temporary rent. Of course, this one room, two chair, one table, no phone, no PC box-room must just be one of the ‘backrooms’ of this larger office complex, mustn’t it? He walks in and smiles. She lights up, and another dark cloud passes across the face of the sun. ‘The Board is looking forward to meeting you’ he says cheerfully, as he helps her into her chair again. She looks back at him lovingly and responds: ‘I just want to tell you now how much I appreciate everything you’re doing for me’. He replies with the silky words: ‘Darling, the pleasure is all mine’. Willingly she gives him her money as he tells her how his ‘friend in the stock broker office, Ubet & Ugamble, which is situated just across the road is waiting for the funds in order to turn them into shares’ and how, then, later they would ‘meet the Board for a vote’ (‘which was a foregone conclusion’) for her place as a director. He blows her a kiss and walks out of the office with the words ‘sit tight’. And she does. She sits…and she sits…and she sits.
Waiting in vein
After an hour-and-a-half, she goes back to reception and asks if anyone knows where he is. Is he already at the boardroom – or taking care of the paperwork somewhere? It hits her like the proverbial vampire bat out of Hell as the perplexed receptionist slowly starts to explain how Mr Hammerorror had ‘rented the office by the hour on just two occasions’. Adding that the ‘meet and greet welcome rite on reception comes as part of the service and out of courtesy we always put the name of the office renter on display in the foyer. It’s that final professional touch which makes the £15.00 per hour rate so competitive’. Actually, the receptionist remembers it was on the two occasions she visited the office that he’d rented the room. She looks in the log book, ‘Here you go, ‘Ms V. Ictim to meet Mr Hammerorror’ last month on the 13th and today’, which coincidently was the 13th too. ‘How about that for a fluke’ the receptionist says. Ms Ictim feels her blood run cold when the receptionist finally explains that ‘He only ever gave us a mobile phone number as a contact. We tried to call him once but the number was dead. Must have been a bad reception!’, she concludes.
Ms V. Ictim swoons at the final body blow. Her money was gone, he was gone, and he’d clearly used her as a sexual plaything in the process. And she’d consented to it all!
Psycho
Twenty-nine nine-fifty. Thirty thousand!’ he says gleefully as he counts his pickings. ‘What a sap. What a sap. They’re all so gullible…so gullible. They don’t deserve their money. I deserve it. Because I’m so talented. There’s more than one born every minute, ha ha!’, he laughs chillingly. Whilst the Hollywood vampires are unreal, frighteningly dark tetrad individuals are and they’re always ravenously seeking ‘new angles’ to improve their skills for manipulating others. They are everywhere. On social media and dating sites. In the workplace. In schools and colleges. In the clergy. Working as therapists. Some specifically train in law, whilst others train in religion, and some turn to the field of psychology in order to learn how to exert power over others. And in the process they become the equivalent of true vampires, evil parasitic predators, using their enhanced predatory range to quarry new prey.
‘£2000 will cover that online psychology course, which will help to provide me with a new scam, as I fool people into believing that I'm an empathic psychologist, to gain trust, leaving me £28,000’ he says to himself as the rain begins to fall heavily outside. ‘It will take about £100.00 to rent the next office and buy a couple of takeaway meals and a few bottles of wine, which will leave me about £27,900’ he continues. Such easy money – and such an adrenalin-pumping way of getting it! Living on the edge like this seems to be the only way he can fill the gnawing emotional void that often permeates his soul. Just like a vampire – the sociopath lacks any real depth of character. Driven by the lust and the emotional buzz of living on the edge his mind quickly moves greedily to begin the search for his next Ictim, or is that victim?
It could be you?
Six months later he looks out of the dirty window of the dingy apartment that he’s just started renting. ‘It ’s a new day – it’s a new scam’ he sings to himself. He told his wife he would be away looking for work again – she falls for it every time. That’s not to say that she doesn’t have her doubts, some serious doubts even, but she’s got so much ‘invested’ in the relationship that she stops herself from doing what she knows she should, and lets things carry on instead. It’s such a shame, a crying shame.
The apartment gives him a clear view of the building across the road. His money’s starting to run out so he’s been watching someone for several days now. Take a look in the mirror, does that someone look like you? And in another town, far away, Ms V. Ictim wakes up to another day. Her curtains are now left tightly drawn, as has been her new habit for the past six months. Slowly, with all the fragility of a cracked egg she seeks to pull herself out of bed and ‘pull herself together’ so that she can get her life back on track. Numbly she nibbles on some burnt toast and downs another black coffee, while the trickle of tears gently washes over her face, like they have been doing so often lately.
The end?
***
Warning
The moral to this story is this: If you meet someone who seems to be ‘too good to be true’, they probably are.
***
Here's a useful article on this subject, from Psychology Today on the Dark Tetrad: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/dark-tetrad
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Here are some links on the subject of narcissism, psychopathy and occupation:
1.
https://bigthink.com/culture-religion/top-10-jobs-of-serial-killers-and-psychopaths/
2.
https://overcomingtoxicpeople.com/Narcissists/The_11_Jobs_Preferred_by_Narcissists_Be_Careful_of_These_Professions.html?utm_content=cmp-true
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Here are some links to the subject of Internet trolls, narcissists, sadists and psychopaths:
1.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/your-online-secrets/201409/internet-trolls-are-narcissists-psychopaths-and-sadists
2.
https://gizmodo.com/why-do-trolls-annoy-you-online-because-theyre-sadists-1522842115
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Here's a link to a Wikipedia page, about the Dark Triad: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_triad
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And here's a useful article from Psychology Today, on the subject of psychopathic personality traits:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/communication-success/201810/7-characteristics-of-the-modern-psychopath
The Sociopathic Stare
Sociopaths have a characteristic unblinking stare - sometimes coupled with a smile. This is a technique they use for asserting their control over people. Who blinks first loses - in effect. Another useful trait for spotting potential troublesome individuals is that people with dark personality traits will sometimes move their eyes rapidly from side to side when talking or thinking.
Psychopathy in men and women
Evidence indicates that approximately 23 per cent of men and about 13 per cent of women are high enough on the psychopathic spectrum to be classed as troublesome. Read the following Guardian article for more details.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/feb/26/more-women-may-be-psychopaths-than-previously-thought-says-expert?utm_source=newsshowcase&utm_medium=gnews&utm_campaign=CDAQoJjh3PfbvqcFGJawgLaN37CmsAEqDggAKgYICjCXqnsw37MJ&utm_content=bullets
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In order to raise awareness of the kind of dark individuals addressed in this article I've brought a number of incidents to the attention of those working in some of the highest offices of power, including a President of the United States, three British Prime Ministers, a Pope and an Archbishop of Canterbury…along with the police, a judge, an MP - and experts in the field of human behaviour.
[This article was first published in 2007. The dark tetrad individual upon whom this article was based was, after this short story was written, a few years later, arrested, tried, convicted and imprisoned for sexually assaulting a disabled woman. He was added to the Sex Offenders' Register.]