This might sound strange to many of you, but tonight I may have been assaulted by what is known as the "energy vampire", "cat vampire" etc. The encounter itself was not at all painful, but extremely frightening, which causes me to believe, or rather reinforce the beliefs of others, that vampires, or at least those of the type of vampire that had attacked me, do not feed on 'blood'. As a matter of fact I believe that blood was somewhere confused with 'vitae', or 'life energies'. It is these 'energies' the vampire feeds on.
The best method to force humans to excrete such energies is, of course, to cause fear. Have you ever noticed that, after being significantly frightened by something you feel weak for a short while? That's what I am talking of. It is a human defense mechanism to excrete 'vitae', or 'energy' as it is referred to by some, and it is this 'vitae' that recharges the vampire, as current charges a battery.
This was what I believe assaulted me. I by no means claim that I saw the actual creature, be it human or otherwise. I simply imply that such a creature may have caused the event I am about to recall.
When I went to bed at around seven p.m. last night, I was feeling unusually tired. This is rather normal for me, as my bedtime schedule tends to bounce around from around 7pm to 2am, depending on how tired I am and how late I went the previous night. I do not remember any dreams prior to the event, but that is also normal. As much as I would like to start with "I heard a strange howling noise", that is not true. It is worth mentioning though, that the heater that is ~1ft from my head when I am in bed (it is one of the oldish heaters that is built into the wall itself, and is surrounded by a largish grill (see attatched photo,) has been making strange scratching noises for the past week or two. I blamed it on mice, though I had not seen one of the varmin on our house for months. The noises are sudden, unexpected, and usually do not repeat. It is possible that that is irrelevant and the heater is simply turning on, but I'm not writing a novel - I'm trying to give you all details that may be relevant.
At approximately 2am this morning I woke up, slightly sleepy. I looked at my clock, and calmly went back to sleep with hardly a thought about the incident. I had dreamt that I was, for some reason, in my grandparents' house, which it may be worth mentioning is in Ukraine, not very far from the infamous Carpathian mountains (see: Dracula.) My grandparents have two cats which I love profusely. One of them, a small gray male, was staying in my room for the night. It was behaving strangely. It was hissing and was almost trying to get out. That is, it hissed at me when I tried to pick it up. I was a bit surprised, but whatever, I let the cat go. It lingered around the doorway, then jumped on my bed a second time. I tried to pick it up again just as my grandfather closed the bedroom door. All of a sudden the cat became reminiscient of a black shadow, albeit non-translucent, and jumped onto the floor, where it crouched in a strange position, ready to pounce. I could not make out any details but the outline of the cat, which was not smooth but rather rough or cloudy/hazy. It then jumped and latched onto my throat. I woke up to find out that it was 4am. I then went back to bed and simply closed my eyes. I lay that way for another hour, all the while filled with childish dread that if I open my eyes and look around I might see whatever it was. At five am I woke up and since then have felt nothing of the sort.
I may have discounted the whole thing as a nightmare, except for a few simple facts: I am seventeen, slightly old for such nightmares, I have never thought of cats as vampiristic before, nor have been afraid of cats. As a matter of fact I have always preferred them to any other animal. Thirdly, after researching the issue I found legends of cat vampires that went back to prehistoric times with some jewish legends, that the concept was in Japanese legend, and that the concept of the 'cat vampire' was a relatively popular one. Was I simply having a nightmare or was there something else at work here? Any light you can shed on the situation is appreciated. Thanks again.

Andrey ("accelleron" "at" "gmail" "dot" "com")

garn! I forgot the photos. The second is the room/heater, the first my [crappy] drawing of the cat. Both were taked with my old webcam, so excuse the quality.

Age has nothing to do with nightmares, I'm ten years older than you )gah= and still have vivid "monster" dreams from time to time.

Still, it is perfectly possible that yu did see something. It may have been a vampire, it may have been something else, a spirit, a ghost, a guardian, you name it. Cats are sensitive creatures, and usually react around supernatural thingies.

My ex used to be convinced my cat was possessed, and looking at the animal's behaviour, I'm inclined to believe him. It could be your cat was subject to some sort of attack, hence the fuzzy outline as the two "merged"...when the spirit/energy took over...

Excellent points, Clearwitch. I will add only two small codocils:

1. You might want to check into the original meaning of the word "nightmare." Apparently it means a hypnogogic (sp?) state where soemone feels something pressing down on their chest, they are unable to move, and they feel drained and feverish afterward. This is (I believe) a type of neurological thing, and it might be that you're a sufferer. The persistence of "cat vampire" myths has been sometimes traced to this kind of night terror.

2. If you think something nonphysical's attacking you, my advice would be salt and cold iron. Leave a trail of salt around your heater vent, window, and door; there are very few things that will cross a salt line and you can hoover up the mess quite easily if it doesn't work or when you need to redo it. You may also want to buy some iron nails, I heard of a technique where a person suffering from night attacks filed the sharp point off an iron nail and slept with the iron under his pillow. I've also heard of taping the iron inside your hand. It might work- but be wary of that sharp point! A neighborhood witch might be able to help you with energetic self-defense (if you have a reputable one). And always, always, look for a reasonable scientific explanation first.

Lovely post, by the way. Very informative. I look forward to hearing what you have to say next.