The following day consisted of a row of depressing rejections. Ingo asked close to everybody he knew to help him in one way or the other. But unfortunately he knew too many losers, who themselves barely had their lives on track. He also wasn't very cautious about how to tell people. Nearly everybody already knew at least one of Ingo's vampire-stories and one "friend" even went as far as to ask him if he could borrow some money in case Ingo got killed and would never demand it back. Others were just telling him to keep his silly stories to himself and leave, some in very offensive or dismissive ways. It slowly began to dawn on him that he was not being taken serious.

By the time it was late afternoon, he checked his little list of names he had put on paper and noticed there was only one name left he hadn't crossed out, yet. The young man wasn't very happy about asking his brother, Markus, with whom he hadn't gotten along well for a long time, but he was running out of options.

He tried to call, but couldn't reach him. So he rang Markus' girlfriend, Andrea, instead and told her what it's about. She informed him when Markus would leave his home for band rehearsal and that he could be caught on the way. Ingo could hear her giggle and mumble something that sounded similar to "moron" before she hung up properly.

Markus had just left the building when Ingo caught him. He wasn't pleased.

"Now you have completely lost it," Markus said in a unnerved tone as soon as he saw Ingo. He didn't even bother to greet him. "Why don't you ask one of your stupid friends?"

Ingo didn't get to greet him either, but concluded that Andrea had already spread the news and went straight into defence. "I've already asked them all."

"And?" was the only reply. "Well, nobody believes me."

Markus rolled his eyes. "That's what I thought." He went to move on his way and Ingo hurried after.
"Man!" Why don't you believe me either? You're my brother after all."

"You want to know why?" Markus replied, still in his unnerved tone. "Ever since we've been children you constantly had those fantastic stories to catch attention."

"Oh, come on. You've been playing pirate as well," Ingo objected.

"Yes, as a child, but not still at the age of 20!"

Memories flashed in Ingo's brain of people asking him where the costume-party was or what he was trying to promote, as well as all the juveniles and drunks who had all been picking at him at random.
"Not to mention your other stories like your ninja-phase."

"Hey, at least I had finished a self-defence course," Ingo threw in.

"And that was one of the few things you ever finished. There were other things like your biker-phase without even owning a motorbike or your knight-phase without even knowing how to ride…"
Ingo interrupted him again: "At least I have learned how to fight with a sword."

"Right, show-fighting!" Markus exclaimed with sarcasm. "You have learned to pose, not to fight for real. And this vampire-hunter thing with this ridiculous cloak you have seen in some silly film is your latest. Are you not sweating in it all the time?"

Why "thing"?" Ingo asked now, ignoring Markus' question.

"Do you really think I didn't notice you trying to pick up gothic girls with that? Too bad it's too easy to look through and none will fall for it."

Ingo's desperation turned to anger. "Man, that's not true! I really was bit by a vampire and the only reason why I was able to chase it off was, that I had done the self-defence course!"

That wasn't the whole truth. He hadn't managed to chase it off, but rather to escape and run away. Anyway his self-defence skills were the main reason he managed to do so.

The version he had just been told didn't impress Markus, though. The expression on his face made clear that he was nothing but quietly annoyed. "Ok and how is the hunt for vampires going? Have you actually hunted one down?"

This caught Ingo completely off guard and he replied feeble: "Actually no. I haven't met another ever since."

Marcus let his hand go through his long hair before he burst out. "Well great! How about getting a real job? Or going on a diet to get rid of this belly?" he said while looking at Ingo's extra layers around his bellybutton. "Anything real, except your constant fantasies. Claiming that your life is threatened is going way too far for just catching attention!"

"Hey! That's not fair! In my fantasies I never went that far! Why don't you give me a chance for once?" The pain between his temples of blood shooting through it much too fast, felt murderous.

"You had plenty of chances, but I've given up playing along with your nonsense years ago and as long as you don't give any proof for your claims I won't even bother listening to you anymore." As he was turning away from his brother almost on his heel, he shouted one last time. "And now leave me alone. I'm late, thanks to you, and have my own problems to think of."

Ingo was dumbstruck, trying to think of something to say but it didn't come to him. For a second he thought he should go after his big brother, but his legs wouldn't let him.

His thoughts were racing. Markus was right in many ways. Yes, Ingo had gone too far with his attention seeking and yes, he has been running away from reality most of his life. When the vampire had attacked him, Ingo had been frightened, of course, but that was fear of physical harm rather than actual death like he felt it now that he knew he was about to be killed. In the aftermath of the attack he realized that something that could have been out of one of his favourite books, films or games just had happened to him in real life and after watching a whole bunch of, mostly trashy, vampire-hunter films he had quickly turned that into his new replacement personality. And yes, he did try to use it and get to gothic girls, but except for one they didn't fall for it. All the realisations were rushing over him in just a few moments and most of them were kind of shattering in some way, but none of them as much as seeing his own brother just leaving him behind, even though Ingo was absolutely serious about the threat to his life.

Finally, after years of ignoring the fact, Ingo realized that in reality he was all alone.