[posnet]

Have you ever walked into a room and found a vampire?

No, not the sexy kind, but a foul creature with bony limbs and ashen skin? The kind that snarls as you enter, like a beast about to pounce? The kind that roots you to the spot with its sunken, hypnotic eyes, rendering you unable to flee as you watch the hideous thing uncoil from the shadows? Has your heart started racing though your legs refuse to? Have you felt time slow as the creature crosses the room in the darkness of a blink?

Have you shuddered with fear when it places one clawed hand atop your head and another under your chin so it can tilt you, exposing your neck? Have you squirmed as its rough, dry tongue slides down your cheek, over your jaw, to your throat, in a slithering search that's seeking your artery? Have you felt its hot breath release in a hiss against your skin when it probes your pulse—the flow that leads to your brain? Has its tongue rested there, throbbing slightly as if savoring the moment? Have you then experienced a sinking, sucking blackness as you discover that not all vampires feed on blood—some feed on memories?

Well, have you?

Maybe not. But let me rephrase the question:

Have you ever walked into a room and suddenly forgotten why you came in?

https://old.reddit.com/r/shortscarystories/comments/1inv0n/n...

[twright0]

Mostly off-topic, but if you find this compelling, you will certainly enjoy reading the short story "There Is No Antimemetics Division" whose chapters are linked from https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/antimemetics-division-hub

[treetalker]

I bought the book and read it based on another HN recommendation. The premise was interesting at first but the writing is trash and it ended up being the worst book I had read in recent memory. As another comment noted, it goes off the rails about halfway through. Not worth wasting paper, in my opinion. FWIW.

[geewee]

It's a nice series of stories, although I feel like they do go a bit off the deep end in some of the later installments - but the premise is very fun.

[sumtechguy]

and there goes my afternoon....

[starkrights]

Entirely off topic, but that post is borderline history. The commenter’s second-most-upvoted poster being u/unidan, to positive reaction? What a time.

[fensgrim]

On topic of this specific kind of vampire, see also: Blindsight, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blindsight_(Watts_novel)

[tetris11]

Or, the energy vampires from the What We Do in the Shadows TV series:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_We_Do_in_the_Shadows_(TV_...

(Ctrl-F) "Colin Robinson"

[lagerlagerlager]

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_functions

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_multitasking

[keefle]

Can someone explain the meaning of this to me?

Is the encounter with the vampire similar to forgetting why one came into a room because when encountering a vampire in a newly entered room you forget everything before that and focus on the vampire?

[zdbrandon]

The story is implying that whenever this happens to you -- forgetting why you came into a room -- the truth is that you were attacked by a vampire that made you forget the reason you were there, as well as the attack itself.

[lxgr]

Very related: There Is No Antimemetics Division (https://qntm.org/scp)

    An antimeme is an idea with self-censoring properties; an idea which, by its intrinsic nature, discourages or prevents people from spreading it.

    Antimemes are real. Think of any piece of information which you wouldn't share with anybody, like passwords, taboos and dirty secrets. Or any piece of information which would be difficult to share even if you tried: complex equations, very boring passages of text, large blocks of random numbers, and dreams...

    But anomalous antimemes are another matter entirely. How do you contain something you can't record or remember? How do you fight a war against an enemy with effortless, perfect camouflage, when you can never even know that you're at war?

    Welcome to the Antimemetics Division.

    No, this is not your first day.

[geon]

The wikipedia article reads a lot like it’s from The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy.

[Razengan]

Inspiration material!

[dymk]

r/shorthotstories