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Vampire (Stephen King)
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Vampires appear throughout Stephen King's fictional multiverse. They appear in the novels Salem's Lot, Wolves of the Calla, Song of Susannah, and The Dark Tower; the short stories "One for the Road", "The Night Flier", "Popsy", and "The Little Sisters of Eluria"; and are mentioned in a number of other stories. Marvel Comics' The Dark Tower: End-World Almanac includes a detailed entry on their categorization. Classification The majority of vampires that exist in King's multiverse consist of a standard type. These standard vampires exist in at least three facets of King's multiverse: All-World; the fictional setting of Salem's Lot and works related to it; and the "real" world. All three types of vampires drink blood to survive. While they are immune to blood-borne diseases, they can pass them on to their victims. Due to this, in King's multiverse vampires were instrumental in causing the AIDS pandemic in the 1980s. Most also seem to require being "invited" into a particular area or building by the proper "owner" of the territory. Once invited, they seem to be able to come and go as they please, even if their invitation is verbally revoked. Type Ones Type One vampires are "lesser demons", the last remnants of the Prim (magical beings who predated creation and dissolved when Gan made the multiverse). Although humanoid in shape, they are extremely deformed, with an emaciated appearance; enormous, inch-long teeth that force their mouths open; and large amounts of tumors, body hair, and other physical defects. Their bodies are adapted for the seeking and consuming of blood: their noses are attuned to smell even traces of blood from long distances, their teeth are built for piercing skin and draining blood, their stomachs can expand to hold as much as half their body weight in blood, and their tongue is long and prehensile, and can produce anticoagulants to apply to bites on victims. Type Ones have lifespans of thousands of years, and can hibernate for hundreds of years. They also are surrounded by blue or indigo auras. These represent their life energy, and when the aura goes out, Type Ones almost immediately putrefy into stinking yellow puddles. Type Ones are vulnerable to faith, and can be driven away or even killed by someone with sufficient belief wielding an object of faith such as a cross, which cause them to burst into flame. Type Threes Type Three vampires are humans who have been bitten by a Type Two vampire. Type Threes can pass as normal humans, as they are able to move in sunlight, survive off of normal food instead of solely blood, and have a higher degree of intelligence and personality than Type Twos. In addition, their bites contain an enzyme that causes temporary memory loss and disorientation in their victims, allowing them more leeway in feeding. However, Type Threes cannot pass along vampirism to those they bite. Type Threes also generate a faint version of the Type One aura, along with a smell such as burnt onions or hot metal, which those with psychic powers can detect. In The Dark Tower, the existence of "psychic vampires" is revealed, who feed on emotions as opposed to blood, can change shape, and can mask their surroundings via a glamour. Examples Kurt Barlow Kurt Barlow is a Type One vampire who terrorizes the town of , Maine, before being killed by Ben Mears and Mark Petrie. In the notes to Nightmares & Dreamscapes, King states that the Night Flier is possibly also the titular character of his story "Popsy", who rescues a possibly-vampiric child from an abductor. 
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