Yes, in accordance with the landmark Supreme Court ruling “Finders Keepers” vs “Losers Weepers.”

“The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair."

~Douglas Adams

“Patricia! It’s been so long since I’ve seen you! I thought you’d moved away.”

Alison winced, but just a little bit. It was a small town and everyone knew each other. Even so she’d started to get used to this little routine.

She slowed her walk from the car up to the front door and regarded this latest neighbor who’d mistaken her for one of the previous residents of her home. Her small chihuahua jumped from her hands and ran to the front door, scratching.

“Sorry, I’m actually not Patricia, but I know the resemblance is striking. My name is Allison.”

The woman she was talking to took a moment to process this.

“Wait, you’re Allison, Denton’s girlfriend?”

Alison let out a small sigh as she replied. “Wife, actually.”

An awkward silence descended over the yard, broken only by the occasional yipping of the chihuahua.

It was hard enough moving to this small town not knowing anyone. Now on top of that she had to constantly begin every conversation clearing up this misunderstanding.

Most of the time they figured things out on their own and this was no exception.

“Wait, I’ve seen you on Denton’s Instagram and you look…”

Ok, here it came. The guys could go either way but women usually came down in one camp.

“Wait this is FUCKED up.”

And there it was.

Denton had used his wedding glamour to change Allison into his ex.

They’d been high school sweethearts. Denton and Patricia stayed together for more than 10 years after as well.

Denton didn’t have anything like wanderlust or ambition. He’d gotten an office job and hung with his lifelong friends, but Patty had gotten restless.

When she took the job in Boston and moved away Denton had been crushed.

Shortly after, he decided to transfer to a nearby city since everything in his hometown triggered his trauma.

It’d taken him several years to get himself better, and then he’d met Allison.

They’d fallen for each other fast. In retrospect it was a little weird that he hadn’t wanted his friends and family at their wedding, but she was happy to move to his hometown.

The minister had given them both their wedding glamours. As was custom in their religion Denton had cast his after the ceremony and she’d waited until the following night.

A major change after marriage wasn’t uncommon, but Alison’s wasn’t major at all.

Her height and build stayed the same, and she even kept her glasses. Her hair had darkened and her features had changed a bit, but she wasn’t even really worried about getting a new drivers license right away.

Even so, it was clear there was a lot more going on under the hood with Denton than it appeared. She was working on having the marriage annulled but she hadn’t completely thought things through. Denton would need to sign but he’d have a hard time doing it for a bit.

This neighbor certainly knew her lines. The next question came fast.

“Where’s Denton? I need to have a word with him.”

With a wry smile, Alison replied.

“Oh he’s right here, did you want to say hello? Here Denton, come say hello to your friend!”

The chihuahua yipped and trotted over wagging his tail.

I was only 147 when my parents were taken from me.

Even after all this time I remember it clearly. The screaming, the fire, the mob.

The world was so different then. Electricity hadn’t been harnessed, there was no television.

I lived in the shadows for centuries. I found others like me and we’d help each other for a time. It was never safe to stay together for long or gather too many of us. The ones hunting us would burn down a whole city if they found enough of us in one place.

It was after Chicago that I set off alone again. It was partially due to safety concerns, but in 150 years I still haven’t found another vampire in America.

The only upside of my condition is that my personal resources are at a scale few will ever realize or comprehend. I have no board of directors, no shareholders, and no considerations other than completing my goals.

I invested. 60 teams in 17 countries working on my problem since before the First World War.

None of them know the full scope of what they’re working on or why, and I’m sure that’s slowed them down more than s little.

I’ve got the time though, and the money.

They finished sequencing the genome in 2010, and things have accelerated since then.

I first saw daylight in 2020. Such irony. I walked around without fear while others cowered at home. It was another year before I could make synthetic blood pure enough to sustain me.

It will never replace the thrill and rush of stalking and pouncing on living prey, but I can subsist on it for years.

With my supplements I’ve been able to do something no vampire has ever done before, let myself become well known.

I know those who hunt me are still out there. I know how they find us. They look for certain patterns of crime, and families and estates that persist through the ages.

My private jet and corporate structure has kept me ahead of them as I feed for the past few decades, but now I’m seen in the day, and there are no telltale killings in my wake. I can’t possibly be a vampire.

Once I kick off my presidential campaign I’ll be far above suspicion, constantly on the move, and in a position to do more for my kind than any that came before me.

That’s a challenge for the future though. For now my focus is on creation. It’s hard enough for one vampire to sustain himself and avoid detection for this long. I’d dared not give my gift to another lest we attract too much attention.

Now though, now we can bide our time. Position our chess pieces. We can be seen in the sun, go for months and years without taking a human life due to necessity.

The people alive today won’t see it, but the future of Earth will be very different. We won’t have to hide much longer.

The Palestinians left their homes because they were warned Israel would be attacked when it was formed. They expected it to be a very short war.

It was indeed a short war, as were the several that followed it. Israel kept winning the wars where Israel was very much not the aggressor.

Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in 2005. Gaza then elected Hamas as their government and their official policy has been “Death to Israel” since then.

Hence, Israel’s policy is “We put up a wall and won’t let munitions in. We won’t give you any more cement either because you used the last batch to build tunnels and kill us.”

They are also increasingly less interested in the opinions of other countries and people such as yourself who seem to not care when Israelis are killed.