How does vampire-dad keep the masquerade to his daughter

Question

A new girl moves into town with her eccentric parents who are self-proclaimed, professional vampire-hunters. They, for some reason, are completely convinced that their new neighbor is a vampire, but so they were of the previous 10 'new neighbors' who all turned out to be completely normal people. Not everyone who lives in a Victorian mansion is a vampire, jeez. Asking around reveals that the 'vampire' is actually a really pleasant person to be around, and has to take care of his daughter all alone since his wife died long ago. He also frequently does volunteer work, saves cats out of trees, and helps old grandmas cross the street.

All right, nobody has ever seen him outside during daytime, he seems oddly afraid of garlic and doesn't ever eat, even during the neighborhood barbecue he hosted last week... But that's just coincidence, right. Right?

The big reveal that vampire-dad IS actually a vampire shouldn't be a surprise to the reader, but somehow his only (non-vampire) daughter had no clue. This is a little bit of a plot hole, as his daughter is around 15 years old and is completely aware of all the cliche vampire tropes. She has him as her only caretaker yet not once asks herself why her dad can't go outside during the day and seemingly never eats. Why?

Vampire-dad...

• can't stand sunlight. UV or any other light doesn't bother him, but a single ray of daylight will cause him to spontaneously catch fire followed by instant death. So although he technically can go outside during the day, he really shouldn't risk it.
• is seriously allergic to garlic. Even the smell seems to cause rashes for some weird reason.
• can't eat normal 'human' food. If he does, he'll throw up after a while.
• has to get his daily blood-fix to prevent sanity slippage.
• gets his blood-fix through a weird fruit he cultivates in his own backyard. He jokingly calls them 'blood-oranges'. They hold no nutritious value to humans and taste absolutely horrible.
• has super strength, super senses, super reflexes and can turn into black mist.
• can use none of the above powers during the day.
• sleeps like any other person, but preferably during the day rather than at night.
• has a lot of money and doesn't have to work.
• is on good terms with his daughter and the entire neighborhood, save the two vampire-hunters.
• is a really nice person and doesn't want to hurt anyone.
• does not have a reflection. Not in mirrors or any reflective surface. Everything he wears or in some other way is not directly part of him, however, still gets reflected.
• has unusually large fangs.

Vampire-dad's daughter

• is not showing any vampire-traits (yet)
• is pretty smart and is aware of vampire classics like dracula, but somehow can't connect the dots.

Answer 1

By having him claim a long list of medical conditions

Photosensitivity

There seems to be a medical condition for everything under the sun. In this case there are a number of medical conditions where one of the symptoms is the person's skin becomes sensitive to sunlight. A person can even be allergic to UV without a specific medical condition causing it. You can even have him claim a medical condition that his eyes are extremely sensitive to light (Photophobia), and so does not like any strong light source.

Garlic Allergy

People can be allergic to garlic. Symptoms can even be induced by inhaling garlic dust, so needless to say he tries his best to keep his distance from it, lest he wants his throat to swell shut and die. In his case I would recommend explaining that he is allergic to a chemical in garlic which can also be found in onions and leeks, so he avoids those too. Having him freak out over a sight of a leek when it is of no threat to him helps build the charade, since people know vampires are not allergic to leeks.

Cannot eat solid food

There is even a medical disorder for being unable to eat solid food: eosinophilic gastrointestinal disorder. In short the body triggers an immune system response when trying to eat solid food. Most common result is in vomiting up the solid food.

Having Fangs

Porphyria and a number of Ectodermal dysplasia type syndromes can result in the classic vampire teeth. However there is a slight problem with this:

• has a lot of money and doesn't have to work.

The witch hunters will question, if he is so rich that he does not need to work, then why does he not see an orthodontist to get his teeth fixed? My recommended response would be to say he does not care: it does not impact his ability to eat, and he does not care about his smile, therefore why bother getting it fixed? Other reasons for not getting it fixed includes: he really really does not like dentists let alone orthodontists or he claims most forms of anesthesia do not work on him (and in some cases even makes the pain worse) and as such it would be a rather painful experience to get it fixed so he has been putting it off, but will eventually get around to doing it.

Reflection & Mirrors

For this answer I am assuming devices like cameras can still take a picture of him, otherwise it would be very difficult for him to explain why he and no one else have any pictures of him and you would then need to consult this question on Plausible explanation for lack of reflection in a mirror and reflect on the answers to it for help.

Mirrors and reflective surfaces can be straight up evil for someone with sensitive skin. Dad tells the following story to guests he hosts:

One day he was minding his business in his house and took a nap in his living room recliner. He wakes up to find the whole side of his face and right arm inflamed and covered in a rash. He realized that a neighbor had park their truck, which had lots of chrome on it, on the street that day. The sun just happened to be at the correct angle while he was sleeping to hit the chrome and shine a beam of daylight briefly into the house and hit his arm and face. The rash took days to go away and ever since then he absolutely despises everything that can reflect sunlight.

The story of course is a total lie, but he can use it to explain why the only mirror in his house is in the bathroom, why all of the cutting knives in his kitchen are ceramic, and why he avoids cars with lots of chrome on them.

Because of his supposed skin condition it would be normal for him to always wear clothes that cover as much skin as possible and hats/hoods that provide as much head covering as possible. So his face would be the only thing at risk of being caught in a mirror. Since his face would still be invisible to a mirror he will need to be vigilant to spot mirrors and reflective surfaces and see if he spots anyone else in the reflection. If he can see their face in the reflection then that person will be able to see his lack of face in the same reflection.

Additional things he can do to help avoid reflections include:

• Have him like using plastic utensils and paper plates, to help avoid additional reflective surfaces.
• His car would have dark tinted windows so other drivers cannot see who is driving the car if they look at his car through one of their rear view mirrors. This also may provide the necessary protection if he has to do an emergency drive in the day.
• Avoid public restrooms (do vampires even need to use the restroom?)

Conclusion

Some people seem to struggle with lots of medical conditions. Have the vampire dad do his research and fake all the symptoms needed to make it look like he has the above medical conditions and his daughter will likely believe it. It may even result in her being quick to defend her poor suffering dad from such allegations of being a vampire, since they do not understand him like she does.

Humans are good about rationalizing things and will tend to assume the more plausible explanation is the most likely one. As a result who would she believe: Her dad saying he has eosinophilic gastrointestinal disorder or a stranger saying her dad is a vampire? After all vampires do not actually exist... right?

Edit: Added sections on Having Fangs and Reflections & Mirrors

Answer 2

He works night shifts.

Now I know you said he doesn't have to work, but he could choose to work as a way of maintaining the masquerade:

• Night shift workers generally have nocturnal sleep patterns anyway, so nobody would question the fact that he sleeps all day and only comes out at night.
• If he's asleep during the day, and out working all night, his daughter won't see as much of him as she might otherwise do, and will have less of a chance to notice his more vampiric traits. This wouldn't stop him being on good terms with her, of course - she's used to it, as he would have been at this for a while, and he can make it up to her on the weekends.
• If he works as, say, a security guard in one of those isolated checkpoint booths, nobody will be around him for long enough to notice that he hasn't eaten anything all shift, and things like the fangs and lack of reflection will be harder to notice because, y'know, it's night and it's dark out.

As for some of the other things, @Anketam has the right idea with the garlic allergy, but here's a couple of alternative explanations for why he doesn't eat:

• He does eat, at least on occasions where him not eating would be conspicuous (for example, at the barbecue you mentioned). Depending on how long "a while" is, he should have enough time to excuse himself and go throw up in the nearest toilet. People will just assume he's gone for a wee or something, and if anyone does hear him throw up, he can claim the food disagreed with him.
• Alternately, he can claim he's on some kind of "fad" diet where you can only have blood-oranges and liquids. There are all kinds of silly diet fads these days and it would be hard to tell that he's just making it up.

Answer 3

Maybe she isn't that bright

You are kind of assuming that the daughter is a bright and inquisitive teenager that is fully aware of her surroundings and world, but what if she wasn't that bright or, like most teenagers, just wasn't really concerned about anyone but herself. Make her the popular girl who is more concerned about her hair and the boys in school than the fact her father doesn't like to go outside. Make her embarrassed over his stupid hobby of cultivating "blood oranges" in the back yard. Give her a smart phone that she plays on 24 hours a day. That would surely thwart any awkward "Dad, are you a vampire?" questions well into the second half of your book.

Answer 4

He could tell everyone that he is an extreme Cosplayer.

In our modern society there is nothing wrong with identifying as a vampire in your free time. If his neighbours are broad-minded they will just leave him alone. They might talk about the "crazy vampire-fan", but as long as he is a relatively normal member of society when it comes to social interactions everything is fine. He goes to the barbecue, helps the old lady, cares as a single-dad for his daughter - and when he is alone he likes to pretend to be a vampire. Odd, but people would get used to it.

This way everyone would think the new people are the crazy ones. "He is a vampire!" "Yeah sweetheart, of course he is! We all know about that hobby." "But, but -" "Leave the man alone! It's not easy being a single-dad caring for his teenage daughter!"

His daughter will think he is kind of crazy and embarassing - but have you ever met a teenage-daughter NOT thinking like that about her dad?

As soon as something suspicious happens, like him not having a reflection, he can just pretend it's a new magic-trick to make him seem more like his rolemodel Dracula. "Not this again dad...!"

This would easily explain all his "quirks".

Answer 5

Let him be known as "vampire" dad

If he pretends to have several medical conditions as Anketam suggested which rather obviously fit a vampire and is regularly involved in the local community, sooner or later someone will nickname him accordingly. Thus he will jokingly be known throughout the community as "vampire", making the fact that he could actually be a vampire unlikely to occur in anyone's thoughts.

If some of his oddities are known, he won't have to hide them all the time, making life much easier. "When should we start the next town meeting?" - "Let's wait till dusk, so that our vampire can join us."

I imagine it to be quite hard in such an environment for the vampire hunters to convince anyone that he is in fact a vampire.

Answer 6

To put a slightly different spin on it:

Don't Hide It

It sounds like you intend the story to be at least a little bit humorous, so in that case it's a perfectly legitimate literary device to have him incredibly obvious, yet no-one except [character] can see it.

For example, the first time he meets neighbours Jim and Steve the conversation might go like this:

Jim: "Nice to meet you, I'm Jim."

Dracula (in thick transylvanian accent): "And I am Dr. Akula. Who is a normal human and not a vampire at all."

Steve: "He's a vampire! Look at his fangs!"

Dracula: "It is very rude to point at vampires. And people. Because I am not a vampire."

Steve: "For gods sake man, he's wearing a bloody opera cloak! How can you not see this?"

Jim: "Don't be ridiculous, of course he's not a vampire. He said so himself, and I'm sure he would know if he was a vampire."

Ah, here's the tropes page: Only Sane Man. Also see Devil in Plain Sight

Answer 7

For his problem of throwing up after eating normal "human" food, there's a logical answer. He does prepare meals for himself and his daughter, he does go to communal things like barbecues, and he does eat at these times. He just has to make sure he has a toilet nearby, so that he can go and throw up afterwards. This will be indistinguishable from bulemia. According to bulemics, it's entirely possible to conceal this successfully from the world for long periods. And for vampire dad, if anyone does spot the problem, then mentioning bulemia or an eating disorder will probably stop them asking more about a rather personal subject.

Mirrors are the real problem though. Film cameras and digital SLRs won't show him (although he might show up on more basic digital cameras). If his daughter has binoculars or a telescope or anything like that, he won't be visible through them. And on a day-to-day basis, reflections in windows won't happen. This is actually going to be incredibly obvious at night if they've got the lights on and the curtains open - the entire rest of the room will be visible in the reflection, but he won't be.

If you remove the "no mirrors" rule, then it's somewhat plausible. With this though, it's categorically impossible that someone wouldn't notice this very quickly, and equally impossible that his daughter wouldn't notice and question it.

Answer 8

He has Porphyria

At least that's what his daughter thinks.

Sunlight

Porphyria is a blood disease that is commonly referred to as the "Vampire Disease". People with Porphyria have extreme responses to sunlight where their skin blisters, bubbles, and itches when they go outside. They must spend the majority of their life indoors or completely covered to avoid this.

Fangs

Another symptom is the tightening of skin and gums which can sometimes make Porphyia patients appear to have enlarged teeth or fangs (WARNING: The hyperlinked image is GRAPHIC!!!).

Garlic (and other foods)

Porphyria also can cause strange allergic reactions or onset nausea to some foods. Garlic is one of these. People with Porphyria have to be very careful with their diet, because some foods can aggravate their symptoms. Garlic, in particular, can make people with Porphyria experience extreme pain or nausea. The vampire in your story could excuse himself from most meals by simply stating that he doesn't want to experience any negative symptoms.

Mirrors

People with Porphyria can have an aversion to mirrors because the disease makes them look so unlike themselves. Your character may look relatively normal, but you could explain that he doesn't keep any mirrors in the house because he can't stand the sight of himself. When he goes outside, he could wear a wrap or something around his head for the dual purpose of protecting himself from sunlight, and trying to keep his "disgusting" appearance from his neighbors. This would keep him from appearing in any reflections in front of his daughter.

Additional

Porphyria can cause patients to have red or purple urine which is where the "blood drinking theory" originated. Apparently, in the old days, people with Porphyria actually would sometimes drink animal blood to treat their anemia.

Porphyria is a genetic disease but it doesn't usually reveal itself until a patient is in their late teens or early twenties. This could explain why the daughter hasn't shown symptoms yet, but could in the near future.

This is an extremely rare disease, and is the origin of the Vampire Legend. I know a couple of people who have this disease, and it is awful. However, it would be the perfect cover for an actual vampire.

Answer 9

Vampire Dad has one more traditional vampire characteristic: Hypnosis/mind control

Vamp Daughter could be hypnotized or otherwise magicked to notice only what Vamp Dad wants her to notice. In order to make this a little less convenient, and allow for the eventual big reveal, the power could be limited in some more-or-less traditional way:

1. Limited duration. Dad's influence gradually wears off, and therefore needs to be renewed regularly. Given that his other powers are inactive during the day, this renewal probably could only happen at night. It could be a daily requirement, or however often makes sense with the story—every three days, every full moon, etc.

2. Limited geographic reach. Dad maintains control, but only for a given distance between them. This would give an excuse for him to be very over-protective, forbidding school trips and such.

3. Influence depends on a blood exchange of some sort. Especially in combination with 1 above, Dad either needs to bite Daughter, or feed her his blood, or both.

4. Another vampire whammied her. If #3 is a little too squicky, perhaps Vamp Mom was actually responsible for the imperative, feeding her the compulsion with Mother's Milk/Blood. This would have happened in infancy, and could be gradually wearing off. It could be a special thing Mom did because she knew she wouldn't be around to help Dad raise Daughter, or it could be a regular part of Vampire child-rearing and coming-of-age. Depending on the father-daughter dynamic, Dad could be dreading the day she comes out from under the influence, or could be frustrated that he can't be himself with her, or anything in between.

Answer 10

Day job

Vampire dad has a day job. He rises before dawn, goes away... somewhere, comes back after sunset and then spends the evenings with his daughter and/or his neighbours and their treed cats.

He then goes lie down on his bed, twiddling thumbs waiting for his daughter to fall asleep.

He never talks about his job, beyond "Government, very hush hush." It would seem there is a long commute since he is away for more than 12 hours every day. "Can't tell you where it is, sorry. Very hush hush." And working seven days a week, what is up with that? "Can't talk, ver..." Yes, we know.

Answer 11

I am assuming 2 girls: daughter of vampire hunters and daughter of vampire dad. The obvious thing is that daughter of vampire dad is not daughter but actually ancient vampire queen and is a stellar actress. Trail of clues that led vampire hunters to the town actually point to vampire queen. Vampire dad is just most recent slave but he is super nice and is a good influence on the queen, who even has a blood orange herself now and then.

Did I steal that from Lost Boys? Well, that was a long time ago.

Real clueless one is teenage boyfriend of vampire queen. But when he finds out that she is a six thousand year old vampire, he is cool with it.

Answer 12

Would post this as a comment, but I have not yet received enough reputation to post comments so I elaborated a little.

The father could (pretend to) have a busy night job. This gives him two advantages:

1. He has a reason to sleep during the day
2. He can go wherever he pleases during the night because people will assume he's at work.

Some possibilities:

• Night security guard (pays more than during the day)
• Researcher at a Sleep Study Center
• Air traffic controller
• Funeral director (has to be on call to remove remains in the middle of the night)
• Janitor

Answer 13

Maybe she is very bright

and level-headed and rational, even to a fault. Sure she knows all of the vampire stereotypes, but they exist entirely in the realm of fiction for her. She doesn't believe in the supernatural, and despite all of the evidence, she simply cannot believe that her dad could be an actual vampire. She completely buys into his extensive and improbable list of purported medical conditions, but real vampirism? Impossible.

Answer 14

Honestly? Whatever he does, it'll probably be effective.

She's grown up with him as her only caretaker: His behaviour, his quirks, his everything, has essentially become her baseline of what "perfectly normal parent" means. Of course she wouldn't question it.

This especially the case if she was raised in a rather sheltered environment. The less exposure she has to other parents, the less likely she'd have any reason whatsoever to think that her own parent is in any way unusual.

Unless there's some sort of external prompt to be skeptical about how "normal" he even is (e.g. classmates teasing her about her "weird dad", or new neighbours waving crosses in his face), the thought probably wouldn't even cross her mind; this mostly relies on his ability to maintain the masquerade with the public at large (which doesn't seem to be a problem).

And even if she does start questioning, it would probably take quite a while to ever reach the conclusion of "Oh, he must be a vampire": Even knowing all the tropes, and even having neighbours trying to drive stakes through his heart, vampires are still believed to be figments of fiction rather than real things that actually exist. Without overwhelming evidence, even flimsy rationalizations (and crazy neighbours) are more believable conclusions than "actual vampire".

Answer 15

If the story is science fiction as well as fantasy the vampire could live in a community enclosed in a single building. An arcology, a space habitat, a moon colony.

If there are few or no windows on the outside, and the vampire lives deep inside, he will never be in danger from sunlight.

And thus the vampire hunters would suspect everyone at first when they moved in. They would have to use other vampire traits to eliminate everyone else as suspects.

Alternate he could be a future policeman or security guard and wear full body powered armor on the job (the night shift?) including a helmet that hides his face. Thus he is protected against sunlight and nobody can see he has no reflection because his suit and helmet do reflect.

Or he could work outside in a space suit with a highly reflective visor on his space helmet. Maybe each day or night he has to inspect the entire outside surface of the space colony or habitat for leaks or other problems. And he wears his spacesuit all the way back home before changing out of it.

Or maybe it is in the present and he tells everyone that he was disfigured in an accident, living off his settlement money, and always wears a mask to hide his face, as well as gloves, a hood, and full body robes or coveralls to protect against sunlight because of his unfortunate allergy to sunlight - also if he is totally covered up nobody ill notice that he doesn't reflect.

If he is a good looking man he might be a successful female impersonator - whenever he does his vampire attacks - (assuming he does attack) so the vampire hunters will be looking for a female vampire.

Answer 16

Vampire dad don't eat. He just drink this "soylent" slushies or something.
But why don't he eat? It's like not drinking milk for a time. After a few weeks you can't digest milk so you can't go back to drinking it. Same with drinking soylent for a long time.

He's allergic to garlic. Some people are to peanuts, some to their sweat, some are to garlic.

In general he's just Neil Gaiman. Wear black, stay indoors, don't take tanning well.

Oh, and one more thing. Is this vampire sensitive to direct sunlight so he can live in Seattle and go out during the day or is he sensitive to UV light in general?

Answer 17

Because Vampire dad's daughter is blind as a bat (pun intended)?

Expanding:

Many of the issues Vampire dad faces, has got to do with the fact that he cannot go out during day time. In case his daughter was blind, perhaps vampire dad could even distort the facts regarding when it is day and night. This requires the daughter to be rather isolated, which I kind of assumed when reading that dad was the "only caretaker". Perhaps he never even lets her daughter out during day time either, so she doesn't even know how the warm sun rays feel... He could tell neighbours and others that his daughters eye condition might improve as long as her eyes are never exposed to sun light.

Paired with intense lying from dad, blindness could make the scenario a bit easier to explain. No need worrying about not having a reflection in the mirror if you hang out with someone who can't even see the mirror.

On a side note, it could open up for some interesting events as the daughter slowly starts suspecting that her dad is a vampire, not because she sees anything but because her other senses, more evolved than with a seeing person probably, allow her to notice things that vampire dad perhaps fails to consider since he focuses on hiding his secret from eye sight and forgets the rest...