Javier Lopez didn't believe in Santa Claus, the tooth fairy or ghosts. He was a rational man of the earth, a farmer, and believed in what he could feel--the wind, the rain, the earth that sustained his crops. There was no such thing as El Chupacabra, the night monster. No, it was human beings, the criminal variety, who were mutilating his livestock in an attempt to--he really didn't know what. But it was a FACT that one or more interlopers had been entering his barn at night, mutilating sheep, draining them dry of blood. Which was why he waited in a darkened corner, with a twelve-gauge shotgun on his knee. It was 4 a.m. when he heard a commotion traveling through the barn door, which he'd conveniently left ajar. He was not violent by nature, but the criminals were taking food from the mouths of his family, and it was not easy to feed a family of seven in the Brazilian jungle. He raised the shotgun to his shoulder, curling his finger around the trigger. What he saw in the sliver of moonlight froze him with fear. Like a statue, all he could do was watch while El Chupacabra mounted his prize sheep from behind, sinking in its fangs as the poor animal let loose with an unearthly squeal. The monster was as described in the stories he'd heard, the tales he'd too easily dismissed as myths. El Chupacabra's body was reptilian, like a lizard, only larger, about fifty pounds. Its eyes glowed red, its tongue darted in and out when it raised its head from the now dead sheep's neck. As the sky lightened outside, El Chupacabra slithered away. It had sucked every drop of blood from the sheep, but not taken a bite of the meat. Javier Lopez buried the animal immediately and didn't speak a word of the incident until fifteen years later, on his deathbed. His reputation was that of a rational man and he had wanted to keep it. So he continued to utter nary a word about Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy or El Chupacabra. Although neighbors were mystified by his habit of slaughtering a sheep every full moon, leaving the carcass in the pasture, alongside a plastic bucket full of blood. Experts consider El Chupacabra the most likely night monster to appear in the U.S., although it has recently been expanding its range southward, towards Chile. Attacks on humans are rare.