The Soucouyant, the Vampire of Trinidad
The Soucouyant is one of the most feared beings in Trinidadian folklore — a vampire-like creature who appears by day as a harmless old woman living alone in a shack with shuttered windows. At midnight, she sheds her human skin, hiding it in a wooden mortar, and transforms into a searing ball of fire that slips through keyholes and cracks to hunt. She targets sleeping infants and children, slowly draining their blood and leaving them pale and weak with tiny pinprick marks. To repel her, scatter uncooked rice or salt at the threshold — she is compelled to stop and count every grain until dawn. T