Chupacabra — L.C. Walker

The Chupacabra is supposedly a four legged animal that lives in Mexico and other Central and South American countries. This animal attacks and then sucks the blood from its victims. Their victims include small sheep, goats, and calves, and now it has a taste for human blood. Along the American border, the human toll continues to mount every day. Is the Chupacabra responsible for the deaths or could there be some other animal attacking humans?
In this novel, the Chupacabra is the culprit behind the animal and the human deaths. The question that the reader must ask is, “How can such a small animal attack and take down a full grown man and suck his blood? Is this beast half animal and half human? Can this animal change into something hideous like Hollywood movies show? If this animal does exist, does it really suck its victims blood or is that just a myth? This novel will answer all those questions and it may even open new questions about things we are not sure of.

The novel begins when a dead body is found behind the Bare End Tavern. The body has two puncture wounds on the throat. The two puncture wounds are similar to other wounds found on other humans. People don't want to speculate on what is killing the livestock and the humans, but something has to be done. My husband, “Hank,” is the Medical Examiner for the city of Phoenix. It is his job to perform an autopsy all people that have died. If it is a natural death, the police are not called; but if the death is not natural, the police are called in.

After the autopsy, Hank lists the death as lack of blood in the body. Hank states that the blood was sucked out of the body from the two puncture marks. In order to understand the story, I must start at the beginning and tell you all about Hank. The story began when Hank was a small child. His father and uncles told him and the other children not to go past the city limits of Phoenix. Hank and his two friends, Billy and Big John, called that area “the wilderness.” “If you go into the desert, you will be attacked by the Chupacabra and killed.” During the week-end nights, Hank's father and his brothers would tell the boys stories of things that had happened in the desert.

One such story Hank's father told about was when he and two other friends ran into a Chupacabra in the desert. Hank's dad said he was out in the wilderness with two other friends when they were attacked by what he said was a Chupacabra. He said they all ran as fast as they could back to his house. Once he was at this home, he went into the garage and picked up a can of gasoline. He decided he and his friends would go back and see if they could find the Chupacabra. If they found him, they would try and pour it on him and set him on fire.

The walk back to the place where the Chupacabra attacked them was only a six minute walk. When they reached the spot, there was no Chupacabra to be found. They all turned to head back home when the Chupacabra came out from behind a bush and attacked once again.

Hank's dad said that he and his friends fought as hard as they could. He said they were able to take the Chupacabra down and that is when his dad poured the gasoline down the Chupacabra's throat. He said the Chupacabra started to scream and fight even harder and then it broke away. Hank's dad said the Chupacabra started to run around in circles and then it collapsed and rolled over on its back.

Hank said that he and his two buddies were scared to death when they heard the story and they were all wondering if the Chupacabra had died or if it only passed out? Hank's dad and three brothers all shouted out at the same time that the Chupacabra was not dead: it just ran out of gas. Hank and his two friends did not think the story was very funny, but his dad and his three brothers laughed for another five minutes.

The next story is the one that always made Hank and his friends really think about the Chupacabra.