Invunche

(Een-IWN-che)

Of all the vampiric beings, creations, and creatures, the invunche is perhaps the most pitiable. In Chile a witch will kidnap a firstborn male child while it is an infant and take it back to her cave, a place accessible only through an underground lake entrance. Once the baby is in her lair, the witch first breaks one of its legs and twists it over the baby's back. The other leg, arms, hands, and feet are broken and disjointed and twisted into unnatural positions. A hole is cut under the right shoulder blade and then the right arm is inserted through it so that the arm will look as if it is growing off the child's back. The baby's head is gradually bent and shaped over time as well so that it will be misshapen. After the procedure is completed, the witch then rubs a magical ointment over the mangled infant, causing it to grow thick HAIR all over its body. Finally, its tongue is cut down the center so that it resembles a snake's forked tongue. A baby no longer, the invunche is from then on fed a diet of human flesh, completing the transformation.

The creature is never able to leave the witch'scave lair, as it does not have the physical capability of swimming due to the imposed deformities of its body, unless the witch chooses to use her magic to fly it out. Otherwise, its primary duty is to act as a guardian of her cave, killing all who enter it, unless they know the secret to entering the cave without violence—kissing it on its ass. The creature can emit a blood-curdling scream, a talent it gained in lieu of the ability to speak. The sound is enough to freeze a man with fear, permanently.

The invunche has control over a lesser being, a trelquehuecuve. The invunche uses it to lure young girls to the water, abduct them, and bring them back to him so that it can then drain them dry of their blood. Only a hero can kill a trelquehuecuve and an invunche.

Source: Beech, Chile and Easter Island, 324; Minnis, Chile, 276 ­77; Roraff, Chile, 98; Rose, Giants, Monsters, and Dragons, 190