The Chinese lady brought me another beer. This time, I handed her four ones. She smiled, put one down and went back to the bar. I sipped on the beer.

"What does that mean? Cho - what?"

Ryan swallowed hard. "I don't speak much Spanish. So I looked it up. It means - half breed nightmare. I had no idea what that meant. Until the Sucker showed up."

I was about to ask what he meant, when he went on hurriedly, "I know you won't believe this. Hell, before I saw it, I wouldn't have believed such things were possible. But about seven years ago, I woke up one morning in a cold sweat. And I noticed there was some blood in my bed. And my left leg had a small bite mark on it. I didn't really think much of it. But it happened again a few mornings later. Well, I went to a doctor, and he said it looked like a rat had bitten me.

"He gave me a tetanus shot. But it kept happening. About that time, things went to hell with Mary. She finally said, every time she slept with me, she had nightmares. We were going to get married that spring when she graduated nursing school. But she left. And it kept happening. The doctor also said, I was suffering from anemia, as if I was loosing blood. No shit! It was all over my bed. Then the nightmares began. I couldn't sleep without waking up in terror. I spent a lot of nights trying not to sleep. One night I saw it. I pretended to be asleep. And when I felt it bite, I looked. It is a nightmare. Anyway, my work suffered, and eventually the company fired me. So I ran. England, Germany, Venezuela. Egypt, Zaire. South Africa, Hong Kong. I kept getting crummier and crummier jobs. Just anything to make a buck, because I - I was illegal. In Hong Kong, I gutted and cleaned fish. The nightmares never went away, but it sometimes took the Sucker a few weeks to find me. Then I'd wake up one morning with blood all over. And I'd move on. I guess you can't outrun curses."

There was a moment of silence. "What does this thing look like?" I asked finally.

Ryan gulped another huge drink. "Well, you'll recognize it when it comes. It is kind of like a large wet rat. But not all rat. Maybe something reptilian mixed in. And the mouth is kind of screwed up. Big teeth, but also something that looks like a sucker. It bites off some flesh, then attaches itself and sucks your blood."

I looked at him with incredulity, mixed with horror.

"What do you mean, I'll recognize it when it comes for me? What do you mean, Ryan?"

Ryan leaned back tiredly. His face seemed shrunken and pale, and his watery eyes seemed too large for his head. "God, I'm tired. Tom, she cursed us all. You too. I was first. But I won't last much longer. Gangrene. A blessing really. Bill and Toby just couldn't take it. You're probably last because you did least. But you were there."

I slammed my beer down. "That's unfair! I didn't do anything." I stood up and pulled on my overcoat. "Oh, hell. Bull! Like I believe any of this shit! I'm leaving."

Ryan said, "Well, maybe you'll believe this." Groaning, he lifted his left leg up on the table. He pulled up a dirty, bloodstained pantleg. The stench of rotting flesh was overwhelming. His whole lower leg looked grayish-green, and was covered with wounds, and scabs. Where his calf muscle should have been, there was virtually no meat left. What was left was red and raw, some areas still trickling blood and with big bitemarks visible in it.

I thought I was going to be sick. I threw down some money for Ryan, and mumbled something about being late, and almost ran out of the bar. As I was driving home, I settled down and became more and more convinced that Ryan had probably just suffered some sort of accident. That story about curses and a horror that sucked his blood at night! Ha! there just couldn't be anything to crap like that. Besides, I hadn't done anything. To punish me would be totally unfair.

It wasn't fair. I awoke a few mornings later with a bite wound on my leg and blood on the sheets.