Introduction

Welcome to my storybook. The topic for my storybook is Creatures of the Night. The night is such a lovely time: the moon is up, it's nice and cool, it's even romantic. Unbeknownst to many of you, though, are the creatures who stalk through the night. Those creatures that come out only at night are the focus of this storybook- whether it be the case of werewolves who come out when the moon is full, or of the succubi who attack people while they are sleeping. Creatures who need the night to live will be the focus of this storybook.

Vampires were the first creatures that caught my interest for creatures of the night. In modern culture and even ancient folklore, vampires have been creatures of the night. This made me interested in other creatures that come out at night to haunt the rest of the world. Modern vampires are very interesting but learning about ancient vampires around the world has made the topic even more interesting. Almost every culture has some legend about creatures of the night, either a vampire, or something like it. Vampires in ancient history are part of the basis for the vampires that are now part of our popular culture. I have always been interested in the books and movies about vampires like the Twilight series, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, and even Buffy the Vampire Slayer. One of the great ancient folktales about vampires that I found was The Coffin Lid which comes from the traditional home of the vampires, in the countries of Eastern Europe. In my story, Do Not Disturb the Vampire's Coffin, you will see many similarities with the vampire you are familiar with, but also find out new things as well.

Another great creature of the night that caught my interest is the werewolf. Werewolves are also popular in modern culture. We know them as creatures that change from human to werewolf under the full moon. On the other nights and days they are just regular human beings. It is interesting how the power of the night can bring out such a horrible monster in a person. Werewolves are known for wanting to eat lots of meat as well so they will attack farm animals or sometimes even people. One of the interesting stories that I found comes from Germany and tells of a strap that causes people to turn into werewolves called The Werewolf or Der Werewolf because the tale comes from Germany. In my story, Werewolf's Midnight Snack, you will see that not all werewolves are about scaring and murdering people, but that under the body of a wolf, they are real people too.

Another interesting creature of the night is the succubus and incubus. In Latin the word succubus translates to "sleeping under" and incubus meaning "sleeping on top." The succbus is a female demon who preys on human males while they sleep most likely also having sex with them. The incubus is the male form who has sex with women while they sleep. The demon does not have a body of their own so they have to go to different lengths in order to reproduce. The succbus takes the from of a woman to lie under a human man and steal his semen. The demon that now has the semen takes the form of an incubus, a man, and impregnates a human woman, thus creating their demon spawn. They are creatures of the night because they need for humans to be sleeping for them to be able to carry out what they do.The Malleus Maleficarum was a very important document during the times of the witch hunts and trials. Contained in the Malleus is also information about the Succubus and Incubus and how to get rid of them. In my story, Nightmares of the Incubus, you will learn how Molly was tormented by an incubus demon and the lengths that she had to go through in order to free herself.