My name is Sheryl Ilene Newcomb. And yes, my initials are S.I.N. A funny little piece of whimsical humor my parents found amusing when I arrived. Mom and Dad were two high school sweethearts who adored their guns, their beer and their self-appointed titles of King and Queen of the Rebellious Rednecks. The day I arrived, they didn’t think anyone in the town would have the mental acuity to put two and two together to discover their little inside joke. Shame on the pathetic excuses who called themselves teachers in this dreary city, because Mom and Dad had been right: no one caught on to their little attempt at humor. Then, it turned out to be true. As I look back with wiser eyes now, we came to the conclusion the events leading up to my transformation started the summer of my ninth year. But the day we realized there was a problem, and no turning back, was a week before I started my senior year at Junction City High. The day the fangs and claws appeared and the monster inside of me emerged. When bodies were found ripped to pieces, their mutilated corpses near a pile of brush down by Caney Creek, everything changed. And that day, I changed, forever. Because evil woke up and growled, its ominous rumblings heard by every living thing in Locasia County, Mississippi.