By day, the soucouyant is said to live unnoticed in the community, often in the shape of an elderly woman. At night she sheds her skin, hides it, and travels as a ball of fire through cracks and keyholes. The name and details change from island to island ? soucouyant, soucriant, or loogaroo ? but luminous night flight is the stable signature.
The figure belongs to a wider Caribbean complex shaped by West and Central African traditions, French language, Christianity, colonial violence, and local storytelling. Reducing her to a transplanted European vampire loses most of that history. The feared stranger is frequently someone already marginalized, making the tradition important to document without repeating accusations against real people.