Jeepers Creepers 3; The Curse

Chapter 5

Maggie spent the next hour trying to keep herself distracted from worrying about what would happen to her, by looking around the cave and trying to find a way out. She was amazed by all the beautifully carved furniture; it was all carved with amazingly detailed images. The older looking pieces including a table and chairs, a few old wooden chests and a couple of other chairs were decorated with detailed carvings of dragons. The somewhat newer looking table, chair and a large number of tools that were lying on the table were carved with images of screaming people and what looked like images of William. Maggie couldn't help smiling as she thought about his name; it seemed like such a human name for such a terrifying monster.

"Unless he hasn't always been a monster," Maggie thought suddenly remembering the only surviving member of the family in the newspaper articles had been named William and the newspaper had said twenty three people had been given the privilege of pulling the levers when the family had been hung. The newspaper had listed the names and ages of the people and if she remembered correctly it had been, sixteen men, five women and two young men who were fifteen and seventeen. Maggie looked up at the ceiling counting the bodies again, unable to believe what she knew had to be true or the fact that it would mean William had to be over two hundred years old.

Finally pulling her eyes from the bodies on the ceiling Maggie walked over to another door that was open about two inches and pushed it open. Inside she found more beautifully carved furniture and dozens of book cases filled with books, on a table in the center of the room was a large old Bible. Maggie carefully opened it and found the pages that listed the family. On the page for deaths twenty three had been written in who had all died on the same day and on a loose piece of paper was a list of each family member and the name of the person who had hung them. Each name was crossed out with what looked like a smear of dried blood. Carefully closing the Bible Maggie looked up at the walls and took a step back when she realized there were more bodies hanging on the wall, although there were only three, two men and a woman. All three had been skinned and their skins stretched out over a piece of wood that hung on the wall. They were full of holes and had a few knives and darts stuck into them. Maggie couldn't help smiling as she was reminded of the times she had used a picture of her father to practice her aim with her cross bow; whoever these three were William must have absolutely hated them.

"You are the only human I've ever seen smile at my work, are you alright?" William asked as he walked into the room.

Maggie jumped at the sound of his voice and turned to face him, "It just reminds me of when I use to shoot pictures of my father with a cross bow, after he told my mom kids no longer fit in with his life style and never contacted us again," Maggie explained, "So who are they?" she asked nervously watching William as he walked farther into the room.

"The judge who sentenced my family to be hung, the witch who cursed me to this existence and the priest who approved of my family's murders and the use of the witch to curse me," William told her.

Maggie hesitated a moment, but finally decided if she was going to be trapped there she might as well learn what she could about the creature, "What really happened? I've read the newspaper articles that say your family was accused of witch craft, but I'd like to know how much of it was true and how much was people being overly superstitious, if you don't mind."

"How do you know about them being accused of witch craft?" he demanded fixing her with a stare that sent a chill down her spine, "No one still alive knows about that, except perhaps the police who stole all of my stuff that should have survived the fire from the Church basement."

"I was assigned to do a report about you and was at the Church earlier yesterday. I tripped and kind of fell through a wall and found a crate full of newspaper articles and Church records that mentioned your family," Maggie explained trying to keep the nervousness out of her voice.