Jeepers Creepers 3; The Curse

Chapter 6

For the next half hour or so Maggie continued to look around, finding beautifully carved cabinets that had hundreds of handmade weapons in them that looked as if they had been made from bone. Some were held together with what she assumed was dried human skin. Part of her was disgusted by the thought that all the weapons were probably made from pieces of humans, but if he really had no choice about killing the people at least he found some use for their remains, even if it was weapons to use to kill more humans.

Maggie was pulled from her thoughts when she heard what sounded like something hitting the floor in the other room. A moment later William came back in through the door in the ceiling, his clothes now splattered with blood. He walked into the other room slamming the door shut behind him, a few seconds later she heard a man start screaming for help and begging the monster to let him go.

Maggie looked around desperately for something to drown out the man's screams and the sound of snapping bones and tearing flesh, but couldn't find anything. She finally curled up in a corner as far away from the door as she could get and held her hands over her ears and cried. She wanted to run out and try to help the man, but knew there was nothing she could do to stop what was happening and it left her feeling so helpless and guilty for not at least trying.

She was still curled up in the corner when a hand touched her shoulder making her jump. She looked up to see William standing there; completely naked with his skin still damp from where he had no doubt had to wash blood off, "How can you do that to people? How can you make them suffer like that?" she asked wiping the tears from her face.

"I have no choice, part of the curse was that I make those I kill suffer before I kill them," William told her as he stepped back so she could get up and held out a hand to help her up.

Maggie hesitated a moment looking at his hand with its long black nails, that the night before she had seen rip Rob apart and covered with his blood. Hands that based on the fact that his voice now sounded practically human had probably just ripped someone's throat out. She was disgusted by the thought, but pushed it to the back of her mind and just as he started to pull away Maggie finally grabbed his hand and let him help her up.

"Isn't there anything you can do to fight this curse?" Maggie asked.

"I've tried before and end up suffering horribly until I can't stand it any longer," William told her as he walked across the room and angrily threw a knife into the witch's skin on the wall.

"I thought you said that the curse said you had to kill and eat everyone you saw, how can you keep me here and not have to eat me?" Maggie asked trying to concentrate on her curiosity and not the fear she felt being around him.

"The second twenty three days I was awake I still had no problem with hunting and killing most humans. I hated killing innocent children though, but I was unable to stop myself. I spent many days praying and begging God to free me from this curse, then on the tenth day I had been awake, an angle appeared to me and told me the curse couldn't be removed, but it could be altered slightly. The ages of the humans I had to eat would be limited to the age range of the people who had killed my family, the oldest would be sixty seven and the youngest fifteen. I would also be able to pick and choose which ones I ate, but I would still be held to the curses requirement of at least five a day, but if I found more than that I would be able to choose not to eat them except for the last few days when I would have to eat more, sort of like animals eating more before they hibernate I guess. My eating of humans was also given a new purpose; any part of a human that I ate would be able to replace part of me if I was injured and because of my dragon heritage I would never have to eat a virgin."