A/N: ATTENTION, this has been deleted and reposted due to an error, I accidentally left a big chunk of it out . So if you've read this chapter before you might have missed the beginning part.
Creeper
She slept for days. I can see her eyes move in her sleep. I once opened her eyelids to look at her sleeping eyes. They continued to move blindly, not really seeing me, but she was seeing something. It was fascinating. She moans too, sometimes she screams, her arms moving wildly, her feet kicking like a frightened rabbit and her body jerking in her sleep. I know the word for this; nightmare.
Then one sleep she stops moving. She is very still, a whiff tells me she's okay, her eyes are still moving. Her lips move but no sound comes. Other than that she is totally still.
I don't like it, something is happening inside her mind and I can't explain it, or control it. I want her to wake. I hit the table to cause a loud SMACK. She jerks awake, her eyes big. She stares at me as if I weren't real. She then tries to stand, and she falls over like she drank too much fermented liquid. I grab her of course, I have to smell her again, just to make sure she's still healthy, but she looks at me with desperate eyes and begs, I can smell the coming bile. I let her out and she is promptly sick again.
It's so odd, she acts sick, the regurgitation, the sleep, but she is very clearly not. She smells very healthy. She smells better than healthy, she smells ripe, fertile and delicious. Her spirit comes back, her cheeks flame red she yells evil sounding things at me. Then she strides away. I let her go. She knows not to run away. And she stays in sight. I focus on other things.
I am so happy! This girl, troublesome as she can be has helped me in enormous ways. She has been a key in controlling my own destiny. I will keep her forever. This might work. I have time now. I can do what I want.
I hear another car, I see her next to it and I immediately start to bound over. I'm not taking any chances, not after last time. Humans are weak but wild. She sees me, I see her fear, and she chases the strange human away. I decide not to chase after them, I'm not hungry and it's not worth it. She's still stubborn, she still resists me but to my genuine delight she has chosen me over a fellow human. She is learning.
Next I see her on the floor in front of that tortured man. Her head is bent, her posture is submissive, I realize she's worshiping the tortured, I've seen it before. I stifle the urge to laugh. Humans have many gods, and there are many humans. I was once a god. Does she really think this torture-god is listening? But I don't judge them, I just eat them.
When she finally notices me she jumps up and looks down submissive again. Does she think I'm a god too? No she threw those evil-sounding words at me, she just fears me. I move towards her but stop. Standing next to the statue of the goddess-crushing-the-snake I see a resemblance. The same eyes bent down, long brown hair. The goddess is swollen, fat with what looks like pregnancy and the girl is still looks normal, and her face is nervous not calm. A vague idea begins to form. Soon she might even be more useful.
But for now I just herd her back to the underground and she ignores me. I eat, I work, rejoice in my gained time. I silently thank the girl. I build plans around her.
She is so useful, After many, many years I wake briefly, for about one moon's cycle, after that I sleep. I didn't know if it could work again. And any memories about previous events surrounding this phenomenon are blurred. But it has worked. The final day came, I waited with baited breath, I made final preparations. The girl ignored me, the twenty-third day came, and went. I was still awake.
I was so happy I licked her face fiercely and enjoyed her again. She did not resist.
Every twenty-third spring for twenty three days I am allowed to eat.
Today was day 50.
October 25
I found my watch again. I was very surprised at the date. That depression/ sleeping fit lasted a very long time.
But that's what I do when I'm upset, I sleep. The nightmares were horrible, but they are fading now. Those memories, those scenes in my head will stay with me forever. I can't forget them and I'm sure there's more to come. For now I can push them away somewhat. They don't consume my every waking and non waking thought. But I can escape.
Or at least that's what I keep telling myself. Something is nagging me. I think back to the dream of my mother. "Don't be afraid I will-"
I will what? I woke up so quickly, did HE wake me up I don't know. Why would he?
The there was the other aspect of the dream. He is dreaming, who is he? The Creeper does not sleep.
I shake my head, telling myself it's just a stupid dream. Dreams don't have any meaning. They're just recycled memories and ideas. They're just random neurons firing. This one was no different than the nightmares.
And yet, I can't help but go over it again, and again. It's driving me insane. I also study the weird feeling around me. SOMETHING is going to happen, or will happen. Everything is different, but not different. My world is inexplicably altered but I don't know how. Everything is the same but different.
Well duh Maria, you just found out that demons, or whatever the hell THAT is, exists. Now you're a captive. You've seen people tortured, you've seen people killed. You've been-
"Stop!" I say aloud to myself. That did not happen.
So my mind is just warped from having my cozy reality destroyed. Fine. Monsters exist, and my life sucks badly. My worldview is different, everything is now obviously unusual. Why wouldn't it be?
But it's not the same. Something is not right.
"Aaaggh." I cry out loud again. I'm going crazy! Things look, hear, taste, feel, and smell different but in am indefinable way. I want to break the wall that separates my mind from my subconscious. It feels like it knows something I don't, despite my mind working furiously at it.
I take a sip of water, it tastes stale. The Creeper is away. Hunting probably.
Why did this happen to me? I ask for the millionth time. Maybe that has to do with why things are different. Why did he want me?
You know why.
I shake my head. That didn't happen. That did not happen.
Later
I sleep and I dream.
Dream
I know I'm in a dream, so it should be a lucid one. But it's not.
Everything is blurry and odd in only the way a dream can be, I am walking through the trees; everything is pretty but not cultivated garden or breathtaking wilderness pretty. This patch of nature is simply pleasing to the eye. It was like the trees and plants outside the Church. I felt serene walking through the trees when one tree caught my attention.
Such pretty fruit, I thought. It is bright red. I move toward it, it looked so delicious.
As I approach the tree the snake/demon appeared, thicker than my arm and longer than my body. He looks at me with human eyes that showed the inhumanity beneath them. An extra pair of nostrils stood higher up on his face. He has molted green/brown skin.
He grinned his characteristic grin; I didn't question how a snake could grin.
Eat the fruit he whispers. Maybe he didn't talk maybe he said it directly to my mind.
Are you sure, I mean…It's okay? I ask suddenly uncertain.
He said nothing he just jerks his head to the fruit above him. His eyes glint malevolently.
For some reason I did not fear the snake, but I felt uneasy about eating the fruit.
Hmmm, it truly does look delicious I said thinking out loud. I really wanted that fruit and I wasn't stealing since no one owned it. So I decide to eat. I stepped closer towards the tree; my short body would have to stretch for it. The snake eyed me as I stretched out in front of him. I stretched as far as I could, my hands reached as I high as I they could go. I reached for a lush ripe fruit. Still on my toes I twist it.
And then to my absolute horror I see the fruit begins to bleed, blood gushes out of it. No it wasn't fruit, it was human. Human body parts ripped and bloody and hung from a tree, the smell suddenly hits me. Rotting flesh!
I gasped and drew back, but before I could get recover, and before I could even get off my toes the snake attacks. I scream in terror and try to fight the demon/snake off, but his powerful lithe body pushed it self against my taut abdomen. I fall to the ground trying desperately to fend him off.
His fangs thrust painfully into my stomach I could feel the venom burning inside of me, my hands swat uselessly at the serpent as he continued to pump his fangs into my lower abdomen.
When he was done I swoon and lay lifelessly on the rough grass. With my last strength I hold the snake bite with my bloody hands, I could feel a burning feeling originate from the wound and spread through the rest of my body.
My stomach! My stomach is swollen. It's swelling up like the ripe fruit on the tree, the putrid human-fruit.
Oh God, I moaned, I could feel the burning the heat and spurts of hot liquid, but then I felt the change, the change in my soul. What it felt like after the Creeper -
I could feel the demon snake on me. He slithers up my body up one leg, onto my abdomen, onto my chest, between my breasts, to my face. He begins to taste/smell me with his forked tongue, exploring, his malevolent eyes looking down at me. I look back through tears.
Why? I mouthed, because I could not speak.
The snake continued to look at me with those awful eyes; I felt his tail flick over my swollen belly.
You know why.
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A/N: Thanks to all those who review! redplanetes: I can't even think about your posts without laughing insanely, so naturally they come to mind in very public places, thank you for that. Gia: Thanks for reviewing again, I heard that euphemism before but I was reluctant to use it because a certain someone used it in her fics. "nicole": thank you ; D. Eat-me: (Interesting name for a Jeepers Creepers fan) Thanks that was the effect I was hoping for.
Paradise Lost by John Milton was the main inspiration for this one, as well a spate of recent lucid dreaming. I heartily recommend it. (the dreaming not the epic poem) Also a little bit from the Popol Vuh the Mayan creation story found its way in here. Fun fact for today: The Mayans have their own bat-demon-god called Camazotz. Which in turn was the name of an evil planet in Madeline L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time.
/Okay book geek mode off now.