Twisted Minds

Wrath of the Lamb

HOSPITAL - REBA MCCLANE'S ROOM - DAY-

Reba lies in her hospital bed. Exhausted. Recovering from smoke inhalation and burns. Caroline  sits beside her bed, a female POLICE OFFICER in the room with them.

"A man had tried to slap me once. I was quiet and he couldn't find me – he couldn't see either. This one could see. He was crazy. Crazy, all right. That's it: crazy." Reba's hand brings more ice to her lips. "Crazy is a fearsome word."

"He shot himself in the face. I put my hand in it. He set fire to the house. He shot himself. I put my hand in it. He was on the floor..." She trails off, trying to contain her emotions. "I won't put you through this again, but I'd like to come back by. Just to say hi and see how you're doing."

"How could you help it? A charmer like me." Bitterness and self-reproach evident in her voice. Caroline won't let her go there.

"Would you excuse us for a minute, Officer?" The officer leaves the room, then Caroline takes Reba's hand. "In the end, he couldn't kill you and he couldn't watch you die. The people who study this kind of thing say he was trying to stop."

"Why?"

"Because you helped him. That probably saved some lives."

"I drew a freak."

"You didn't draw a freak. You drew a man with a freak on his back. Nothing wrong with you, don't let yourself believe there is." Caroline says softly, knowing how she feels. "I know there's nothing wrong with me. In making friends, I try to be wary of people who foster dependency and feed on it. I've been with a few. The blind attract them."

"Not just the blind. I'm coming back to see you in a day or so. I have to look at cops all the time, and I need relief; try to do something about your hair there." She grins a little. Caroline quietly leaves.

NORMAN CHAPEL - DAY-

Will GOES  inside the chapel. Standing at the altar, with his back toward Will, is Hannibal Lecter lighting candles. Lighting one candle after another.

Will turns to the rows of votive candles behind him andlights a stick to ignite a candle's wick.
A VOTIVE CANDLE It's lit.  "Ding-dong, the Dragon's dead." Hannibal's smile fades, genuinely disappointed by that news, but finding some possible shred of hope:

"Are congratulations in order?"

BSHCI - HANNIBAL LECTER'S CELL - DAY-

Will approaches Hannibal behind his glass wall. "I didn't kill him. Suicide."

"Then he wasn't as strong as the Dragon after all."

"He was trying to stop."

"I was rooting for you, Will. It's a shame. You came all this way and you didn't get to kill anybody.
Only consolation is Dr. Chilton. Congratulations for the job you did on him. I admired it enormously. What a cunning boy you are." Hannibal smirks. "Are you accusing me of something?"

"Does the enemy inside you agree with the accusation? Even a little bit?"

"I came back to stop the Dragon. He's stopped."

"Your family was on his itinerary. Safe now. You and Caroline can go home again. If there's any point. Is there any point?" Hannibal comments, "I like my life there."

"It won't be the same. You'll see it's not the same. The unspoken knowledge will live with you, like unwanted company in the house."

"Caroline and I want it to be the same."

"Mutual assurances you try to exchange in the dark and in the day will pass through some refraction, making them miss their mark. When life becomes maddeningly polite... ...think about me. Think about me, Will, don't worry about me."