The Eyes of a Lamb

Envy

Clarice felt empty as she stared at the crime scene before her while Will tried to talk some sense into Jack Crawford about who their killer was trying to contact with these dramatic performances. Clarice knew Jack was thinking about the victims, how now there was only one sin left to complete before the killer disappeared altogether. Clarice simply just looked at the trio, one woman and two men as they were all gagged and tied together, the classic love triangle splayed out before her as their bodies were soaked in their own blood. Clarice knew the killers message, saw it loud and clear.

We covet every day, and this poor man, or maybe it was the other one, longed for this woman, while the woman longed for one of these men. All three of them weren't happy and envied each other for something that they had. But what was the point of all this? The killer wasn't among them that stood in the room, so why the gesture? Why the display when the Ripper was obviously not going for the bait?

Clarice could only suspect that the Deadly Sins killer was going to get desperate after this failed attempt yet again to gain the Rippers attention. Will said usually that the Ripper would have responded by now, with some sort of token of public display of a body suggesting approval. But nothing had come up, and Clarice could feel the killer devising something horrible and heinous for the next victim.

"Clarice?" Will said grabbing her softly by the shoulder "It's time to go."

"Alright" Clarice said in a daze, her body moving but her mind shut off from the world.

She knew they weren't going to catch the killer, knew that this time, no matter how much she pulled and struggled and got clever that she was not escaping this darkness that spread around her like her time in the well. And now the lambs were screaming in her sleep again.

"You haven't been the same since last week" Will said remembering the shaking nightmare of sleep Clarice had endured when she had come over and laid beside him in bed.

"I feel like there is a big empty hole inside my chest" Clarice said sighing "And no matter how much I try and fill it up, it just remains this empty pit. I don't know what I'm doing Will, I have no clue how we are going to catch this guy."

"He's going to make a mistake" Will said as he got into the car with Clarice "He's desperate now. The Ripper hasn't responded because he knows if he does we will catch him. This killer will do everything in his power to get the Ripper's attention, or better yet, display whatever comes next in front of the Ripper himself."

"Like Beelzebub trying to impress Lucifer" Clarice scoffed.

"To him" Will said quietly "The Ripper is god, he's the ultimate of ultimates and this guy wants the Ripper to see that he is just as good as him. He wants to prove himself to a father that he never had."

"So you think he knows who the Ripper is?" Clarice said, her body too tired to respond.

"I'm almost positive" Will said as his body fidgeted in the seat "If and when he tries to expose himself to the Ripper, not only will we catch the Deadly Sins killer, but the Ripper himself."

"You sound pretty confident" Clarice said.

"I have to be" Will said pulling her into him "I can see you slipping Clarice, I can see you drowning in whatever it is that you are hiding from me. This will be my only time in saying this, because I respect when help is not wanted, but please, for my sanity, please tell me whats wrong."

Clarice wanted to cry, but the tears in her eyes had dried up over the last week as her body slowly began turning into stone. But now, wrapped up in her friends arms, she felt she could at least tell Will the partial truth.