The Blood-stained Deer

Chapter 25: Made into an Angel

The next morning, Will had an appointment with Doctor Lecter. They analyzed Will's sleeping or the lack thereof, and the patterns of the killer. When the door was barged into and Jack showed up. This took both Will and Hannibal by surprise, as Jack never interrupted.

"Sorry to interrupt, Doctor Lecter." Jack apologized in a huff. "Don't apologize, this must be serious." Hannibal said as he took on an expression of concern. "Elain has gone missing. She didn't come home with me last night, and I got no response from her." Jack said. "I thought she went home with one of you guys." He said. Hannibal glanced to Will and shook his head. "We thought she left with you."

The appointment was drawn to a close as they followed Jack down the hallway, to a meeting room, discussing along the way where she would have gone or what could have happened to her. That was when Will got a horrible image in his head.

"The angel maker..." He muttered. "He must have known we were on to him, how could we not, and so he lingered... he must have seen Elain and labelled her an accomplice to her father's crimes. Surely he read tattlecrime." He said as he looked to Jack.

Jack thumped a fist onto the table. "I hate that you're usually right..." He said.

Jack said he had to talk to the ex-wife of the angel maker, who they found, named Elliot. She had left him because of the cancer. She said he wanted to be alone.

"Did he ever regret being alone." Jack asked. "Miss the kids in particular."

"I don't know, probably..." She said. "Why?"

"We think he abducted a adolescent." Jack said, to the woman's shock. "Any idea where he would bring her?"

And that was where they learned of a farm. Which was where they went.

I was shaking, but very much alive, as I tried to stay as still as possible. I dangled maybe 10 feet or more off the ground, my hands stitched together as in prayer, my skin made to look like the other victims, wings to hold me from the ground. I was hanging by fat on my arms, and supported by my wings fish hooked to the beam above. I was 'praying' beside the now deceased angel maker. I was to be the angel he took with him to the afterlife.

I heard tires on gravel and hoped my racing heartbeat didn't make me fall. I saw Will entered first and he clasped his hands before turning to Jack. "Take a deep breath." Will said, surprised it wasn't the other way around.

Jack knew what that meant and took a deep breath and walked in. "Elain." He said lowly. He found the ladder that the angel maker had used to place me here and dug out the hooks. He put me over his shoulder as he gently descended. "We have to get her to a hospital, quick." Jack said.