Return of the Lambs

Red Dragon

Starling landed in Prague in the early evening.

Jet lag was not an option as she marched through security and out into the warm summer air.

She had grabbed something to eat in the airport. The food they served on the plane should have been inedible to humans, she was sure.

Her bags were loaded into the back of a taxi that brought her directly to the heart of the city and her hotel. The driver said nothing for the entire journey, which suited her just fine.

She was surprised to hear that she had been upgraded to one of the fine suites, but by this point was too tired to listen to the explanations.

After a brief sweep of the room - she had many enemies after all - Starling put her things away and sent a text to her friend in Maryland.

She lay in bed and soon the lamb began to scream.

-

This time, Starling sits on the chair outside Dr Lecter's cell in the hospital in Baltimore.

He is on the trolley they use to move him, dressed in the straitjacket and mask she had seen on all the photos.

"Clarice." He whispers smoothly, "Take the mask off."

Miggs is laughing in the cell beside him.

A long shadow falls across the hallway, and she is afraid.

Whispering, the faceless prisoners back away from their cell doors and cower in the corners.

"Hannibal Lecter." Dr Chilton shouts, dragging a screaming lamb behind him, "Hannibal Lecter."

"Clarice, look at me!"

She looks at Dr Lecter and he is stood in the centre of his cell now, just as he was the day they met except the mask is still in place.

"The key, Clarice. Unlock the mask."

"Dr Lecter-"

Where the shadow falls, the prisoners fall down in the darkness it leaves.

Chilton's eyes are fixed on her.

The lamb is bleeding.

She turns back to Lecter and realises the glass is gone.

She goes into the cell and stands in front of him, feeling that familiar spike of fear when his unblinking eyes settle on her.

Chilton is moving closer now, and wings spread from his back.

Her hands shake as she undoes the mask and Dr Lecter whips around, pinning her against the wall roughly with surprising strength.

"If you loved me, you'd stop."

The Chilton creature is at the door now, the carcass of the lamb thrown into the cell.

"What is he?"

"Red Dragon." Lecter and Chilton hiss at the same time, turning to face each other.

They lunge and fight, Chilton snarling as Lecter grabs a baton from the ground and begins to beat him.

Clarice finds she's holding a gun and raises it over Lecter's shoulder, directly at Chilton.

"He's a monster." Chilton purrs as Dr Lecter turns to her, covered in blood, "It's so rare we capture one alive."

She fires.

The lamb begins to scream.

Dr Lecter steps over the Chilton creature and walks through the blood towards her barefoot, the mask back on his face.

"That was good."

There's blood running out of the mask.

She looks down and realises she's glowing with sunlight and that light is becoming blinding until all that's left is a voice.

"Goodbye, Clarice."

-