A Heir to the Legacy
Hannibal Lector
The last time we saw Hannibal Lecter was at the opera, arm in arm with the beautiful Clarice Starling. What a handsome couple they made. We made a deal with Dr Lecter that night. 'We'll leave you alone if you leave us alone!' and it worked! Until now…
We see a silhouette sat at an ornate harpsichord. The notes saw confidently through the air but the players long fingers glide gently across the keys. A glass of blood red Château Margaux stands atop the instrument, the moonlight making it glisten with diamonds. Nearby Clarice Starling sits with her eyes closed, the music lapping up against her. She is not asleep; in fact she has reached a height of consciousness most people will never experience. The scent of her own glass of wine fills her nose, her senses are overwhelmed yet inside she has an inner peace, one she never felt before her time with Hannibal Lecter.
However if you look at the scene closer you will notice that that the person at the Harpsichord is not Hannibal Lecter. He is slightly shorter and his left hand carries an extra finger something Dr Lecter had modified when he first escaped. Hannibal sits opposite Clarice, his eyes also closed as the music engulfs him. Currently he is exploring his memory palace but we dare not enter there yet.
Instead we will return to the teenager perched at the Harpsichord. He has stopped playing now and as he turns round with the grace of a ballerina his maroon eyes glisten in the candle light. He is the precise image of his father.
After Starling first disappeared Ardelia Mapp had gone through to her side of the Annex and sat on Clarice's sofa but no matter where she went in there it was cold. Starling had left nothing of herself. There were no photos of her family; mainly because she had none! And then after here months her stuff had been packed into boxes and he apartment was given o someone else.
Starling's old office had been taken over pretty much as soon as she left it. The security guards used it during the day as a hang out. At night time, shady couples used it, preferring the anonymity of the dark room for their supposed deeds of devotion and union.
So now as Ardelia thought of Starling she looked at the emerald ring fitted snugly on her middle finger, sat at the dining table in her side of the annex. It had been nine years since she had received the letter from Clarice. She had ignored most of what she said. The letter was kept in her underwear in the hidden compartment at the back and despite Starling telling her not to Ardelia had never stopped looking for her old buddy. However, some people were one step ahead of her…
In perfect unison Clarice's and the doctor's eyes open. They hear them too late; the slight squeak of the floorboards before the door bursts open and the room fills with ten FBI agents, machine guns aimed straight into the room, Clarice observes that the safety catches are off and they have been set to rapid fire. The great glass windows behind them shatter and broken shards cascade onto the Persian carpet. A row of identical FBI agents spread out to cover the gap and two apache helicopters hovered into view. For a second the scene had frozen and somewhere within Clarice her old mindset and hardness returned, she was ruthless, she could shoot and she would, but this time her alliance had changed…Time started again…
"Lie flat on the floor… hands where I can see them!" voices coming from all directions shouting, the whirring of the helicopters rotor blades, the shattering of the window, more agents crunching over the broken glass and amidst the chaos Clarice was back at Quantico shooting with John Bingham at her shoulder full of the peace and security her gun brought her. She raised the gun and shot, again and again. Her finger pulled the trigger and kept pulling; she had to defend her son. "Ruuuuuuuuuunnnnn! Get out of here now!" She knew they could never get away but if she could just save him…
She saw Hannibal was shooting to; dodging the bullets gracefully as if it took him no effort at all. Around them eleven FBI agents lay on the floor dead and more were injured. Her son still stood there calm as anything by the harpsichord and yet around him all hell was let loose. The last thing Clarice Starling remembered before she was shot was shouting to him.
"Ruuuuuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnnnn!" Clarice tossed and turned. She was covered in a cold sweat, her hands clasped together in front of her, as if she still held the gun even in her padded cell. Her wrists were handcuffed together, they were bruised and bloody, nobody had bothered changing them to ones which wouldn't hurt her. They weren't in the business of niceties.
Arizona Super-maximum security prison, the modern day equivalent of Alcatraz just ten times as secure and fifty times as brutal. Starling was in a cell, four padded walls, no windows, just one steel door and a camera; following her every move. She wore the orange jumpsuit and white t-shirt of the inmates and her hair had been shaved to short stubble. Her T-shirt was stained a deep red where a bandage around he ribs seeped dark blood but for the first time since the raid her eyes opened and took in the cell around her. I'm a criminal; I bet the FBI won't want the media founding out about that one!
Authors note: Well, if your reading this that must mean you got to the end of my atrocious first chapter. Yes, don't say anything 'it's already been done' or 'copy'. It hadn't when I wrote it the problem is I subsequently forgot about but what the hell I thought I my as well submit it anyway it' not like anybody actually reads my fictions. But you obviously do so now you're here why you don't go ahead and clicky on that button there. That's the one... The one with send a review. Yes right there you go now all you have to do is tell me how wonderful my story is… I appreciate it…now go! Review me! By the way it isn't exactly the same well in fact not at all the same because I wrote it all on my on. Hah cos' I AM CLEVER!
Katherine- Thank You for your review and for pointing out my terrible mistake. I know a poor workman always blames his tools but the auto correct function in Word kept on changing it from Lecter to Lector. That has now been rectified. Once again thanks for pointing that out!
Wow that was one long authors note! I apologize for you having to read all that dribble but I didn't make you Thanks For Reading…Now Review!