Clarice woke up every morning at 5AM. Besides it being necessary, she enjoyed watching the sun wake up with her as she cooked her breakfast and got ready for a hard day's work. Today was a little different though, because today Ardelia was coming to visit.
Two years ago Clarice was involved in a plane crash that had changed her entire life. It had crashed on a remote island in the South Pacific Ocean and while she hadn't spent many days stranded there, her time there had been rife with turmoil.
It made a very sensational story which she and many of the survivors had sold for a decent amount of money. However, there were people in high places that didn't find her rendition of the story amusing, and most of those people were in the FBI. Things happened that shouldn't have and Clarice had been understandably fired. Before she sold the rights to her story she had nearly gone broke hiring a lawyer to keep her out of prison.
There were people in her life who had supported her through the whole nightmare; Ardelia and Jack Crawford. Hannibal Lecter also had made things much easier for her, in his own way, as he joyfully recounted in front of a judge how simple it was to manipulate Clarice to do his bidding. It was chilling how convincing he was, and the more he spoke the more Clarice feared he was telling the truth. She never forgot when the trial was over how she had caught his eye and he had winked at her. It was the last interaction she had before he was sent back to the Baltimore State Forensic Hospital.
Despite being found innocent of charges, her name was practically mud. Her only saving grace was she wasn't street-recognizable, people knew her by name, not by face. After she narrowly escaped her prison sentence she went to the court and submitted the process of changing her surname from Starling to Walker.
She attended college, got a new degree, and bought a tobacco farm in Texas. She had started over.
Ardelia had kept in touch by sending her letters and a weekly hour-long phone call. They tried to see each other twice a year, usually one trip around Christmas. Ardelia had agreed to see Clarice this year around late summer, just before the tobacco crop would need to be harvested. She insisted Clarice have a little bit of fun before the craziness of harvesting her bread-and-butter would slam her world and take up all her free time.
Clarice heard the tires of a car grind on the gravel outside her small house. She pushed the curtain from the window and saw Ardelia get out of the car. Through the window they locked eyes, and Ardelia let out a squeal of delight, waving furiously.
The taxi driver rolled his eyes, he was an older man who was balding and clearly at the age where younger women annoyed him more than entertained him. As Clarice bounded out the door he laid Ardelia's bags on the ground and demanded payment while the two women were in a tight hug.
"Oh my God girl, you are fit!" Ardelia said pulling back and admiring her figure.
"Moving around all day will do that to you." Clarice said. "I don't even run anymore."
"Well ladies, I gotta run so..." the taxi driver said rudely holding out his hand.
Ardelia sighed and paid the man. He didn't even thank her, and they couldn't care less as he sloppily made a U-turn in Clarice's spacious driveway and peeled away.
"I am so excited to see you!" Ardelia said giving Clarice another hug. "I've got a huge surprise." She said beaming.
Clarice picked up Ardelia's luggage and brought it in the house, pleased that her petite frame proved unconquerable to heavy baggage.
"Oh...no...Clarice." Ardelia laughed as she walked into the living room.
The plane crash had made Clarice a bit of a minimalist as far as possessions went. It showed the most in her living room décor, there was a single love-seat and a lamp perched in the corner with a large bookshelf against the corner. There was no television (Clarice had last her taste for it), and a stack of old newspapers was sitting neatly in a bin.
"Honey, you need some art in here or something. This is just depressing." Ardelia told her.
"Yeah, well, I haven't had to impress too many guests." Clarice admitted.
"Now I know what to get you for Christmas. A living room that doesn't look like my grandpa's den." Ardelia teased her. "Is this why you and Todd are 'just friends'?"
"How about a cup of the best coffee in the whole state of Texas?" Clarice offered her.
"Don't try to change the subject." Ardelia said.
"Todd is 45 years-old and sleeps with his shotgun, which he happily refers to as his wife." Clarice shouted at her from the kitchen. "I believe his heart belongs to another."
Thankfully, the kitchen was the best furnished room in the house, and it was Clarice's favorite room. Natural light filtered in best through the wide windows, giving the home a cheery look.
"So what's this big surprise?" Clarice asked Ardelia as she scooped coffee in her coffee maker.
"Remember Ryan?" Ardelia said with a sly grin.
"Mr. tall, dark and handsome?" Clarice said recalling Ardelia's description. "How can I forget?"
"Well...we've been dating for a couple months and he invited me to his cabin in the Pocono's!" She said. "His brother is planning a trip in December- he asked me if there was anyone I wanted to bring, so naturally I brought up your name!"
"Wow..."
"Clarice, Christmas in the Pocono's, you can't say no." Ardelia pleaded desperately.
"I don't know Dee..." Clarice said pouring them both a cup of coffee.
"Look, I know you're a little uncomfortable with...remote areas...but you live on a farm. It's pretty isolated here, and look, nothing has happened to you."
"Todd is next door."
"Yeah, like a mile away. There are phones there, Clarice. Plus, we'll be with you." Ardelia said. "I'll be with you. And two really attractive, able-bodied men will be with you. I promise you'll be safe."
"...Alright." Clarice agreed with mild anxiety. She handed Ardelia her cup of coffee. "Attractive, able-bodied men, you say?"
"Hotness runs in that family." She said wiggling her eyebrows. "Ryan's brother is a doctor, and we all know how much you like doctors."
"Not funny." Clarice sighed sitting at the table.
"I'm sorry." Ardelia apologized sincerely. "...He hasn't...contacted you, has he?"
Clarice stirred some cream in her coffee, trying to muster up a weak smile. She knew who Ardelia was referring to.
"I think he's kinda busy being crazy in a maximum security mental ward." She joked.
"Do you want to see him?" Ardelia asked. "You don't have to answer that, I mean, I'm not judging you."
"Some days, I do." Clarice admitted. "And some days the thought of him makes me want to run away screaming. He terrifies me, Dee. Time puts a lot of things in perspective, and a lot of our time together on the island was confusing and scary."
Ardelia nodded.
"I try not to think about him." Clarice said. "I always do though. Everyday."
"That's because you need to meet new people." Ardelia said trying to lighten up the mood. "I'm scared you're going to turn funny out here and start making out with your plants."
"I talk to people." Clarice said.
"Name one person besides me and Todd." Ardelia challenged.
"People," Clarice said with a sheepish smile, "as in two...you and Todd."
They laughed. Clarice felt new life being breathed into her as Ardelia recounted the fine details of her boyfriend Ryan and his brother. It was wonderful to enjoy someone else's company besides her own.
Still, Hannibal Lecter lingered in the back of Clarice's mind...like he always did. Everyday.
One of the joys Clarice had on the farm was being able to build a bonfire. It was the single thing she carried over her island-experience with pleasure. At night she would often grab a chair, place near her fire pit and look at the stars as she relaxed.
Tonight she and Ardelia had stocked up on food for smores and had enough beer to shame a liquor store. Clarice had called Todd's phone and left a message on his answering machine inviting him over for a night of irresponsibility and drunkenness, something they rarely but occasionally indulged in as fellow neighbors.
"Want to see me start a fire without matches?" Clarice asked.
"After your third beer, miss lightweight? Hell no." Ardelia said. She handed Clarice the box of hardwood matches pointedly.
"Fine." Clarice sighed.
"Be careful." Ardelia said as she watched Clarice light the tinder.
"I got it!" Clarice laughed, blowing on the small flame to make it bigger.
A loud whistle pierced the air and both Clarice and Ardelia turned their gaze towards the empty house.
"Was that Todd?" Ardelia asked.
"I think so." Clarice replied. She picked up her beer and an unopened one. "I forgot to tell him we're out back."
"If you're going in the house bring me a water." Ardelia called after her.
Clarice smiled as she made her way to the house. She was a little past being buzzed and had slipped into a light drunk-state. The world wasn't teetering, but she was prone to a giggle-fit and felt the fuzzy warmness that being drunk gave her. She was careful not to trip on a step as she walked up to the porch. Todd wasn't waiting for her, so she opened the screen door to peer inside.
"Todd, we're out back!" Clarice yelled. She waited a few seconds in the silence for a confirmation, but besides the crickets there was no reply. She stepped inside and saw her living room and kitchen was empty.
Maybe he was in the bathroom.
She left the two beers on the table and opened the fridge to grab a bottled water for Ardelia. Before leaving the house she knocked on her bathroom door, which she saw swing open slightly when she hit it.
Hm.
She left with the bottled water in her hand, and remembered her beers were on the table.
I'll make Todd get it later.
She was going to join Ardelia when something caught her eye.
Todd had helped her build a shack half a year ago to hold some of the smaller tools on her farm; because he had done a good job, she gave him permission to use anything in it provided he ask first. He had taken her up on her offer a couple of times and had honored the agreement by asking before taking anything out of it, and it had been Clarice's pleasure to help out since he had been so generous with his time.
25 yards away she could see the light was on and the shed door was open. Todd's truck wasn't in the driveway, and it was probably too far a hike for him to make (although he had done it occasionally). Clarice would have been more alarmed if the light wasn't on, wild animals were constantly crossing on her land and routinely poked around.
"Tooooooodd!" She shouted, cupping her hands.
She waited for him to step out of the shed, but he hadn't immerged.
"Todd- get out here!" Clarice shouted, this time a little worried. If it was an intruder she was hardly in the right state of mind to deal with them.
"One second!" she heard his voice shout back.
She smiled, relieved.
"My goodness," Clarice half-shouted as she ran towards the shed. "You scared me!" She laughed.
She was breathing a little hard when she reached the shed and pulled the door wider. She put the bottled water on the ground to keep the door open.
"You can't borrow anything unless you drink a beer with us, that's the rule!" Clarice said as she stepped in.
The light inside held a standard bulb and only lit up the middle of the shed adequately. It casted long shadows as it lit up a work-table in the middle of the room.
"I don't like being scared." Clarice said as she nervously searched for a person. It looked empty. Todd was the epitome of a nice-guy, and Clarice felt it was unusual for him to hide from her.
"Clarice Walker..."
Clarice froze, her eyes finding the shadow of a man in the right corner where she kept her barrels.
"It doesn't have the same charm, I'm afraid." Hannibal Lecter's voice rang.
Through her fuzzy terror she shifted to the side of the room where she kept a drawer of knives. She could hardly believe it when it opened with no effort and she found it empty.
"I anticipated your usual warm greeting." He informed her.
The door slammed and she jumped in fright, her heart pounding in her chest.
"Doctor Lecter...what are you doing here?" She said gripping the shelf behind her.
"Have you forgotten my promise to you?" He said stepping into the light. The hanging bulb cast shadows over his face similar to when she had met him first in his cell. "Or is it the drink that's scrambled your mind?" he hissed.
"...That was two years ago." Clarice said, trying to get a grip on her rational mind. "I've moved on to better things."
"Yeah..." He said sarcastically, looking her up and down. "I can see that."
Clarice never felt so ashamed to be drunk in her life.
"You're trespassing." Clarice informed him.
His face was frozen in a strange, predatory expression. Clarice forgot how still he could be and imagined it was probably what unsuspecting prey saw before being pounced.
"Todd will be here any moment." She said trying to look confident.
"In your shed?" Hannibal said. He seemed annoyed with her obvious lie. "Am I to believe you invite him regularly here in the middle of night?"
"...I called-" Clarice started, hating how shaky she felt.
"And left a message on his machine. I know. I got it." He said softly. He was now studying her closely. And she thought she saw a ghost of a smile when it finally dawned on her.
She hadn't seen Todd... in days.
Hannibal Lecter had got the phone message.
"...What did you do to him?" Clarice asked, rage flaring inside her belly. She would never forgive herself if Hannibal Lecter had harmed him. "is he alive?"
A bang on the door broke Hannibal's attention. Clarice didn't think she'd get a better moment to run away then while he was distracted.
She nearly stumbled as she reached the door, shoving it open so hard it banged against the wall and swung towards her. Hannibal was quicker than she thought, or she was slower, and he had caught up with her after four quick steps.
Clarice stopped running. For the first time in years, she stopped worrying about Hannibal Lecter. Her farm, with it's many acres of Virginia gold-leaf tobacco, had disappeared. The ground was covered in dust, as if something had sucked the water out of it with her crops. In the distance, what could have been miles, was a glow of a town.
"…That's not my farm." Clarice said. She turned her head, expecting to see her home, and a silver-tainted spasm of terror gripped her. Her home was gone, replaced with flat, dusty fields.
Hannibal's eyes were shifting over the landscape rapidly, his brow furrowed and mouth slightly open.
"Where…where's my house?" Clarice asked him. He stared at her, as if discovering she was there. "Doctor Lecter…how…a nuclear bomb?" She asked. "What is that?"
"…Clarice," He said softly, "let's go back inside."
He had to grab her hand to get her to move towards the shed. She was still trying to figure out how anyone or anything could make her home disappear.
Hannibal Lecter opened the shed door, and Clarice stifled a scream.
The shed was empty, and rotten boards had been punched out of the back, revealing the landscape similar to the one outside. The roof was almost completely open as moonbeams shone on broken bottles and a smattering of hay.
The suspended light bulb, of course, was gone.
"That's not my shed!" Clarice said gripping Hannibal's hand tightly. "That's- where's my shed?" She turned to him for answers. "Did I have a seizure?" Clarice panicked. "Some, chemical LSD in the air? Did you poison me?"
"It's not likely we're suffering the same delusion." He told her. He turned towards her sharply, causing her to jump back and let go of his hand. "Did you feel anything different in the shed?"
A howl of wind passed through the rotted boards and she felt she would pass out.
"Clarice!" He screamed at her. "Anything?"
"No." Clarice said shaking her head.
"Neither did I." He said.
They stood together for a long time in silence.
"Well," Hannibal said turning to her. "Let's have a look, shall we?"
She waited until he stepped inside before following him. It was a rather unremarkable, it looked to her as time had taken her shed aged it four hundred years. Hannibal was scoping out the corner of the room, paused, and turned to face her.
"Shut the door." He ordered her.
Clarice felt irrationally scared to touch anything but willed herself to obey. She wanted to feel as calm and in control as Hannibal Lecter. Trying to look collected she grabbed the door and shut it.
"Now…take your place over there." Hannibal told her. She walked to the corner, the once familiar space now completely alien to her. "Push away all your fear, Clarice…picture, in your mind, everything about the moment before you opened the door...what you thought, how you felt, the things you said and did. Try to recreate that feeling, and run to the door…push it open." He told her.
She took a few breaths of air, her drunken buzz almost dead. She had been worried about Todd. Hannibal Lecter had insinuated he was attacked, she was frustrated and frightened by his silence.
She saw Hannibal's attention shift to the exit, perfectly mimicking the moment he was distracted by the thumping of the door. She twisted and ran, trying not to trip before slamming the door open just as she had before.
Her heart sank as she ran a few steps outside; Hannibal once more trailed behind her.
"Hm." He said. "So much for that."
Without a backwards glance he started walking towards the far-off town at a steady pace. The lights in the distance gave it a fuzzy hue.
"…What was supposed to happen?" Clarice asked, trailing behind him. "Where are you going?"
He stopped and rounded on her.
"You said I was 'trespassing'," He said, a mocking tone to his voice. "you didn't want me on your land…around you. Well…" he dropped his voice to a whisper. "reality has fractured and your wish has been granted. Goodbye Clarice."
"Wait- you can't leave me out here alone!" Clarice said to his retreating back.
"But you've already left me, haven't you?" He called to her behind his shoulder, never ceasing his pace. "With your cheap beer, new name, and acres Virginia gold-leaf. I imagine you were paid pretty well for your version of our mishap. How fortunate you are to be given a chance to abandon the horrors behind you. Congratulations, you've done well for yourself."
"I lost things too." Clarice said stumbling after him.
"And how did it make you feel when the bureau fired you? Did you resent them for taking the very best of you in difficult times before casting you aside?"
"It's not like that." Clarice fumed, aware he was implying she was using him.
"Are you scared, Clarice? Are you going to try to seduce me now?" He asked with unmistaken contempt. "I've become quite familiar with this pattern, my fair weather lover."
"What was I supposed to do?" Clarice seethed, shouting at him. She had stopped following him now and he was leaving her behind. "Send you letters? conjugal visits? Everything I ever loved in life has been taken from me. My family, my job, my reputation, fuck- even my last name! That was my father's last name- I used to be my father's daughter!" She screamed.
"With all that loss, you want to know what I think about every morning?" She said. She had to run to keep him within earshot. "I think about you! You know what I think about when I'm working in that hellish field all day and night? I think about you! - What I think about when I'm making my dinner? You!" Her voice was going hoarse with emotion. "Sometimes it drives me so damn crazy I have to read a stack of books to get something else in my head!"
Hannibal had finally stopped walking. Clarice swallowed thickly, angry tears springing to her eyes as she walked towards him, now a two yards away.
"You want to know the truth? The truth is…" she choked, her West Virginian accent thick. "I can't dream up a man that I love as much as I love you…and I can't dream up a monster that scares me as much as you! So don't you dare act all high and mighty, callin' me a 'fair weather lover' - because you're one too!" She screamed.
She could see his powerful shoulders rising and falling as he breathed. She wondered if he would be furious for her yelling at him or if she should prepare herself for a fight. She was no longer drunk, so her reflexes were mostly good, but she was still shaky from the adrenaline rush.
Without turning around, he held out his right hand away from his side, his palm facing her, and wiggled his fingers. Clarice sniffed and used her arm to wipe her face before slipping her hand in his.
"Did you kill Todd?" Clarice asked.
"No." he replied.
She knew there was no way to confirm he was lying.
Authors Note:
This is not your mama's Hannibal/Silence of the Lambs fan fic! As you've probably noticed, I like to write stories that are a little...off the wall. Can you guess what's happening? Hmmm? No? Well then I suppose you'll just have to read the next chapter to discover what went wrong...very, very wrong.