"Chomp chomp chomp"

arr, hmmpf, growl, slurp, burp.

"munch munch, chomp chomp chomp"

Pulls a thin bone out of his mouth. "blah, weak, didn't even take enough calcium." he replied in between his meal.

"munch munch, gobble gobble..."....hmmm, he stopped. "Gobble?" he tilted his head to one side. Blood smeared all over his lips, covering his jaw and cheeks. Not one to be a messy guy, he came prepared, and he reached over for one of the silk white hankerchiefs, enlaced by Venetian designers, intricate details of interwoven knots and fancy spiral designs. He dipped the delicate cloth to his lips, taking all traces of blood and transferring it to the material. Then he resumed his feeding.

"Chomp chomp chomp"

Clarice Starling walks in, with her 2nd hand shoes and brown dull suit, her hand on the handle of the doorway, was not surprised at the scene she saw.

"Doctor Lector." her voice, simply curt alerted Hannibal from his meal.

"Ah, Clarice. I was just finishing up." his eyes riveted her at that spot, the same mesmerizing scary kind of eyes that people would be afraid of. Like a predator surveying his prey. Think Predator with Arnold people!

Clarice swallows, her face had no trace of expression but she pretty much might as well have rolled her eyes.

"What is it, Clarice, has the lambs been screaming again? hmmm?" his eyes narrows slightly, giving that edge of a serial killer gone madder than mad. Then as to drive it further to that edge, he continues,

"Did....someone touch you, Clarice? Any male dominant type detectives lately trying to monopolize their attentions on you, with their macho and chauvinistic interests on you, my dear?" he coughs a little, "Tell me, detective Starling and I shall undo what injustice has been done to you."

He coughs louder now, gasping and choking, realizing to his utter humiliation that he had choked on one of the smaller bones, thinking the unthinking that he would not let such a thing happen to him. Of all the years of dining on flesh and bones, blood and guts, he could not fathom in the back of his mind that this could happen and in front of Clarice!

"I suppose you need help?" Starling replied with no amusement.

Gasping, he nodded, his eyes bulged, blood oozed out of his mouth, not his blood but the one who he had eaten.

Sighing, she walked over to Hannibal, smacked his back a couple times with loud whoops and he threw up the offending piece of bone, which flew out and landed like a smack on the floor.

"Are you done?" she stood there with arms akimbo.

"It seems that you have saved me again. That was most unusual for me." he swallowed. Then looked up at her, "Now that I'm fully back to my health, what is it that you need from me?"

She threw a newspaper to him, making it land right smack on the front page: Man was eaten alive! Body found to be mutilated and parts of his intestines and brains were taken out by bite marks.

"Explain." she folded her arms, her expression that same strictness that she told him she meant business.

"Oh, come now, Clarice. You don't think that...." he looked at the half eaten meal on his dinner plate. "That that that .....that this was the man who was eaten?"

"Doctor Lector, our agreement was that you would stay away from eating people. This way you can remain free."

"Yes yes, I know, but truly I did not do this deed. Do you not trust me, Clarice?" he looked at her with a somewhat puppy dog type eyes, attempting to persuade her.

"Forensics are going to know, you know, about the bite marks."

"Ah yes, I am aware of that, and if you can just trust me for a moment, you'll know that I'm not afraid of the investigation. They'll find out that it does not belong to me!"

She narrows her eyes. "We'll see about that. In the meantime I want you to get on that new diet plan I've ordered for you."

Looking around the room, noting the folders of diet brochures and sample packages of low calorie milk shakes and powdered drinks unopened. "I mean it, doctor Lector!" with a warning tone, she widened her eyes a bit, giving him that very serious look.

"Yes, mommie." he taunts with a slight mewl.

"Doctor Lector!"she warned again.

"I hear you! I hear you!"

Leaving, she gave him one final look then closed the door behind her.

Sighing he pushes away his remaining meal, not hungry after all and walks over to the bathroom, opens his medicine cabinet with a special key and takes out his fake teeth. Rows and rows of fake teeth, some with incisors and some with perfect rows of white even teeth.