"Please… Please… I'm begging you. Whatever Lecter told you, whatever he said, it's—"
"Denial, Doctor? Disappointingly cliché. I expected more from one of your notriety. I asked you to tell me about your sister."
"What the hell has my sister got to do with any of this? Look. I'm a Doctor of Psychiatry. Whatever Hannibal has led you to believe is a fabrication. Undoubtedly to fulfil some twisted ends of his own…"
"Don't insult me by attempting to put into words what you believe to be the motives and intent of Hannibal Lecter, Doctor. I have seen and touched the very mind of the man."
The leather beneath Will responded as he leaned forward. "And trust me when I tell you, you could never come close to understanding what it means to even catch a gllimpse of the world through Hannibal Lecter's eyes."
"You fucking son of a whore…," Goranski began, "Release me now or so help me, you'll be hunted down…"
"Stage 2…," Will said. "Back to my request, Doctor. Your sister."
"Dammit!" Silence.
His breath came ragged and shaky as he pleaded. "Look. I have money, connections. I can give you whatever you want, whatever you need…"
"Stage 3… I've had my fair share of dealings with the Devil, Doctor. I'm all settled up in that regard. Now. Are you going to comply or am I going to have to help you do so?"
Goranski heaved a frustrated and defeated sigh before answering. "She was a bitch, alright? She hurt me. Abused me. Psychologically and physically whenever she got the chance."
"You were the younger of the two. Why would she do that?"
"Because our father was doing it to her and she thought it would be nice to pay it forward. Very giving in that way, my sister."
Pause.
"You admired him. Even though you were fully aware of what he was doing to your sister…"
"Of course I did. He was my father. I idolised him. She was obviously manipulating him somehow and using his actions to justify hers toward me."
"And so you, in turn, decided to pay it forward to your patients…"
"I was teaching them the realities of their existence. There is no escape. No hope. Acceptance of the fears that life had in store for them was the best treatment I could give to prepare them."
"Life bestowed a great gift upon you, Doctor Goranski, and you saw fit to squander it."
He snorted. As a pig would before facing the certain knowledge of its impending death. "And how do you conclude that?"
"You were given a brilliant mind. You overcame a destructive upbringing and conquered your demons, evident by the fact of your current situation in life. Yet as soon as you were placed in a position of power, you unleashed those demons on perceived reflections of your past. You took it upon yourself to do unto those innocents what had been done to you. You had lived the life and known the torture that came with it. You understood. You could have embraced your own fears and helped them overcome theirs."
Pause.
"Instead, you weakened the already vulnerable and fed your darkened soul with whatever shards of self-identity they had left."
An extended silence hung in the room, broken only by the occasional sound of shifting plastic beneath Goranski's body and his ragged, breaking breath. Will gave him the space to process the choices he had made in life to bring him to this point before speaking again.
"It is difficult to see the truths behind our own existence, as well as the truths that sometimes hide in plain sight. That is why I am going to help you see your truths today, Doctor, as I have lately come to see mine."
"Just as I know I am not good, likewise, I do not believe you are evil, Doctor, despite the nature of your actions and the pain you have levelled on others in your care who trusted you with their best interests. In fact, I have come to accept there is no such thing as good and evil. These are mere constructs that help limited minds make sense of a senseless world. We have created an illusion of two paths, one of "Evil", for those who indulge themselves in pleasure for pleasure's sake, and one of "Good", for those who deny pleasure believing their reward will be great in Heaven. There aren't two paths, there's only the one, and when we learn to accept that and live it, we won't need to wait for some reward in Heaven. Instead, letting go of the conflict unites the perception of Good and Evil and creates Heaven on Earth."
Will rose for the first time during the exchange. "So today, Doctor, you and I are going to let go of our inner conflict and create our own Heaven on Earth." The plastic rustled underfoot as Will made his way to the study door. "Excuse me for a moment. I'm going to get a glass of water and something for you too…"
He returned to the room some minutes later, canvas roll and candle in hand.
"What are you going to do?"
"I told you, Doctor. I'm going to help you release your inner conflict."
The sound of tearing clothing mingled with Goranski's pleas filled the next few minutes. I listened while processing Will's words. It would appear he had moved beyond empathy with the killer to seeing the fear and power reflected by the killer as he wielded both over his victims. Feeling the pain inflicted on the innocent through Mikhail defined what Will understood to be required of him.
I continued to listen as Will asked Goranski a series of questions about his "conquests" that, judging by the changing timbre of his voice, was resulting in the Doctor experiencing a rising arousal. His naked response while talking of his victims made Will's design of his death all the more poetic. He had stripped him off his clothing and watched as the man grew painfully hard while telling Will of a particular patient who took little convincing to succumb. Will had then taken his opportunity to relieve the man of his erection and cauterised both penis and the gaping wound, as his agonised screams filled my ears.
I stopped the recorder and thoughtfully removed the earpieces. I pondered the conversation as I placed a new tape in the recorder before putting it back in the study desk. Will would shortly rise. I would be waiting for him.