Honestly, I don't know what to say.
Everything I had thought about Lecter was slowly falling apart. It was near humiliating. When I got home that night, I began to question why I was even running around. If my mother was fine, and Lecter was chasing me and leaving my mother alone, why the hassle? It's just a weird way to be going about it, you know? I know my mother's fine. I know Lecter's tailing me and my friends, pestering me about horrible things that just break my heart. And I know that he won't hurt me, my friends, or anyone I travel with. So why do I bother? He probably didn't tell anyone about something the media would spread all over the world.
The next morning, I woke up to a slight shaking of my shoulder. It was five in the morning. I looked up and saw John with his bag over his shoulder. "Come on, we have to leave." he said and walked over to Barney to thank him for the hospitality while Jacob smuggled some food from the kitchen. Barney had to go to work, so he was already awake. He didn't work at Baltimore Mental Hospital anymore. He worked at the one in Philly. None of them could ever know what I did last night; talk to a serial killer.
We walked out of the door, saying our goodbyes to Barney and got in the car and drove off. I was in the front seat. I wasn't tired, so I stayed awake, governing the radio. They had really bad Cd's in the car. At least, the music on them was everything that I didn't like. So I took control of the radio for the car trip. Before I knew it, we were already back on the highway. Then I realized, I forgot who's next on the list. I looked over at John, who looked really tired. He kept looking in the rear view mirror. I looked behind us, but there wasn't a car there at all. I gently put my hand on his shoulder, which caused him to jump. I could see the dark circles under his eyes. It looked like he was in pain.
"You okay?" I asked him quietly. Jacob burst his head through the space between the two front seats.
"Yeah, you're a bit jumpy." he said, stifling a chuckle. I nodded with him. John looked back at the road.
"It's just that Lecter guy, is all. I mean, he's stalking us...you I mean." he stuttered. "I just don't want him to, you know, catch up."
"John..." I trailed off, unable to think about what to say. This was awkward. I can't say he won't catch up, that'd be a lie. I can't say I know he won't hurt us, that might imply that I've talked to him. I sighed and looked away. "Never mind. We'll be okay." I said quietly. Jacob pushed back into his seat and looked out the window at the right side mirror at me. I looked back at him and he waved. I waved, but didn't smile. Then I remembered the original question that I was going to ask the paranoid driver next to me. "Where are we going anyway? I don't know who we're visiting today." I confessed.
"Oh, uh, I don't know. I'm just driving." he said, shrugging his shoulders. I sighed and looked back at Jacob. "Do you know?" Another no. I sighed and faced forward again. How can we be driving nowhere? What direction are we going, anyway? I pulled out the list of people to interrogate and studied them. We already got Barney, all that's left is Will Graham, Chilton...wait, Chilton's dead. Lecter ate him. I found a pen in the glove compartment in the car and crossed out Barney and Chilton. So it's Graham and Jack Crawford with an if in parenthesis. Crawford's back at home, and I'm not going back there. I'm too far ahead. So I guess we have to find Will, the one who caught Hannibal Lecter. I sighed and looked out the window, and by a wonderful coincidence, a sign signaling a rest stop showed.
"Go there. We should figure out where to go." I said. Just then, something began vibrating. I felt it against my leg, but I wasn't sure where it was. I looked all over the car and Jacob looked around the car seat.
"I thought you broke your phone." he said chuckling. I stopped. I did break my phone. But if it's not my phone, what was it? Then it clicked together. It's the phone Lecter gave me at the mall. I reached into my coat pocket and pulled it out, flipping it open.
"Very clever, little Reine Drop, leaving before sunrise. What a clever plan. Where are you off to next, hm? You're going the wrong way for Jack Crawford." he taunted. I gripped the phone and looked out the window, in the mirror, above the car, anywhere he could be, but he wasn't anywhere. He wasn't near us at all. Did we really just cheat out of Hannibal Lecter's eyes? John looked at me worried.
"Who the fuck is that?!" he yelled at me. I flinched, uttering a small cry. Lecter caught this.
"Was that John yelling? Tell him I'd like to talk to him when he's able to." he said. My heart jumped. What would happen if I gave John the phone at all? Because of my inability to answer John's question, he yelled more.
"REINE! Who the FUCK is that?!" he screamed. I flinched again, staring at John. His face was growing ten shades of red and his face was twisted in anger and fear. He knew who it was, why was he asking me? I shook it off.
"Just drive, he wants to talk to you when we get to that rest stop." I said calmly. He only snapped.
"How does he know we're going to a rest stop?! He screamed louder. Lecter growled on the other line.
"I can basically hear your heartbeat through the phone, Reine. He's scaring you, right?" he said calmly. It kind of sounded like he was losing his temper. I ignored his question, though. I had to answer John so he wouldn't yell at me anymore. In truth, it did scare me. A lot. He seemed like he was going to hit me if I took anymore time in not answering him.
"N-No he-"
"You're protecting him! Aren't you?!" he shouted. Jacob interjected himself in this, something I wish he didn't do.
"Hey, John, calm down man-" he said, putting a gentle hand on his shoulder. John swerved to the side of the highway and stopped the car completely, unbuckling his seat, got out of the car, then opened the back door and dragged Jacob out.
"JACOB!" I shouted and I climbed out of the car too. I looked over the roof of the car, watching John beat the crap out of his twin brother. He's never been this way before. What the hell's wrong with him? "JOHN STOP IT! STOP IT NOW!!!" Lecter was talking to someone, but it wasn't me. I didn't care. My best friends were fighting and John was going completely mad! After John finished with Jacob, he tossed him in the middle of the road while a car was coming. I screamed and looked away. There was a loud screeching and then the opening of a car door.
"Jesus H. Christ, what the hell do you think you're doing?!" the driver shouted. I managed to look up, hoping that there wasn't a sickening crack of bones and skulls and I didn't just miss it. Thankfully, there wasn't a bloody mass on the road, just a beaten Jacob, a pissed off guy climbing out of a car, and a car, obviously. John looked at the guy, who had very dark brown hair, almost black, and was pretty tall, about 6' 2" if I had to guess.
"I'm doin' what I want. You just keep driving and leave us alone." he shouted. I ran around the car for Jacob, but John caught me by the back of my neck. "Give me the damn phone!" he shouted in my ear. I looked at the phone, and saw that Lecter hung up. Fear coursed through me. I couldn't believe that he-...I started clicking away on the phone, opening the recent calls file of the phone. I saw the number that Lecter called me from and I called it. I put the phone to my ear and listened to the dial tone, but something else happened that I didn't expect in a million years.
There was ringing inside of the other guy's car.
The man outside looked at the car, then right into my eyes. My eyes widened as his did. I looked at the car. Tinted windows, but I could make out a figure moving around in there. Then the ringing stopped, and so did the ringing in my phone. The voice that spoke next came from both inside the car and in my phone.
"I guess this was mere chance that you would call me, then?"
I dropped the phone and stared at the car as the door opened. And, just as nothing could get worse, Hannibal Lecter climbed gracefully out of the car as if he were arriving by limo to a movie viewing. I felt John's hand shake against the back of my neck, then he tightened his grip and dug his nails into my skin. I uttered a small cry by accident and John glared at the man who claimed himself my father.
"You're Hannibal the Cannibal, right?" he asked, confirming his suspicions. He nodded. The man on the other side of the car stuffed his hands in his pockets and walked over to Jacob. At first I thought he was going to hurt him, but instead he helped him up and got him to sit on the hood of the car. He had a black eye and a split lip along with a cut on his forehead and a busted arm. I looked from Jacob's aid to Lecter, who was strangely calm and collected.
"I am. You're Johnathan, I presume?" he asked in the same manner, but not the same tone.
"Sure." he said hesitantly, tightening his grip on the back of my neck. I reached my hands back to try to make him stop, but it only made it worse. I tried to calm my face down because it was making all sorts of pained faces, but somehow, my face remained in a pained state. Lecter looked at me and I at him, then I looked away. This was just too weird.
"You may let go of her now. There's no need for it." he said gently to John, who only tightened his grip.
"She might get away and leave me here so you can devour my face, you fucking cannibal!" he shouted. The guy helping Jacob looked at John, giving him a warning, then looked at Lecter to see his reaction. He faked emotional hurt.
"That's not polite, calling others names. Although, Johnathan-"
"Shut up! My name's not 'Johnathan', it's John. Get it right!" he shouted. Lecter remained calm under this pressure.
"John," he corrected himself slowly. "Do you care for Reine?" he asked him simply. John stared at him for a while, then looked at me.
"She's my friend, yes." he answered hesitantly. His grip became more gentle and his nails weren't digging into my skin as much anymore, which was a relief. I still kept my hands on his wrist so he wouldn't try to rip off my skin again.
"Do you usually harm your friends and scare them half to death?" Lecter asked him. John began breathing quickly through his nose, then let me go after a moment. I ran over to Jacob, right past Lecter and next to the guy who was helping Jacob. The beaten boy looked at me and smiled.
"You okay?" he asked quietly. I nodded.
"You?" I asked in return. I mean, he was the one who had his ass kicked. He nodded.
"Says him." the guy helping him said. "He's got a black eye, a split lip, and a huge scrape on his forehead from the tumble onto the street. As I looked over at Lecter, I realized that he was moving closer to John noticeably. I could tell John noticed too; he was shaking and looking from him to me and back to him. Once Lecter was standing in front of John completely, he grabbed John by the collar of his shirt and slammed him into his car. I yelped and stood up completely facing the two. Lecter was making sure that John couldn't do anything to hurt him by securing his legs and letting go of John's shirt and pinning his arms to the car. Then Lecter began to play with his food. He leaned in close to John's ear, whispering incoherent words. I couldn't hear him. John's eyes widened as Lecter drew back and lunged at his neck, although Lecter's teeth and the skin of John's neck never met. He drew back again and his teeth snapped at John's ear. John began to whimper as Lecter drew back for the real kill.
Then I remembered what my mother said the night before my father left.
"Remember when you asked me...if I would ever say 'Stop. If you love me, stop'? Well...I'm saying it now."
So I said it. To this day, fully knowing that I still doubted the fact that he was my father at the time, I have no idea why I said it.
"STOP!!! IF YOU REALLY ARE MY FATHER, STOP!!!" I shouted. And sure enough...he stopped. Lecter turned and stared at me real hard, and then backed away from John. The boy stared at me with large eyes as Lecter stared at me with caring eyes. I only stood there. You have no idea how badly I just screwed up everything. I threw off my friends, I threw off Lecter, and I threw off myself.
Now what?
