Author's note: I'm not sure if I'm not completely out of character here. Any comments on the subject be more than welcome.


I trembled in anticipation, my pulse quickening with every step I took. The sound of my heels clicking only contributed to my high-strung nerves, my anxiety rising to the point where I wasn't sure I could go through with this. A friendly middle aged woman smiled up at me when I reached the counter.

'Identification, love?'

I handed over my identification, and she took a casual glance before deciding that it was indeed my face in the picture.

'Special agent Mapp, FBI. Welcome to Newport Federal Institute, if you would continue down that corridor over there, you will be guided to... who was it you wanted to see, again?'

'Hannibal Lecter. Jack Crawford sent me.'

'Good luck, then. I hear he's a though customer.'

After being stripped and searched, I was found unarmed and was guided to Lecter's cell. He smiled as I entered the room, strapped to the wall this time, with his hands high up in shackles and his ankles bound as well. As soon as the guards left, after sufficient threats and a call to Jack Crawford's secretary to make sure it was 'okay', the smile developed into a grin.

'Pull off that ridiculous mask, Clarice. Brown doesn't suit you, at all.'

I walked over to him, pulling off my wig and mask to reveal a grin of my own.

'Really? I thought I made a pretty convincing Ardelia.'

'Come here, my love. I admire your inventiveness.'

I pressed my lips to his, passionately, seeking to relive the sparkle I had felt when our lips first met. His skillfull tongue met mine in a heated duel of love, our minds melting together as our souls met and we became one. He would most certainly disapprove of this burlesque prose, filled as it is with the clichés he loathes with a passion. I don't care. I don't have his way with words, the art of turning words into deadly weapons. All I can do is write down what I felt at that moment, as close as I can come to describing it with words.

'Clarice...' he whispered, his voice husky in a way that sent quivers down my spine. 'We really must stop meeting like this.'

I moaned in approval, pulling away slightly.

'I won't be able to pull this off again. Sooner or later, someone will find out and we will be in real trouble.'

I sat down, staring at my shoes. The truth I had been trying to avoid seemed to be hitting me in the face. As much as I wanted to be with Lecter, he was still a wanted criminal, which meant we had not only my conscience, but the authorities against us.

'Tell me why I love you.' I asked him quietly.

My question was met with a dry chuckle, but his eyes betrayed a genuine interest. Thank God, he was taking my question seriously.

'I told you once before, Clarice. Some of our stars are the same. You may or may not believe that we are worlds apart, but the truth is that we don't differ all that much. We were both orphaned when we were young, and we both sought justice for the things that had been done to us - our methods may have differed, but in the end we're after the same thing, Clarice. Closure. You seek to revenge your daddy, I seek to revenge my sister.'

I knew I was closer to discovering the 'true' Hannibal Lecter than I had ever been before, closer than ever to the child he had been before his parents and sister met their cruel fate. I also knew that everything he had said was true.

'Tell me... about Mischa.'

He seemed to be studying me for a moment, perhaps trying to determine if I my question was born out of compassion or professional curiosity. Whatever he saw must have pleased him, for a moment later he closed his eyes and reminisced with me.


'Ardelia, you were wonderful. I couldn't have done it without you, girl.'

She was waiting for me when I got home. Not only had she leant me her Identification pass, she had agreed to model for a mask and pretend to be Crawford's secretary if anyone tried to verify my story. Why she did it I may never know, she just muttered something about true love and how it shouldn't be denied, but only because I was her best girl. God, I love Ardelia.

'Clare, how did it go? Did you get to see him? What did he say?'

I smiled broadly, my whole body glowing with excitement.

'He told me, Delia. He told me everything, about his past, about his sister... he trusts me enough to tell me things he has never told another living being. I think he loves me.'

'Oh girl! Did he kiss you? Please tell me he kissed you!'

'He kissed me.'

'You're joking right?'

'I'm not joking Ardelia. Oh my God, he is so great... there's nothing he can't do with that tongue.'

Her face fell.

'I'd hate to think where he got that experience...'

'So would I, Ardy... so would I. It's just that, I don't think I could ever love another man the way I love him. He is one of a kind, Ardelia, and I don't just mean because he eats his victims. He is magnificent, brilliant, passionate. If only he wasn't like... that.'

'Do you think he would stop, ever? If you asked him to?'

I shook my head, sadly.

'Not in a thousand years, Delia. Not in a thousand years.'