éclaircissement8 Only one more chapter to go after this!!!!! Sorry it took so long! :-)

Ch. 8

Clarice woke to the sound of Hannibal screaming in his sleep. She woke him while moving to embrace him.
"Shhh....its ok..Hannibal....you're ok..."
He woke with a start, tears falling from his eyes. She gently kissed them away, smoothing out his hair.
"What happened? Did you dream about Mischa?"
He looked at her, suddenly angry.
"Get away from me."
"What?"
He got out of the bed and moved as far away as he could.
"I would like you to leave."
"Whats going on Hannibal?"
"Nothing, nothing at all. Just a mistake."
"A mistake. Well fine then. Have it your way."She wrapped her coat around herself and gathered her things.
She was about to leave when she turned around.
"I would have said so much to you. I would have been ready to say it, to say I love you. But if my love is just a mistake to you, then to hell with you and all of your lies and deceptions and pretty words and pretty gifts!"With that she took off the necklace and threw it at him and left.

Hannibal sat in his chair angry and confused. He had dreamt the same dream as always except this time it was a lamb that was being dragged and Clarice was who they chose. He was angry at himself. He let Clarice take Mischa's place and he could never do that. But then a tiny voice of reason spoke and said that maybe it wasnt that she replaced Mischa, because Mischa would always be there in his memory palace. Maybe it was that he now had someone else to worry about beng hurt and he didnt want that to happen to Clarice as well. He searched his memory palace for Mischa and found that part of his mind devoid of the earlier holes and full of the color purple and there she was, his Mischa waving back at him. She was still there. Clarice hadnt replaced her. Clarice had redeemed her spirit and let him let her go. Now he felt his heart lurch at the remembrance of the morning's occurances.He picked up the necklace from its heap on the floor. What had he done? And could he undo it? He wept for his foolishness and for the new horror of another person he had lost.

Clarice packed her things in rage. She had entrusted her soul to him and he had ripped in in two. Why did he act that way? Surely it couldnt have just been because of a mistake. She felt she knew Hannibal far better than anyone else and this wasnt him. It had to be because of that dream. When I asked him about it, thats when he got so upset. BUt still, he shouldnt have taken it out on me. She sighed and sat on the floor.
*I Love Him.*
But, what can I do? He doesnt want to be near me?

Tomorrow was her day to leave and silently she cried. She had loved and lost once in her lifetime and now it was happening again. Once again the lambs began to scream.
*How I need you Hannibal, and yet you rejected me? Maybe you realized you need me more than you thought and it scares you....or maybe Im just kidding myself.*
She sighed again and drifted off into a fitful sleep.