Authors Note- Thank you SO MUCH for your kind reviews. Reading them just made my day! Here's the next chapter!! Hope you like it:
PAWN
Chapter two: The pawns black knight in shining armor
Mason Verger sat quietly in his electric wheel chair, the heavy drapes drawn on the windows of his large bedroom. In the dark, he contemplated this latest turn of events.
He knew that Carlo was not bringing home the gift that had been requested. He had called Mason less than an hour ago to inform him of what had transpired at Union Station. Directly after hanging up with Carlo, a call to Paul Krendler confirmed that the F.B.I. was proceiding with Starling's disappearance as a kidnapping, and that they were holding Lecter responsible.
"A few witnesses saw two men put her in a black van." Krendler had told him. " If there hadn't been any witnesses, the bitch wouldn't have been missed for days. They probably would have gone ahead with it as a missing persons case." Krendler paused, waiting for Mason to say something.
He was answered with nothing but silence.
He continued " It's no matter though. D.C.P.D. found Lecter's prints on her steering wheel. So I've been pushing that angle. They seem to be buying it."
"And you're sure I'm not suspected at all in this?" Mason finally spoke. The plosive sounds in the sentence lost.
" No, your not." Paul cleared his throat and then plunged "Actually, I think I've been doing a damn fine job of keeping attention away from you. You know covering up the disapearance of a federal agent was not part of our original agreement."
Money hungry cock sucker "You'll be compensated." Mason replied and hung up the phone.
Now, watching dust play in the shaft of light from the setting sun that streamed in through the drapes , Mason considered the situation You have to be able to work with what you've got. In fact, this may just work out to my benefit. Having that Starling bitch here will draw Lecter like a mosquito to a bug zapper. Mason knew this to be fact. Carlo had known it too, that's why he grabbed her while he could. Mason became more pleased with himself by the second.
"Cordell!"
Cordell entered the room like an abused puppy dog "Yes, Sir."
"Get me Carlo on the phone."
"Yes, Sir." He said in his submissive tone.
"And put on some music. I should be celebrating."
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If Clarice Starling had ever wondered what it had been like for Doctor Lecter during his time at the asylum, then she was sure getting a taste of it now. Down the sweeping halls of the Verger mansion, Clarice, bruised and battered and with the iron taste of blood in her mouth, was pushed; bound to a hand truck.
The Blue Danube Waltz played from speakers in the halls.
The man she heard the others call Carlo walked along side of her. Another, the big one, behind her doing the actual pushing. The third, the driver, she had seen go off toward the barn once they had taken her out of the van.
Upon entering the mansion, swallowing her pride, she started calling out for help Like a goddamn damsel in distress.
"I wouldn't bother if I were you, Signorina." Carlo had said with his dirty smile, leaning in a bit too close for comfort for her. He reeked of farm animals and B.O. " The servants are gone. All the people left here are paid well for their silence." Clarice flinched back as he moved to brush a rough finger across her cheek.
And then a memory returned to her. One she didn't even know she had. Doctor Lecter. In her house…. Was it a few nights ago? No, last night. I was asleep… in the chair He was there and he tucked my hair behind my ear. I felt it. He smelt clean and of a hint of tasteful cologne Intoxicating. Something he probably bought in Italy. Clarice sighed. Mmmmm.
The hand truck came to a stop and she was snapped from her revere. To her side; long windows stretching floor to ceiling looked out over the estate. The weak late afternoon light was allowed in. From the shadowed room ahead of her came a voice she recognized.
"Agent Starling." her name sounding relatively clear from his nearly lipless mouth. Mason emerged from the dark of his room, bringing to light what Doctor Lecter had left behind of his face years ago. "You know, you weren't originally on the guest list for this party." He stopped directly in front of where she was strapped, looking up at her with his single remaining functional eye. She glared right back down at him. "But I suppose God works in mysterious ways."
She considered attempting hostage negotiations with him, but decided against it. Her long, red hair fell in front of her defiant gaze. Hands and arms bound, she was unable to tuck it back. "Doctor Lecter should have finished what he started with you." She said in a calm yet menacing voice that she barely recognized.
Mason let out what passed as a chuckle, followed by a slurpy intake of breath. "Yes, I'm betting right about now he wishes he'd fed the rest of me to the dogs. What with his precious Clarice in distress and all. What do ya think, Agent Starling? Will he show up to save your life, or will he come to retrieve you so he can kill you himself?"
Clarice declined to answer. Just like she had skipped around a similar question that Jack Crawford had asked her
"Have you ever thought that he might like you, Starling?"
"I think I amuse him. Things either amuse him or they don't. If they don't…"
"Ever felt he might like you?"
YES!!!
Mason backed up his chair and began to circle her as he spoke. An attempt at appearing predatory, Clarice gathered. " In fact, I'm expecting the good Doctor soon. That's when the real fun will begin. Care to hear what's on the agenda for later?"
"I can hardly wait."
"Once the guest of honor arrives, he's going to get to watch as his girlfriend is eaten alive by wild boars possessing a full mouth of forty four teeth a piece." Mason stopped in front of her again. "Then we'll let him dwell on that for a little while, maybe a few days, give the pigs a chance to digest you and get hungry for more." He waited for reaction, but Clarice held herself as stone faced and unreadable as the Doctor would have. Disappointed, Mason continued " The next meal the boars receive will begin with an appetizer: Doctor Lecter's feet. The main course, the rest of him, won't be served until seven hours later."
Clarice broke his gaze at this and looked to the windows. There are a lot of things Clarice Starling can stand; knowing any living thing is suffering is not one of them. At least I won't be around to hear his screams. she thought sadly. But then it hit her He'll be there to hear mine. And she wanted to cry.
Mason drank her reaction in, savoring every drop. Had he the lips to do it with, he would have smiled. "But during this time, he'll be able to enjoy the effects of the pre consumed appetizer with a full body saline drip."
Clarice suppressed the tears and pulled forth the rage. Angry now more than anything, she met him head on. Unable to do much from her vantage point, she did the one thing she could; Clarice pulled back and spit in his one good eye.
One of the Sardinians snorted as Cordell rushed to a flustered and furious Mason to wipe his face. "TAKE HER TO THE BARN!" Mason barked.
As they moved to push her away, Clarice caught Cordell's eyes for no more than a second "YOU!" she called out to him; remembering him from her previous visit. His mild manners, his submissive demeanor. "How could you do this? HOW CAN YOU LIVE WITH YOURSELF?" Cordell tried to ignore her.
"DINNER AT EIGHT!" Mason called down the hall after them; confident the Doctor would be attending.
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In a detached silence, Clarice Starling, still bound to the hand truck, watched as two of the Sardinians prepared a place for her at Masons twisted dinner party. They were at work now bolting heavy leather straps to the barn floor, as though it were a hospital bed for a violent patient. All the better to eat me there, I suppose.
She looked on as the third moved a fork lift in, specially equipped with a cross bar at the top so that it resembled a crucifix. On one of the arms hung Doctor Lecter's mask from the asylum. The Sard parked it across from the spot on the floor the where the other two were at work. Well, I guess this is where you'll be seated tonight, Doctor. Best seat in the house for my demise.
Clarice smiled to herself then, and if anyone had seen her they would have thought she was crazy. The entire situation suddenly struck her as ridiculous. …Lecter, party of two. Ahh Doctor, so glad you could join me. We're about to be EATEN BY PIGS. It took her a while to realize she was crying. Silent tears. She took a deep breath to compose herself. I'm so sorry, Doctor.
They were coming over to her now, Carlo and the other one. Piero, I think. I wonder what the Italian word for asshole is. Carlo had a small knife in one hand. Piero had a Taser. Carlo stopped close in front of her and held her eyes for a long, uncomfortable moment before beginning to undo the straps on the hand truck. "You fuck with us and I'll cut you. Understand?" he spoke firmly.
Clarice understood perfectly, but said nothing. If I'm going to try and get out of this, I'm going to have to do it now. Once they get me on the floor I'm done. As soon as she was freed, Carlo quickly grabbed her left arm, twisting her around so that it was wedged painfully behind her back. Her back to his front now, her right arm was pinned down by his as it tightly circled her midriff and held the knife threateningly at her side by her ribs. Carlo did not pretend to threaten her life and hold it at her neck; Mason would not be happy if he killed her before the Doctor arrived.
Slowly, Carlo walked her ahead. Clarice discovered she could still bend her right arm at the elbow Here we go. She gripped the arm he held across her flat stomach with the knife and pulled it away, but not before he managed to cut her good across the side. Adrenalin going, Clarice hardly felt it as she turned to face him and kneed him in the crotch. Carlo doubled over in pain and Clarice sprinted for the door.
It wasn't a long run.
She didn't realize how close behind her Piero had been. He caught her around the waist, hitting her injury in the process and Clarice was well aware of it's presence now. She cried out in pain before Piero brought the Taser to her neck and incapacitated her. He moves pretty quick for a fat man her last thought before going limp in his arms.
Piero dragged her to the spot on the floor where she would be bound, dropping her there roughly. He Began to strap her arms down, glancing up at Carlo who was approaching now, still holding his crotch in pain. Piero looked back down at what he was doing, shaking his head with a smile. Her right arm was now secure. Like the first nail in her coffin.
Clarice swam back from semi consciousness as Piero began to work on her other arm. Her side was throbbing. Carlo pushed him out of the way and took over. "Get out side with Matteo and watch out for the Doctor! Attenzione! GO!" Before leaving the room, Piero stopped at a cassette player resting on a ledge on the far wall. He pressed play and the room filled with the sound of screaming victims long dead.
Carlo, straddling her now, finished binding her other wrist. There's number two. He made sure her infuriated gaze met his before he purposefully, slowly, slid his body down hers and knelt at her feet. Clarice moved her leg to kick him, in hopes of getting him square in the jaw, but he caught her. "Ah ah ah. I think not." He slammed her foot back to the floor and, sitting on the other one, proceeded to strap them both down. Clarice tried to hold her head up to see. She heard the sounds of pigs behind her; drawn to the pre recorded screams.
Carlo stood up, turned back around to face her, and straddled her again; watching her face for a moment before moving his hand roughly to her injured side. With a sharp intake of breath Clarice grimaced in pain. Carlo pulled his hand back, his fingertips covered in red. "The smell of the blood will really get the pigs excited." He leered at her. She looked away. "It's a shame," he continued, grabbing her chin tightly with his clean hand so she had to face him "Such a pity to waist a nice piece of ass like you."
She knew what was coming next.
"I've got some time to kill before the Doctor arrives." He said, sliding his hand up her shirt.
"And he's going to kill you once he gets here." in her mind; pulling up the info from the scene of Pazzi's death, a second body was found on the scene as well Use it. "Just like he killed your brother. He must be smelling as badly as you do by now."
Carlo's expression fell. He pulled back and slapped her hard across the face. His hand fumbled at the waist of her pants to unzip them. He moved to hit her again when she began to struggle against her bonds.
Clarice braced herself.
But the blow never came. Carlo's hand was stopped short, and Clarice looked up to see Doctor Lecter standing behind him. She saw blood on his mouth but it was not his own. The look in his eyes was of pure and uncontrolled rage.
Clarice could hear the bones in Carlo's hand cracking. Carlo's cries almost rivaled the screams that came from the tape player. The Doctor ripped him off of Clarice. "PIERO! MATTEO!" Carlo called out as the bones in his arm cracked as well.
"I'm afraid your friends are already dead." the Doctor sneered at him.
Doctor Lecter moved quickly, bringing his hands up to grab Carlo's face, digging Carlo's covetous eyes out of his head with his thumbs. Blood flowed down his face. The Doctor spoke to a whimpering Carlo in a dangerously quiet tone now, Clarice could hardly hear him. "Nothing would please me more right now than to see you suffer." he began "But I'm really pressed for time." The harpy seemed to appear from nowhere. "So this will have to do." he said as the Doctor slashed Carlo's femoral artery, just like the pick pocket in Florence. Clarice watched Carlo collapse to the floor.
She looked back up at the Doctor, wiping his blade clean; his face returned now to that of the controlled gentleman she was used to seeing. He used the back of his hand to wipe the blood from his face. Against her will, Clarice found herself more turned on by this display than she ever had been in her life. She swallowed hard. What is wrong with me.
The Doctor's eyes shifted to the not-so-sturdy pen that held back the gathering of ravenous pigs. He went to the tape player on the ledge and shut of the recorded screams, then turned all attention to her. "Are you alright, Clarice?" He asked; his face calm, but she heard the concern in his voice. He swiftly went down on one knee to release the straps holding her arms.
Clarice's wide eyes moved from the body lying only a few feet away, and met with the Doctor's calming gaze. She let out a relieved chuckle "As well as can be expected." Her arms were free now and he helped her sit up.
Her complexion was pale and he could smell her blood. "I would say you look well, but unfortunately, you don't."
"Gee, thanks."
"Can you walk?" he asked softly.
"I'm fine."
He sighed and shook his head with a grin while moving to her ankles " I've heard that before." With one leg free, the Doctor found his keen eyes drawn to Carlo's limp arm where he lay not so far away. He noticed a deep human bite mark just above the wrist of the right hand. Clarice's gaze followed the direction of his eyes before he looked back to her "Is that your handy work?"
She cleared her throat and rolled her eyes, wondering if the pun was on purpose. "Yeah." her face devoid of expression.
"Yeah…" he mimicked "Couldn't have done better myself." The Doctor said with a sly grin while beginning to work on the last strap.
"Shut up"
A loud crack from the boards of the pen drew their attention.
"Doctor Lecter, I'm beginning to think the stability of that gate has been overestimated." She said; her head turned so she could keep her eyes on the pigs.
With Clarice completely free now, he offered her his hand. "I'd have to agree with you."
Clarice took his hand and he carefully pulled her to her feet. Her eyes met his and her breath caught in her chest. Her mind sped back to Memphis; the last, and only time they had ever touched. This is the first time I've actually gotten a good look at him since then…. The years have been kind. His expression was the same now as it had been then and it made her dizzy. Then she realized the dizziness was probably more from the blood loss.
The boars made their presence known with their efforts to break through the gate. The lower boards snapped and they began to rush from the pen and into the barn, quickly flooding it.
"Clarice, stay very still." He told her in a calm voice, gently pulling her a little closer. Surrounded now by a sea of volatile, hungry, man eating animals.
Very tense, Clarice nodded her head. Blood from the cut on her side trickled down. A boar had stopped to sniff her leg, then moved on to the cooling body on the ground. .
"I'm going to pick you up."
"What?" Oh, you'd love that, wouldn't you "I don't need to be picked up. I hardly think this is the time--"
"Clarice, your endorphin level is high, your afraid; rightly so. Your also bleeding." he spoke low into her ear " I can smell both and so can they." He paused "I really think you should let me pick you up."
Another boar had begun to take an interest in her "Yeah…Yeah I think you're right." Clarice placed an arm behind his neck and he carefully lifted her without effort. Her eyes held his.
The Doctor had no idea how much this close proximity to her would effect him. Every curve on her warm body that touched his was felt in vivid detail. It was like the connection they had made in Memphis magnified tenfold.
Doctor Lecter focused himself and made his way out of the barn with Clarice in his arms. Past the pigs fighting over what was left of Carlo, and out the barn doors.
Once a safe distance away, the Doctor set Clarice down. Leading her by the hand, in case she feels faint he told himself, he walked her to where his Jag was parked down the service road. Ever the gentleman, Doctor Lecter opened the passenger side door for her. She stopped and looked at him a long time before thanking him and getting in. The Doctor understood that the thank you was probably for more than just opening a door for her.
Clarice sat carefully, so as not to aggravate the cut by her ribs further. The doctor did not close the door behind her. Rather, he reached into the glove compartment and retrieved a square of gauze. Crouching in front of her now, she watched as he tore open the package and carefully placed it on her hurt side. He placed her hand over it and put a little pressure on it "That will slow the bleeding for now." he said and pulled his hand away. " Clarice, I'm going to the main house to pay Mason a little visit. He did want to see me, after all. It would be rude of me not to say hello."
"Doctor Lecter, no. Don't do this." Clarice pleaded; her West Virginian accent a little more defined now. "Look. We're out. Let's just go. It's over--"
"It's hardly over, Clarice. Mason won't stop until I'm dead. He doesn't care who he hurts in the process." He had know she would plead with him not to kill anyone else; no matter how they had wronged her. But to his surprise, she conceded quite easily. As if she had only pled with him to stop out of feeling obligated to do so.
She sighed. And after a pause "You're right, of course." Her voice soft, and sad.
He continued " I won't be gone long. The keys are in the ignition. I believe you are capable. If you want to go to a hospital, I'll understand."
Clarice realized that this was his way of letting her know that she was not his prisoner. He was giving her a way out now. The thing was, she was having trouble deciding if she should get out. Well, I know I should. The real question is: Do I want to?
"However," he continued "It would please me to see you here when I get back." The Doctor held her eyes for a moment as she sat, unmoving, with out an answer for him. And he left it at that, closing the car door for her before heading over to the house in the iron dark.
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To be continued…