(A/N: Sorry about the delay, but, finally, here's yet another chapter!
Enjoy!)
Give Me Darkness, Give Me Light..
Chapter 4: Naked Truths
Clarice's mind was swirling as she struggled to open her eyes. An intense pain on her skull greeted her back to consciousness, the blood now crusted on her forehead. She tried to move, but quickly found out that she was lashed by her hands and feet to a rather crude metal chair, which was bolted to a wooden floor. The air felt damp and sticky with a thick, rancid, smelling stench lingering. Clarice could barely even make out her surroundings, considering that the only light came from a small lamp at the far end of the room. What she could make out however, was enough to confirm that she wasn't in a house, probably a large shed or an old barn. No windows and no furniture except for a table where the lamp sat, the chair in which Clarice was now currently occupying, and another chair to her far right. She could see no doors in the meager light that the lamp provided, and all but the wall opposite of her were hidden from Clarice's sight.
The blow that she took to the head had left her a little disoriented, but despite this she quickly tried to gather her thoughts about her situation. Replaying the events that lead herself here in the first place, she wondered if Jadis had informed anyone about her abduction yet. 'Well of course she did!' Clarice scolded herself in her head. 'Really Starling, cut the kid some slack! But what to do until help gets here?'
"Well, trying to get out might be an obvious answer," Clarice silently muttered under her breath to herself. Growling, she maneuvered her fingers to the piece of rope that held her hands together, trying to find someway to undo it and win her freedom back.
A sharp click alerted her attention back to the room. Her head shot up just in time to see a door that was previously hidden by the shadows to her far right close behind a dark, silent figure. In his hand was a small package of sorts. Clarice tensed up slightly and her fingers went quickly back to work.
The man set the package onto the table beside the lamp, all the while keeping his back to the woman tied to the chair behind him. Clarice's eyes went hard as they stared unblinking at her captor. 'Chimera,' her mind hissed. 'He must be Chimera. Only one way to find out for sure...'
Clarice lifted her head a little higher so that if he were to turn around her eyes would meet his. As her fingers still worked away behind her, she opened her mouth to speak. "Who the hell are you?"
She knew that her tone was cold, she had meant it to be that way. At the moment she was bent on getting answers and getting herself out of this alive. 'Come on....' she begged in her mind, 'come on, talk damn you!' She could almost feel the effects of her head injury wear off slightly, as if the pain had given pity on her situation. Clarice stayed as still as a rock, save for her constantly wriggling fingers. She waited patiently for a response of any kind from the soundless individual in front of her.
For a few seconds the man gave no indication that he had even heard her. After finishing his task on the table, he finally turned his attention to Clarice. His steel gray eyes pierced straight into Clarice's own blue pupils. He was no longer masked, and now showed his graying, light brown hair, which looked like it hadn't been properly taken care of in days. The light revealed his pale complexion and the deep purple circles that had taken residence underneath his sunken eyes. He seemed to be in fairly good shape for his age, despite the sickly looking image that his face provided.
"Really Agent Starling," his deep voice was quiet, but loud enough for Clarice to make out what was being said. "I'd have thought that you'd figure that out by now." He stepped a little closer to her, gradually closing the gap between them.
Clarice's gaze barely even wavered as he bent down closer to her. His eyes were still stabbing into her own. When only a few inches of space separated their faces, he opened his mouth to speak again, his breath hot and nauseating on her features. "Just in case you haven't figured it out however, allow me to introduce myself then. I am Chimera."
*********************
Jadis was sitting on the couch back in her hotel room, nursing the gash that she had suffered earlier on the arm. But at that moment, her mind was elsewhere. About ten thousand thoughts were running through her head, all getting more and more harder to comprehend the more she thought about them. The only thing that kept her from snapping entirely was fear, the fear of what may happen to Clarice if she didn't at least try to help her, and the fear of the man that was now in the room with Jadis, looking through the papers and photos on the table.
Barely a word was said between Jadis and Dr. Lecter since arriving back at the hotel room. On Jadis' part, she had just thought that it was better for her to keep her mouth shut rather than doing something that she may regret for the rest of her life. She normally wasn't a fearful woman, but the amount of sheer terror that Dr. Lecter could evoke with nothing more than a single glance was enough for Jadis to fear for her life.
At the back of her mind, however, she was battling conflicting emotions. One part of her wanted to run and go for help. Another wanted to confront the doctor head on and slam his ass back in jail. Yet another wanted to ask him for help; help her save Clarice. Then, there was a final voice, telling her that this was the chance that she has been waiting for.....
'No, not now!' Jadis yelled at herself in her head. 'Right now focus on Clarice, everything else comes second. There will be another time.'
'But what if there isn't?' Another thought argued. 'This may be the only chance you'll ever have...'
Jadis' train of thought was cut short as Dr. Lecter loomed over her. Jadis had to force herself to look up at him, against her greatest wishes. His face was expressionless, making Jadis even more uncomfortable than she already was. She swallowed hard, but her eyes involuntarily held his gaze. There were a few moments of silence as the two observed each other, until it was broken by the doctor's metallic voice.
"Tell me, Special Agent Monroe, which voice of reason won the battle?"
Jadis was taken aback. "Excuse me?"
"You seemed to been having an internal battle with yourself, what you should do versus what you want to do, I assume. Well, which won?"
Jadis swallowed yet again. She really didn't want to discuss what was going on in her head with this man. "Neither," she replied meekly.
Dr. Lecter seemed to study her eyes, as if he was looking for something in them. Jadis forced herself to stay as calm as she could on the outside at least, but in the inside she was panicking in the worse way. 'Will he see it?' she wondered above all else.
Clenching her teeth, Jadis decided that it was her turn to ask a question. She was amazed at how much courage that took. "What are you doing here Dr. Lecter?"
"I'm here to offer my help with your new case, Chimera, I believe." Jadis blinked but said nothing. Dr. Lecter continued. "Tell me, what do know about him, aside from the constant drabble that keeps repeating in the tabloids."
The young agent hesitated for a second, not sure if she should trust him or not. Not seeing any other favorable alternative however, she caved in to his request. "We figure that he must live on the outskirts of town. He seems to wait a while before killing his victims; our best bet is that he waits until around midnight to finish them. He seems to have a fetish with seeing pain, possibly as some sort of revenge, making his victims suffer like he did. In his tortures he seems to just use everyday household items, like pencils and sewing pins, nothing more. That's about all we have at this point."
"And what about the victims?"
"They are all either middle aged or seniors. All were found with Chimera's signature on them carved in brail. Other than the ages, nothing seems to be linking any of these victims together." Jadis shook her head. "In all, we have gotten just about nowhere on this case."
Dr. Lecter looked at her a little harder. "And how far have you gone into their histories exactly?"
"As much as the resources given to us allowed us to," Jadis answered. "Which was, unfortunately, very little." She sighed and wondered why Lecter was asking her all these questions. Then a thought hit her full force, along with a faint glimmer of hope. She looked up at the doctor. "You know what links the victims, don't you? You just wanted to see if we figured it out yet, haven't you?"
"Perhaps."
Jadis swallowed before asking, "What will it take for you to tell me what it is?"
Lecter was silent for a few seconds, all the while Jadis could feel his eyes studying her again, almost as if he was searching for something. She had to bit down on the inside of her cheek until it was raw to keep herself from bolting straight out of the room, away from him. The feeling only got worse when he began to speak again. "I assure you, it won't take too much. Are you familiar with the concept of quid quo pro, Special Agent Monroe?"
Jadis bit down harder, on the verge of drawing blood. Clarice had told her about this. "I tell you things, you tell me things."
Dr. Lecter grinned and nodded. "Very good, I see that you've been talking with Clarice. Well Agent Monroe, quid quo pro, yes or no?"
The hold that her teeth had on the inside of her cheek had now drawn out a few drops of her own warm, metallic tasting blood. Swallowing the droplets down, she wondered for a second if that made her a cannibal too. Quickly mentally shaking those thoughts from her head, she stood up to face the doctor eye to eye, swallowing down her fear as much as she could along with the blood. "I had already told you all I know about the case so far. I have nothing more to-"
"What makes you think that I'm looking for information on Chimera from you now?" Lecter cut her off, rendering Jadis back to silence. "No Agent Monroe, what I'm looking for from you is much more... personal I guess you could say. I would like to know a little more about you, that's all"
Jadis tensed up. "And why should I tell you about me? How is this going to help Clarice?"
"For one, the quicker you decide to cooperate with me, the quicker we can go to Clarice's rescue. Second reason being, this way you and I can learn to trust each other a little more, seeing as how a rescue attempt would require a considerable amount of trust."
Dr. Lecter paused, allowing Jadis to think this over for a few brief seconds, waiting for a response. Jadis didn't know what to think. On one hand she could try to apprehend one of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted right here and now and run the risk of losing Clarice and her own life, or she could try to trust this cannibalistic serial killer enough to possible save Clarice but risk losing her job and possibly her life. Jadis didn't see much of a choice. 'I hope that you'll understand Starling,' she thought silently in her head, almost sure that Clarice wouldn't approve of what she was about to do.
"What would you like to know Dr. Lecter?" Jadis just felt like she sold her soul to the devil himself.
"That's a good girl," Lecter grinned yet again, sending slight shivers up Jadis' spine. He appeared to be studying her face again before speaking again. "That's quite the nasty scar you bear underneath your eye, a knife blade I assume." Jadis unconsciously lifted her hand and brushed her fingers over it. "A reminder of an earlier assignment, a mark of courage of sorts?"
Jadis shook her head. "No," she responded quietly. "I got it when I was five."
Dr. Lecter raised a brow. "A scar from a knife blade at five years old? How did you acquire such an injury at that young of age?"
Jadis swallowed, her eyes downcast. "One night someone broke into our house. He had shot my father," she paused for second before continuing. "My mother had tried to get me out of the house, but just before we could get out of the door he got hold of us. In the process he had pulled out a knife and sliced me open there on my face. He then pulled both me and my mother into the bedroom..." She trailed off, the memories threatening to invade her at any minute.
Dr. Lecter snapped her back to reality. "What happened in the bedroom?"
Jadis looked back up at the doctor. "He had left me to bleed to death on the floor, while he raped my mother, right there in front of me. I don't know how long it was until the police and ambulances got there, but it was too late. They never did catch him, and my mother had died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. After that, I was taken to the orphanage and was adopted within a year."
Jadis lowered her eyes again. She couldn't believe that she had opened herself to him that much. 'For you Clarice,' she silently said in her head.
There were a few moments of silence before Dr. Lecter spoke. "There's more, isn't there? It's about your father; you were almost hesitant about discussing him. Why?"
Jadis felt the color drain from her face. 'No, not now, I can't....' Thinking quickly back to her conversations with Clarice, she said the first thing that came to her mind.
"Quid quo pro Doctor. What links each of the victims to each other?"
Lecter's eyes seemed to get slightly darker. Jadis suddenly wondered if that was a wise move on her part. Despite her sudden doubts however, she somehow managed to keep her gaze with the doctor's.
"What was the first victim's name?" Lecter asked, although Jadis knew that he already had knowledge of that information.
"Francis Parker."
Jadis could have sworn that she saw something in the doctor's maroon eyes at the mention of that name. A shimmer of something, but she couldn't put her finger on it until he spoke again. "One of my first patients, a rather hard case if I do say so myself. He couldn't handle the pressure and stress of being a new teacher, considering that he utterly despised children."
Jadis looked at him wide-eyed. "Christina Smith?"
The same look was back in his eyes. "An old romantic attachment, and a rather brief one at that. She was more concerned with her own desires and urges than being in a relationship."
'Oh shit!' Jadis looked over the third victim. "Doctor Arnold DeLong?"
"A former employer of mine, and a rather degrading one at that."
"Annabelle Hilton?"
"My first secretary. A charming young woman she was"
"The last victim, Gerald Harrison?"
"My old psychology professor."
Jadis head was in a swirl. "So Chimera must be someone from your past! Who is it?"
Dr. Lecter shook his head. "That, sadly, I have no knowledge of. It could be any number of people unfortunately."
Jadis thought fast. She knew that the local police department had the files of everyone in this town and in the outskirts on their computers. They didn't hand them over to them for the FBI's use yet, but she wondered....
She dashed to the laptop lying on the table, hoping that those endless hours hacking into the FBI's computers back at Quantico will now come into good use. Jadis was just a beginner hacker, but she knew her way around government computers enough to know how to access them with ease. In minutes a list of all the files of the townspeople filled the screen. She hesitated. "What should I search for?" She wondered out loud.
"Was there something odd about the van?" Dr. Lecter watched over her shoulder, causing a involuntary chill to rise up her spinal cord. "A trail of some kind perhaps?"
Jadis wracked her brain, thinking back to the van. 'Old... white.... A trail? What trail? Unless.... That's it! The tires! They were muddy! He must live in the country then. So he might be a year 'round cottager, the others would have already left.' She narrowed down her search to those two details and the list became significantly smaller.
She began to scroll through the list. "Mr. and Mrs. Jeffery Mackenzie?"
Jadis looked at Dr. Lecter, looking for some hint of recognition. Nothing.
She kept scrolling down and listing off names. Dr. Lecter showed no signs of recognition until Jadis said the name, "Richard Silversted?"
Immediately Jadis could see the shimmer in his eyes. She read over Silversted's information, and everything fell into place. "It's him, isn't it? He's Chimera."
The look on Lecter's face said it all. It was him. Jadis quickly scribbled down the address on a scrap piece of paper, shut off the laptop and was about to head out of the door, not even bothering asking the doctor about his knowledge of Richard Silversted, when she felt herself being held back by her arm. She quickly found herself between the wall and the menacing figure of Dr. Lecter.
"Agent Monroe, must I remind you that you still haven't told me about your father."
Jadis' heart stopped. 'Oh shit, not good...'
Hesitating, she decided that it was best to just come clean. 'For you Starling...' she said in her head before pouring out what she had tried to keep hidden for so long.
"The man that was shot that night wasn't my true father. I never knew my true father though. My mother had told me that he had died before I was even born."
Jadis desperately hoped that was all he wanted. She hoped that he wouldn't see it. Just when she thought that she was safe and he was satisfied, her hope was utterly shattered.
"Why don't you take out those green contact lenses then?"
'Shit!'
Jadis just stared at him, not believing that he saw them. "I..." she stuttered. "I can't."
"Why not?"
"Because I can't!" Jadis almost screamed.
Lecter leaned in closer to her. She could feel his breath hot on her face. "What are you trying to hide then? What is more important, your secret or Clarice's life?"
Jadis hesitated. She knew that he wasn't going to let her leave until she showed him what she has hidden for all these years. 'You own me big time Clarice.'
Her hands went to her eyes, and her head went down. With the contacts, her mask, out, she felt exposed, naked. She didn't let him see her eyes yet. She kept them tightly shut as she lifted her head. She knew that he will see it once she opened them.
Lecter's voice came again, a hint of impatience showing through in it. "What are you hiding Agent Monroe?"
'Take the plunge now Jadis, there's no turning back.' Clenching her teeth, she finally opened her eyes. Instead of maroon meeting green, it was now completely different.
Maroon meeting maroon.
Jadis swallowed and let the truth finally come out. "I'm your daughter, Dr. Lecter."
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(A/N: Hope you're enjoying it so far! As always, thank you to everyone that has reviewed!)
-SP
Give Me Darkness, Give Me Light..
Chapter 4: Naked Truths
Clarice's mind was swirling as she struggled to open her eyes. An intense pain on her skull greeted her back to consciousness, the blood now crusted on her forehead. She tried to move, but quickly found out that she was lashed by her hands and feet to a rather crude metal chair, which was bolted to a wooden floor. The air felt damp and sticky with a thick, rancid, smelling stench lingering. Clarice could barely even make out her surroundings, considering that the only light came from a small lamp at the far end of the room. What she could make out however, was enough to confirm that she wasn't in a house, probably a large shed or an old barn. No windows and no furniture except for a table where the lamp sat, the chair in which Clarice was now currently occupying, and another chair to her far right. She could see no doors in the meager light that the lamp provided, and all but the wall opposite of her were hidden from Clarice's sight.
The blow that she took to the head had left her a little disoriented, but despite this she quickly tried to gather her thoughts about her situation. Replaying the events that lead herself here in the first place, she wondered if Jadis had informed anyone about her abduction yet. 'Well of course she did!' Clarice scolded herself in her head. 'Really Starling, cut the kid some slack! But what to do until help gets here?'
"Well, trying to get out might be an obvious answer," Clarice silently muttered under her breath to herself. Growling, she maneuvered her fingers to the piece of rope that held her hands together, trying to find someway to undo it and win her freedom back.
A sharp click alerted her attention back to the room. Her head shot up just in time to see a door that was previously hidden by the shadows to her far right close behind a dark, silent figure. In his hand was a small package of sorts. Clarice tensed up slightly and her fingers went quickly back to work.
The man set the package onto the table beside the lamp, all the while keeping his back to the woman tied to the chair behind him. Clarice's eyes went hard as they stared unblinking at her captor. 'Chimera,' her mind hissed. 'He must be Chimera. Only one way to find out for sure...'
Clarice lifted her head a little higher so that if he were to turn around her eyes would meet his. As her fingers still worked away behind her, she opened her mouth to speak. "Who the hell are you?"
She knew that her tone was cold, she had meant it to be that way. At the moment she was bent on getting answers and getting herself out of this alive. 'Come on....' she begged in her mind, 'come on, talk damn you!' She could almost feel the effects of her head injury wear off slightly, as if the pain had given pity on her situation. Clarice stayed as still as a rock, save for her constantly wriggling fingers. She waited patiently for a response of any kind from the soundless individual in front of her.
For a few seconds the man gave no indication that he had even heard her. After finishing his task on the table, he finally turned his attention to Clarice. His steel gray eyes pierced straight into Clarice's own blue pupils. He was no longer masked, and now showed his graying, light brown hair, which looked like it hadn't been properly taken care of in days. The light revealed his pale complexion and the deep purple circles that had taken residence underneath his sunken eyes. He seemed to be in fairly good shape for his age, despite the sickly looking image that his face provided.
"Really Agent Starling," his deep voice was quiet, but loud enough for Clarice to make out what was being said. "I'd have thought that you'd figure that out by now." He stepped a little closer to her, gradually closing the gap between them.
Clarice's gaze barely even wavered as he bent down closer to her. His eyes were still stabbing into her own. When only a few inches of space separated their faces, he opened his mouth to speak again, his breath hot and nauseating on her features. "Just in case you haven't figured it out however, allow me to introduce myself then. I am Chimera."
*********************
Jadis was sitting on the couch back in her hotel room, nursing the gash that she had suffered earlier on the arm. But at that moment, her mind was elsewhere. About ten thousand thoughts were running through her head, all getting more and more harder to comprehend the more she thought about them. The only thing that kept her from snapping entirely was fear, the fear of what may happen to Clarice if she didn't at least try to help her, and the fear of the man that was now in the room with Jadis, looking through the papers and photos on the table.
Barely a word was said between Jadis and Dr. Lecter since arriving back at the hotel room. On Jadis' part, she had just thought that it was better for her to keep her mouth shut rather than doing something that she may regret for the rest of her life. She normally wasn't a fearful woman, but the amount of sheer terror that Dr. Lecter could evoke with nothing more than a single glance was enough for Jadis to fear for her life.
At the back of her mind, however, she was battling conflicting emotions. One part of her wanted to run and go for help. Another wanted to confront the doctor head on and slam his ass back in jail. Yet another wanted to ask him for help; help her save Clarice. Then, there was a final voice, telling her that this was the chance that she has been waiting for.....
'No, not now!' Jadis yelled at herself in her head. 'Right now focus on Clarice, everything else comes second. There will be another time.'
'But what if there isn't?' Another thought argued. 'This may be the only chance you'll ever have...'
Jadis' train of thought was cut short as Dr. Lecter loomed over her. Jadis had to force herself to look up at him, against her greatest wishes. His face was expressionless, making Jadis even more uncomfortable than she already was. She swallowed hard, but her eyes involuntarily held his gaze. There were a few moments of silence as the two observed each other, until it was broken by the doctor's metallic voice.
"Tell me, Special Agent Monroe, which voice of reason won the battle?"
Jadis was taken aback. "Excuse me?"
"You seemed to been having an internal battle with yourself, what you should do versus what you want to do, I assume. Well, which won?"
Jadis swallowed yet again. She really didn't want to discuss what was going on in her head with this man. "Neither," she replied meekly.
Dr. Lecter seemed to study her eyes, as if he was looking for something in them. Jadis forced herself to stay as calm as she could on the outside at least, but in the inside she was panicking in the worse way. 'Will he see it?' she wondered above all else.
Clenching her teeth, Jadis decided that it was her turn to ask a question. She was amazed at how much courage that took. "What are you doing here Dr. Lecter?"
"I'm here to offer my help with your new case, Chimera, I believe." Jadis blinked but said nothing. Dr. Lecter continued. "Tell me, what do know about him, aside from the constant drabble that keeps repeating in the tabloids."
The young agent hesitated for a second, not sure if she should trust him or not. Not seeing any other favorable alternative however, she caved in to his request. "We figure that he must live on the outskirts of town. He seems to wait a while before killing his victims; our best bet is that he waits until around midnight to finish them. He seems to have a fetish with seeing pain, possibly as some sort of revenge, making his victims suffer like he did. In his tortures he seems to just use everyday household items, like pencils and sewing pins, nothing more. That's about all we have at this point."
"And what about the victims?"
"They are all either middle aged or seniors. All were found with Chimera's signature on them carved in brail. Other than the ages, nothing seems to be linking any of these victims together." Jadis shook her head. "In all, we have gotten just about nowhere on this case."
Dr. Lecter looked at her a little harder. "And how far have you gone into their histories exactly?"
"As much as the resources given to us allowed us to," Jadis answered. "Which was, unfortunately, very little." She sighed and wondered why Lecter was asking her all these questions. Then a thought hit her full force, along with a faint glimmer of hope. She looked up at the doctor. "You know what links the victims, don't you? You just wanted to see if we figured it out yet, haven't you?"
"Perhaps."
Jadis swallowed before asking, "What will it take for you to tell me what it is?"
Lecter was silent for a few seconds, all the while Jadis could feel his eyes studying her again, almost as if he was searching for something. She had to bit down on the inside of her cheek until it was raw to keep herself from bolting straight out of the room, away from him. The feeling only got worse when he began to speak again. "I assure you, it won't take too much. Are you familiar with the concept of quid quo pro, Special Agent Monroe?"
Jadis bit down harder, on the verge of drawing blood. Clarice had told her about this. "I tell you things, you tell me things."
Dr. Lecter grinned and nodded. "Very good, I see that you've been talking with Clarice. Well Agent Monroe, quid quo pro, yes or no?"
The hold that her teeth had on the inside of her cheek had now drawn out a few drops of her own warm, metallic tasting blood. Swallowing the droplets down, she wondered for a second if that made her a cannibal too. Quickly mentally shaking those thoughts from her head, she stood up to face the doctor eye to eye, swallowing down her fear as much as she could along with the blood. "I had already told you all I know about the case so far. I have nothing more to-"
"What makes you think that I'm looking for information on Chimera from you now?" Lecter cut her off, rendering Jadis back to silence. "No Agent Monroe, what I'm looking for from you is much more... personal I guess you could say. I would like to know a little more about you, that's all"
Jadis tensed up. "And why should I tell you about me? How is this going to help Clarice?"
"For one, the quicker you decide to cooperate with me, the quicker we can go to Clarice's rescue. Second reason being, this way you and I can learn to trust each other a little more, seeing as how a rescue attempt would require a considerable amount of trust."
Dr. Lecter paused, allowing Jadis to think this over for a few brief seconds, waiting for a response. Jadis didn't know what to think. On one hand she could try to apprehend one of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted right here and now and run the risk of losing Clarice and her own life, or she could try to trust this cannibalistic serial killer enough to possible save Clarice but risk losing her job and possibly her life. Jadis didn't see much of a choice. 'I hope that you'll understand Starling,' she thought silently in her head, almost sure that Clarice wouldn't approve of what she was about to do.
"What would you like to know Dr. Lecter?" Jadis just felt like she sold her soul to the devil himself.
"That's a good girl," Lecter grinned yet again, sending slight shivers up Jadis' spine. He appeared to be studying her face again before speaking again. "That's quite the nasty scar you bear underneath your eye, a knife blade I assume." Jadis unconsciously lifted her hand and brushed her fingers over it. "A reminder of an earlier assignment, a mark of courage of sorts?"
Jadis shook her head. "No," she responded quietly. "I got it when I was five."
Dr. Lecter raised a brow. "A scar from a knife blade at five years old? How did you acquire such an injury at that young of age?"
Jadis swallowed, her eyes downcast. "One night someone broke into our house. He had shot my father," she paused for second before continuing. "My mother had tried to get me out of the house, but just before we could get out of the door he got hold of us. In the process he had pulled out a knife and sliced me open there on my face. He then pulled both me and my mother into the bedroom..." She trailed off, the memories threatening to invade her at any minute.
Dr. Lecter snapped her back to reality. "What happened in the bedroom?"
Jadis looked back up at the doctor. "He had left me to bleed to death on the floor, while he raped my mother, right there in front of me. I don't know how long it was until the police and ambulances got there, but it was too late. They never did catch him, and my mother had died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. After that, I was taken to the orphanage and was adopted within a year."
Jadis lowered her eyes again. She couldn't believe that she had opened herself to him that much. 'For you Clarice,' she silently said in her head.
There were a few moments of silence before Dr. Lecter spoke. "There's more, isn't there? It's about your father; you were almost hesitant about discussing him. Why?"
Jadis felt the color drain from her face. 'No, not now, I can't....' Thinking quickly back to her conversations with Clarice, she said the first thing that came to her mind.
"Quid quo pro Doctor. What links each of the victims to each other?"
Lecter's eyes seemed to get slightly darker. Jadis suddenly wondered if that was a wise move on her part. Despite her sudden doubts however, she somehow managed to keep her gaze with the doctor's.
"What was the first victim's name?" Lecter asked, although Jadis knew that he already had knowledge of that information.
"Francis Parker."
Jadis could have sworn that she saw something in the doctor's maroon eyes at the mention of that name. A shimmer of something, but she couldn't put her finger on it until he spoke again. "One of my first patients, a rather hard case if I do say so myself. He couldn't handle the pressure and stress of being a new teacher, considering that he utterly despised children."
Jadis looked at him wide-eyed. "Christina Smith?"
The same look was back in his eyes. "An old romantic attachment, and a rather brief one at that. She was more concerned with her own desires and urges than being in a relationship."
'Oh shit!' Jadis looked over the third victim. "Doctor Arnold DeLong?"
"A former employer of mine, and a rather degrading one at that."
"Annabelle Hilton?"
"My first secretary. A charming young woman she was"
"The last victim, Gerald Harrison?"
"My old psychology professor."
Jadis head was in a swirl. "So Chimera must be someone from your past! Who is it?"
Dr. Lecter shook his head. "That, sadly, I have no knowledge of. It could be any number of people unfortunately."
Jadis thought fast. She knew that the local police department had the files of everyone in this town and in the outskirts on their computers. They didn't hand them over to them for the FBI's use yet, but she wondered....
She dashed to the laptop lying on the table, hoping that those endless hours hacking into the FBI's computers back at Quantico will now come into good use. Jadis was just a beginner hacker, but she knew her way around government computers enough to know how to access them with ease. In minutes a list of all the files of the townspeople filled the screen. She hesitated. "What should I search for?" She wondered out loud.
"Was there something odd about the van?" Dr. Lecter watched over her shoulder, causing a involuntary chill to rise up her spinal cord. "A trail of some kind perhaps?"
Jadis wracked her brain, thinking back to the van. 'Old... white.... A trail? What trail? Unless.... That's it! The tires! They were muddy! He must live in the country then. So he might be a year 'round cottager, the others would have already left.' She narrowed down her search to those two details and the list became significantly smaller.
She began to scroll through the list. "Mr. and Mrs. Jeffery Mackenzie?"
Jadis looked at Dr. Lecter, looking for some hint of recognition. Nothing.
She kept scrolling down and listing off names. Dr. Lecter showed no signs of recognition until Jadis said the name, "Richard Silversted?"
Immediately Jadis could see the shimmer in his eyes. She read over Silversted's information, and everything fell into place. "It's him, isn't it? He's Chimera."
The look on Lecter's face said it all. It was him. Jadis quickly scribbled down the address on a scrap piece of paper, shut off the laptop and was about to head out of the door, not even bothering asking the doctor about his knowledge of Richard Silversted, when she felt herself being held back by her arm. She quickly found herself between the wall and the menacing figure of Dr. Lecter.
"Agent Monroe, must I remind you that you still haven't told me about your father."
Jadis' heart stopped. 'Oh shit, not good...'
Hesitating, she decided that it was best to just come clean. 'For you Starling...' she said in her head before pouring out what she had tried to keep hidden for so long.
"The man that was shot that night wasn't my true father. I never knew my true father though. My mother had told me that he had died before I was even born."
Jadis desperately hoped that was all he wanted. She hoped that he wouldn't see it. Just when she thought that she was safe and he was satisfied, her hope was utterly shattered.
"Why don't you take out those green contact lenses then?"
'Shit!'
Jadis just stared at him, not believing that he saw them. "I..." she stuttered. "I can't."
"Why not?"
"Because I can't!" Jadis almost screamed.
Lecter leaned in closer to her. She could feel his breath hot on her face. "What are you trying to hide then? What is more important, your secret or Clarice's life?"
Jadis hesitated. She knew that he wasn't going to let her leave until she showed him what she has hidden for all these years. 'You own me big time Clarice.'
Her hands went to her eyes, and her head went down. With the contacts, her mask, out, she felt exposed, naked. She didn't let him see her eyes yet. She kept them tightly shut as she lifted her head. She knew that he will see it once she opened them.
Lecter's voice came again, a hint of impatience showing through in it. "What are you hiding Agent Monroe?"
'Take the plunge now Jadis, there's no turning back.' Clenching her teeth, she finally opened her eyes. Instead of maroon meeting green, it was now completely different.
Maroon meeting maroon.
Jadis swallowed and let the truth finally come out. "I'm your daughter, Dr. Lecter."
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(A/N: Hope you're enjoying it so far! As always, thank you to everyone that has reviewed!)
-SP