Well, this is the final part! Thank you, lily1121, for Reviewing the fourth Chapter! All the informations presented in here are fiction; hence, FanFiction. Enjoy!


Chapter Five

Celeste reached out her hand to open the heavy door, when suddenly they opened before her. The girl came face to face with Lady Murasaki. The two women stood in front of each other, eyes locked. It was Lady Murasaki, who broke the contact by moving to the side.

"Hello, Celeste." She greeted and nodded her head. Celeste bowed in return. "So, you heard."

"It was hard not to, Lady Murasaki, seeing as there is a large crowd of students shouting and demanding to free Hannibal." The blonde studied Lady Murasaki's face. Deep sadness reflected in her expression. Celeste decided she enjoyed the look on the beautiful woman's face. She passed her by, nodding slightly "If you excuse me, Lady Murasaki, I want to see him now."

Lady Murasaki did nothing in response. She merely watched as the young woman entered the room and the door closed behind her.

After Lady Murasaki left, Hannibal continued to stand in silence, his head lifting at the familiar scent of peaches. Then, he heard Lady Murasaki talking to someone who he soon recognized as Celeste. She entered the room a few moments later, the everlasting smile on her face. It seemed to be a bit wider than usual, then again, Hannibal hadn't seen her for a couple days. First, he'd chased after Grutas, blown up his boat, the police found him wandering around aimlessly and he was put in jail. It seemed like a year and not a few days since he last saw Celeste or smelled the scent of peaches that had always accompanied her.

Celeste stopped in front of him, cocking her head to the side to look at him. She studied him for a while before speaking.

"At least you're alive." The smile melted away slowly "I'm glad. Did you hear the shouts outside? They're calling your name. They want the police to release you. I think they will. Soon. You've become a celebrity, Hannibal."

"I'm glad to see you're all right too, Celeste. You've been working in the shadows, I heard." Hannibal had gotten the chance to read a couple newspapers. There were many reports of attacks on men in dark alleys. Hannibal wondered if Celeste has been luring them there on purpose, he wondered if she's been consciously rousing them just to have a pretext to beat the shit out of them, maybe even kill them. All the men were known for selling women to public houses or as serial rapists constantly escaping judgment.

"I had to keep myself busy."

"By putting rapists to punishment."

"Which they deserved. And, isn't that just what you've done?" Celeste took a small step forward "Wasn't all that their punishment?"

"That's different. I promised Mischa."

"Of course it's different!" she raised her voice slightly, but soon calmed down "The only difference is, you're here, in jail, and I'm still free. You know… I made a promise to someone as well. I've worked hard, and now I feel ready to fulfill it." She took out a piece of paper and showed him. It was a page ripped out of the newspaper. The headline announced a big party for American war veterans, held in Paris, in Kleber's – or Kolnas' – restaurant. Hannibal scanned the note briefly.

"Planning to pay your daddy a visit, aren't you?" Hannibal asked calmly.

"Not only him. All those people are responsible for my loss. Did you know that some of the American soldiers came to Germany and became Nazi? They've fought with the Soviet army, and one day, came across my house. They killed everyone, my step-father, my two half-brothers, then my oldest half-brother, they raped and killed my mother. They wiped out everything that was dear to me." Celeste's eyes flashed. She came even closer and whispered, "And now, I'm going to wipe them out. All of them."

Hannibal's eyes were locked with hers. The two of them stood in silence, then Celeste broke the eye-contact by turning around, her back facing him.

"I have to go now. Try to get yourself out of here as soon as you can." She looked at him one last time before walking out of the room "See you soon, Hannibal."

Hannibal watched as the door closed and heard Celeste's silent footsteps for a while, before everything was quiet again. The sweet scent of peaches soon melted into the air.

"I was wrong. There is someone I like just as much as you, if not a bit more, Lady Murasaki."

-

They all had no idea how did that happen. While the American soldiers had been entertaining themselves during the party, the restaurant suddenly shook violently due to the powerful explosion and the whole building had soon gotten engulfed in flames. It all lasted not longer than an hour. During that hour, everyone present in the restaurant had burnt to death.

A few hours earlier, during the tragedy, Colonel David Collins, age 47, lied on the floor, flames licking his body painfully. His throat was sore from screaming. He thought he'd heard something other than the damage caused by the fire. He thought he'd heard footsteps, quiet, calm footsteps. He raised his head to look at the person, who was approaching him slowly. His light blue eyes fell upon a dark silhouette; the person stopped a few feet in front of him and he could see long hair and a slender body. A female.

"Help…" he whispered hoarsely. The woman bent down and the flames enlightened her face. Blonde hair that looked almost orange due to he fire, eyes that held a different color, and a face he'd recognized. He saw a part of him in her face and suddenly understood.

The sound of sirens reached his ears, but he knew it was too late. His body ached beyond imagination and Collins wanted it all to stop.

"Welcome in Hell, father." The voice, so cold and mocking, rang from somewhere near his ear. He could sense the woman getting up and she disappeared. A few seconds later, Colonel Collins was dead. The fire fighters appeared two minutes and twenty-six seconds later, when everyone was already dead.

Hannibal was reading about the fire accident in the newspaper while sitting in the train's restaurant wagon, on his way to Baltimore, where he's gotten the stipendium in Johns Hopkins Medical Center. He finished reading the article, folded the paper and looked out of the window. The weather was nice. The clear blue color of the sky reminded him of Luca Bellusci's 'Tranquility'. And Celeste. The girl who craved acceptance, the girl who wanted a family. The extraordinary girl who wished to be normal. A person so alike to himself.

"See you soon, Hannibal.", she'd said back in the jail.

He wondered how soon her 'soon' will be.


Author's Note: That's the end of 'Crescent Moon'! It's officially complete, though a sequel might be possible; it all depends on a simple thing whether or not I will find the time to watch 'Red Dragon' and 'Hannibal'. I have both movies, along with 'The Silence of the Lambs' (which I've seen around 5 or 6 times), so the only problem is time. And inspiration.

Review, please! :)