Clarice Starling: “Most serial killers keep some sort of trophies from their victims.”
Dr. Lecter: “I didn’t.”
Clarice Starling: “No. No, you ate yours.”
Dr. Lecter: “After your father’s murder, you were orphaned. You were ten years old. You went to live with cousins on a sheep and horse ranch in Montana. And. . . ?
Clarice Starling: “And one morning, I just ran away.”
Dr. Lecter: “Not ‘just,’ Clarice. What set you off? You started at what time?”
Clarice Starling: “Early, still dark.”
Dr. Lecter: “Then something woke you, didn’t it? Was it a dream? What was it?”
Clarice Starling: “I heard a strange noise.”
Dr. Lecter: “What was it?”
Clarice Starling: “It was -- screaming. Some kind of screaming, like a child’s voice.”
Dr. Lecter: “What did you do?”
Clarice Starling: “I went downstairs, outside. I crept up into the barn. I was so scared to look inside, but I had to.”
Dr. Lecter: “And what did you see, Clarice? What did you see?”
Clarice Starling: “Lambs. The lambs were screaming.”
Dr. Lecter: “They were slaughtering the spring lambs?”
Clarice Starling: “And they were screaming.”
Dr. Lecter: “And you ran away?”
Clarice Starling: “No. First I tried to free them. I -- I opened the gate to their pen, but they wouldn’t run. They just stood there, confused. They wouldn’t run.”
Dr. Lecter: “But you could and you did, didn’t you?”
Clarice Starling: “Yes. I took one lamb, and I ran away as fast as I could.”
Dr. Lecter: “Where were you going, Clarice?”
Clarice Starling: “I don’t know. I didn’t have any food, any water and it was very cold, very cold. I thought, I thought if I could save just one, but -- he was so heavy. So heavy. I didn’t get more than a few miles when the sheriff’s car picked me up. The rancher was so angry he sent me to live at the Lutheran Orphanage in Bozeman. I never saw the ranch again.”
Dr. Lecter: “What became of your lamb, Clarice?”
Clarice Starling: “They killed him.”
Back to *S*.
