Stockholm \Moriarty\AWKIF BK2\

1

Screams. Horrible screams. "Clarice, why did you ask me to treat you?" Blank, innocent blue eyes slid over to the man perched in an armchair, notebook in his lap.

Clarice gripped the knife she always kept on her person and pulled it into her sleeve before standing. The doctor thought nothing of the action, having patients pace his office before.

The blonde didnt answer the question as she moved to stand in front of the man, the knife slowly coming into his view. Before he could act, Clarice swung out her arm and giggled manicaly as the man choked on his own blood.

Clarice blinked at the doctor once as she thought out her answer. "I need a place I can get my thoughts out." Red. It was everywhere. "Things get messy if I keep them bottled up."

"Have you tried keeping a journal?" The smell. Burning paper and cloth.

"They don't help. I need to voice them. There are questions that will eat at me and I was hoping you could answer them." The doctor scribbled something down and nodded his head.

"I'll try my best."

"Do you follow any religion?" she asked, her eyebrows knit together.

"No, but my parents were Catholic."

"So you would say you understand morality?" The doctor nodded and shifted. "Do you understand that actions are only good or bad because we made them that way?"

"Over the course of time, we have labeled actions due to the consequences they bring," he agreed with a nod.

"If someone is a victim of spousal abuse, we consider the victim killing the abuser self defense. Even then they can be convicted of manslaughter. It's human instinct to find any means to free themselves and when they do, the victim is considered the guilty party. Why do you think that is?" The doctor frowned in thought and studied the girl carefully.

"If a person is capable of hurting someone in such a way, they are more than capable of doing it to others. We remove them in order to prevent them from hurting anyone else." Clarice frowned as well. Lunatic. Psycho.

"And what if they don't? What if they never intend to harm again? You lock them away anyway." A thick silence fell on the room for a moment and Clarice took a deep breath. "This is why I came. I can't ask myself these questions. It'd be self destructive."

"Why would you be asking yourself these kinds of questions, Clarice?" Repetition. Always repeating the name. "Have you hurt people?"

"No." 'Lies.' It was dark. Best coverage. 'Confess.' "But I do think about it. And this is where morality comes into light. It's only human instinct but we've drilled in the thought that pain is bad. So I don't. But I think about it some more. It's a terrible cycle."

The doctor began scribbling. Pens, pens. I could do lovely things with pens. Like change the color of the ink to red. "How often do you think about hurting people?"

"I never stop. It's like a wheel that's forever turning. So far, I can see three ways I could hurt you and get away with it. But I won't." 'Give it time. All things must die.' "It wouldn't be worth the consequence. And the cycle continues."

The doctor frowned and studied Clarice like a man trapped in a lions den, looking into the innocent lioness's eyes, acting on instict and toying with her prey. Stop. 'Never.'

"Take animals. We don't try lions with murder of the livestock they hunt. Plenty of species feed upon their own at some point. Nobody bothers with them. Again, morality comes into play when you take animals out of the equation and put in humans."