Note: The number of siblings Clarice has and their respective names are merely my headcannon, there's no mention of how many they were or their genders in book canon —that I know of at least.

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Clarice had thought it was already over. That she had finally earned that blessed silence. That she no longer would suffer from nightmares, ever again. That she'd never again wake up in the middle of the night, surrounded by darkness, hearing the painful screaming of the lambs she'd first heard when she was ten.

The silence had been good, while it lasted, but it would soon fade away. Soon enough, the same old memory invaded her mind. The same recurring nightmare again. Clarice would wake up in her room from the ranch in Montana, hearing some strange noise, the sky still dark outside. She heard it, they were screams, and they sounded distant... Loud enough for Clarice to hear them. They sounded like a child's crying. As a child, Clarice thought there were no other kids in the ranch... It intrigued her, while it also concerned her slightly.

Slowly, Clarice got up from her bed, dressed up and sneaked out of the house, approaching the barn when she heard that cry again. It was then when, peeking from the closed gates, the ten-year-old saw the lambs, being led to their slaughter. She sneaked inside the barn, and tried opening the gates for the lambs, but they were afraid... Yet, they wouldn't move. Clarice couldn't understand at all. So she got one in her arms, carrying it down the road... Until she couldn't anymore. It was so heavy, and the sheriff's car pulled over... They didn't make it far. And Clarice, later that morning, was there to witness the lamb she had tried to save die... She had failed to save it.

Clarice woke up sweating, despite the cool breeze that came in through the window. The moonlight illuminated the room dimly, reminding her she was no longer there. She was 33, not 10. A veteran FBI agent, no longer a child. And yet...