Chapter 435 - 285: The Scarier It Gets, The More You Watch

Chapter 435: Chapter 285: The Scarier It Gets, The More You Watch

Still, this was already excellent. He’d never experienced such heart-pounding, cold-sweat-inducing terror in a movie theater before. It was worth the price of admission, at least.

Wait, the tickets were free.

An absolute bargain.

But the film’s plot once again defied his expectations.

An officer turned over the body in the stairwell and discovered its face had been skinned.

The camera then cut to the ambulance transporting the injured officer. The "officer" on the stretcher sat bolt upright and peeled the bloody, mangled flesh from his own face—it was the skin from the body in the stairwell.

And beneath that human-skin mask was the smiling face of Hannibal.

He had escaped!

The Captain’s scalp tingled.

’They actually dared to film it like that!’

Hannibal had won his freedom, and Starling was still searching for her own redemption.

The police department’s main force was being run ragged, chasing their tails thanks to the false information Hannibal had fed them.

Only Starling, acting on Hannibal’s clues, investigated Buffalo Bill’s first victim on her own.

He coveted. He wanted to become a woman, and the woman he coveted most was the first victim. They had known each other.

Starling’s investigation led her to the home of a tailor where the first victim had once worked.

There, she met the real Buffalo Bill.

A young man who didn’t look like anything special.

The house was filled with moths, symbols of metamorphosis. There were needles and thread everywhere, but no cloth to sew.

’What was he sewing?’

Every person in the audience made the connection: Buffalo Bill was skinning his victims. He was going to sew himself a coat, one made from the skin of women.

It was the final step in his metamorphosis.

A truly depraved idea.

But it also made sense. Someone who wasn’t a pervert wouldn’t be committing these crimes in the first place.

Ultimately, in the darkness of the basement, Starling managed to turn the tables and kill Buffalo Bill.

She had found her redemption. The lambs in her mind would scream no more. She had proven she had the power to save the helpless.

Meanwhile, Hannibal was once again at large, a true Devil unleashed upon the world.

’No, I shouldn’t call him a Devil anymore.’

’Didn’t I decide I was going to start understanding Devils?’

The Captain chuckled. Human evil was just that—human evil. It shouldn’t be blamed on some Devil’s temptation.

The theater lights came up, and only then did he realize his hand was numb.

He had been clenching his fist so tightly during the tense movie.

Still, he was in better shape than some. There were people in the theater who were so weak-kneed they couldn’t even stand up. They’d start to rise, only to wobble and plop right back down in their seats.

As for whether people would go to a theater just for a good scare, the Captain now had his answer.

They would.

He wanted to see it again himself.

It was genuinely thrilling, genuinely stimulating.

But before he could watch it a second time, he had a report to write. The Guard Corps had to file a report summarizing the situation after every complaint they received.

What a pain.

The Captain scratched his head.

’How should I write this report? How am I supposed to explain this whole Devil business?’

’I want to understand Devils, to stop treating them as stereotypes... but would the Commander understand that?’

’Oh, right. The Commander... Speaking of which, where in the world were the reinforcements my aide went to call for?’

The Captain stared at the empty theater entrance.

Hadn’t anyone come to notify him?

Just then, the doors to the adjacent theater opened, and a large group of people in uniform filed out.

The man at the front wore more ornate armor, but he was being supported by those around him, patting his chest to catch his breath as he walked.

The Captain took a closer look. "Commander?"