Tainted | Hannibal Lecter

13. Party

Madison peered over to her nightstand and saw the digital clock that read 2:00pm. She had trouble sleeping last night, due to her damaging habit of overthinking, and therefore had only slept for 4 hours. She felt disoriented. She'd missed half of the day, and yet all she wanted to do was go back to sleep. But instead, she dangled her feet over the edge of her bed, rubbed her eyes, and hoped she'd make it through the day.
It was a weird thing: grief. She'd thought she'd feel this way for a certain amount of time and then it would all stop. She could go back to living her life. But that's not how it works. There's good days and bad days. Today was a bad day. She had no motivation and couldn't see past the cloud of negative thoughts.

After dragging herself out of bed and into the kitchen, she got a glass of water and sat down on the couch opposite the tv. She was reminded of when she had sat there with Marco. She thought of texting him, maybe arranging to see him again, but she found the idea quite dreadful. Having to present yet another happy face.
She soon found herself lying down fully on the couch, watching a film. She knew she should get up and be productive, yet she did the opposite. Her eyes felt heavy, and soon they were fully closed, allowing herself to flee her self destructive mind.

Three loud knocks jolted Madison up from her sleep.
She looked around the room in a daze and thought that maybe she was dreaming.
But all thought of that dissolved as another three loud knocks travelled through her apartment.

"Madison?"
She recognised Hannibal's deep voice immediately.

She got up from the couch and started to walk to the door, but she realised she was wearing only an oversized t-shirt, so she quickly ran into her room and put some joggers on. Once prepared, she opened the door, revealing Hannibal's tall body.

"Where were you?"
He said instantly

"What?"

She slowly backed up as Hannibal walked towards her, shutting the door behind him.
He noticed her dark under eyes and messy hair and immediately knew she hadn't slept well. He further deduced that it may've been in result of his visit last night. He knew she'd overthink their conversation. He enjoyed thinking of her stressing about his dull mannerisms and whether it was because of something she'd done. It was amusing to play with her.

"You missed our appointment, Madison."
His voice was dark and intimidating

Madison looked back at the clock on her wall and muttered something under her breath.

"I'm so sorry, Hannibal."

"You had me worried."

"I had no intention on missing it, i swear."
She felt terrible for missing it, and even worse for not being able to describe how bad she felt.

"Did something happen? Are you alright?"

She nodded quickly and tried to look as if she had slept a few more hours more than she did, but it didn't work, Hannibal saw right through her.

"I'm fine"

"Talk to me, how do you feel?"

She turned around and walked to the couch

"I said i feel fine."
She says while sitting down

"Madison, i thought we had gotten past the lies. Now, tell the truth."

"I'm just tired, i didn't sleep much last night."

"Why? What where you thinking of ?"

She wanted to say "You", but of course, she opted for the safer option.

"My parents."
It wasn't a lie, she was always thinking of them - at all times. But last night, every thought ran back to him. What would Hannibal think about this? How would he react if i told him this?