FOUND: A Hannigram Devil AU REWRITTEN

Chapter Nine

Will was asleep that night when the creature came back for him.

The abyss of darkness that he was floating in began to feel more tangible, touching his skin. It was a cold, wet feeling, and the wonderful silence was now replaced by the rush of the ocean.

Slowly, Will opened his eyes, surprised to find himself staring at the night sky. The full moon shone down upon him like an unblinking eye. A breeze made the hairs on his arms perk up. He lay on his back on the shore, wet sand between his fingers. He smelled and tasted salt.

He sat up and rubbed his head, slowly taking in his surroundings. He was at the bottom of a set of rocky cliffs that stretched far upwards. He brought himself to his feet and backed away, trying to see how far they reached.

Standing at the top of one of the cliffs, staring directly down at him, was a dark figure with antlers. Even from this far of a distance, Will could feel its eyes boring into his, a halo of light surrounding it. 

The wind whispered his name, and he listened. Come join me, it said, the words coiling around him like fog. They enveloped him, curling around his head and loosening his muscles. They were too strong to fight against. He let them take control, and the strong breeze began to push him towards the cliffs like he was possessed. The creature, the angel, held out its hand.

Join me, it repeated. We can stand here together. 

The words were so soft, so comforting. Will strained his neck looking up at the angel; he yearned to be with it so, so badly. He wanted to come closer to it, but it was so far away. Such a treacherous climb.

"I can't," he whispered. "I want to, but I can't."

Do not worry, Will. You will reach me eventually. You are destined to. To Will's dismay, the angel began to walk away from the edge, leaving him alone on the shore.

"No. No, don't leave me." Will reached upwards, but that only seemed to make the cliff stretch farther away. "Help me. I want to be there, too."

You won't be alone much longer. I promise. Soon, you will understand everything.

The dream was over as quickly as it had begun. The moon lowered its lid and blinked, shrouding the world in darkness, and Will was back to the comforting void. He hardly remembered it in the morning.

~~~

Officially, Will was on administrative leave until the middle of next week. He found the idea to be silly. An order to stop working wasn't an order to stop thinking — the cases were always going to dominate his brain. It shouldn't matter if he was in an office or in his bed.

Still, he tried to take it optimistically. Jack felt bad for him, at least as bad as Jack could feel. He didn't take Will's claims with any suspicion, which Will was grateful for. He wondered if Hannibal had any influence over that.

When Hannibal called to say that he'd scheduled him an extra session, Will agreed to go. He drove himself and got there early, working up the courage in the parking lot.

Now he sat across from the devil.

"Do you want to talk about what happened?" Hannibal asked.

"I want to talk about you," Will replied. "If I focus too much on myself, I think I'll go insane."

Hannibal paused. "Society has always been drawn in by the 'eye for an eye' principle. You get in return exactly what you've given to others."

"Murder for murder?"

"And information for information."

The connection clicked. "What do you want to know?"

"Why did you shoot Nicholas Boyle?"