The Sculpture And The Sculpted

Chapter 4

Hannibal's hand still brought summer to Will's when it slipped into his outstretched palm. Will could feel the way that Hannibal pulled the strength from him, and Will found himself more than willing to offer it. He pulled Hannibal closer to the head of the room that was tensely quiet.

As they neared a sound like a wounded animal came from Hannibal, stifled and nowhere near as loud as the fox cries Will had heard mere days before. Hannibal's hand slipped from Will's and Will could only watch as Hannibal's knees gave out, sending him to the floor. A trembling hand reached out and took Mischa's as the other, still twisted with red ribbon, clasped over Hannibal's mouth to help hide the noises that were wanting to burst from him.

Doctor Chilton took the opportunity to slowly approach, his well put together self as pristine as it ever was. Will found that the doctor preferred to make sure he was presentable more than he enjoyed the job of being a physician and Will wondered if he did it for the money or for the limited fame that came from being the royal physician.

Whatever the reason, there was no concern on his features, simply curiosity and Will tasted something bitter in his mouth at the idea that Hannibal were something interesting to watch while he was sobbing over his sister's body.

Hannibal's muffled cries were the only sounds in the room for a time as the discomfort settled into everyone else. Will could see it on their faces and Bella's composure, while usually firm and sturdy, broke first.

She fell to her knees beside Hannibal and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. "That's enough now," she cooed softly, doing her best to gently manipulate Hannibal's body away from Mischa's. "It's time that we let her go be with your parents." The wordlessness continued from Hannibal, show or not, Will couldn't tell. His grip on Mischa's hand held tight and he shook his head against Bella's shoulder. "Don't worry. We'll take good care of her. I promise."

"Can we please have her removed?" Sanford instructed, waving around the room for someone, anyone, he was uncaring, to follow his orders. Several of the staff went to work.

"Sanford," the queen scolded, sounding choked up. Her eyes were brimming with her own tears and Will's head tipped to the side, trying to remember a time he had witnessed his mother cry and coming up empty. "Let the boy grieve."

"This is neither the time, nor the place-"

"I do not care what the time or place is," Theophania hissed, waving off the several people who were trying to squeeze around Bella and Hannibal to get to Mischa. "The child is allowed to mourn his loss."

The room was becoming too loud, and Will took a step back. There was too much happening. It was heavy, crushingly so. Everyone in the room felt some sort of way and they were all screaming at Will who had little choice but to stand there and take it. His mouth was going dry, and he inhaled deeply to try to keep his heart rate from racing.

The last time he had come under the same attack was at the Christmas party a few weeks back. It was as if his mind could no longer take in all his surroundings. There were exorbitant amounts of information to be categorized and filed away and Will couldn't handle the pressure of it all.

But he could stand here for Hannibal. As long as it took for Hannibal to return to his cocky, rude, self-absorbed self. He had been put in charge of watching Hannibal. He couldn't abandon him now even if he wanted to. The only reason he wasn't being berated for asking Jack to go out and find Mischa was because Hannibal was in such a state.

Had Jack taken others with him, or had he gone out on his own? Not only had the temperatures been exaggerated, all the snow that had fallen had to have turned to ice by now. Maybe that would have in turn made it easier to reach Mischa if Jack had been able to get past the snow just outside of the doors. They had been snowed in as far as Will had understood, the snow taller than him, but maybe it hadn't been quite so tall for someone like Jack. Or maybe there had been another way out that Will was unaware of.