The Beginning

Tess

"Is that more comfortable?" Hannibal sat across a small card table. Plates, cups and forks had been neatly set up, but no food or drink had been served. Candles illuminated our surroundings, usually a romantic icon, I suspected were more out of necessity.

He had given me a new dress to wear, one of my own. He'd probably lifted it when my apartment was destroyed. Flowy and yellow, it wasn't made for winter in any respect. In fact, I shook and shivered inside the dank musty basement.

"You look cold." Hannibal slid his chair next to mine. He lifted an arm to place about my shoulders.

I curled into myself, as far from him as I could get. The chain already taut around my ankle didn't allow for much distance. "I'd like a jacket, please."

Hannibal hesitated for a moment, then rose from his seat. Knocking it to the floor behind him, he stomped up the wooden steps. He paused at the top, banged his feet a few more times, and shoved the door open.

I'd watched the sun rise and fall twice since I'd been here. On the first night, I discovered that all the windows had been nailed and painted shut. Thin and wide, I didn't stand a chance of climbing through them. I had seen shadows of feet pass daily. If I could even crack or break one of them, I could call for help.

Hannibal caught my desperate attempt for freedom on the cameras and came back to give me the "I'm not mad just disappointed" speech, one typically given by a parent. As if I were a child, he explained that if I was on my best behavior that I'd be rewarded.

I didn't want to know what that truly meant, so I moved onto my next task. Something to pick the lock around my ankle. Noticing they were a standard set of leg shackles, swiped from Noah's job no doubt, I was equipped with enough know-how to use a bobby pin, paper clip or a flat strip of metal.

Hannibal kept a set of keys on him, but I didn't even want to get close enough to swipe them. Would I be quick enough to get out when he noticed they were missing?

As he bounded back down the steps with a black jacket in hand, I rushed for my seat.

"This what you wanted?" He tossed the jacket over the table. It landed mostly on me, but not before knocking plastic kitchenware and one of two candles to the floor.

The cologne on it smelt familiar. I buried my face further in. My hand clutched crusty spots stained into fresh material. It was Nicky's. It was the same jacket he wore to the bar that night. Slashes large enough to fit my arm through marred the material. "Oh Nic." I couldn't stop the tearful statement.

"Why are you so worried about him?" Hannibal rested his hands on the back of his chair. His foot snuck out to fully extinguish the flame that burned low against the old rug. "He had everyone and everything on this planet convinced he was perfect. Every girl batted their eyes, every boy kind of did, too, you know? If they didn't want to fuck him, they wanted to be him. Why?"

Rhetorical, I reminded myself.

"He was dirtier than the worst of them. We ganged up, sold drugs, stole shit. The only thing we didn't do was kill." He paused, swallowing hard. "Everyone's got an Uncle Dominic, right? You know what mine did?"

Even through the low-light, I could see Hannibal's distant, disgusted expression. He chewed his lower lip.

"Mine asked me to get rid of the competition." A smirk twisted his lips, nostrils flared. "The Gregg's? They sold more prescriptions than the fucking pharmacy. He was going to knock them both out at once, but that asshole bailed on me. Again." Hannibal began to pace. "I didn't even pull the trigger, Tess. It wasn't supposed to be me. I didn't prepare for it to be me. Dom knew Nicky would take over whether he liked it or not. I think that little fuck knew it, too. That's why he abandoned me." His hands came to his head, fingers buried deeply in thick black hair.