Twisted Minds

The Number of the Beast is 666

BEDELIA'S HOME OFFICE - DAY-

Will sits opposite BEDELIA, mid-therapy. "I look at my wife and I see her dead. I see Mrs. Leeds and Mrs. Jacobi lying where Caroline should be."

"Do you see yourself killing her?" Bedelia questions, "Yes. Over and over."

"It's hard to predict when brittle materials will break. Hannibal gave you three years to build a family and a life, confident he'd find a way to take them from you. Either for himself or for death."

"And he has." Will almost sneers at the thought. "Aggression can be an effective means of maintaining order in a relationship."

"What's he going to take from you?" Will asks almost elated. "Is it important to you that he take something from me?" Bedelia asks without emotion.

"Hannibal has agency in the world."

"Hannibal has no intention of seeing me dead by any other hand than his own, and only then if he can eat me. He's in no position to eat me now." Bedelia smiles a bitchy smile. "If you play, you pay."

"You've paid dearly. That knowledge will lie against your skin forever. It excites him to see you marked in this particular way."

"Why?"

"Why do you think?" Will studies her, amused/annoyed by the psychiatric game. "Bluebeard's wife. Secrets you're not to know, yet sworn to keep."

"If I'm to be Bluebeard's wife, I would've preferred to be the last." A moment as Will considers that, then: "Is Hannibal in love with me and Caroline?"

"Could he daily feel a stab of hunger for you and find nourishment in the very sight of you? Yes.
But do you and your Wife ache for him?" Will doesn't answer, only stares. Finally: "Once you catch the Red Dragon, your Daughter can go home again. Can you and Caroline?"

BAU - DR. CAROLINE BAILIE'S OFFICE - DAY-

Will Graham paces before the desk. ALANA BLOOM sits in a chair, watching him. "Eight people dead in a month. We can't play a long game. I say we go for it. You know and I know it's the best way to bait him."

"Got me on the hook, now Jacks dangling me to catch a bigger fish."

"Against my directive, and You suggested it." I give him a look, "You're thrilled you didn't have to."

"You fooled yourselves once into believing you were in control of what was happening. Are you still under that delusion?" Will glances at Alana and Caroline , for a brief moment, her eyes and mouth are covered by JAGGED SHARDS OF MIRROR. He looks away. "The Dragon does have a certain abstract curiosity about me. All psychopaths are narcissists. They love to read about themselves."

"Even Hannibal read TattleCrime."

"We should Use Freddie Lounds."

"She would need to interview you, Will. Take your picture." I say, making sure he knows what we're doing. "I'm in it now. We Can't go home as long as he's loose. I really badmouth the Red Dragon in TattleCrime and then give him a shot at me."

"It would have to be a pretty good shot. What about the setup?" I ask as I cross my arms.

"Something open. Someplace where he can get close. I don't think he'd snipe. He might fool me, but I can't see him with a rifle." Caroline listens like an owl. Saying nothing. Will looks at him. "Feels like a trap to me. And it'll feel like a trap to him. Unless you have a professional voice to legitimize what you're saying."

"Someone to hide the wire of the snare. Are you volunteering?" Now both of them are looking at Alana. She shakes her head. "No. I'd have to be a fool."

BSHCI - HANNIBAL LECTER'S CELL - DAY-