Rude (Choose Your Own Adventure)

Chapter 31

'I think I'd rather have some private time with you,' you tell Hannibal over the phone. 'So we can pick up where we left off with each other.'

'Stay just where you are,' he orders you. 'I will be there within moments.'

You were sleepy a few minutes ago, but now you are wide awake. 

You pace the soft rug in front of the fireplace. The anticipation of what you are going to do with thi s man drives away most of the memories of your doubts and your dreams, the cryptic warnings you've received and the intuitions about the provenance of your dinner. 

But only most of them. You glance down at your finger, wrapped in a small bandage, and think about Hannibal tasting your blood.

It's wrong, but it gives you a shiver of lust. 

A hand touches your shoulder. 'Why are you trembling?' asks Hannibal.

You jump in surprise. 'I didn't hear you come in.'

He smiles and tilts up your head so that he can kiss your lips softly, and taste your mouth with his tongue. 'What is more pleasurable?' he asks. 'Anticipation or surprise?'

'I like them both,' you say. And yet his sudden appearance has unnerved you. It's as if he were watching you all along. You swallow, and point to the odd radio-like contraption you wandered near earlier, the one that emitted a scream. 'What is that?'

'It is a theramin,' he tells you. 'A musical instrument. I enjoy composing music out of thin air.' He strides to it, and with delicate, precise movements of his fingers conjures a tune from it: eerie, ghostly, wavering. It has its own strange beauty, but to you it still sounds like a scream. 

'What's wrong?' he asks you.

You laugh nervously. 'It sounds like a strangled cat.'

Hannibal is suddenly utterly, absolutely still.

'Strangled cats,' he says quietly, 'do not make any noise.'

If you try to distract him from his odd mood by stripping off your clothes, turn to Chapter 37.

If you try to distract him from his odd mood by stripping off HIS clothes, turn to Chapter 38.

If you ask him how he knows so much about strangled cats, go to chapter 39.