𝐃𝐢𝐚𝐩𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞: A Hannigram Love Story

Prologue

Thunder boomed angrily. Lightning flashed across the inky sky. Huge droplets of translucent precipitation beats onto the pavement which led to the front door of Hannibal Lector's home in Baltimore. Will Graham's head of vibrant, bouncy curls stuck onto his forehead and neck as the rain poured onto him momentarily before he pushed the slightly ajar door all the way open, stepping inside. The thin layer of his white, button up shirt was sticking upon his pale skin, his cheeks flushed from running through the storm. His right arm was bent, his left holding near the snout of his hand gun, cautiously treading through the front hallway. Broken shards of glass littered the floor, priceless works of art scattered all over the place.

'Where is he, goddammit, where is he?' Will thought to himself in uneasiness, anxiety dwelling within the depths of his analytical mind.

Finally, as he steps into the heavily disheveled kitchen, Will is face-to-face with his seemingly distressed and injured therapist. Lowering the gun, Will sets it on the counter and advances towards Hannibal, gripping onto the slightly taller man's shoulders, shaking him.

"I told you to run!" Will cried out agonizingly. "Why didn't you run? I told you to run!"

Hannibal's nimble fingers travel their way up Will's right arm with one hand, the other behind his back. Will hadn't known that Hannibal was withholding a deadly blade; why would he have? They were friends...weren't they? Nevertheless, Will took no mind to it as his hand was removed from Hannibal's shoulder and was instead placed on the older man's neck. Hannibal pulled Will closer, his lips grazing against Will's ear as he quietly spoke, almost as if Hannibal was being reverent.

"I wasn't going to leave...without you," Hannibal began. "But you've been working behind my back with Jack Crawford...haven't you, Will? You'd have my life taken from me?"

"No, I don't want to kill you, Hannibal-" Will choked out.

Hannibal interrupted. "My freedom then. You had a surprise for me. And now I have one for you."

Before Will could even say anything else, the blade Hannibal had been hiding swiftly slices through Will's thin clothed shirt and skin on his torso, a strangled whimper surpassing his lips.

Hannibal immediately pulls Will close to his chest, Will's blood seeping onto his dress shirt. "Shh shh shh, I've got you."

Will's fingers curl around Hannibal's shirt, gasping and moaning in pain. It felt like a white hot fire had left the tear in his skin, as if the gash was caused by a flame Hannibal had dragged across his stomach. Edging around his vision was a filter of darkness, impairing his sight as his body was being laid onto the tiled ground of Hannibal's carefully decorated kitchen, though when he looked up, there was Hannibal, hovering over him. It may have been a trick upon his eyesight, though if he stared hard enough, he could see a single tear run down each of Hannibal's tanned cheeks.

"Do you forgive me?" Hannibal asked softly before he dropped the blade, the metallic tool hitting against the floor. The older man turned his back to the bleeding boy, and it was as if the scene was in slow motion, Hannibal's steps enunciated dramatically as he walked out of the home calmly and coolheaded.

As more blood poured out of Will's wound, the more he felt as if the essence of his life was being drained, droplet by droplet. The coppery smelling liquid oozed out a bit more sluggishly than he anticipated, his hand firmly pressed against it in hopes of slowing down the flow.

Vaguely he could hear the nearby siren of an ambulance; Alana must've called the task force, Will figured. But that's not what was going through his mind as his consciousness faded in and out. The words "abandoned" and "left behind" were like yet another blade cutting him, though this time, it was his heart that was being severed.

It wasn't until EMTs strapped him down upon a stretcher and begin carting Will away did he realize that the most important person of his life had just tried to kill him. And walked away after without a care in the world.