Before you Lay In Ashes
Instead of killing Beverly, Hannibal imprisons her and fakes her death. From his cell, Will is the only one who guessed what happened to her but no one listens to him. They're both ready to do anything to save each other. BeverlyxWill but might change.
Beverly had done some things wrong lately.
When Will started to feel bad, she didn't realise how alarming it really was. They didn't have much time for each other lately. She should have been smarter. When Will told Beverly that Hannibal Lecter was the real killer, she didn't believe him, at least not soon enough. She regretted that now. More of all, she never thought that investigating on Lecter could be really dangerous. She should have. She didn't go to Crawford immediately. How wrong she had been.
She should have known better because she and Will were dating since two years now. At least the only thing she got right since the beginning was Will's innocence, but that was easy.
Even when they told her he spit Abigail's ear, she didn't believe he killed her. She wasn't with him the morning it happened; she had slept in her own flat because she had work late and it was closer than Will's home. She regretted that, she wished she had been with him. In spite of the fact she worked with the FBI, Bev had been taken in custody, being Will's girlfriend, she was also suspected. They kept her forty-eight hours before releasing her because no evidences against her were found and she had alibis for the murders. She tried to tell them that Will was not a murderer, they didn't listen.
Being in a relationship with him, they didn't allow her to investigate on Abigail and Graham, she was too partial. Yet, she had investigated on her own discreetly, her job in the FBI had been threatened after Will's arrest, but once it had been established that she took no part in the killings, Jack did his best so she could continue to work with them.
When she finally believed Will about Lecter, she thought no one would believe her, she knew Jack and the others wouldn't move if she didn't have a proof. That's why she didn't tell anyone and went in the cannibal's home alone. She found what she needed, oh yes, but she paid the price.
Now, Beverly was lying on a mattress in what seemed to be a basement, not the one in Doctor Lecter's house, this one was smaller. She didn't know since how long she had been here, maybe three hours, maybe three days, she wasn't sure. It was dark, only a feeble light was lightening the room, and one of her wrist was chained to a water pipe. She was feeling strangely weak and a little nauseous, she was thirsty and a little hungry and her head hurt. But more of all, she was extremely scared.
She didn't know where she was, she didn't know what Lecter would do to her, she didn't know if her colleagues were looking for her. The only things she knew were that Will was right, Hannibal was the Chesapeake Ripper, there was no copycat, and she was his prisoner. She had briefly seen him while being semi-conscious, towering above her. Would he kill her too? Would he eat her? Would she see Will again? She had looked at herself the best she could, she wasn't missing a limp obviously, she had her clothes on, and only her shoes had been removed.
'A way to stop me from escaping?'
Except for her weakened state, she was quite okay, but she knew she wouldn't remain this way. Hannibal had killed people in horrid way, he had impaled them, mutilated them before eating them...What would happen to her?
She remembered her last conversation with Will, when she started to believe he was right, he told her Hannibal was keeping trophies to eat them. She didn't want to believe it at first, because Hannibal invited her as well as Will for dinner at occasions, she couldn't believe she could have eat...Yet now she couldn't deny anymore. A cannibal...She was the prisoner of a cannibal.
Tears leaked from her eyes, she should have been much more cautious when she entered Hannibal's house, she should have take her bloody proof with her and get away as fast as she could, instead of exploring. She had already been in dangerous situation, but never alone, other agents were always here, she wasn't prepared at all for what was happening to her right now.
"I'm going to die..."she said softly to herself.
She looked at her surrounding; there weren't many things, just a lamp light, a wooden table on which there was blood, some shelf with tools and bottles of wine, a toilet and a sink near her bed but which she couldn't reach and an electricity generator. Except for the blood on the table this looked like a normal basement.
She thought of Abigail, she hadn't interacted with her as much as Will but she had been fond of her and she knew it was reciprocate, her death had been terrible news, coped with Will's custody. She was also worried for him. Would he rot in the hell they put him in? When she thought about what happened, only two month ago...She tightened her lips and cried. It would never happen.
The door opened and Beverly cringed. She did an effort to prop herself on her elbow, watching in terror as the doctor descended the stairs. She tried to keep a neutral expression, but it was useless, Hannibal would see she cried. He was going down slowly, and Beverly wondered if this was a way to make her even more scared with anticipation. After what seemed like a really long time, he was finally facing her.
Hannibal had this composed face of his, she never paid much attention to that, but now it was like looking at the Devil's face, it was so cold, so indifferent, just looking at you with mere curiosity. It was so morbid, as if a distressed person was only some kind of curious object. She wondered how she never understood before that this face wasn't the one of a calm man, but a true psychopath's one. He smiled slightly and it took Beverly all her strength not to burst into tears again, this smile was tale-telling, promising a lot of suffering.
"Good evening Beverly."
She didn't say anything, waiting for him to speak. He titled his head slightly
"That's very rude of you not to answer me. You already broke into my house, which was extremely inconsiderate and intrusive, and now you are not even courteous enough to answer me."
"I...What am I doing here?"
He smiled almost softly but there was something in his eyes which was anything but soft.
"You are expiating...and in time you will be learning."
Expiating? Learning? She wished she had Will's mind, he would know what was happening. Yet even without Will's mind she had an idea of what it could mean: a slow and painful death. She looked right in his eyes and finally asked the question that was plaguing her mind.
"Are you going to kill me?"
The answer seemed pretty obvious to her, that's why she was astonished at Hannibal's answer.
"That's would be a big waste, Miss Katz. You won't die, or maybe just a little in the inside."
She was confused for a short moment, if he wasn't going to kill her, what did he want? She then saw him taking out a knife from his vest. In spite of what he said earlier, her whole body froze with panic, and she tried to back away but in her weakened state she didn't manage to do anything but slip and fell on her back. Lecter put a hand around her throat, keeping her down. He didn't apply a lot of pressure but it was enough to scare her. Then, with an elegant movement of his wrist, he brought the knife to her cheek.
She tensed and froze; he said he wouldn't kill, would he cut a limb from her? She couldn't move, she knew that she would get cut otherwise, accidently or intentionally. Beverly was trembling but otherwise she managed to remain still, she took a deep breath in order to do so. Lecter was observing her with curious eyes. He let the knife slip on her skin without cutting, trailing it to her neck, Beverly made a big effort not to move, her head was spinning with fear, it was almost as if she could feel the knife thrusting in her skin while it was barely caressing it. Hannibal moved the knife slowly, very slowly, Beverly was sure that he was enjoying it, that he knew what she was feeling and he loved it.
"You have a pretty neck, people rarely pay attention to that but a gracious neck can be real source of beauty. In Japan, an exposed neck is considered as very erotic, I think so too...It would be sad to damage yours."
He lowered the knife, still so slow, agonizingly slow, until it went to her shoulder. It was trailed down to her arm and finally the knife stopped above her wrist. The hand on her neck fled from her neck to pin her arm down, and Bev understood that he had chosen his spot.
"Since you have been quite intrusive, I think I will be a little too. This is one of the few uses you'll be to me."
With that he made a cut on her arm, not too deep, but enough to draw out blood. She winced and stopped herself from yelling out; she didn't want him to see her pain. She looked at her arm and somehow panicked when she saw the cut, it wasn't that big, she wouldn't die because of it, but it was made by Hannibal, and this was definitely frightening. He seemed fascinated by the sight of her blood, then he raised Beverly's arm to his mouth.
She tried to resist this time, to pull away her arm, but he was strong and he had no problem restraining the weakened woman. He pressed his lips against the cut and began to suck out the blood from her. She felt nauseous again, it was absolutely disgusting, and this man was just a beast, some kind of shark which loved the taste of blood. Those lips wet with saliva and bloods were like leeches on her skin. She felt tears coming again as she looked right at the cannibal, truly realising the horror of what he was doing.
The worse was maybe this air of rapture on his face, he seemed to love that. Beverly was feeling violated right now, it was just so...It was as if she was just a piece of meat, a thing to enjoy.
When he was finally done, he gave a final lap to her wound and left the room. Beverly didn't move at all, her eyes wet, but no tears falling. This was a nightmare; she never thought something so horrible would ever happen to her. She thought about her team and this made her even sadder. Would they find her? Would they know she was here? A horrid thought sneaked into her mind: they wouldn't. They were sure Hannibal was a righteous man; the only one who knew the truth was a man who was accused of being a crazy murderer: Will Graham, her fiancé, the man who asked her in marriage only two month ago.