First hand experience – chapter one
Today Hannibal had a new client, he had heard a little bit about her situation and what had brought her to need a psychologist. Other than that thought he didn't know much about her other than her name was Claire. No age, no address, no personality traits and no physical description. It was a rather unorthodox case but he was never one to stick to the norm. quite frankly he had only accepted the case because of how unusual it was.
A knock at his office door brought him out of his thoughts. He walked over to the door to let his new client. Fixing his suit up first he opened the door and moved to the left to create an open posture, a relaxing gesture to settle a new client in.
"Hello, you must be Claire," He calmly spoke while stretching out his hand. "I am Doctor Hannibal
Lecter." He finished with a small smile.
She took the outstretched hand and shook it. "Good evening Doctor, It's nice to meet you." Her speech was a little broken but he clearly picked up on a strong British accent.
He looked over her as she walked into his office. She was small in stature standing only about 5ft 4 and despite the baggy clothes he could tell she was skinny. A little too skinny. She had clear blue eyes and pale skin. Her lips look quite thin but not overly so and she had naturally mousy brown hair but had been dyed red a month or so ago. It was pulled up into a messy bun at the back of her head so it was impossible to tell how long it was, she did however had a full fringe. She also wore glasses and, from what he could tell, no makeup. He also spotted a piercing in the middle of her bottom lip. Over all she was an attractive woman but wasn't caught up in her looks.
As he walked around her he outstretched his hand and gestured towards the leather chair opposite his. She slowly made her way over to the chair giving him a little smile before sitting in the chair. Hannibal also took his seat and crossed his legs.
Once she was seated she took the time to give the doctor a once over. He was wearing an expensive looking suit with shoes to match, she also notices that there wasn't a single crease on it. His ash blonde hair was slicked back perfectly and she could she specks of grey in it indicating he was an older man. He had sharp cheek bones and deep set eyes. His lips were full and slightly stuck out like he was pouting, obviously he wasn't they were just naturally like that. He had a slight smile and his face and had some wrinkles around his eyes, overall he was attractive. Exotic looking even, she had picked up his accent when he spoke to her but she couldn't place it, he had a nice baritone voice though, masculine.
"How are you feeling today Claire?" Hannibal questioned after a minute of silence.
Claire jumped a little at his sudden voice clearly not expecting it. "S-sorry, I'm err … relatively ok. Mostly just tired though." She replied, playing with her fingers.
A nervous habit Hannibal immediately picked up on.
"Haha, such an original answer, bet you get it all the time." She said raising her head to smile slightly at her new doctor.
He smiled at her for a second, "It is quite a common one but that does not make it any less of a problem."
She continued to look at him a for a while before once again focusing on her intertwined fingers. "Your accent is very interesting Doctor, where is it from, if you don't me asking." she shyly questioned.
"Lithuanian" He responded almost instantly. 'she speaks very quietly, it's a good job I have excellent hearing' "I also noticed your accent, British if in correct?"
She smiled up at him. "Yeah, I moved here about 2 months ago, my accent seems to be stronger now for some reason. Probably just because everyone else sounds American." She spoke fondly with a slight giggle at the end.
"It is a very nice accent, crisp and clean." he commented genuinely finding himself pleased at hearing her speak. 'I wonder if she can sing well' he found himself wondering.
"Thank you, Doctor." she said scratching her left check nervously.
He couldn't but notice her long nails that seemed to be filed into a point. 'like claws' he mused over the though " What made you decide to move to the states?" He questioned
"Oh, erm I'm here for work actually. I'm currently writing my 3rd book and it takes place here so I thought I would be a good idea to experience it myself, to make the book more authentic." She replied smiling seemingly more confident talking about her work.
"I see, you mentioned it's your 3rd book? Anything I might have read?" He questioned interested in finding out how her mind works. 'She only looks around 20 and already on a 3rd book, an intellectual.'
"Maybe depends what you like to read I suppose," she fidgeted slightly before continuing, "I go by the alias Victoria KN"
His eyebrows drew up slightly. He had in fact read her books were centred around serial killers and figuring out how they thought and reasons behind their murders. They went into explicit details about the murders themselves describing them down to last freckle on the victims face. All completely fictional. It shocked him a little to learn that this small, self-conscious, nervous creature before him had written and thought up the terrible murders and the psychopaths responsible for them. She was not what he had pictured the author would look like. 'How very interesting.'
"I have read your books actually Claire, very well written, engaging. Good to know that there will be a third. Will it be following in the footsteps of the previous two?" He asked leaning forward and resting his chin on the back of his hands while staring directly into her eyes.
She froze for a second while staring into his maroon eyes, clearly interested. She also found herself blushing slightly at the praise and the stare she ended up looking over his head he books there. "Y-y-yeah more or less. Thank you. You have a beautiful office Doctor" she smiled slightly looking around. "very elegant." she decided nodding her head.
Hannibal leaned back into his chair smirking at her nervous behaviour and the sudden change of subject. "I see you like to change the subject Claire."
She blushed slightly at being caught and stared at her fingers once more. "I, yeah, s-sorry"
"It's quite alright, now about your lack of sleep, any particular reason you cannot sleep?"
"Well I can fall asleep quite easily its just every time I go to sleep I have nightmares and end up waking up and unable to get back to sleep."
he never once took his eyes off of her as she was speaking it was clear that her dreams where bothering her. "What are your nightmares about?"
"My books" she responded quickly. "I see them, all the murders, only its not the characters I made up committing them … its, me." She said while dropping her head into her hands.
'Hmm she's experiencing her stories first hand.' He thought smirking to himself. 'what a lucky girl.' "That is quite understandable considering you are the one that thought them up."
She laughed a little at that as raised her head to look at him noticing the smirk before it disappeared. "I suppose when you put it like that, but usually I'm never in the story myself, it felt odd and I could feel the person die beneath me and it didn't bother me at all, well until I woke up." She frowned.
He found himself being bothered by that crease between her brows, he didn't like it there one bit. Shaking of that feeling he responded to her.
"Did something happen to you before the dreams started, a trauma or death in the family perhaps?"
She shook her head, "No nothing like that, well they didn't start until I moved here." She replied, her hand going up to her neck giving it a little squeeze and closing her eyes for a second before opening them once again to stare straight into Hannibal's eyes. She didn't stare long though before looking away. His eyes seemed to have darkened considerably and were filled with an emotion that she couldn't place. She glanced at them once more to find them emotionless. 'hmm I must have imagined it, clearly I need to sleep' she let out a quite sigh.
Hannibal almost smacked himself when she caught him staring at her. The way her neck rolled back and her eyes closed left her looking extremely vulnerable and her pale neck exposed for him to bite. Her could practically hear her plus, the blood flowing beneath her skin.
"Maybe it's just the stress of living in a completely different environment, however that seems unlike due to the length of time you've already been here." He pondered. "Is there something wrong with your neck Claire?" He asked as she once again lifted a hand towards her neck.
She quickly dropped her arm and shook her head slightly embarrassed that he was so intently watching her. He smiled slightly amused at her embarrassment before standing up and walking over to her until he was directly behind her. He placed his hands on her shoulders before dipping his thumb into her muscles gently. He picked up her quickened breaths and her raised pulse immediately as he touched her. Her shoulders and spine had also stiffened at the contact.
"Relax Claire, you're in good hands." He smirked down at her when she flinched at his voice alone. 'What a strange girl she is.' He was going to massage her shoulders but she suddenly stood up and turned around shocked.
"I-I'm sorry doctor but it looks like out hours up." she said looking at her feet.
He quickly glanced at the clock realising she was right his emotionless mask came back on as he pulled down on his waist coat before responding "It would seem so, it was lovely to meet you Claire next week we shall focus more on your dreams and what's causing them." He said while making his way to the door to open it for her.
She walked over to the door about to exit before stopping next to him and looking up at him. "Sorry Doctor I'm not used to people being near me never mind touching me." She quickly confessed before coughing.
He looked down at her while she coughed before brining a hand up to rub her back gently finding himself confused as to why he even seemed to care. "Are you ok?" He asked bending down to her level as she stopped coughing.
She nodded a little before lifting her head and jumping back when she came face to face with Hannibal. Her face turned a light pink when he came in closer to her before resting a hand on her forehead. She looked up at him confused.
He noticed how small she really was as he was soothing her back she clearly was not eating correctly. He caught her confused expression and smiled at her. The emotion didn't reach his eyes though. "You have a slight fever, you should get some rest, keep hydrated and eat something."
"oh right yeah my temperature." She mumbled more to herself than him. She watched as she straightened back up and noticed that she didn't even come up to his should and suddenly she felt nervous as he looked down at her. 'Why are you so nervous, he just helped you its not like he's going to kill me.' She frowned to herself.
"A frown does not suit you well Claire." He spoke a little harsher than he wanted to and scared her half to death. He smirked to himself. 'She can write all those awful things but jumps at a voice, what a strange creature she is.'
"Sorry! Err I mean thank you for the help Doctor see you next week." She as she hurriedly left his office to go home but not before she look behind her he see him smirking at her. 'Creepy, well not exactly … sexy. No! Bad Claire.' She said opening to door as red as a strawberry.
"I look forward to it Claire." He walked back into his office shaking his head at the clearly embarrassed Claire. He inhaled and picked up the scent on roses.
'She smells good. I wonder if she'd taste as good.'