#01 - Ring
They weren't the type of men who would ever be married.
#02 - Hero
Will didn't feel like a hero saving her life, he felt like string, wrapping around her and digging into her flesh, tying her to a world she no longer felt a part of.
#03 - Memory
"It's the looking back that kills you."
#04 - Box
An empty wooden box sat between books on philosophy and the vinyl, it was meant to keep his secrets—long strands of brown hair and recipes—but he whispered them all to Abigail in her sleep.
#05 - Run
Will thought about packing up and never coming back—he had done it before, lived in a house by the water until the voices started asking him to come back and every time he saw their faces; covered in plastic, beaten and bloody, or untouched and silent like innocent children sleeping—he knew he hadn't left anything, but people that acted like they cared about him, behind.
#06 - Hurricane
There were wild animals in the hallway and phantoms in his skin.
#07 - Wings
When he was a boy Hannibal loved to watch the arrival of morning; he listened to the birds call to each other, he felt the leaves crack under his bare feet, but he came to the crag of the mountain that looked over eyes and eyes of forest and couldn't go any further for he couldn't fly.
#08 - Cold
There was snow in his hair and the sting of winter in his eyes.
#09 - Red
It was raining, his hand drifted out from under his umbrella and he felt it—thick, warm—it had turned to blood in awe of him and pelted his pale trembling skin; it knew him, it remembered him, and it wouldn't let him go.
#10 - Drink
"You shouldn't drink on an empty stomach."
#11 - Midnight
The clock ticked into the morning and the mirror reflected the bags under his eyes.
#12 - Temptation
They were both sinners, but with no God to judge them, they prowled after each other and sat idly when left alone, howling deep inside.
#13 - View
They weren't getting farther away from who they were; they were growing the skin of who they were meant to be.
#14 - Music
Classical music was playing and the room was lit by candles, the smell of food cooking—lamb with Tuscan potatoes and asparagus—turned his stomach.
#15 - Silk
He tried to never meet his eyes, but that didn't mean he didn't watch him—didn't know him: he was gentle, elegant, his hair was neat, his nails were clean, his shirts looked expensive, and his eyes were quiet like storm that never came.
#16 - Cover
Hannibal stood too close to Will, leaned into him too often, placed his hand next to his so they almost touched—he wasn't his paddle, he wasn't even the boat, he was the ocean.
#17 - Promise
They left everything too broken to be fixed.
#18 - Dream
He was the monster under the bed; he was the crack of light under the door.
#19 - Candle
The flames didn't reflect anything he didn't already know.
#20 - Talent
The psychiatrist had a way of tearing him apart and putting him back together, a little closer to his image.
#21 - Silence
He didn't see her throat being cut, didn't hear her crying—he felt his lungs being filled with water and the need to gasp for air, but he wanted to stay at the bottom of the river.
#22 - Journey
All his dreams led to the same place.
#23 - Fire
He was burning, but he wasn't reborn.
#24 - Strength
He needed control; to hold the gun steady, to kill with one shot, to feel his body under his.
#25 - Mask
Will didn't want to smile anymore.
#26 - Ice
There was something swimming in his blood, there was something ticking in his brain—it made people think he was insane, maybe he was.
#27 - Fall
It took him awhile to fall asleep; he kept waiting for a hand on his throat, but it never came.
#28 - Forgotten
Will had never learned to be silent, a sigh brushed past his lips, and Hannibal had forgotten how to be still, the corners of his lips twitching into a little smile.
#29 - Dance
He was the killer and the victim, the gun and the blood that flecked his glasses—it was an art that held his head under water.
#30 - Body
He met his eyes, they were unrelenting, and guided his hand from his knee to his thigh.
#31 - Sacred
Will spent his childhood in and out of hospitals; there was a bible in the drawer, he recited passages in his head and stared at the cross on the wall until his eyes went bleary, but he didn't believe in God.
#32 - Farewells
He almost looked sad.
#33 - World
Killing was all Will thought about, and him.
#34 - Formal
It was another party, one holiday bled into the other.
#35 - Fever
He took painkillers for pain that wasn't in his body.
#36 - Laugh
They were all smiling; he must have missed the joke.
#37 - Lies
The sun came up and he was obliterated.
#38 - Forever
It wasn't darkness, it wasn't fear, it wasn't lust it was the hush, the stillness, the nothing that he found in his arms—a safe place to fall asleep.
#39 - Overwhelmed
He took a breath, he took half a million.
#40 - Whisper
Like a devil on his shoulder he had his ear, between his teeth, and his blood under his claws.
#41 - Wait
Hannibal abided his time; let people trust him, depend on him, even love him.
#42 - Talk
Words between them were scattered—pleasant when they needed to be, hurtful when they wanted to be.
#43 - Search
Will wasn't looking for what was lost, he was being buried by what was never there.
#44 - Hope
He didn't see Hell; he woke up—a little too early most mornings.
#45 - Eclipse
His mouth was on his, biting his lower lip, dragging his teeth down his chin and his throat and his hands were in his hair pulling his head back.
#46 - Gravity
The lampshade was crooked and there was broken glass and spilled wine on the carpet.
#47 - Highway
Will was tired of the car crash—of looking at it, of analyzing it—he laid in bed and felt himself being cut open, a casualty, but sleep painted him as a killer.
#48 - Unknown
They weren't friends, but they were far from nothing.
#49 - Lock
Their lives were intertwined.
#50 – Breathe
The wolf treaded contently in the footsteps of the stag.