Chapter 1
Will awakes in terror, sweat pouring from his pores. Another nightmare, typical, they've been going on for a couple of years now but they are seemingly getting worse ever since Will had met Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Since Will laid eyes on the dark, haunting man, his life was changed forever…
It was 1965 in New York City, the economy was booming from the 1930's recession, and everything was cigarette smoke and martinis straight up. Will had met Dr. Lecter at an office cocktail party. Will worked in stocks, and Dr. Lecter was there as a date to one of his coworkers. Will was not exactly the social butterfly of the parties; in fact he spent most of the time sitting on his desk, drinking his scotch. If it was up to him he wouldn't even be here, it was just to impress his boss and whenever he noticed his boss looking at him, would quickly look towards the closest group of people and nod, laugh, etc. This particular party was especially tormenting because it was a Christmas party. Will had always hated Christmas; especially when he had to pretend to be happy around other people that he wasn't fond of.
Will looked at his watch, midnight; he figured he stayed long enough. He downed his scotch and was about to stand up when he looked across the room and noticed a well-dressed man smirking at him, while he was conversing with a group of people. Will stopped and looked at his features; high cheek bones, maroon eyes, pursed lips, slicked back dark hair, tall… very tall. He had never seen this man before in his life, must be a coworkers date. The well-dressed man smirked at him again. Will raised his eyebrows, 'What could this man possibly want?' Will looked at his empty scotch glass. When he looked back up the man was walking towards him! Will started panicking; conversation was exactly what he was trying to avoid tonight. The man sauntered over in the most carnal way. Will quickly stood 'Ok don't worry! You can hold a decent conversation for a couple of minutes.' … "Good evening! Will Graham is it not?" The well-dressed man said casually. "Why yes; how did you know?" Will asked quite confused. "Sherri told me," the man nodded towards his date, "she said you were quite shy but I don't see that. I see a tormented soul." The man smirked again. Will was taken aback by his statement 'This man doesn't know me. How could he possibly know that?' "I'm sorry, who are you?" Will asked in a churlish manner. "Oh! How rude of me! I'm Dr. Hannibal Lecter, psychiatrist."
"Oh a psychiatrist! That makes sense…" Will smirked, this was not going well. "Yes, I apologize if I came off as rude. It's a bad habit." Hannibal said sincerely. Will looked down at his empty scotch glass again. "Would you like another scotch?" Hannibal asked. Will looked up at Hannibal with 'I don't really want to be here anymore' eyes. "Not here of course!" Dr. Lecter exclaimed, practically reading Will's mind. "My date is a bit over served and getting quite obnoxious. So would you like to go to the bar across the street? Going home alone on Christmas Eve isn't exactly what a middle aged man wants to do." Will's mind was racing but he immediately answered "Yes, anything to get me out of here." Then together they snuck out of the party.