Hell In One Man's Eyes

1: Concupiscence

Hannibal is a priest and a serial killer who murders and eats sinners. Unfortunately he finds himself tempted one day when he met a profiler named Will Graham and feel an obsession which torments him to no end.

Hi everyone! This fic was inspired by the song Hellfire from Hunchback of Notre Dame and the whole Frollo/Esmeralda dynamic (book and movies). I hope you'll enjoy this story, chapters are already posted on Archive of Our Own, so I shouldn't take much time to update, I will mostly read again what I already wrote to look out for mistakes.

Father Lecter was, according to everyone, a smart and respectable man, as well as an excellent priest. He was a great preacher and knew how to listen to people and when he wouldn't be working, he would behave like any gentleman of the world and respected people's beliefs. He was very appreciated by his parishioners for his dedication to God and by some of the most mundane personalities of Baltimore for not pushing his faith into everyone's throat and for his civility.

If only they knew…

True, Hannibal Lecter was a gentleman and valued the importance of good manners, and he truly believed in God. His vision of God was just quite…different. While he preached that God was all goodness, he didn't believe it. To him, God was perfection in the way He could be as evil as He could be good, He had set an incredibly complex and entertaining game with mankind and even the Devil couldn't side up with him, because even if Satan was the embodiment of all evil, it was God who wanted him that way and who decided of his place in the Universe. God decided of everything, he was wrath and revenge, powerful and rewarding only toward those he thought as deserving.

Hannibal thought himself as deserving, because he was playing God's game. He was hunting and killing just like God, and the way he consumed human flesh just turned him into what God had wished him to become: a predator. It was God who decided he should be this way, after what happened to Mischa…

He remembered how after her death he questioned God's existence and wondered why he let that happen. Then, when he found the men who hurt her, when he killed the first one, he realized why God let that happen: it had been a part of the game. God just set the events up and watched whether or not young Hannibal could be strong enough to protect his sister and he failed. The boy had his chances, and his life would depend on whether he failed or succeeded. It was like flipping a coin. Now, after that failure, after the coin was flipped, God put him on the path of those murderers in order to make him understand that if he couldn't be a loving big brother, he had to be a vengeful brother. So he killed those men and when one of them revealed that they made him eat a piece of his sister…Well Hannibal knew what God wanted him to become.

Yes, God did gave him a chance, Hannibal couldn't blame God for what happened to Mischa, the Lord let him have his chance and he didn't seize it. He punished himself for that, from time to time, when he was alone in his home, Hannibal would just take his whip, one he possessed since years and would make his body feel the pain his soul still felt over Mischa's death. He would also kill sinners, low and stupid people who were just greedy or libidinous for the very sake of it or who just didn't get a thing about the Lord's true nature. It wasn't as satisfying as killing Mischa's murderers but eating sinners was incredibly enjoyable.

Every time he killed sinners, eat them and fooled the law enforcements he was beating someone at God's great game and he was paying homage to the genius of it.

Overall, Hannibal was content with his existence. He had seen a lot of beautiful things in the world, his passion for art was always growing, he could sometimes met interesting people and he had plenty of sinners to kill. His celibacy vows weren't bothering him either, even if he had another vision of God, he still believed a priest shouldn't lower himself to low carnal needs. Eating flesh was enough for him, sex had never been a very important thing in his life, he had experienced it when he was young and sometimes he did feel desire rose in him, but it wasn't hard to push it away and if it was a little too strong, mortifying his flesh was efficient against it.

The day he saw Will Graham, everything changed however.

The last person he murdered was a businessman named Carl Marlowe who stole a lot of money from a lot of people, and for the first time the FBI had the idea to come and interview him. The man was one of his parishioners and he would often confess to him, that's how Hannibal learned of all his sin and decided Carl had to die. The man was just so petty, running after money like a dog after a car, he didn't even really know what to do with it. Usually, Hannibal avoided killing the people who came at his church or who would confess to him, in order to avoid suspicions but he did an exception. First, he saw only agent Crawford and barely noticed the other man walking with him:

"Father Lecter?"

"Yes? May I help you?"

"You could, I'm Jack Crawford from the FBI and this is Will Graham…"

It was only when he pronounced the name that Hannibal noticed the second man and immediately found him handsome, really handsome. Yet he turned his attention back to agent Crawford and listened as he explained how they found Carl dead.

"His wife told us he went to you a lot recently, do you know anything that could help us?"

"He went to me to confess, you know I can't tell you anything."

"We know secret of confession is something very important to you," agent Crawford said, "but with that kind of crime we need to know as much as possible."

"Did he look tormented recently? Did he talk to you about something out of confession?"

The priest looked at the profiler to answer his question and for a moment, their eyes met, before Will turned away. Then, Hannibal was startled by a strange sensation: his head felt a little lighter as if he had vertigo and something in his chest somehow ached. It didn't last more than a second or two but it was enough to stun him. He found the man handsome already but it wasn't more than admiration for fine human features, until he actually crossed those blue eyes and then…It wasn't as if Hannibal had stared right into his soul or something like that, but he hadn't seen how beautiful the man really was until he saw his expressive eyes.

It became actually hard not to show anything and act as if he was simply worried because of those murders. He had to stop his eyes from devouring Will Graham, he just looked at him from time to time, and he truly did found the man gorgeous. He longed to cross his stare again but for some reason the profiler refused to look straight at him. Instead he gazed at his jaw line, at his lips, his dark hair and his lean frame.

It was wrong, really wrong and he knew it but he just couldn't stop himself and for the very first time since long, he felt lost and unsure because a part of him wanted more and the other wanted it all to stop. It was really rare for Hannibal and he really hated it. When the two men left, he looked at Will Graham leaving and he started to hate the man, as much as he desired him. Everything was fine in his life, he had a purpose, he had followers and preys, no one suspected him and now…It took only one brief encounter to shake him completely, he didn't know what this agent did to make him feel that way but it as efficient!

He locked himself in his office, tried to pray but just couldn't find the strength because each time he would close his eyes he would visualize Will again. God would just throw him in the pit of hell! He was a God of wrath and revenge, and he wouldn't like one of his most faithful followers to lower himself to such things. But that man…His body was desirable but not only…For the few words they exchanged, it seemed that he was smart, of course Hannibal couldn't judge right away but he was pretty sure there was something special about him and it was making things harder. It just woke up a hunger he didn't feel since long.

He did his best to chase away those thoughts. It was wrong, on many levels, not only he shouldn't lust for another man, but he shouldn't assume that this agent did anything to make him feel that way; after all he was just doing his job and nothing else. He didn't behave in a seductive way or said anything suggestive, he had been even a little distant and cold…But strangely this coldness was just giving the man something somewhat inaccessible that…No! Stop…It was only in his mind, Graham didn't try to seduce him, he had to calm down.

Was it God or the Devil playing with him right now? He wasn't sure but he wasn't about to lose so easily. It shouldn't be that hard anyway; he wouldn't see him again after all. He told them all he knew, they had no reasons to come back.

Don't hesitate to leave comments, constructive reviews are always appreciated.