"Who do you see, Will?"
That was the problem. Garret Jacob Hobbs, staring at him. Always staring. Will could feel his sanity slipping, the last threads fraying – or had they already frayed, and he was simply deluding himself?
Why was Hannibal not helping? Why was he so distant? Could he not see the killer? Could he not see that Garret was there? Was everyone else blind?
In the end, everyone was. And Will was bound by metal bars while the mastermind walked free.
I can see you now.
But no one else could.
Jack was torn, Beverly uncertain, and Alana… Alana. Who could she turn to now? Will had warned her to stay away from Hannibal. She, of course, had looked at Will and assessed him as still recovering from his bout of encephalitis.
The encephalitis that Hannibal had conveniently hidden from the special agent. Will had no proof of that, but he suspected. As he suspected everything. Oh, how clever the good doctor had been. Covering his tracks and laying new ones leading straight to his oft-time patient.
You once called me the mongoose. I see the snake.
He wondered, and he wandered. Having a mind such as his was both a burden and a blessing, and he combed over every meeting, every incident, trying to piece it all together – to mark the moment when Hannibal Lecter decided to make a game out of Will Graham.
A game. The thought sickened the man; it would certainly do wonders for his already fragile ability to trust. That a being Will had considered a friend had done this, taken every confession, every secret secreted out of his troubled mouth, and twisted them into a frame not even the FBI could see past… It was both astonishing and horrific. Did the psychiatrist feel a sense of achievement? Would he crack a smile, a flicker of triumph? Oh, he had done the latter, filling Will with evermore resentment and desolation. A sliver of the man behind the mask, the perfectly crafted, immovable façade.
And the mask would lure Alana and Jack into a sense of security based on lies so tangled that clarity seemed hopeless.
But Will had always unweaved from the tiniest of details.
He just had to find one they hadn't.
A/N: Hello all! I'm uncertain as to whether I shall continue this or not. I may do. But my Hannibal muse was itching to put pen to paper and here is the result. I hope you enjoyed, and stay tuned for a possible continuation!
Lightning xoxo