It had been three days that Victoria had been in a coma. She had passed out the second that Lecter had laid her down in the ambulance.

Beverly Katz, Jack Crawford, and Will Graham had been gathered in a waiting room in the hospital where she was being cared for, discussing findings on Victoria's DNA tests, blood samples, and fingerprints.

"There's no findings. At all. She isn't in any systems, nothing. We even took a picture of her and put it through the facial recognition system and there's no match." Beverly whispered urgently before checking the time on her phone.

"Are you saying there's no record of her ever even existing?" Will snapped, leaning back in his chair with crossed arms. He cocked his head to the side like a puppy and watched her face for a brief moment before looking down again.

"That's exactly what I'm saying, Will."

Silence filled the room. To say that they were disturbed was an understatement.

"And...she had to have been dead for a long time. At least four hours." Beverly continued hesitantly.

"No, that isn't possible. Not with the way she just regained consciousness like that." Will argued with a shake of his head.

"I want to agree with you, Will. But did you hear her when she moved? She sounded like a jumbo box of Rice Crispies." Jack muttered, leaning his head toward Will slightly, watching him.

Will pursed his lips, rubbing his chin. He was at a loss for the first time during any case. He couldn't see anything, he had no design. That bothered him very much.

Will's reverie was broken when a nearly frantic Alana Bloom rushed into the room, panting from having run down the hallway.

"Guys? She's awake."

Sure enough, there she was. Looking around at the five people in her hospital room with wide, curious eyes.

"Hannibal and I were reading her a book and she just...woke up. It was like she had just woken up from taking a nap, not a coma." Alana explained, crossing her arms over her chest.

Victoria's eyes flickered to everyone, studying the faces with a light look on her face. Pure innocence, no fear, no confusion. Nothing like she had been before when they had found her.

"What's your name?" Jack immediately asked her in a hard tone, his face the picture of determination.

The girl furrowed her eyebrows, obviously a little perturbed at the lack of politeness. With a dainty huff, she mimed writing something. Everyone looked at her like she had three heads for a moment until a lightbulb went off in Hannibal's head.

"She wants to write it down." He said in that luxurious voice of his and leaned down to reach into his leather bag that he carried around. He neatly tore a piece of paper out of a notebook and handed her a pen. Everyone was seeming to hold their breath for her to answer.

Victoria leaned over the paper and scribbled something down before turning it around and holding it up for everyone to see.

It read, "My name is Victoria Julian."

"It's so nice to know your name now, sweetheart. I'm Alana." Alana murmured in a nurturing way, sitting down next to Victoria's bedside again, Hannibal following suit, watching the girl with the same curiosity from days before.

Victoria leaned over the paper again, scribbling out something else.

This time, it read, "I know who all of you are."

Everyone froze, Will visibly paled.

Victoria wrote something else.

"Nice to meet you as well, Doctor Bloom, Miss Katz, Mister Crawford, Mister Graham, and...Doctor Lecter."

Aaaaand, that was enough for Will. He back pedaled and tore out of there like no one's business. Victoria didn't seem to mind. In fact, she seemed a tad bit amused. Her eyes slid over to Hannibal's, brown meeting brown. There was a knowing look in that glance and Hannibal gave her a very slight head tilt in return.

Their non-verbal exchange was so small that no one noticed it.

Victoria wrote something again and Alana and Beverly exchanged glances while Jack visibly tensed.

"May I have a moment with Doctor Lecter, please?"

"Oh, umm..." Alana looked to Hannibal and he nodded.

"It's quite fine." He assured her and she stood, walking out of the room hesitantly with the other two.

The second the door closed, Hannibal's whole demeanor changed, as did Victoria's. She seemed so much darker, it was like the light in the room dimmed.

They looked at each other expectantly, like they were waiting for the other to do or say something first. With a sigh, Victoria bent over the paper again, scribbling away.

"Is there a record of me existing?"

Hannibal quirked an eyebrow at this before looking to her, "I don't think so. I believe I heard Miss Katz discussing that matter."

Victoria nodded and smiled, in a smug way.

"Good."

The Lithuanian shifted his weight forward in his chair, leaning toward her and she looked at him curiously.

"How-"

"Of course there's no record of me." The young girl wrote down sloppily on the piece of paper the psychiatrist had given her.

A ghost of a smirk danced on her lips.

"But you know as well as I do that I am here and I am very much real." She wrote next to her previous statement before neatly setting the pen down on the bedside table, the paper next to it.

Brown eyes met brown eyes again and then there was a voice.

"But nobody will believe a word you say if you told them what's going on at this exact moment."

It was her, but...her lips hadn't moved one bit. There was the scratching sound of pen on paper, but she hadn't moved an inch.

Hannibal Lecter looked down and his eyes widened a minuscule amount at what he saw.

The word, "CANNIBAL" was written diagonally across the whole piece of paper. He slowly lifted his eyes to her again, but the bed she had been laying on seconds before was empty.

It was like she had never even been there.

But the question was...where in God's name did she go?