Will, the puppy – Chapter 7

Hannibal could not help but smile as he watched Will eating his chicken soup. It was no secret that the psychiatrist was a excellent cook and loved to see people eating his food, even though the people he invited to his famous dinners didn't know exactly the origin of that delicious meal. In part, it was very interesting to see people eating people, it was something macabre and poetic at the same time. But seeing Will eat and look at him like that ... that grateful look was just precious, but it would have been perfect if the chicken (which was actually a chicken, by the way) were a bit of Webber's flesh.

They were sitting on that small wooden table, facing each other and Will ate as if the plate was going to acquire legs and run away, as if someone would take the food from him. The boy was starving. Hannibal grimaced when he saw Will holding the spoon in such ungraceful way but he would forgive such behavior because he was still under the intoxicating effect of the catharsis he had, but later Hannibal would have to teach him manners at the table.

"Slowly. You don't want to have a indigestion." Hannibal warned but with a gentle tone.

The boy nodded without lifting his head to look at Hannibal. The psychiatrist had a hunch that this was the first decent meal the boy had in a long time, he was amazed that he had not died because of malnutrition. Will must be stronger than he thought at first.

"How's the soup? Good?"

"Yes, Master." Will said with a smile.

Hannibal frowned and looked at Will with a serious expression. The boy looked up and their eyes met and he noticed the change in the features of the older man. Will froze, fearing that he had said something wrong.

"Why did you call me that?" Hannibal said with a strange tone and Will felt a chill down his spine.

Hannibal was his master now, wasn't he? Will belonged to him. It was obvious that he would refer to the man as his master. In his view, every owner should be called master, or any other name that pleases the owner. That's what Webber taught him. But apparently Hannibal did not like that, the boy could see it in his eyes. Suddenly all the fear returned and the boy let his spoon fall on the plate with a clatter and looked away.

"Will, answer my question." Hannibal said with a serious tone.

"I. .." he started to say, but he stuttered "Y-You own me now, you're my Master ... " Will tried to explain.

Hannibal understood everything.

"That's how you called the Bad Man?"

Will nodded and lowered his head, looking away.

"If you want, I can call you something else. Is 'Daddy ' okay ?" He tried to fix the mistake he had made, but Hannibal seemed even more displeased.

The boy was wrong again? As far as he knew, calling his owner as Daddy was better than calling him Master, in certain ocasions, of course. But as time went on, he realized that the more he called Webber as Daddy, the less he beat Will. So logically, the boy thought that owners liked to be called that. But Hannibal seemed even more displeased and now Will was really worried that he had done something very wrong. Would Hannibal punish him?

But then, Hannibal rose from his chair, walked over to Will and knelt beside him with the most affectionate look that Will had ever seen.

"You're not my slave, Will." Hannibal said softly. "That man forced you to call him that names because that was a way he found to humiliate you. I'm not like him and I don't want you to call me as you called him."

Will nodded vehemently.

"So... how should I call you?" Will said measuring his words.

Hannibal smiled.

"Just Hannibal." Psychiatrist stood and stroked the boy's hair, looking at him affectionately. "Stay here and finish your soup, I'll be right back."

Hannibal pulled away and left the boy alone in the bedroom. He went down the stairs to the first floor and headed to his office. He kept some medications in his office in case of an emergency, and that was one . He searched in his drawers and found a bottle of Tylenol. He put the bottle in his pocket, went upstairs again and headed to his room.

While he was climbing the stairs, he couldn't stop thinking about Will's words. Master? Daddy? No, it was inhumane, even for Hannibal. The psychiatrist could imagine what kind of ocasions Webber demanded to be called Daddy and this send chills down his spine. He didn't want to Will saw him that way, like he had escaped from the hands of a monster to fall into the hands of another. Hannibal was a monster indeed, but not that kind of monster. Poor Will. That was the proof he had been tortured, physically and mentally. Hannibal wouldn't accept being compared to Webber. He would never do anything to hurt Will.

When Hannibal reached the door of his bedroom, he feared that Will had had another panic attack and had hid under the bed, but when Hannibal opened the door he found the boy exactly where he had left him, sitting at the table, waiting obedient as a puppy.

Hannibal smiled at the boy who smiled back. Hannibal walked to the bathroom and the boy watched him curious. Soon the older man was back bringing a glass of water. Hannibal approached him and looked at his plate.

"I see you have finished eating. Good. Do You want more? "

The boy refused shaking his head.

Hannibal placed the glass of water on the table and grabbed the bottle of Tylenol from his pocket and removed the lid, taking two pills and offering it to Will.

The boy looked to the suspicious pills and did not move to catch them.

"What?" Hannibal asked intrigued.

"I don't like drugs." Will answered in a very childish way, his voice low and trembling.

"The drugs will make you feel better." Hannibal said, but the boy still seemed worried and looked away.

"The Bad Man make me take drugs sometimes, so I didn't move as he did the Bad Thing to me."

Hannibal gaped. After a few seconds of paralysis, Hannibal managed to sit in the chair opposite to Will, who looked almost on the verge of tears again.

"Bad Thing?" Hannibal had an idea of what that meant, but he wanted to hear it from Will.

"He hurt me .. down there." Will replied with a trembling voice. Even Will being too young to understand what was happening, he knew it was a bad thing.

"Will ..."

"I tried not to let that happen, but ..." Will started crying.

"My little one ..."

Hannibal stood up, approached Will and pulled the boy close to him, hugging him tightly. He could not believe what Will was telling him, it was too horrible. Besides all that torture Webber had done, he also had drugged Will to rape him. It was not the first nor the last time that Hannibal wished Webber was back to life just to kill him again, and this time, with cruelty. He wanted to tell Will that he would never have to worry about it, that Hannibal never would touch him that way, ever, but he was speechless. For the first time in his life, Hannibal was speechless.

They were embraced for a while, until Will (and Hannibal himself) calm down. The psychiatrist departed from the hug and took the pills again and the glass of water.

"These are painkillers. You told me you were in pain, remember?" He said with soothing voice. "Do you trust me?"

Will looked at Hannibal for a moment analyzing these words, then nodded. Will could not explain why, but he trust Hannibal, the monster that killed monsters. Hannibal had something dangerous inside him, so Will could see perfectly, but at the same time, he felt protected by this man.

"Good. Now open your mouth. "

Will obeyed and Hannibal gently slid the two pills in Will's mouth, offering him the glass of water after that. The boy drank the whole glass in a gulp.

"Now, you need to rest."

Hannibal approached the boy and put his arm around his shoulders and brought him to the bed. Will struggled a bit, reflecting years of abuse, but soon he realized that Hannibal just wanted him to lie down to sleep. Hannibal made him lie down and covered him with a soft blanket and noticed that as soon as his head hit the pillow, the boy began to blink slowly.

Just three minutes later, the boy was fast asleep, finally, on a real bed.