Vixen Chapter 29: Checkmate is final, a hannibal fanfic

Chapter 29

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"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?

Come to my arms, my beamish boy!

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"

He chortled in his joy.

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Only a couple hours after the finalisation of the inheritance money, Saskia and Abigail both began to pack their belongings up and continued to drive upwards towards Scotland through various towns and places Saskia had been to herself.

They travelled up the country and into Scotland for a bit, letting Saskia go back to her roots while Abigail explored a new country. Dogs enjoyed it, being able to get out of the car a lot as they passed fields and parks.

Both women and the large set of dogs were back in America within three weeks.

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"Strangely enough," Saskia stared into the frosted glass of her ice water as she sat before Bedelia in her next therapy session. "Being back in the US felt a lot more like home than England ever did. I spent my youth there but it didn't feel like home even if I loved some of the culture."

"The connection between the country and your youth could explain the dislike of the homeness of the country. You associate your youth with your family and you do not have the most happy memories of them." Bedelia stated. "You associate the pain you had with your family with England. How was your vacation there? You took Abigail Hobbs with you, didn't you?"

"I did," Saskia had her legs crossed at the knee, tapping one foot in the air to an unfamiliar beat which seemed to keep her beasts at bay. "It was good. We spent time travelling and I found it refreshing to be out and about in the world again."

"You're not one to stay in a place for too long,"

"No. I find that if I stay for too long, I feel like I start to suffocate," She admitted. "I leave friends behind with ease. Some chapters share friends and circumstances while others force them out of the story because they're no longer relevant."

"When you wanted to move to another university after Leroy, you were creating a new chapter but you did not realise he would be a reoccurring character," Bedelia tapped a nail against her glass. "And then he spent the next while terrorising you."

"To a degree."

Saskia turned silent, not wanting and unwilling to divulge any more information on the topic for now. She ran a hand through her hair, the bright red and ginger still there but slowly fading now. It was an impulsive decision, something to make her sisters angry or disappointed in her to actually see some sort of emotion in them for once.

The half dark red and half bright ginger would fade as time waned on, the ends would take the longest but the roots would fade into her natural dirty blonde brown before long. It would look like a strange blend of colours over time but it would go away. If not, Saskia would just cut it down to her chin if she needed to.

There were a lot of things she would do if needed.

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H&W

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They planned to stay in Austria for another week before they moved onto Italy.

They had nowhere to be, no place to go with a rush. All they had to do was keep a low profile as everything with Leroy Harris got sorted.

They could take all the time in the world right now. No obligations, no duties, no jobs, but they were getting bored now.

Hannibal was less bored than Will but bored nonetheless. There wasn't much to do besides draw, write, and tease Will for Hannibal to entertain himself. He refused to kill because they all knew they needed to keep a low profile but it was boring.

How he wished he could have been back in the US where he was free to do whatever he wanted. He would have loved to have both of his persons with him, his lovers, his partners, and he could go as far as to say soulmates. Both men knew something was missing in their lives but they couldn't do anything about it for now.

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Jack sighed as he and Saskia stood before the newest body of the Tarot Killer.

This time it was a woman, sitting on a simple wooden chair in nothing but a cream white greek style robe. The sheet had been taken from somewhere and tied to her as she had her eyes plucked out and covered with bandages. In one hand, she had her ripped out heart, and in the other was a feather.

If Saskia had to guess, the woman represented Death.

It was one of the Major Arcana cards, depicting something will depart from one's life or there would be resistance to something going on.

"What d'you see?" Jack asked.

Saskia stared at the corpse for a couple more seconds, processing the image of before, during, and after. "Death. It depicts something will depart from one's life or there would be resistance to something going on. I'm thinking that our little killer is having trouble in their relationship."

It was true as Saskia watched the two argue silently between themselves with rageful but dull eyes and stiff movements.

"Hey, Katz," Saskia called, gesturing to the corpse's hand. "I think there's a hair on her hand."

Beverly came over, grabbing an evidence bag as she crouched and plucked a bleach blonde hair out of the victim's hand. The victim was not blonde.

"I think you're right,"

"We're a step closer to finding these sons of bitches who keep doing this," Jack said, nodding to himself with satisfaction. "Get that analysed and send me the results as soon as possible, Katz."

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"Annaliese Michaelis, age thirty seven, lived in New Jersey until a couple months ago," Saskia read from the file she had in her hand. "A bit suspicious she started to kill as soon as they moved to Baltimore."

"Any spouses?"

"Tomme Michaelis, age forty three. They've been married for fifteen years. No kids. What's going to happen now?"

Jack thought. "I would love to say that we could just arrest them but we don't have enough evidence. We'll have to interview Annaliese Michaelis before anything. If we don't charge her within twenty four hours, she's free to go."

"Laws. Fun."

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H&W

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Hannibal and Will had met Antonia Dimmond at a social event Hannibal wanted to attend. She was a beautiful thing with the grace of a swan and a smile of a rose. While Hannibal saw her charm, Will saw through it easily.

"She reminds me of Saskia," Will said, frowning after Antonia excused herself. "Like a lackluster version of her."

"I see it too,"

"You better not be thinking of replacing her," Will warned, a dark entity entering his voice as he looked at Hannibal seriously. "I won't allow it while we live."

Hannibal almost laughed at that. "She is irreplaceable just as you or I would be. Nothing could replace any of us."

"Good," Will said, watching Antonia interacting with other guests with a quality that Will didn't like. "I want to kill her."

"A poor imitation might as well be ruined," Hannibal sipped at the champaign in his hands. "But we promised Saskia we wouldn't kill, so we won't. Not yet, at least."

"Fine."

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"Among the palaces which were built over six hundre years ago," Hannibal said as they got to their newest place, a beautiful apartment built into an old building. "We are only mortals surrounded by history."

"Stop with the philosophical comments and help me out of this suit," Will complained. "It is bad enough you forced me to attend that party and then I had to listen to you rattle on in Medieval Italian. I didn't even know you could speak that!"

Hannibal laughed, coming over to Will to undo the suit jacket and hanging it up. He knew Will would have just dropped it onto the ground if he was allowed. Hannibal helped Will out of his white shirt, draping that properly as Will stripped down to his briefs before the man strutted to the bathroom to start a bath.

Hannibal was still dressed in his trousers and white shirt as he followed Will.

"How do you think Saskia came by this place?" Hannibal asked.

"I don't know," Will said, sticking his hand into the rising water to test the warmth. "She's from old money. Probably inherited from a great aunt or something. Your mother was Italian, wasn't she, Hannibal?"

"Yes, she was," He said. "Her ancestors ruled Milan for over two centuries. My father was a direct descendent of Teutonic warlord Hannibal the Grim, who I get my name from."

Will nodded, stripping his underwear off when the bathwater was at the right temperature and sinking right into the water with a groan. "Never again am I doing that much dancing again."

"Until Saskia asks you to dance,"

"Don't remind me. When she wants to dance, she somehow always gets her way,"

They laughed.

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Saskia's week was going so well until she was kidnapped.

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Saskia woke up a little groggy, a little achey, and very fucking trigger happy.

She took in the room quickly.

It was a basement with how high the little window was and that she could see tree trunks there. A set of stairs sat against the wall she was looking at, the door at the top. if she looked around, there were small tables full of things on them. Even a broken mirror with large pieces scattered around it like it had been just dropped there. A set of antlers sat near it.

Feeling the cold metal of her blade tucked into the side of her bra, she was glad to have it on her still but her gun was missing. They probably took it so they had a better chance against her

Her legs were not bound, for which she was lucky, but her hands were bound by a zip tie.

She took the end of the zip tie, tightening it until it was a little uncomfortable before bringing her arms above her head. She swung both hands down and outwards, breaking the zip tie easily as it snapped.

Of course Saskia knew how to get out of zip ties, handcuffs, or anything else. Her Father and GodFather had taught her well, and it helped for her books too.

As she pulled her hair into a quick ponytail, she listened for movement upstairs. She heard only two voices, the voices of the Tarot Killer. It seemed like they were planning to make her the newest card, the Empress. They would have stripped her, crowned her with the bones of her ribs, and set flowers into her chest instead.

Fat chance now.

Saskia stood up silently, not even her breathing could be heard. She untucked the blade from the side of her bra, flicking it open to look at her reflection in the dim room. Even she could see the two behind her, the Lycan and Wendigo ready to pounce as the door opened.

She slinked into the shadows of the stairs, letting them come down without realising she was missing.

"Where's she gone?" Annaliese said, the Jersey accent a little thick in her voice. "She can't've gone out of the room. Come out, little mousey."

Both of their backs were to Saskia.

She turned the blade in her hand one, twice, thrice, pouncing onto Annaliese and dragging her back with her knife against her neck.

"I don't like that nickname," Saskia said, blade against Annaliese's neck as the woman stayed still in her grip. Tomme looked enraged, going for the gun in his belt. "You nicked my gun and now you're pointing it at me?"

Tomme shrugged, gesturing with the gun. "Let her go."

"Why should I?" She pressed the blade in, letting a touch of blood come out and drip. "You kidnapped me so you could kill me. Why shouldn't I kill you?"

"If you don't let her go," Tomme said, grinning. "I'll shoot you. I've killed before, not scared to do it again, now am I? You'd know. You've been on our case for ages."

"I have been following the case, I'm the primary consultant," Saskia said, realising Annaliese and shoving her forward to Tomme. He checked her over quickly, finding nothing but a little cut on her throat.

"You're really annoying," Annaliese said. "Do you know that? Bit of wasted space for a pretty face with nothing in that little head of yours."

Saskia rubbed an itch off of her nose. "You do realise insults don't hurt, right? Your ones aren't even that creative. You could do better. Maybe."

"Oh, shut up," Tomme said. "Why don't we just end this now and kill you? So much easier than having to deal with you speaking."

"Thanks," Saskia rolled her eyes, watching as Tomme came closer with the gun still pointed at her.

"Just hand me the knife." He warned, holding one hand out while the other held the gun.

Saskia nodded in agreement, waiting until he was close to chuck the now closed knife into the air. His eyes tracked the knife so she had time to slap the gun away from his hand and shove him backwards. The gun clattered to the ground a couple feet away, sliding under a low table as she caught the knife again.

While she was focused more on Tomme, Annaliese jumped forward to attack her barehanded. She sent a sharp kick to Saskia's side, not realising that Saskia could grab her by the ankle now and more or less unbalance her. Saskia did that, forcing Annaliese to bend awkwardly to try and get her foot out of Saskia's grip.

Saskia tossed the leg away, making sure to make Annaliese fall onto the ground.

Saskia had a split moment's break before she was grabbed.

She groaned in pain as her hair was pulled back, dragging her backwards until she hit Tomme's chest. His hands wrapped around her throat, pressing into her windpipe with enough force that Saskia had to keep the hands from completely wrapping around her throat.

She knew he was touching the most vulnerable parts of her neck right now, so she tried her best to shock him with a quick kick to the shin. It only shocked him but it gave her a chance to turn around so his thumbs pressed into the front of her throat now. It was just as dangerous, perhaps more so but Saskia had a better chance now.

Several sets of antlers were attacked to chest height at the walls behind him.

Screaming as loud as she could and trying to headbutt her, Saskia used Tomme's new shock to unwring her grip from her neck. Pivoting a foot back, she was able to lodge her foot onto Tomme' chest and give a strong, final kick to send the man reeling backwards.

His chest clunked as he hit the antlers, breaking a few but one was stuck deeply into his side, peaking out on his abdomen as he looked down at it with slight pain and confusion.

Saskia gasped in breaths as she felt a sharp pain in her side, suddenly seeing Annaliese before her. The woman had stuck her with a piece of the broken mirror, stabbing her in the side to try and injure her but it just made her angrier.

With adrenaline lining her system, there was minimal pain as she took out the mirror shard. She jumped forward, grabbing Annaliese by the shoulder. The glass shard cut her palm but she didn't care, shoving it into Annaliese's throat with a sharp snap of her wrist. Annaliese clutched at her throat, trying to get the shard out but only getting more blood on her hands as she cut herself on the sharpness.

Saskia quickly grabbed zip ties to tie Annaliese's hands and ankles together. She already knew Tomme wouldn't be able to get off of the antlers without extreme amounts of pain and damage.

With both of them now unable to fight back, Saskia could take a breather. she allowed her anger to simmer down as the beasts inside of her settled their bloodlust.

"You attacked a predator much more powerful and experienced than you," Saskia smiled with each painful inhale, looking like she had too many teeth for her pretty mouth that were way too sharp to be human. "Should have chosen a better target."

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"I don't need a blanket, I need either a fag or alcohol!" Saskia almost shouted when a paramedic tried to put a blanket over her shoulders.

"You're in shock," Jack said.

"Cigarette or alcohol,"

"You don't smoke,"

"Alcohol."

"No."

"Fine." Saskia huddled the blanket over her shoulders. "Ow."

"What did you hurt?"

"I fucked my wrist up," She pouted, showing Jack the huge bruise and splint on her wrist. "I need to get an X-ray to see what damage has been done."

"I still can't believe they tried to abduct you while you were with Countess," Jack said, patting said canine on the head as she sat near her mistress. "I'm surprised she didn't attack them herself."

"Someone was too busy chasing a squirrel,"

"She ran to my house in the middle of the night. Luckily, I was still awake."

"How's Bella?" She asked.

"She's getting better now. She's somehow powering through the chemo recently."

"I'm glad."

Jack gestured. "Let's get your statement then."

Saskia groaned. "I hate statements."

"I know."

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A chess board sat on the table, plastic pieces since the hospital couldn't afford to let anything sharp be near a criminal patient.

It wasn't the first time Saskia and Leroy played chess. They used to do it on long nights in university, playing until the sun came up because they were bored but their minds wouldn't allow them to do anything else.

Ever since they started playing each time she came to visit, they were evenly matched. Winning as they lost, neither gained more than a game or two over the other.

It was her turn to start as white.

She moved the Queen's pawn forward two spaces.

"How are those mutts of yours?" He asked, moving his pawn to Queen four.

She put her pawn to Queen Bishop four. "Happy. We started a new diet with them, changed some of the meat they eat."

"And the bastards?" He declined the Queen's gambit she tried to start, moving his pawn to King four.

She knew exactly who he was speaking of. There were only six people in the world he would speak of like that, three were her sisters, another was her mother, and the final two were her partners.

"I don't know," She admitted.

He was surprised, moving a bishop after she made her move. "You haven't kept in touch with them?"

"No."

"I see the way they look at you and how you look at them," His lip curled up in a disgusted snarl but it faded a little with a single glance to her eyes.

He hated the look of longing in her eyes, the way her eyes would droop a little in memory. He wanted her to look at him like that, like he was the thing that kept her alive and living. He should have been what she wanted, and he was for a time.

Leroy wanted her attention and he had it by getting rid of the other two. She gave him all of it because he forced her, but he could see that she wasn't happy and he hated the fact he was the cause.

"They took you from me but you still miss them," He said.

"I was never yours." She took one of his pawns. "I am my own and who I choose to share myself with is not your business."

Each move was calculated, slowly decided but quickly made.

"Fine. You have me, you have always had me and yet you go out looking for others? Why?"

"When you are unhappy with the job you have, you go out and find another one. I couldn't afford to stay with you. I saw what you became."

"What did I become?"

My perfect creation losing faith, she wanted to say but instead said, "Something that was losing control. You tried to kill me and that was the last straw."

"I tried to kill you because you were going to leave me!"

There was not really a need for thought for either of them.

"You didn't need me!"

"But I want you!"

"But I don't want you, Leroy." She said, moving another piece in quick succession as he did the same. "I don't need you, I never did. And I don't want you anymore. Get that through your skull."

Minds sharp enough to cut diamonds,

"We were happy, Alexandria!" He said. "We were happy but you tried to leave, you tried to leave what we had. You tried to leave me and I couldn't afford to lose you!"

"You don't lose something you never had."

"I had you!"

They could see what move needed to be made quickly.

"No, you didn't." She laughed. "You never had me in any way that I didn't want you to. You had the idea of me, but you never truly saw me. I was not a prize, nor a goal."

"I loved you and you left me."

He began to make quick moves that weren't thought out, his emotions getting in the way and she took advantage of that.

"I left you because you didn't need me. I made you, morphed you into someone worthy but you tried to make me worthy of you. You took what I offered but you tried to take more and I wouldn't let you."

"You wouldn't give me what I needed."

"I left you because of that." She took advantage of anything she could, seeing the emotional vulnerability he was letting show. "God left his creations to their own devices when they disappointed him."

He took in a breath, almost hiding the shudder behind it. "I… disappointed you?"

She made another move, taking one of his knights with a well placed pawn. "To be disappointed, you have to have some sort of expectation. I never expected anything of you, I took what you offered. I was never disappointed by you, but I was disappointed by the fact you couldn't let me go. I expected you to be smart in your decision."

"What decision?"

"You took away something I care for."

"Them? Alexandria, they're men! They'll do anything to get into your pants."

"Like you?"

That silenced him.

He shook his head, a kicked puppy look on his face. "You know that's not true."

"Then don't make assumptions of them when you haven't met them properly."

"I know enough."

She sighed but decided to humour, taking his other bishop. "What do you know, Leroy? Tell me."

"Every time you went into the city, I was shadowing you to make sure you were safe." He stated as they both moved pieces quickly. "I watched you go out with them. You went to dinners with them, went to the market when you needed more food. You even moved in with them!"

Leroy didn't realise that she was the one keeping him alive, keeping him function, letting him have a reason to live.

"I rather keep them safe and alone than keep in contact and risk exposure," She said, looking up at him. "You tried to take what wasn't yours. I was never yours. You were mine, my perfection but it seemed like you cracked a little too soon."

"I already said I'm sorry for the scars!"

"You think by taking away the ones I love, it will get me to love you?"

"You… love them?"

Saskia sighed. "I guess I do."

They fell into silence.

It took them several more moves before they decided to pause, needing a few moments where they didn't need to think as they stared off into the fire.

The final few moves took longer to consider.

They didn't time anything, they had forever in this little world of theirs. Saskia was allowed to do what she mostly wanted.

Eyes sweeping across the board, they made a few more swift moves before pausing again to think. Saskia calmly took a gulp of the coffee she had, tasting the almost too sweet sugary goodness before running her tongue against her lips.

She moved her final piece, standing up and tugging her coat on.

"Where're you going?" Leroy asked. "We're not finished."

Saskia sent him one final look.

"Checkmate."

He checked the board and quickly found no possible way to get out of it. He was stuck, trapped, contained and she was the reason.

Leroy tipped his king so it dropped with a solid clank against the table.

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By the next morning, Mr Leroy Harris was found dead, suffocated by his own tongue.

Saskia was glad by the news.

Mr Anson, Leroy's lawyer called Saskia and told her that the documents that Leroy supposedly had were faked and completely useless.

She could finally go see her men!

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'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.

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