I will be going to a family event this weekend so there will be no new chapter this week.


"That is fascinating." Will wanted to roll his eyes. He wanted to do more. He wanted to hold this man's mouth closed so hard his neck broke. But the unspoken plan with Hannibal told him he should wait. There were three crew members with him and as much as he didn't want to hear about the navigation equipment anymore, Will engaged with interest.

"Dad?" Turning around in surprise, Will stared at Abigail who was standing behind the crew. They immediately grew quiet.

"Abigail? It's good to see you. Why are you here?" Not caring that he was talking to someone who wasn't there. He waited for the stares that didn't come.

"I'm here for you. Hannibal said you needed me here so here I am." She smiled in understanding, coming closer to the crew. "What are we talking about?" The crew immediately went back to discussions about the navigation. Abigail sent Will a quick smile and like a call to him, Hannibal began to emerge from the lower deck.

Jumping forward between the two men, Will elbowed the one behind him. As the crew men went down, Will rammed his open hand into the throat of the man in front of him. Abigail threw the crew woman next to her violently onto the navigation board. She rolled off and fell to the floor as Hannibal stepped into the small room. He wrapped his arms around the crew men's neck that Will had elbowed. Squeezing tightly, he waited until the body stopped fighting and dropped him. Will swung his fist into the face of the crew men and his knee into the man's stomach. He doubled over, hands catching himself before he collapsed. Will stood over the man, taking the opportunity to kick him over. Fear took over his eyes as Will wrapped his hands around the man's head and with exquisite movement, snapped the man's neck as Hannibal watched. Abigail placed her foot on the woman's back. She lifted the chair beside her above her head and brought it down with beautiful force on the head of the woman below her. Again and again, smashing the wood into this person's skull until there was no struggle, no sound. Abigail turned around, splattered with blood, and dropped the piece of the chair that remained in her hand.

Silence covered the room. Deafening silence. A kind of fog that pulled them all in and refused to let anyone go. Will looked up to see Hannibal in front of Abigail, gently wiping blood spots from her face. They began to speak to each other but Will couldn't hear any sound. He couldn't hear anything. The silence took over his senses, pulling him under. The world spun on its axis and Will seemed to fall with it, Hannibal and Abigail watching him go. Clawing at the floor, Will fought to stay. He didn't want to go. Go where? He didn't know but his family was here. Happiness was here. This is where he was wanted and where he wanted to be. Fog gathered closer to him, danger. A threat to what he wanted. Hannibal and Abigail still hadn't moved as Will struggled on the floor, desperate to get away from this fog that was chasing him, following him, drawn to him. In a frantic attempt to reach his family, he half crawled, half ran to them and held onto both as the fog was completely surrounding and encroaching. Looking up at Hannibal and Abigail, his eyes locked onto the two people he had the most complicated and fulfilling connections he had found in life. Devotion didn't describe what he felt. It was too trivial, too simple. What he felt for the people he held onto was not insignificant. He was bound to them in a way words had yet to find a way to explain. They would always find each other. Always come back to each other. It was them he saw as he was swept away.


A figure stood shrouded in early morning light. Blinking several times turned that figure into Hannibal, who was standing at the windows facing away from Will. Will groaned as he went to push himself up and felt his strength vanish. Hannibal turned and rushed over.

"Don't try to move." Grabbing a second pillow, he placed it behind Will and helped him sit up. "You've sustained multiple injuries."

"You're walking around and you were shot." Will threw the words out, surprising Hannibal at his memory, expecting some loss of what had transpired.

"This is true. However, your wounds required greater care. You've been in and out. It's good to see you awake and conversing." A smile crossed his face. "You should eat." Hannibal rose from the bed and left the room, presumably to find him food to eat.

Will lifted his fingers to the side of his face. Gentle caresses projected the images of bloodied gloves and Hannibal working intently into his mind. Abigail stood behind him, looking worried. Expert stitches run under his fingertips. A brief glance to his shoulder tells him that that wound is in a similar state. Closed and cared for by the multifaceted man that has changed him and been changed by him.

A small knock sounded at the open door. Abigail stood in the door frame holding a tray with what smelled to be a stew and a cup of tea.

"Hi, Dad." She smiled, tightly. "It's good to see you awake." Clearing her throat as if she was fighting tears, she took a step forward and stumbled, dropping the tray. Will, concerned, tried to get out of bed to go to her but the bedsheets clung to the mattress and restricted his ability to move. Abigail collapsed to the floor inches inside the door, and to Will's horror, all he could do was watch, as her neck opened the same way it did when Hannibal cut her open in his kitchen and she bled out again. Only this time he couldn't fight his way to her and she died in front of him alone, eyes piercing into his, taking a part of his soul with her.

Hannibal stood accentuated by the darkness of the hallway when they locked eyes. All Will could feel was the same connectedness from when they had fought against the Great Red Dragon. The sheets around him turned red with blood and swallowed him up, leaving him gasping Abigail's name.