A hand reached out behind Elizabeth and went for her shoulder.
Elizabeth screamed in fright.
Elizabeth whirled around and saw that it was Agent Jack Crawford, he had his hands towards her as if in defense.
"Detective Elizabeth Graham?" he asked.
Elizabeth smiled in relief and put her hand on her chest, sighing heavily. "Yes, Agent Crawford."
"I apologize if I frightened you. You seem jumpy…are you okay?" he asked cautiously.
"Nothing, but nerves. I'll live." She brushed off and looked around, seeing that now there were people coming back into the hall as if was ordinary.
"Does this building have classes in session?" she asked curiously.
"Yes, we do. Our trainees. Why?"
She opened her mouth to explain to him about the eerie feeling she felt with the hallway, but then decided against it. "Curious is all, Agent Crawford."
"Please call me Jack." Jack replied and he seemed like he didn't believe her for a moment as his facial expression had showed it, but then he didn't. "Well, come with me then to my office. You need to get caught up on the recent murders."
"Murders?" Elizabeth questioned. "Is that why I am here for?"
"Mostly yes. You have something in common with these murders." Jack told her which caused her eyebrow to arch up in surprise.
As they walked towards his office, she inquired, "And what exactly is that?"
Jack didn't answer her as he opened the door and gestured with his hand for her to enter. She smiled at him as she walked into the office, then her smiled slowly dropped as she saw the boards which scattered across the room. There was so much blood and death just on one photo of someone or well, of many someones.
"Shit," she whispered then shook her head. "Sorry for my French, but-"
"No need. Shit is one of the many words used to describe these."
Elizabeth walked closer into the room as Jack closed the door behind her; she went to every board and closely inspected the post-it notes attached to the photos with information beside it as well. "The Chesapeake Ripper? He must love the name."
"How so?"
She turned around and crossed her arms over her chest. "He's living up to it. He's growing more brutal by ripping them more apart, but he still manages to keep the elegance within his work. He's narcissistic. He likes the attention you're giving him."
"Elegance. You think ripping someone apart is elegance."
She shook her head. "I don't. But he does. To him, it's art. His design-his creation or something. Why am I here?"
"Like I said, you've seen this before. The Bayard Butcher," Jack replied as he came to stand in front of her. Elizabeth stiffened at the name they gave him…her most famous act.
"He was a sociopath. This," she pointed to each of the boards furiously then scoffed. "He's a First Class psychopath. He's…he's been at this for a long time. He kills them because they are considered pigs in his eyes."
"He thinks they are disgusting," Jack added.
"Below life. He has a reason to kill them," Elizabeth told him. "Now The Bayard Butcher was almost like the ripper, but he was more violent and spontaneous with his victims, he liked being close to them-stalking them. The Ripper doesn't form attachments to them on purpose because then it would be harder to catch him. He likes the chase…a tease."
Jack nodded and put his hands in his pockets and then handed her a badge. "Your credentials. You're now apart of the FBI, Agent Graham."
Elizabeth hesitantly took it and saw her information on there. It was official, she thought, I can't go back now.
She put the badge in her jacket and glanced towards the door which opened.
"Elizabeth?" Will questioned. "What are you doing here?"
"I wanted fresh eyes on this or actually eyes that have seen this kind of case before." Jack answered.
"And why is my sister here? She shouldn't have to see this," Will said as he and another woman came more into the room, closing the door.
Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "I'm a big girl, Will, I can handle a little bit of blood and death, remember?"
"You're Detective Elizabeth Graham," the brunette haired woman asked.
"Yes, I am." Elizabeth answered.
"You were the one that caught The Bayard Butcher," she said. "I remember reading about that case, it was international. In the UK, right?"
She nodded. "Yes and I'm sorry, but I don't know your name."
"I'm Dr. Alana Bloom," Alana answered and they shook hands.
"Ah, yes, Will's told me about you. I hear you are very intelligent and a friend to my brother. Thank you for that."
"My sister likes to meddle against people's wishes not to, it's a nasty habit that she really needs to break," he said to Alana.
"And my brother thinks that just because he was born two minutes before me that I need protecting even though he saw what I did to the kids who used to pick on him," she snapped calmly.
Alana tried not to smile as Will glared at his sister.
"Why is she here?" Will asked again.
"Jack already told you, brother."
Will scoffed. "I love you, Lizzie, but I know you. I know you are here to keep on eye on me."
Elizabeth scoffed this time. "Oh please, I wouldn't give up the life I had just because Jack told me to. If you know me then you know that I am tenacious when it comes to my career and solving a case hence the no husband waiting at home thing."
Will let himself smiled at her words. "You would drive him crazy no doubt about that."
"Straight to Hell I bet," Alana mused.
"Yes so I would warn any of your male friends to steer clear of me," Elizabeth said then pointed to another board hidden in the corner. "Now what is that? More murders."
"The Copycat Killer," Jack responded. "Someone has been copying our cases. Their poses, the types, and everything else in between."
Elizabeth was quite for a moment before saying, "He's close. He knows every single little thing about murders, right?"
"It would seem so," Will answered. "It is sounds like he wants us to know that he knows. He seems to enjoy seeing us struggle to place him somewhere."
"He's clever." Elizabeth added. "Are you guys sure that it's a male and not a female?"
"Males tend to be more violent in killings and show no interest or emotional attachment to the victims while females are the opposite and show more emotions towards them," Alana replied. "They have an emotional attachment."
Elizabeth sighed. "I need to go, Jack. I have a lot of homework it seems."
Jack nodded and then walked over to his desk, handing the files to her. "Here. This is all we have on the ripper."
"Thanks. I'll take a look over them tonight and report in the morning or the afternoon probably," Elizabeth said distractedly as she was already looking down at the information in one of the files.
Will smiled and said to all of them, "I hope you're happy since you've just awoken a workaholic monster."
Without glancing up, Elizabeth had smacked Will in the arm which made him rub it. "Where are you staying?"
"I have a house in Baltimore, but also near Virginia," she explained. "It was the only small house on a quite street that I could afford."
"I'll drive you over there," Will told her, his voice holding no room for argument.
"Alright even though I drove here. Good-bye Jack and Dr. Bloom, it was lovely to meet the both of you." Elizabeth said before the siblings walked out of the room, then the buildings.
"Why did you agree to work for Jack," Will asked once they got to the car. "I doubt it was only for the money."
Elizabeth sighed heavily. "I am worried about you, but-"
"I knew it," Will practically gloated in an irritated way. "You always do this! You and everyone else think that I can't handle this."
"Let me finish, you asswipe," she snapped angrily at him, fury in her eyes. "My Captain told me to come over here. She said that I was being transferred and had no choice in the matter. Jack is now my boss only because I have experience in cases like The Ripper, remember?"
Will looked down in shame and looked back up at her, of course never making eye contact with her. "I'm sorry, alright? I didn't mean to push you, Lizzie. It's just that…that…"
"Oh, no," she whispered.
Will immediately got into the car and she followed hastily, looking at her brother. "I thought you said that you drove here?"
"I did, but first we need to talk."
"We'll talk at your house. I'll follow you," Will promised.
Elizabeth pursed her lips and felt like arguing with him, but nodded reluctantly. She got out of the car and went to her own; looking in the rear view mirror once she was driving on the road to see if Will was still following her. Elizabeth's hands gripped the steering wheel tightly causing her knuckles to turn white as she feared that Will was truly hanging onto reality by a wear thread that someone could easily cut with kid scissors.
Elizabeth shivered a little at the coldness of the state that she was in, but yet she loved the cold winter and its darkness. She thrived in the winter and felt at ease almost with it. It seemed to calm her every time.
They pulled up a sophisticated neighborhood which held elegant and expensive houses on each side, all of them extraordinary in length, size, and texture. You could easily tell that someone wealthy had lived in each of them. Then there was her house which was that one house that had always had a FOR SALE sign on the lawn, but no one seemed to want to buy it.
The house looked out of place, taking the form of a farmhouse much like Will's actually. It had only two bedrooms, one bathroom, kitchen, living room, and cupboard. Every room seemed awfully small, but that is what she really liked about it. It had a large lawn and a pathway of stones leading up to the steps to the door. The needed a lot of work done, but Elizabeth looked forward to that.
Elizabeth pulled into the driveway and got out of the car as she saw Will analyzing her new home.
"So? What do you think?" she asked excitedly.
Will opened and closed his mouth a few times before nodding firmly. "I…it has character."
Elizabeth chuckled. "I know it's a mess, but it's going to be my new project. I'm going to fix it up."
"Oh, good-I mean good job of course."
"You mean good luck, you idiot," Elizabeth mused then they walked up the path.
"You're losing reality again aren't you?" Elizabeth questioned.
"Lizzie-"
"Don't you 'Lizzie' me. This has happened before." Elizabeth warned him worriedly.
"I-You know I don't like to talk about that," Will told her, tensing up a little.
"Just tell me something, Will. Are you talking to someone about this?"
"I've made a friend for your information," Will informed her.
"A friend," she questioned then smiled. "Who? Is it Alana? I hope it's her because I think you two make a cute couple."
Will rolled her eyes. "It's ironic how you don't want to get set up with anyone and yet here you are trying to set me up with someone else."
"I want you to be happy and at peace."
"And I want the same for you as well," Will agreed. "But right now we need to focus our attention on the cases at hand."
"I guess, but you must tell me the name of your new friend. You seem to like him-trust him even…should I be worried?"
Will chuckled nervously and readjusted his glasses. "Lizzie, I-"
"Will!" a voice called from behind her.
Will smiled at the person and replied, "Hannibal."
Elizabeth knitted her brows in confusion and turned at the sound of someone walking up the steps. There walking towards her was none other than Hannibal Lecter.
The man that she had bumped into earlier and promised to tell him her favorite author the next time she saw him…and he knew Will, her brother.
TBC…
THANK YOU FOR THE REVIEW, FOLLOWS, AND FAVORITES! So next chapter will tell where in the series that the story is set in and a certain meeting between a cannibal and blonde detective/agent and Hannibal becomes very interested in the siblings so stay tuned. I hoped you liked this chapter.
REVIEW. FOLLOW. FAVORITE. Until next time…