Chapter 6

Thursday, 2 a.m.

"This is risky," Will whispered when he put on his black hoodie.

"It is even more risky to keep them alive," Hannibal said. "Mr. Greyson and Mr. Kale have been hunting for decades before there were any regulations. Who knows what kind of animals they have tasted. If we say we serve turtle and they know how turtles taste, it will be difficult. And you are all against difficult."

"A BBQ is risky."

"I have hosted dinner parties before."

"And they let to your downfall."

"Only because you betrayed me. I love you, Will," Hannibal said and looked straight into Will's eyes. Will gave him a quick kiss on the lips. He always did to avoid the answer. Hannibal knew that and he still felt hurt by that. He sighed. "Let's go."

"We should go by car."

"That makes a noise."

"Being blood covered and walking through the streets is even riskier."

"Then don't let yourself get covered in blood."

Will put on his rucksack and together with Hannibal he left the house. They only had to walk a few hundred yards until the end of the road where a small forest began that housed a tiny lake. The last two houses, the last on the right side and the top one, belonged to Mr. Greyson and Mr. Kale. Upon arriving, they saw that they were both in luck – and bad luck. Mr. Greyson's living room was lit. Curious, they sneaked forward.

Will made sure that no other houses in the vicinity had any lights on. They crawled through the front yard which was a chaos of weeds and dry plants. Both men were too old to do work in their gardens and apparently they did not care to pay a gardener. "We will have to clean our shoes when we come home," Hannibal whispered to Will.

When they peeked through the living room window, they saw both Mr. Greyson and Mr. Kale sitting on the couch, both with wine glasses in the hands and singing a long-forgotten hunting song. "Recent alcohol intakes makes the organs taste different," Hannibal lamented. "I will need to adapt my recipe."

"Can we take both at the same time?" Will asked. Their plan had been two against one, twice.

"Of course," Hannibal said. "I have been doing this own my own for so long. I am glad I now got company." Hannibal signaled Will to follow him. They crept around the house and onto the porch. Hannibal took out the plastic covers from Will's rucksack and they put them on. He then knocked on the glass door.

"I don't think they will hear this. They are too drunk," Will commented.

Hannibal knocked again. They could hear the voices inside diminish. Then they heard the front door opening. Hannibal rolled his eyes. Old men. He never wanted to grow that old. As soon as he heard the front door closing, he knocked again. The light in the corridor went on and he saw Mr. Greyson coming closer. He opened the door just a bit.

"It's me, Mr. Greyson. I'm Mr. Leuchtenberg," Hannibal said.

„Oh, it's you. And your husband. What are you two doing out in the dark at this time of the day, behind my house?"

"We've just come from a night's fishing trip," Hannibal started to say but then pushed the glass door abruptly into Mr. Greyson's face. The old man stumbled back holding his nose. "What the–" he started to curse, but Hannibal was faster.

Will rushed past to see whether Mr. Kale had heard any of this. The other old hunter still sat on the sofa, clearly intoxicated, and was singing an old song that Will did not know. Mr. Kale was at first surprised to see Will, then even more to see him in such clothes, so his positive surprise turned into confusion. Will briefly hesitated. He still hesitated sometimes, and he knew that sooner or later, Hannibal would notice, and sooner or later, it would cost them. But when he heard some gargling noise from the floor which must be Hannibal strangulating Mr. Greyson, he rushed forward. Mr. Kale was intimidated by the sudden action, but he was too old and too drunk to react quickly enough.

Will hit with his flat hands on Mr. Kale's ears which knocked him defenseless for a few seconds. Then Will rushed even closer and turned Mr. Kale's head – breaking his neck in the progress. The lifeless corpse sacked into the couch. Will felt pity for a moment. The only reason they were killing these two men were because of their excellent taste in animal meat. In the next second he realized that he had had no feelings while killing Mr. Kale. He had neither felt joy nor had he fantasized about killing Hannibal as he still did sometimes. Was something happening to him? Was he still changing despite all the gruesome acts that he and Hannibal had already done? Will suddenly got the feeling that he was being watched. He turned around and saw his husband looking at him, with a proud expression on his face.

"Let's get to work," Hannibal said. He carried Mr. Greyson back to the couch. His nose had been bleeding, but now all functions of his body had stopped. His neck bore red marks.

Hannibal was stronger than Will, so he heaved the body of Mr. Kale next to the one of Mr. Greyson. Will took Mr. Greyson's fingers and scraped the fingernails over those of Mr. Kale's skin. Will searched Mr. Kale for the keys of his house. Then, Hannibal took the body of the old man and disappeared towards the forest behind the house. Will made sure one last time that they had not left any evidence and locked the back door. He then turned off all the lights and left through the front.

He opened the door to Mr. Kale's house and entered. He turned on the flashlight with minimal brightness. The house stank of old man's liquor. He had not thought that Mr. Kale was maybe an alcoholic. Luckily, he trusted fully in Hannibal's cooking abilities. He could make everyone taste good. Every corner of the house was filled with stuffed animals. The eyes were staring at Will and made him feel uneasy. More than once did he think that the eyes were following him.

In the upstairs bedroom, he found what he was looking for. He put Mr. Kale's suitcase on the bed and threw arbitrary clothes into it. He also went to the bathroom and took some hygiene articles. He kicked over a few bottles as well. It needed to look like a spontaneous and hasty action. He then searched the most obvious places for money and found some stashed into the back of a hollow bear head. He took most of it but left a few notes behind. The money they would keep and even though Will felt a bit bad about it, he knew that it would serve them. Hannibal had access to most of his money on accounts in different countries, but they were moving often and nearly always they bought entire new sets of dishes, clothes, household articles, and so on.

He followed Hannibal into the forest. As soon as he entered, any rest of light was gone. He turned on the flashlight. After walking quite a while, he ended up at the bridge where they had wanted to meet. Hannibal had already gotten the freezer box and the scalpels that they had hidden below the bridge. Mr. Kale was readily dissected and harvested.

"You did not leave much in him," Will noticed.

"We need to feed the entire suburb," Hannibal answered.

Will did not know why it arouse him seeing Hannibal so professionally kneeling over a dead man's body and taken apart his interior. The coolness in Hannibal and the calmness he radiated made the butterflies in his stomach try to escape. Everything here was wrong but yet, it felt so right when they were together.

Will kneeled down and helped Hannibal fill the body with stones. Hannibal then sewed it shut. "Already the Germans knew that this was a good way to hide a body."

"In the children's story the wolf was still alive when he had the stones in his belly."

"Another reason why a fairytale is a fairytale."

They heaved the body over the bridge and watched it sink down the water. They then filled stones into the suitcase and did the same.

"We can be lucky that it wasn't a too dry summer," Hannibal commented.

Suddenly, a beam of light hit Will's face. At first he thought that it was Hannibal but then he realized that Hannibal also never turned on full brightness.

"Mr. Leuchtenberg?" he heard. Fuck. All red warning lights in Will's head jumped on. "What are you two doing here?"

Hannibal also turned on the flashlight and shone it into the face of the man opposite to them.

"Mr. Harris, good evening. Or rather, good morning," the cannibal said.

"What is it you were dumping over the bridge?" Mr. Harris' skin looked pale and only then did Will realize that the slender man was naked.

"Mr. Harris, why are you naked?" Will asked.

"It's full moon…," he stammered, leaving more to Will's imagination than he would have liked to. "Do you also worship the moon?," he asked in a weirdly smooth voice. "Would you like to do a moon ritual with me?" He started to touch his penis.

"Oh my god," Will muttered.

"Theresa said you were asexual and aromantic," Hannibal commented. He seemed to be able to keep himself together.

"I could not burden that poor girl with the truth. Maybe I should have sacrificed her to the moon… I have never done a sacrifice. Is that what the two of you have been doing?"

"Please tell me he is on drugs," Will whispered to Hannibal.

Hannibal did not react.

"No blood," Will whispered, reminding Hannibal that they should not leave a trace at the spot where they had just dumped a body in the lake.

Hannibal eventually walked towards Mr. Harris. "Yes, we would like to do a moon ritual with you."

While Mr. Harris face brightened, Hannibal hit his neck with the side of his flat hand. Mr. Harris sacked down immediately.

"Is anyone in this district normal?" Will asked. He rushed over to the unconscious, naked man. "Is he on drugs?"

Hannibal shone light into his eyelids. "It does appear so. But I also think he was just a nutcase."

"Is that your professional opinion as a psychologist, Dr. Lecter?"

"Yes." Hannibal checked the man's vitals. "Would you mind handing me the scalpel? We should not let the moon sacrifice of Mr. Harris go to any waste," he added sarcastically.

Will sighed and did as he was told. Again, he was turned on by Hannibal cutting open the flesh.

"He's still alive," Will said when the blood actually began to flow.

"You wanted to correct my references to Grimm's stories."

Will got an absorbent tissue from his rucksack and patted the body clean. They did not want any blood to be found. No one should know that this spot was a crime scene.

"I think this will be a hell of a dinner party," Hannibal said when they had replaced the organs of Mr. Harris with stones and joined him to Mr. Kale.

"If there is anyone left in this town to enjoy it," Will answered grimly when they were walking back to Mr. Kale's house.