The Fallen Angel • Hannibal Lecter

-* The Red Dragon*-

Hannibal's POV
• Florence, Italy
• the museum
• 7:15PM

"The red dragons symbolises everything from passion, love, sex to blood, wounds, death and fertility. Some would even go on to say aggression, anger" my eyes then found Grace sat in the crowd, where she had her legs crossed in a formal manner with her hands on her lap.
"And protection" I smiled. Her breath hitched in her chest for moment before she slowly exhaled, her chest lowering. I then scanned through the crowd again to see Mr and Mrs. Valentine beside beloved bedelia who stared over at me with an expressionless expression with her hair styled on one shoulder.
"In many societies, the red dragon represents many things. For example" I went on to explain, pressing the projector for it to reveal a historic painting dated from the 1500's of a prehistoric war, all their men riding in with their horses, some laying dead with their horses with their weapons raised in the air to clash into their enemies skulls.
"The celtics saw the red dragon as... death and the afterlife" I then revealed a painting of Anglo-Saxons.
"Whereas Anglo Saxons believed the red dragon to be protective and ward off evil hexes. As you may have noticed, warriors disguised their weapons in red paint to endow them with what they believed to be magic. However, what this painting fails to reveal is how the Saxons marked bark with red paint to offer protection before surrendering into battle" as I went on to explain in further detail, mr. Valentine obnoxiously cleared his throat, successfully grabbing my attention. Shielding my eyes from the projector, I then discovered valentine in the crowd - also revealing Grace hiding her face in her hands to distract herself from the embarrassment.

"And what traditions did this bring to the Chinese?" He questioned in a snobby tone, while his wife was attempting to shush him subtly by hitting his knee suggestively. Just like that, the crowds head spun back round to me. Valentine held a devilish smirk on his face as he patiently waited for my response, while graces face held anticipation as she bit hard into her bottom lip, almost drawing blood from the seems.

"Many. The Chinese saw the red dragon as fertility and joy, hence why it was often seen in weddings and birth. The child would receive a red egg since they believed it brought good luck and of course, celebration" although I showed I was not bothered by valentines remarks, deep down I wanted to see how he'd taste. Perhaps bitter from all his boiled hatred. Everyone then suddenly broke out into claps, bedelia doing slow, unbothered spaced out claps as she stared over at me with her glassy eyes whereas Grace clapped quite enthusiastically over at me, nearly jumping off her seat.
"Thank you for your time, everyone" I finalised, then shut off the projector.

Graces POV

"Im impressed" I chuckled, appearing by fells back while he was packing up the projector. He then turned over to face me, giving me a half smile which made me feel something strange inside however it was easy to mask.

"Thank you, I found this all very educational" he replied back over at me, staring at me deep in the eyes as he spoke over to me for him to suddenly be distracted by something over my shoulder. I pulled a hesitant look over at fell before turning to reveal my parents approaching, linking arms together. Although I know my father is upset with himself for being wrong, he still held his chin up high giving Fell a large smile with teeth whereas my mothers smile was genuine.

"Very good show, I see you did your homework" my father remarked, holding a hand out to shake and once fell shook his hand, I saw the tension between the two as their grip on each other was strong.
"Maybe too much for your own good" he joked, coughing a chuckle out of himself.

"My husband is very... sophisticated coming to research, aren't you dear?" Bedelia slyly snuck in, going to stand by her husbands side. While doing so, she took in everyone's faces but with mine a minute too long. The guilt, the shame... it was all too much as I cringed to myself, playing it off by wiping my eyebrow however I could never wipe away the memory, or fells touch... or my feelings.