There Was No Darkness, Only You ( Hannibal x Will )

2

When strength and clarity returned to my body and mind, my immedieate reaction was to take inventory of my surroundings. When we had fallen, we had fallen from a private property off Silver Cliffs, Minnesotta. based off the way the current swept- we had either been swept into Canada, or we had washed up on the strip of land that arched like a reaching finger off of the Minnesotan land.

A thin green line could be seen just on the horizon across the vast blue of the lake, but the land curved backwards from us in stoney shores, trees bowing over the water and providing shade. The shore we were on was hardly a shore- a short strip of pebbles that was free of trees, bordered by a weald of weeds that fringed the forest. There was a discernable path however- beaten away and stamped into dirt- that snaked into the treeline.

"Hannibal, you have to get off of me." I grunted, struggling feebly underneath his weight. Dr.Lecter lay like a wet blanket ontop of me, breathing raspy, feverish breaths.

I felt my heart plunge when his cold hand gently laid itself over my own- positioned above his heart- trembling.

"I would be happy to die... just as we are... at this moment..." his voice was strained and quaked in a way that I hadn't heard since the day he had gutted me in his kitchen before running off to Florence. It fadded away in a quiet, raspy icoherent string of ramblings.

While my wounds had managed to stay clean, it seemed that Hannibal was ill with an infection of sorts. While I doubted that he would drop dead- or at least, I hoped- he would definitely be in critical condition if I didn't find a warm, sheltered place to take care of him soon.

"You're not dying, not after all this. God isn't letting you go just yet."

Hannibal lay quietly ontop of me, shivering. His hand felt so weak against mine.

"I'm not letting go, so please, work with me!"

I could feel his breathing grow thin and shaky at the exertion, but Hannibal complied and with what strength he had managed to roll off of me. He whispered something which I couldn't hear as I wobbled to my knees and tucked myself underneath him.

With much effort, I lifted myself up to stand, Hannibal hanging from my shoulder, his arm slung around my back as he hung weakly onto me.

At a slow, crawling pace, I was able to carry Hannibal up the beaten path into the forest, where I stepped off the track a few paces and lay Hannibal down to rest underneath a tree. I wanted to scout ahead- I could make out a large woodland home, possibly a wealthy man's summer cabin- but wanted to make sure that nobody was home before I dragged Hannibal all the way over there with me. When I approached it the first thing I noticed was that all the lights in the home were off.

It was a two story house, not including the basement. Built on a slant- the home's basement had a door that opened up to a lower patio, framed by tall windows that looked in on a bar. A roof jutted out over the basment patio, formed by the deck uptop that the first story opened up to. When I made my way up to the front of the home, the gravel driveway was empty- stretching far into the forest with no discernable road that it opened up onto for a good while.

Not nearly satisfied, I stepped up to the front door, first trying the knob. My hands left greasy fingerprints on it- covered in dust from disuse- but it let out a click in protest. I paused, sucked in a breath, and knocked.

After a whole minute, when nobody came to the door, I felt satisfied enough to return. I peered into empty rooms through every window I passed on the way, before hastily plunging into the forest. Hannibal was laying where I had left him, and when he saw me his eyes were especially glazed over- as if he was on the verge of tears.