Undercover Bait

Chapter 2

A weight in my stomach kept rolling around as I stood on the street in Maryland, staring up at the mansion of a building in front of me. How anyone can afford an "office" this big, I have no idea.

The thought of entering his office, being under his care, it was enough to make me turn around and run and never come back. But I had to do it, I had to find out what Hannibal was doing to Will to make him act so strangely.

With each tap of my shoes against the stone tiles beneath my feet, my heart sunk lower and my hands shook more violently. The more taps, the closer I was, all the way up until I was right outside of his door. Slowly, my hand gripped around the handle, pushing down until I could hear the faint click of the lock, followed by the creak of the door opening.

Instantly, I was met by the smell of oak and a hint of lavender, along with the dim orange ambient lighting in the room. The office had a coldness to it, seemingly masked by the mood lighting and strange floral arrangements.

I shut the door behind me with a light click, trying to make as little sound as possible in the hopes that Hannibal might not realise that I'm here already. I perched on the edge of a seat, taking in my surroundings and making a mental note of anything and everything that I saw, even the most ridiculous of things, such as how there was one singular petal that had fallen from one of the bouquets.

My leg bounced up and down as I waited for the clock to strike 6. The anticipation was killing me, all I wanted to do was get home and go to bed.

Just as I considered the thought of legging it out of the door, the hand on the clock struck 6, seamlessly syncing with Dr Lecter, who opened up the large dark oak door, and stepped into the waiting area. "Please, come in Ms. Gibbs.", he said with that usual chilling look on his face.

I stood up from the seat, hands clutching my bag and heart racing, forcing myself to pull a small smile before making my way past him and entering the large open room. My eyes were instantly drawn to the large open fireplace, burning embers flickering as ash floated up the chimney.

Deep green walls surrounded us, pillars ascending up towards the ceiling and rows and rows of more books than I'd ever seen in my life stacked perfectly on each bookshelf. The grey wooden panel floor clicked as I walked slowly along it, past the deep oak desk and towards a black leather armchair stationed in the middle of the room.

My eyes wandered through the room, taking every inch of the building in and storing it into my memory.
"Please," Hannibal began, startling me and causing me to quickly turn to face him, his arm stuck out gesturing towards the armchair, "take a seat." I slowly glided towards the chair, setting my bag down close to my feet and sitting upright, despite how far back the chair leans. "May I offer you a glass of water, or another beverage?"
"No, thank you." I politely declined. In all honestly I really could do with a glass of straight vodka to get me through the session, but I thought it ought to be best to stay sober during my first session.

Hannibal sat on the chair across from me, symmetrical to the one that I was currently sat on. He looked towards me as I sat uncomfortably in my black dress-pants and off-white blouse which I had worn to work, before picking up a notebook and pen filled with notes on his different patients.

"As you should already be aware," Hannibal stated, "Alana has sent me over your medical records and her own notes on your sessions, along with any progress she believes you to have made." His piercing eyes looked up at mine through his eyebrows, before dropping to my fingers which were currently twiddling and picking at each other.

I gave a slight nod at his comment, before he carried on, "For today's session I will be drawing my own observations, attempting to know you on a more personal level, learn about your past." He sat with his pen ready for note-taking as he sat back and looked at me for any evidence of a reaction. For some reason, the thought of him learning about my life unsettled me substantially.