Warnings: Mentions of physical and mental abuse, reader gets a serious injury, strong language, drugging for medical reasons, kinda kidnapping if you squint, not proof read
You've been planning this for months now. Your bags are packed and you're in your car. You've gotten rid of your phone long ago now, not that it was hard your ex boyfriend River made it a point for you to see him smash the phone against the side of a table then throw it at your, hitting your cheek and cutting it open. He's left you with scars, both physical and mental. But you're free, finally you're fucking free. You've long since left the state, telling him you're going out to a store before telling the police that you're not missing.
You've got no friends to stay with, no family either. He made you cut them all off long ago so you'd be alone with him. But you're finally fucking free. It's a snowy night tonight. Nearing Christmas, not that you really celebrate. The first year with your boyfriend he got you diet pills. He said it was a gag gift but then again he never got you anything else. After that he never got you anything. But you were to give him gifts. That's the thing with him. He never shows his love until you try to leave.
When you do try to leave is when he gets violent. First threatening to hurt himself then actually hurting you. But you always forgave him. Now if you ever see him again you know what you'll do. If he ever tries to lay his filthy hands on you again than he's going to get a taste of what he's done to you. But for now you can look forward to the small cabin you've gotten yourself. Maybe you can buy yourself something too. Finding a job won't be hard in this small town, but dodging the questions about the brusies will be.
You've already got excuses on how they got there. You worked a pretty physical job so it was easy to brush it off as just getting roughed up at work. But now you're going to be facing a lot more questions from everyone. Maybe you can lie and say you were an mma fighter before you moved. Or that you went camping and things got out of hand. Whatever the reason you just pray that no one will press the issue.
You pull yourself back into the moment. Some Christmas song is playing on the radio. It's turned down pretty quiet but loud enough to where you can still hear some of the words. You hum along to the tune looking around at the dark trees surrounding you on this dark secluded road. It makes you nervous. Almost anxious. Just waiting for something to jump out and grab you. Like a predator stalking its prey. Waiting for the smaller animal to slip up just enough so they can go in for the kill. You feel like you're being watched in a way. Like all the animals out in those snowy woods are looking at you, waiting for you. To do what? You're not sure, you just know you have to calm down before-
You slam on the brakes when something jumps in front of your car. You look back to find a fluffy dog. It's big and looks like a mutt, but still has thick enough fur to be able to be comfortable outside. You can also see a collar on its neck. Thankfully with a tag. You unbuckle your seat belt before grabbing your coat and sliding it on as you step out of the car.
"Hey buddy," You say to the dog who's looking at you now, "Are you lost? Maybe I can get you home." You crouch down and hold out a hand. The dog approches you cautiously. It smells your hand before looking over at the woods and running off. You stand up and think for a moment. The dog could know it's way home. But what if it doesn't? You should probably go help it right? You argue with yourself while you unconsciously grab a flashlight and a hunting knife from your glove compartment. You keep your car parked and running as you follow after the dog. You can still see it's brown fur sticking out from the sparkling white snow.
"Buddy come here!" You shout, "I just wanna help!" The snow reaches up to your mid shin. It's said to snow even more later, almost up to two whole feet. The light from your car slowly fades as you run after the dog. Snow starts to seep into your jeans, chilling your legs. You can see your breath and your fingers are starting to become numb. God you shouldn't have done this. But you're too deep now to go and turn back. You hear a loud snap and you turn your light in that direction for a moment. After not finding anything you look back and you can't see the dog anymore. With a sigh you walk a few more yards before giving up. You take a few steps to the left when you feel a harsh stabbing pain enter your right leg.
You let out a scream as the snow underneath you melts into a red color. You can't see what happened to your leg but you can feel cold metal piercing into your skin. You scream and cry, the tears freezing to your face. The pain of standing up is unbearable so you fall on your bum. With heavy, wheezing breaths you push away snow and find that you're caught in a bear trap. Your jeans are now fully soaked and frozen with snow and water. You're continued cries of pain echo around the woods. Panic sets in as the edges of your vision starts to blur and blacken. You hear footsteps coming your way. You try to stay awake. You force yourself to keep making noise, looking away from the gorey sight of your wound.
You're taking shallow, slow breaths as you begin to sway. You're telling yourself to stay awake, you can't fall unconscious here. But those footsteps keep growing louder and louder and your voice grows softer and softer until you fall flat on your back. You're entire body aches and throbs but you can't move any of it. Your eyes start to shut but before they do you hear a voice.
"We have to help them, quickly." Then your eyes shut and everything goes black.
When you wake up you're no longer cold. In fact you're quite warm. You're laying on something soft with your right leg elevated. You let out a low, quiet groan while you open your eyes. Staring upwards you see you're in a room. To your right is a window. To your left is the rest of the room, a bedroom. A very fancy one you might add. The bed is large and has silk sheets on it. There's expensive looking wooden furnishings all around the room. And two doors. You look down at your self to find you're in a grey sweater and pajama bottoms. Your left sleeve is rolled up. You can see that an IV is stuck in your arm.
You're laying on a comfortable bay window platform. You look over at one of the doors to find a short blonde woman looking back at you. You don't get a good look because she quickly shuts the door and you can hear her footsteps slowly fade. You feel loopy. It's hard to move and everything feels sort of numb. It reminds you of when you woke up from having your wisdom teeth removed. You're trying to sit up when the door opens again. This time an older man looking to be in his late 50's walks in. He's wearing a three piece suit without the jacket at the moment. His hair is slicked down and he overall looks very put together.
"Don't get up please," he says. He's got some kind of accent. A European accent, but you can't place it, "I'm sure you're very confused but please don't worry. My name is Hannibal and I am a doctor. I found you out in the woods with a bear trap on your leg. Because of the snow I couldn't take you to a hospital so I brought you to my home."
"I, I don't remember getting here," you say slowly. Hannibal takes a pillow and helps you to sit up. His hands and gentle and he checks your IV, "Why do I feel like this?" You know this shouldn't be your main questions but you're not entirely lucid at the moment.
"You must have blacked out when I found you. I took you home and stitched you up. I've been keeping you on a steady dose of morphine for the past few days. Those days might have felt like dreams. I can assure you that you're safe here." Your eyes are big and doe like, your movements are slow and your body feels heavy.
"Are you Hannibal the psychiatrist?" You ask. He nods. You've heard of a psychiatrist called Hannibal a few weeks back in the papers, "I need to leave. I need to go back home." You try to sit up further but Hannibal stops you.
"No you need to rest here. You're lucky the bear trap didn't break your bone. But you need to let the stitches heal. Now I do live with some other people but they shouldn't bother you too much. You'll meet Carrie, a friend of mine very soon. But for now I need you to tell me about yourself and how you got here. Can you do that?" You blink a for a few moments before you nod.
"I'm Y/n L/n, I've just moved to this state and I own a cabin a few hours from here. I got out of my car to go look for a dog that I saw before I got trapped," a bit of panic sets in when you remember your car, "My things! I need to get them! Everything I own is in my car I need to get them please!" You feel like you're shouting but it's more of a slightly raised voice. You again try to get up but Hannibal pushes you down.
"Don't worry, my husband went out and got your car. It's here and we've brought your things inside. Now are you in any pain? While I was helping Carrie change you I found many bruises and cuts on your body. Along with many scars. The bruises and cuts are too old to be from when we found you. Can you remember how you got them?" At that question you have to look away from him. Tears are pushing at your eyes and a lump is in your throat. You still know what River did to you. You remember it all.
"I uh, I do mma fighting and I spar a lot. I guess I just bruise easily." He nods.
"Alright then Y/n, I'll be making lunch soon and Carrie will come in to help you eat," he stands up and pats your shoulder, "I'll be back. If you need anything please call for me or Carrie." With that he leaves. You're left with your thoughts now. Maybe this is better than a hospital. If you went to a hospital then they would have called River, or found out about the abuse. Hannibal didn't seem like he would hurt you. You're sure that in a few days time you can go drive to that cabin and live a new better life. But for now you look out the window and view the snowy forest outside.
You must have fallen asleep again because when you wake up you hear knocking at the door. You don't even reply before that same blonde woman comes back in. This time holding a bowl in her hands. She's a very pretty woman, but also shy. She doesn't seem to want to look you in the eye as she walks over to you. She picks up a chair and sets it next to you. She sits down and gives you a small smile.
"I'm Carrie," She says softly, "I heard you're y/n," You nod, looking down at the bowl. Hannibal had made you some kind of soup to eat, "It's so odd seeing you awake. You've been asleep for so long I thought that you'd never wake up." Carrie is stirring the soup now. You're also feeling more lucid.
"I'm not hungry." You lie. You're actually starving but you don't want to eat anything poisoned.
"Oh no Hannibal says that you have to eat. I promise it's good. I had some myself. You need to eat so you can get better. Please. I'll eat some if it makes you feel better." She dips the spoon in the bowl and takes a sip. You watch on as she looks fine.
"Alright, I'll try it. But I can feed myself now." You take the bowl from Carrie and you begin to eat it. And damn is it the best soup you've ever tasted. It's a simple chicken soup but also so different. It feels so high quality.
"Does Hannibal cook all the time?" You ask taking another sip of the soup. Carrie nods.
"He does. He's the cook of the house. His husband Will often fishes and brings home food for us. Hannibal is an amazing chef. He cooks really high quality food."
"How many people live here?" Carrie starts counting on her fingers.
"Including Hannibal, Will and I eleven people in all," You stare wide eyes at her. She flushes pink and looks away, "This is a very big house after all. Will and Hannibal have great jobs that pay a lot of money. I work as a seamstress. I make clothes for all kinds of people. Do you have a job?"
"Oh uh not yet. I just moved here and I was planning on finding a job once I got settled in my house." You continue to eat your soup, acting like your stomach isn't eating itself and that you're a normal person, just not in a normal situation.
"Well I hope you stay with us for awhile Y/n because I like you a lot." Carrie looks back up at you with a smile, you can't help but smile back. You begin to feel that same stabbing pain in your leg. It's slight but it's coming.
"Thank you Carrie but can you please get Hannibal for me?" She nods and takes your bowl from you.
"I'll be right back." She puts the chair back and opens the door. You try to move your leg but you wince in pain. You adjust yourself and accidentally hit your head on the wall behind you.
After that you could have sworn you heard someone say "Careful" in the voice of a little boy. You look around the room but don't find anything there. Soon enough Hannibal returns with a small box.
"I assume this is about your pain." You nod.
"My leg is starting to hurt again," Hannibal pulls up a small side table and opens the box. Inside is a syringe and a bottle of morphine. he shuts off your IV and injects the morphine into your tube, "Thank you but I have a question."
"Yes?" He asks putting away the needle and bottle.
"Does a little boy live here by chance?" Hannibal pauses for a small moment.
"No, all of us are adults here. Now you're going to start to feel weird again. Try to get some rest." He reattaches the IV and helps you lay down. As he's leaving you feel yourself start to fall asleep again. Lets hope you can heal fast.
A/N: It's so good to be back writing fics for y'all. I have big hopes for this little fic and I hope it's going to be so much better than before. Another thing you're going to notice is I'm making these longer. A minimum of 2,500 words this time around. Anyway I hope you enjoyed the first chapter and the ones to come. This Chapters song is "Should I stay or Should I go." By The Clash.