TW: Warning. Contains thoughts about suicide and other disturbing material. Please read with caution.
When Will woke up, there was a few seconds when he was calm. The soft light streamed in through the gap in the curtain, illuminating the room with a slight glow. The alarm clock showed it was 7 in the morning. It was then that all the memories resurfaced. Will turned around to find that the bed was empty. Hannibal was an early riser and Will was awfully grateful for that. He didn't want to wake up to face Hannibal in the same bed as him. Spending a few more minutes in bed, Will got out of bed. The chain rattled from behind him as he walked into the bathroom. He had almost forgotten about it as he had gotten used to the feeling of the cuff around his ankle.
He found new clothes neatly placed on the countertop of the bathroom; courtesy of Hannibal. Wordlessly and thoughtlessly, Will had a nice hot shower before tossing the clothes he was wearing into the hamper. Will felt he was being treated like a little princess- flourishing in the novelties he had come to fantasise about. He couldn't help but notice that the clothes that were placed belonged to Hannibal. Thankfully, it wasn't a three-piece suit. It was simply a light blue sweater with white sweatpants. As usual, the clothes engulfed his body, exaggerating Will's bony figure.
Once he made sure everything was done, he walked out of the bathroom. The bedroom was empty and if Will strained his hearing, he could hear soft music playing from downstairs. Sighing heavily, Will began making the bed. While he didn't bother back at home, Will made sure to be very clean and precise. God forbid he accidentally angered Hannibal. Once he was done, Will walked towards the window. The chain wasn't long enough to reach the window itself but Will could at least reach the curtain to push it aside.
The light filled the room, giving Will a glimpse of the outside world. All he could see was an almost endless woods. Will knew that if he were to try and escape, we would also have to survive that monstrosity of a forest. Staring that the thick forest, Will shuffled away quickly when he heard the door knob rattle. Pretending to read something on the desk, Will turned and paid no attention to Hannibal who walked in.
"A very good morning, Will," Hannibal spoke, a bright smile on his face.
Turning to face the doctor, Will muttered a quick 'morning' to Hannibal before standing there awkwardly. Hannibal had a tray in his hand, most likely his breakfast. Will shifted to the right when Hannibal walked towards the table he was at. He watched as Hannibal placed the tray on the table before facing Will.
"How are you feeling?" Hannibal asked, his eyes searching Will's face for an expression. Will merely shrugged, his eyes facing the floor. "I've brought you breakfast and unfortunately, I am not able to join you."
This made Will face Hannibal, curiosity filling his eyes.
"I have some errands to run. I shall not be long." Hannibal spoke, as he fixed the collar of his shirt. "Would you like me to bring something for you?"
Will shook his head as he swallowed the retort that was on the tip of his tongue. "I'm fine."
"Alright then, I shall be taking my leave," Hannibal said, his voice somehow sounding different. He walked towards the door before turning back. "Are you sure you'll be alright?"
"Yeah," Will muttered as he kept wringing his hands. "I'll be fine."
In reality, he couldn't wait for Hannibal to leave so Will could find some sort of way to leave. Flashing an awkward smile, Will watched as Hannibal nodded before walking out, That smile vanished from his face when he heard the lock turn. Another obstacle if Will manages to get the cuff off. Taking a seat on the bed, Will waited for some time to allow Hannibal to drive off. He couldn't help but wonder if this was a test but Will could hear the distant sound of an engine turning on and driving away. It was faint and anyone would miss it, but Will knew Hannibal was gone.
Taking a few deep breaths in, Will stood up. Without wasting any time, he rushed to the study table and opened all of the drawers. Hannibal had been generous enough to provide Will with some decent stationery and Will intended to use whatever he had to get the cuff off his leg. There was some sort of fancy pen with a nib. It was some sort of a fountain pen. Inserting the nib into the lock's keyhole, Will wriggled it, desperate to hear that satisfying 'click'. Regardless of how much time he spent on the cuff. He couldn't remove it.
After having tried the more gentle method, Will had to find a more violent way of getting out. He would claw his way through the metal if he had to. Will walked into the bathroom, heading straight to the toilet. Picking up the lid of the toilet cistern, walked out. Will bunched up the sheets on his bed around his ankle and pulled the chain of the cuff taut. Lifting the lid above his head, Will brought down the lid onto the chain, using all of his strength to try and break, or at least damage, the chain.
After several attempts, all Will managed to do was dent a small part of the chain. Cursing out in frustration, Will dropped the lid to the floor. Putting his head in his hands, Will sighed. Only a few hours till Hannibal came back. If Will wanted to get out, this would be his best opportunity and the window was closing in on him.
Will bent down to pick up the cistern lid when his eyes fell on the bedpost. He eyed the way the chain had been connected to the wooden post. Picking up the lid, Will slammed it onto the post, near wear the chain was looped around. Will didn't know whether to frown when he found that the bed didn't move an inch (it was bolted down to the floor) or whether to grim when the wood slowly chipped away. Continuing to hit the post. Will couldn't help but get his hopes up. Just as Wil hit the middle of the post, all his hopes vanished the second he heard a metal 'thang'.
There was a metal pole reinforcing the wood. For a split second, Will wanted to hit the lid on his head but instead, he kept hitting the pole out of pure anger. Will couldn't even begin to fathom where Hannibal might have gotten a bed with a metal pole reinforcing the otherwise expensive wood. Part of Will felt guilty for destroying the bed but that guilt quickly diminished, being replaced with anger and resentment towards the doctor.
Around two hours had passed since Will's attempt to break the chain. He was now laying on the bed, racking his mind for ways to escape. He could pretend to be injured so Hannibal removed the chain to treat him. Then he could take the doctor by surprise. While the element of surprise would definitely help Will, he couldn't help but doubt the fact that Hannibal was twice as strong as Will was.
That two hours turned into four. Will sat next to the door, desperate to hear the sounds of Hannibal's arrival. The darker, more cynical, part of Will's mind came up with different scenarios. Scenarios where Hannibal forgot about him or intentionally left the profiler to die. Maybe this was his plan after all. Treat Will so gently, cater to all his needs and then abandon him. Leave him to rot in this prison. It could also be some sick mind game. Leave Will waiting for hours and then come back, watch the profiler break into several pieces.
Four hours turned to six. Hannibal had left at around nine in the morning. It was now around 3 pm. The food Hannibal had left on the table was untouched. The coffee had gone stale and the omelette was now stone cold. Will was lying on the floor, his eyes staring numbly at the ceiling. Whatever panic Will had was now this tingle in his heart. He tried not to think about Hannibal. In an attempt to distract himself, he tried to work on the chain before grabbing one of the books that Hannibal had left on the table. Nothing could satiate his worries.
Six turned to eight hours. Will had accepted his fate. The chain was still looped around his ankle, nothing seemed to break it. Will had lost his appetite hours ago. The food on the table disgusted him as it reminded the profiler of Hannibal. While Will had seemed to accept his slow and excruciating death, his mind kept offering him hope. Hope that made Will think about the good memories he has made. The worse part was that Hannibal seemed to be included in those memories.
Jack and Alana popped into his mind. They must have given up their search for Will seeing as there was no indication that the RIpper kept his victims alive. Oh... Beverly. When Will met Beverly for the first time, she too showed an interest in how WIll's mind worked but there was something different. Rather than looking at the profiler like some sort of alien, she saw Will as a weird person who had a great love for dogs and coffee. She saw him as a person and regardless of how caring Alana is, she saw Will as some specimen to include in her articles. Beverly invited him for coffee and made sure to make Will comfortable as possible, even if she used her quirky ways to do it.
Will wondered how Beverly took the news. There's no doubt they suspect Will ran away with Hannibal. Will hoped that Beverly knew him enough to know that Will wouldn't do such a thing. Even if he did, he would never abandon his dogs like that.
This led the profiler to remember his dogs. Thinking about them brought tears to his eyes. He never thought he would have to say goodbye to them so quickly. Then again, he never really got to say goodbye.
All of this reminiscing left Will feeling so empty.
Eight hours turned into 12 hours. Half a day since Hannibal bid farewell. He wasn't coming back. Will couldn't help but sob terribly when he thought about his incoming death. Throughout his life, Will always pondered about how he would die. Will always assumed it would be due to his horrible self-care or by the hands of some serial killer he was working on. Part of him was satisfied that he guessed right. Instead of lying on the floor, Will had now curled up against the wall, his head against his knees. Part of him wanted to speed up his death, maybe dunk his head into the sink, feel the water in his lungs.
The room was beyond saving. Wood chips were scattered across the floor and Will felt the sharp prick of splinters on the soles of his feet. The curtains were pulled to the ground when Will tried to wrap them around his neck. The sheets were also thrown across the room. The medicine cabinet was left open and all the items inside lay on the floor.
The overthinking and thoughts of death had exhausted Will. He had begun to doze off, the panic partially subsiding. Just as he succumbed to the bliss of sleep, the sound of the door jiggling reached Will's ears. He ignored it. He knew Hannibal wasn't coming back and this was just some pathetic trick his mind had conjured up. Will wasn't a stranger to hallucinations.
Will heard his hallucination call his name. Lies. He didn't bother lifting his head as he addressed his hallucination. "It's not going to work. I know he isn't coming back." Will slurred as he held back a sob. Will expected the hallucination to simply keep on calling his name. What he didn't expect was to feel hands on his shoulders. This startled him, causing Will to look up. Staring back at him was Hannibal, a twisted expression his face.
He came back.
Hannibal watched as the shock washed off the profiler's face, promptly replaced by overwhelming emotion. One that Hannibal couldn't read. It was a mixture of relief and grief. Two emotions that didn't belong with each other. The doctor didn't hesitate to pull Will into his arms, embracing him as Will let out the most heartbreaking cries he had ever heard.
Hannibal hadn't meant to take so long. He had gone intending to get some groceries and pick up the passports he had ordered. As he had met up to collect the passports, the man had decided that the bounty offered by the FBI was much better than whatever money Hannibal had offered. Attempting to capture Hannibal and bring him to the FBI, the man had brought some of his lackeys. Getting rid of the lackeys and the man wasn't the problem. The problem was managing to evade the FBI roadblocks that had been set everywhere.
Hannibal had to lay low, waiting for hours until the roadblocks has been lifted. He hadn't expected them to take 10 hours. All while Hannibal was hiding, he kept on thinking about Will. He just hoped the young man wouldn't do anything rash. All while driving back to the house, Hannibal kept feeling an immense dread in his heart. That dread intensified a thousandfold when he entered the house. It was quiet and Hannibal didn't bother to switch on the lights as he rushed upstairs. Unlocking the bedroom door, he took in the state of the room. Everything was scattered across the floor. It was so messy that he nearly missed the huddled figure that lay on the floor.
As Hannibal called out Will's name, he could feel his heart shatter at the sound of Will's defeated voice. Will sounded like he had given up. Like there was nothing left to live for. Wil had assumed that Hannibal was a figment of his imagination. The only way to convince Will was to make contact with him. Hannibal reached over and touched the profiler's shoulders, watching as Will faced him. Hannibal didn't bother masking the concern on his face as he watched Will's expression.
He held Will as the profiler cried into Hannibal's shirt. Letting him cry, Hannibal muttered soothing words as he rubbed Will's back. After a few minutes, Will pulled back, wiping the tears with the sleeves of his sweater. He was attempting to speak but Will kept trying to calm his breath.
"I'm here now," Hannibal whispered, trying to get Will to match his breathing, Hannibal hadn't expected his disappearance to affect Will to this extent.
"I-I thought you weren't coming back," Will whispered back. Taking a deep breath in, Will continued. "I thought you had left me to die. That you had forgotten about me."
Hannibal couldn't stop the tears that had flooded his eyes. He was grateful that the room was dark so Will wouldn't see him cry. "Oh, Mylimasis, I could only forget you if the specks of your soul got lost in the mystery that is time and even then, I would piece you back speck by speck to the utmost perfection of a human you are."
Whatever emotion Will was feeling was quickly taken over by embarrassment and the feeling of being loved. He could feel his cheeks heat up and he hid his face behind his hands. That embarrassment shifted from being about Hannibal's flowery words to the state of the room and his little mood swing. Not only had Will ruined the room, but he had also gone and ruined Hannibal's shirt with his tears. He also felt silly about going into a whole spiral.
"How are you feeling?" Hannibal asked as he brushed a curl from Will's forehead. "I imagine your day must not have been as satisfying as I had hoped."
"Sorry about the room," Will muttered.
Hannibal merely 'tsked' at Will's words. "Nothing that cannot be replaced. I'm asking about you, not the room or anything else."
"I'm fine," Will replied, as he wiped his face again.
Hannibal stood up before he lent his hand for Will to stand up. Will accepted it as he lifted himself. Will didn't want to look at the mess he had made so he opted to stare at his toes. Hannibal on the other hand scanned the room, taking note of the food that was left untouched and the way the bedpost had been destroyed. He also noticed how the curtains had been pulled down. When he noticed the curtain, Hannibal turned to face Will. noticing the slight bruising that was peaking out the neckline of the sweater.
"Why don't we have something to eat?" Hannibal asked before he bent down to uncuff Will's leg. Ignoring the dumbfounded look on Will, Hannibal took the man's hand before leading him out of the room.