Heart Still Intact

4. Man's Best Friend

This isn’t what Hannibal expected. This was not the way he wanted Will to find out but there was no use crying over spilt milk. The doctor was quite surprised at the strength of the profiler but then again, it wasn’t in Will’s nature to go down without a fight. Hannibal wasn’t lying when he said he had no intention of hurting Will.

Hannibal watched for a few minutes as Will lay on the ground of his kitchen. His face was void of any stress or wrinkle. Sighing deeply, he picked Will up. The man was lighter than expected. Hannibal made a mental note to talk to him about that. Hannibal knew he had to move quickly. Fortunately, everyone believes that Will had parted from Hannibal which makes it easy to remove any connection to Will’s disappearance. All Hannibal has to do is find a way to dispose of Will’s car.

***

The first thing Will noticed was the soft pillow that was under his head. It was then that he felt the thundering pain in his head. Letting out a soft groan, Will rubbed his eyes, slowly lifting himself into a sitting position. The room was pitch black. Not a single beam of light, other than the light from the gaps in the door, entered the room. Breathing heavily, Will tried to remember where he was. It was at this moment when all the memories hit him like a truck.

Filled with panic, Will quickly stood up from the bed. He ran towards the door. Just as he reached it, something pulled at his left ankle. Will fell to the floor with a loud ‘thud’. Dazed at what had just happened, Will reached towards his ankle. Whatever panic he was feeling doubled as he felt some sort of cuff wrapped around his ankle. Feeling the material of whatever was tied to him, Will felt the cold surface of metal chains. He was chained to the bed. He was chained.

Will felt his lungs shrink as he couldn’t breathe. Whatever reasoning in his mind left as he felt the panic settle deep in his chest. Clawing at the cuff, Will didn’t care that his nails were scratching his skin. Muttering an endless mantra of “no no no no”, Will tried his best to get the cuff off him. Too immersed in his panic, Will didn’t hear the door open but flinched when the room was suddenly filled with light.

Feeling a rush of fear, Will scrambled to his feet as he backed away from the door. There, in all his glory, was Hannibal. He had changed his clothing from what Will remembers- now wearing a simple dress shirt and slacks.. When Hannibal started walking, Will pressed back into the wall, as if trying to phase through the wall. Once Hannibal noticed, he stopped moving. His eyes moved towards Will’s now bleeding ankle.

“Will,” Hannibal tried calling out to him. “You’ve injured yourself.”

Will tried his best to calm down. Having a panic attack wasn’t in his best interest. Unfortunately for Will, he couldn’t calm himself when the threat was in the room. When the person who would usually help him through his panic attacks was the reason for the panic.

Hannibal noticed that Will wasn’t paying attention. The young profiler's eyes were covered in a light fog as if lost in his head. Knowing that no good would come from this, Hannibal reached into his pocket, pulling out a similar syringe he had used earlier in the day. The only difference was that it was a much lighter dose than what he had used earlier. Walking towards Will. Hannibal managed to catch the profiler’s attention.

Will looked up at Hannibal who was now walking towards him. The panic increased as he looked around, desperately trying to find anything to use as a weapon. Alas, Will could find nothing. Will wasn’t even able to try and move since he was in the middle of a dresser and the bed. Just as Will began thrashing, Hannibal pulled on the chain attached to Will’s leg. This took the profiler by surprise as he fell to the floor for the second time.

Flipping Will on his stomach, Hannibal grabbed Will's hands and pinned them behind his back before sticking the needle to the back of Will’s neck. Since the dose was milder than the one used before, it took a few minutes to do its job. In that few minutes, Will decided to speak for the first time since he woke up.