Monster [malexmale]

Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

I woke up to hear frantic gasping.

I hadn't even realized I'd fallen asleep until I woke, groggy and rubbing worriedly at my eyes as my vision cleared. The bed was empty and horror gripped me as I shot to my feet, pausing when I spotted Hannibal in the corner of the room, sinking his fingernails into his arm, drawing blood.

"Hannibal!" I cried, horrified at the sight of skin peeling off under his nails. I ran to him and he hissed when I caught him by the wrists, prying his hands away from his arms. Deep rivulets of blood coursed across his arms, and he had been dangerously close to hitting an artery too. I sent in a flow of power to heal it and Hannibal writhed against me, trying to push me back. He said something in Atlantean and tried to crawl across the floor to get away from me, but I pulled him until his back was against my chest and he fought harder, spitting and cursing in Atlantean. I could only guess that's what he was doing because of his angry tone of voice.

"Hannibal," I managed, trying to keep my voice down, because the rest of the house had been asleep for hours, "Ssh, calm down. Stop, you're hurting yourself."

"Nyat! Okiya! Thia mos lia!" He brought his head back, but only caught it under my chin and I tried to hold it there, gritting my teeth. He spat at me, but I twisted him away and slammed him down onto the floor, pinning him there. I managed to get his arms pinned to his chest when his eyes flickered in the moonlight that shown through the window. A strange expression passed over his face, as if he were coming out of a dream. I grimaced at his flushed cheeks and the sweat sliding down over his nose as he panted for breath. He blinked a few times, seemed to come out of his hallucination, and his eyes widened slightly. I felt his whole body tense underneath me.

I let go of him slowly to make sure he was okay. As soon as I let go of him, he backed up into the corner to get away from me, his eyes watching me the way a cobra watched a mongoose. I swallowed at the lump of tears in my throat.

"Hannibal, are you okay?" I asked hesitantly. Hannibal didn't answer, just brought his knees to his chest and sat as far scrunched into the corner as he could get. I wanted to hold him, to try and make all of this go away, but he very obviously didn't want to be touched. After two weeks with those heartless bastards, I could understand that. After a moment, Hannibal spoke.

"I want them back." He whispered. I looked at him in confusion.

"You want what back?" I asked. He didn't answer. Just sat curled up into himself. It broke my heart to see him like this. He'd once walked with his head up, eyes watching every single person without an ounce of fear and he'd easily stand up for others. Now he was broken, and to think that I had a part to play in this just made it hurt so much.

I wanted to ask again what he wanted when I saw him sucking on the tips of his fingers and my heart clenched in agony.

He wanted the drugs back.

Grigora was powder and generally mixed into food. Viola was also powdery, or in pill form, but a lot of back street brothels made their whores lick it off the hands of their customers. My stomach churned at the thought of what those men had done to him.

"Epimetheus said you've done drugs before, in the past." I whispered. Hannibal hesitated at that, tilting his head before he nodded and bit at the end of his thumb. I flinched. It looked like Epimetheus had been right again and just thinking about his bastard brothers made me want to burn them until they screamed for mercy.

"Why?" I asked softly. Hannibal's expression twisted in disgust as he shot me a look. I winced at that. He just stared at the floor again and I gave up. I just sat there, watching him a bit nervously. I was afraid he'd try to hurt himself again. Granted, it was probably a hallucenation due to the symptoms of withdrawal, but it scared me that he was so eager to rip his own skin off. It gave me a shudder.