✔️ Only I Can Feel You | Hannigram | Rye Ambrose

16

Warning: Mentions of Anorexia

"How can you tell? Evidence only shows signs of—max—two attackers."

    Will shook his head. "I sensed four people. Either Death knows we're onto him and is trying to confuse us, or he really is working with—dare I say—other... accomplices."

    "You mean other supernatural entities?" said Zeller, setting his clipboard aside. He glanced at Price with disbelief.

    "Like the Four Horsemen?" he joked in response.

    Will stilled at that, and suddenly, a flash of he and Hannibal talking of those fated four pummeled his head. Four Horsemen... Four different scents, four different signs of attack—

    "Will," Crawford's voice pulled through his thoughts. "Will."

    He shook his head and sighed. "Sorry," he grumbled. "What is it?"

    "Tell us more about what happened." He glanced back at Price and Zeller with a raised brow. "No matter how crazy it sounds."

    Will huffed, standing up close to the cadavers on the metal tables. "There were five people," he said slowly, beginning to point at the bodies. "Jared Aines is all skin and bones—that's not normal. I believe he starved. Maybe even had anorexia."

    He began to point at the bruises from both bodies. "Signs of fight, obviously. But if you look closer—" Will carefully leaned over and motioned towards Barnes' bright bruise on his arm. "—Barnes was gripped violently. By whom, you might ask?" He then pointed at Aines' hand, whose knuckles were bloodied and strained. "These two were in a fight."

    Price's brows furrowed. "What, so—the killer set his mind on one victim, and when he messed with another guy, he decided to kill both?"

    "It's possible," replied Will. "Or it was on purpose."

    He continued. "Then—with the reports you two made—Jared Aines suffered from untreated STDs." He glanced at the others. "Disease, which would have slowly killed him anyway." Will then pointed at Aines' body, who—unnervingly—had most of the "special" treatment.

"Now look at the eyes." Will neared Aines' head, hands hovering over his face. "They've been gouged out forcefully—as if the attacker were in disgust. Now, we know that Victorum Pikes killed children because their eyes were, as he'd say, pure. This could be him—working with Death. Their target just so happened to be an adult."

"Dr. Lecter said that Pikes disappeared," Crawford pointed out.

Graham stared down at the bodies, shaking his head. "Either he's a liar," he said, "or his friend came back without saying anything."

Jack huffed, running a hand over his face. Should these murders keep coming up—with no evidence to pin on an actual human being—the press would get very suspicious. And very soon.

Jack put his hands on his hips. "Tell us the deeper message," he muttered.

...

"He's challenging me," he told Lecter, leaning forward in his seat.

The air seemed heavier this time when Will came into Hannibal's office. They sat at their respective chairs, gazing at one another with purpose. Hannibal merely tilted his head.

"And how is he doing that?"

Will glanced aside, mulling over the images in his head. "Remember when you mentioned the Four Horsemen?" he muttered, clasping his hands together. Hannibal rose a surprised brow at that. "I think—even if I've never heard of something like it—that Death is working with them on this specific case."