Gaining Innocence

The Empath (CH:11)

CHAPTER 11:

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General warning: oaths, child abuse in the past, mention of rape.

Couple : Hannibal / Will

Disclaimer : I do not own the Harry Potter and Hannibal series.

Chapter 11: The Empath

Henrikas learned that Hannibal likes to imply fear in the mind of his victim before killing them.

A notion that he found no problem corresponding with the other man as his Creature side likes to see the terrified face. Their flexible expressions transformed into a frightened one was ... intoxicating to say the least, that he could almost taste the fear they emitted from them. The fourth human wondered absently if this was, perhaps, the same feelings his late father had experienced when he was looking for food.

When he realized what Hannibal was doing when he began to speak after his victim had woken up, he immediately played along, having a conversation that would undoubtedly intensify the terror in the already terrified woman. It was refreshing to talk to the psychiatrist, especially when the (not so) good doctor answered every one of his questions while attending to his "guest." He smiled, never meant to hide it from Hannibal. Of course he likes the dish, after all he had participated in the organ harvest. That made the meal itself special. "Yes. It's super delicious." He can't help but add the word 'super', making it sound quite childish. Hannibal always managed to bring out that side of him, much to his dismay.

Hannibal had cut her while she was still alive, showing her the perfect way to harvest the lungs without damaging the organ. He listened intently as Hannibal showed him how to clean them, and the older man's voice seemed soothing, rich with an accent that seems to swirl around his tongue. Henrikas likes the sound of it. Faintly, it reminded him of the voice of his father who read him a book of fairy tales before he fell asleep.

Henrikas also knew the real reason why Hannibal had killed her. After she died, he asked her what her real motive was for killing her, and for a moment the other man just smiled grimly as he cleaned the knife before speaking. The psychiatrist had told him about an FBI profiler: Will Graham, who can empathize with the mind of a murderer and considering that he already promised Agent Crawford that he would help Will understand the murderer's objective, he had made the killing: it is practically a gift wrapped for the tie, and he thinks Hannibal was thought to do that. Of course, it was somehow a test of him to the other man, whether he could grasp the concept or not. However, looking at Hannibal's face, Henrikas was pretty sure Hannibal already knew that the empath will understand the criminal's true goal if he looks at the dead woman.

It was quite artistic about how Hannibal displayed the corpse. The naked woman was impaled by the deer head (now, he knows why Hannibal stole it), letting the corpse float in the air, staring up at the sky with its dull, dead eyes. Somehow, he could feel that Hannibal was making fun of the FBI when he did this. Maybe he did, he never understood how the man thought, anyway.

"Enjoying the food?" A deep, rich voice accentuated his reverie and Henrikas's mouth formed a smile. Hannibal looks quite cocky (if the slight movement of his mouth is an indication that he should pass), probably thinking about how the FBI will find his victim's body tomorrow.

"Yes," Henrikas agreed, picking up a fork of fried lungs before chewing it into his mouth, "it tastes quite... delicious." Hannibal had fed him kidney, liver, heart, but never lungs. Until tonight, that is. However, he finds the organ tasty. In fact, everything Hannibal cooks is, it's hard to find fault with his kitchen, for his fun, it's always done in the best possible way. "It's quite tough, but tasty. Do all lungs taste like this?" I have asked curiously.