Work Text:
Two hours and twenty minutes to go:
Will taps on his neighbor's door making sure his daughter Abigail was truly at Cassie Boyle's home and not off in the streets, anyone that was surely was a fool, he looks behind finding the street completely bare the warm November evening was pleasing enough, he saw one single woman grabbed a garden gnome from her yard hugging it to her flat chest as she went back inside, her keen eyes match with Will's icy blue ones, the old woman dropped the gnome almost in the process she slams the door, with the street being quiet enough he could hear her locking all seven of her locks, and if he could hear correctly the code the woman was frantically punching in, to perhaps protect her gnome that was in such a danger to be stolen.
That and her cat, an easy target. A thief could break in, steal her various items leaving her a bloody mess or in another more personal version kill her for her constant complaints of Will and Abigail's dogs that were very tamed but in her beady old eyes were a dangerous threat to herself, perhaps then she very well held a reasonable cause of fear. Will held no intentions of harming the old hag considering he had other matters of the evening, also now he could watch now after today the woman shrink in fear from Will's mere glance if she was alive he taps again upon Cassie's door finding the sun still was out beating on his back, "Cassie, it's Mr. Graham." He offers as he enclosed his signal it indeed was him by sliding a four digital code under her door.
The note returned a moment later with Abigail's familiar scrawl love you dad, "you girls be safe, don't open this door till morning." He coaxed through the door hearing silence, soon enough the rich or ones that managed to piss enough people off throughout the year would be hiding in their heavily secured homes awaiting out the chaotic evening. The middle class like Will would be alright since Crawford security a year ago signed a deal with the government allowing minor alarm systems to be provided each year on the purge, the poor meanwhile were left to fend for their sad selves.
He leaves the home, climbing into his car he stops finding the largest rock he swings it onto the old hag's porch, he finds a forgotten gnome he snaps it in half leaving it on her stairwell hoping in the morning it would still be there, it wasn't a threat it was a message for the next year's purge when the woman tried her bullshit again, she wouldn't know exactly who left it but in her heart as she waved at Will the homicide detective of Baltimore Maryland who happily volunteered with orphans for many organizations being he was one, his own wife now seven years dead Molly who would of frowned upon what he was planning doing this evening.
Murder, chaos.
Abigail was safe, he opens the car door again finding the old woman peeking behind her curtains, her face pale and frightened not even looking back out where Will stood.
The message was clear, and there wouldn't be anymore complications with his neighbors.
/ / /
The table was set, for among some of the most richest, privilege residents of the city of Baltimore, Hannibal Lecter promises not only safety from the treacherous streets but with his very own alarm system that locked the windows with pure steel at the push of a button, the home itself was soundproof blocking the sounds not only from the outside but inside as well, a bonus he had shelled out for by a different security company last year, for it was too difficult to break into homes on the evening of the purge finding that most were reduced to hiding in their closets armed as hell outside was released.
Instead of the hunter tracking down his prey, he took a change of path. Luring the vulnerable and the trash of the city, sex traffickers, wife beaters, animal abusers and if he could round any of them murderers theirselves, the tasteless ones at least, for all other 364 days of the year Dr. Lecter was a psychiatrist, for the mentality ill, he helped consultant on cases for the police and FBI finding that helped pave the way for him to round out the scum of the earth for this year's dinner, his alternative was to wear the plastic suit that sat hidden inside his closest, to don the identity of the Chesapeake Ripper one that toyed with the state of Maryland placing the well deserved fear in each citizen's heart, the government always feared serial killers would strike on the purge, instead it was mostly a day off for most.
A unspoken secret among them, for most stayed hidden not wishing to be identified by the police, then there was the occasional nutjob that came shedding bloodshed across his city often resulting in a capture and the damning question why the purge continues, with America in it's fitting third year of the purge. It kept the economy not in tatters but thriving with boosts of gun sales, weapons, security services and out of country trips to Europe where the purge hadn't yet touched as America was in its infancy with the one day of year with all crime being legal.
In another aspect it had lowered the crime in America with almost everyone resorted to using the purge to get back at the government.
Hannibal checked his watch only an hour to go, with his guests arriving thanking him he raised his eyebrows at the man with unkempt hair and blue eyes that could burn a hole in the sun itself, he was still with a resemblance to a statute as he greeted the doctor.
"Hello Dr. Lecter, quite a show up isn't it?" He spoke modestly, "doesn't it bother you most of these men and women are cowards, being criminals themselves?" He asked, pointing at one man who stumbles his cigar into a ashtray.
"Yes, but you are?" Hannibal glaring at the younger man he is conflicted to both beckoned the man inside as he took the man's jacket he sees the man is armed with a small pistol, around his neck hangs a detective badge, "homicide detective?"
The man tucks it under his flannel shirt, the chain still in sight. "Will Graham, I heard rumors of this sacrilegious place, you doctor offering a safe place for the most vile, tell me what is it?" He closed the door behind Will as he locked it into place, anyone else that arrived was doomed either way inside the doctor's home or outside.
No remorse.
"A dinner, a toast and since police are themselves hiding, why are you out and about should you not be at home with your family?" Hannibal says artlessly surely the man was indeed a family man, he wanted to know.
"My wife is dead, seven years now. Cancer took her, my daughter Abigail is safe with a friend. I myself never endured with the purge the first year I was on holiday, the past year in the countryside." He sits in the chair in front of a fireplace, it crackled and hisses as it burned, Hannibal sits in the mirrored one next to him.
The rude crowd that had shown up consisting of two women and three men Hannibal frowns seeing Franklyn a pesky patient that had arrived with a clean background he held no reason to be here, he swallowed hard as Will was in his eyes not particularly a criminal, he had read up on the Baltimore homicide who often fought over jurisdiction with the FBI over murders, most particularly caught the sloppy seconds the bureau didn't want, Will was a marvelous man his eyes were reflecting the fire as he stared straight ahead at it, his curly unkempt hair was dark and Hannibal noticed his small frame deprived of sleep with bags beneath his blue eyes, he wonders how many sleepless nights the man received over cases that paled in contrast to what he was capable of.
Will hadn't arrived at the doctor's home for sanctuary, he noted the aggression in his face as there was less than half a hour to go.
He wanted to kill.
"I apologise for the death of your wife and my rudeness, Will. Is it alright if I call you Will?" Hannibal glanced at the man's hands imagining them covered in blood.
He can see it now, the young man elbows deep inside a less than willing participant ripping the organs out as he licked his fingertips, in a cunning devilish flare he would smile letting the blood drip in a sloppy slur, it was locked away in a memory palace for it was likely he would never see Will again.
Didn't mean he couldn't try, his eyes flicker to Will who's voice was a chorus of bells, he enjoys hearing even a simple sentence.
"You aren't rude, and yes Will is quite fine..." He says not looking up, "I'll call you Hannibal."
"This isn't for what it seems Will, there is no dinner...when the time comes only the two people in this room know of the true intentions that none will leave alive." He finished flatly, "I planned on murdering each one in a unquestionable matter, for you Will may wish in joining my invitation or simply go upstairs to my bedroom lock the door as you wish."
Will's face looks from the fire finding Hannibal's eyes that were a deep maroon, "I accept the offer, joining you." His voice raised no more than a whisper, he smiles sheepishly.
Hannibal could hear his company laugh and exchange formalized conversations, "knives are in the kitchen."
Will blinking sets his glasses on the fireplace mantle rolling his sleeves up he finds upon Will are scars both jagged across his arms, he wonders from what, "believe it or not, I got these when I was an orphan having to fight for a piece of stale bread, a kid named Mason Verger who's father owned the place enjoyed beating the smaller children, often taking their food watching one day he let a good set of scars on myself, he used this metallic stick? I believed it was a rod now, one that he carried with him to smack things." His eyes are haunted, falling back into the days of Verger Orphanage, he remembers it all too clearly.
"Will, is the boy still alive?" Hannibal asks, with his voice sounding a hundred miles away, he sees Will nod.
"The rod, I grabbed it which it split in half I guess from Mason's abuse, he then took the broken rod slicing into my skin like a knife into warm butter, I didn't scream couldn't because of all the blood spilling from out coating myself and Mason, I finally managed to get away when I bit into his forearm leaving him I found help with a nun that followed my trail of blood out to the gymnasium, a hospital trip and one week later I was placed in a newer orphanage it didn't have Mason and the bread wasn't stale I was grateful....I found out later on a case when I was a police officer that Mason had rumored to rape the children being he was sixteen and I was ten at the time when I left, a orphan much like myself called him out on it suing the Verger's she was settled of course, now after investigating..."
The tale leaves Will shaken, the tiresome childhood.
Hannibal places a hand upon his shoulder the younger man stiffened under the gesture, as he looks back into the fire flickering as it diminishes.
"Will, someday the Mason Verger man will too receive his own reckoning, don't let it interfere tonight." Hannibal lowering his hand as the security system automatically bolted down the windows, the silence deafening as each locked into place leaving each guest gasping at the marvelous device that would keep each victim inside.
Technology at its finest.
/ / /
"A toast! To Dr. Lecter!" Franklyn says as he directs his glass of wine in the doctor's presence the marvelous evening was going so well for him, he couldn't hear the screams of the people trapped outside and even his friend Tobias was there, his hands in his face nursing a scotch in another hand. Tobias kept mumbling, Franklyn's toast went unobserved since the others were in their own conversations, he feels a secondhand embarrassment for them. How were they not thanking Hannibal Lecter?
Franklyn normally on the purge would of hid at his sister's house, which was out in the country only now since becoming Dr. Lecter's patient he has grown fond of, finding that if Franklyn tried hard enough the doctor would notice his effective ways, perhaps even become his friend.
He sips his wine finding his brain clogged, surely he wasn't that drunk yet, it was his first alcoholic drink of the evening. He pushes it away, grabbing a seat next to Tobias who smiled patting his friend's back. "You alright?" Franklyn asks, the man before him scoffed downing the rest of his drink, pausing to refill it he laughed, "Tobias what is-".
"You ignorant fool, you came here to your doctor's home trailing myself along to see what has drawn you to a man you never fucking shut up about..." Tobias says coldly, each word felt like Franklyn was being shoved deeper beneath icy water.
He moves his body shifting as his vision dulls itself slowly, he wants to open his mouth to speak finding the right words made his mouth open agape, only on every other word the syllables are lost his hands drop the glass of wine watching it stain his slack leg, the red in his eyes expands to the familiarity of blood.
"Tobias is the lion in the room?" Franklyn asks, only it sounded 'obis lion room'. He waved his hand in front of his diluting eyes finding it blurring before him, Tobias sips his drink again finding no difference himself.
Lacking emphasis Tobias grinds his teeth, he slammed the glass hard enough to earn half a dozen eyes turning upon him, "there is no lion, you idiot." He glares in the direction of the doctor and his companion who were deep in conversation, within a moment Franklyn fell face forward smashing into the glass coffee table. With his eyes wide filled with fright, the kind mostly lacking self esteem and a ultimate need to feel loved, "foolish man." He places a hand upon his neck finding with a quick turn he snapped Franklyn's neck. He lowers the man's eyelids so that they would see no more.
Then as he sat back down the host Dr. Lecter came into the room with the curly haired man trailing behind. With his knife he was willing to go with a fight, as much as he loathed Franklyn and the annoyances the man offered he still cared about him even letting him die with dignity.
The others gasped, knowing while they sipped their booze, bickering amongst each other that deep inside the doctor's home was no longer a safe sanctuary each eying the other with the lock down in place nothing will be opened until dawn, quitely they gathered together like ready to be gutted common cattle.
It was believed although that Tobias Budge was easily pinned thanks to his ghastly actions, in the dimmed lights Will couldn't help but admire the older man's work.
/ / /
"A shame that Franklyn suffered such a gruesome death, I do question although why is his neck snapped?" Will helps carry the man's rather heavy body down to the basement, finding a steel slab of a table he lowers him upon it, "was it part of the plan?"
Hannibal lifting the torso almost completely by himself and Will held a gnawing feeling it wasn't his first rodeo, he could see the older man wasn't even breaking a sweat. Pushing the thought aside, he glares around the basement finding a few tables much like the one Franklyn's bloated corpse laid upon. The floor is spotless aside from a few bleached blood stains ones that the doctor couldn't rid of. In the middle laid a midsized drain hole in the floor, it was dripping with whatever was left in it.
"Of course not, Franklyn may of been a pesky patient one I soon was going to refer to another doctor..but Tobias seemed to do most of the work." He paused, starting to laugh in a cold manner.
Will looks back, unsure why the older man was laughing. He curls his fingers around a scapel on the stainless tray table, knowing it is the evening of the purge and quite possibly this wasn't the first evening Hannibal had death on his hands.
Hannibal grabs a large knife sliding it into the large chest of Franklyn's, his eyes flicker to Will motioning him to help. He finds the blood now was thicker now the man was an hour dead, it still spills out.
"I prefer fresh meat, but this'll do until I can rid the rest of the pest above us." Hannibal's voice is thick, as he removes his hands he reached out placing Will's inside the cavity, from a previous experience when Will was younger he had gone on a hunting trip with his father, who in the end scored a deer. When it was brought home, Will was forced into craving into the deer, removing its organs he remembers how he felt the sticky blood when Will lost himself letting the blood spatter onto his glasses, in almost a mere moment he was taken back.
Hannibal retrieved a tool that appeared to be a device that could break apart the ribcage, he holds in nausea watching the ribs being snapped in half the noise makes him cringe, "the meat?" Will blinks removing his hands that were deep inside the chest finding the blood coating him.
"The meat is a delicacy," Hannibal removes what he believed was the left lung, "you should see the looks upon their faces when they devour one of their own always commenting on the texture the pleasure when they say how they want the recipe...pity." He lowers the lungs into one sliver bowl the dark blood staining it.
Trophies, missing organs.
Will remembers a month or so ago when his partner Beverly Katz, handed him a file it was marked the Chesapeake Ripper, a case that was around long before Will moved up to the Baltimore area, a murderer that killed at least to police knowledge a dozen or more. Always stringing his victims up for the world to see, more than half granted were no better than the ripper, child abusers, rapists and once a man wanted for the murders of college students. Always a few of their organs gone, at first it was believed to be trophies, but now as Will stares at the man who was talking but Will wasn't listening.
It was him, "you eat them, don't you?" His voice low, "you're him? The Chesapeake Ripper, feeding the high class society bits of their own, you endorse it, and tonight-." He stops as Hannibal moves towards Will, wrapping a blood curling hand around his throat already some of the blood was drying.
"My dear detective, you've guessed it. Now what do you wish to do with this newly attained information? Turn it over, arrest myself?" He presses more pressure onto his throat, with his vocal cords becoming stricken he manages a desperate act of obedience.
"I don't-." He tries as Hannibal released his grip as he sneered.
"Speak."
"If I wanted to turn you over, or if you wanted to kill me...both would of been done by now." He hangs his head against his knees as he coughs, finding breathing difficult but manageable.
Hannibal takes his hand, placing in his hand a knife again. "If you wish Will to be on my side, you will help with pesk patrol, by morning I can say you shall be a different man."
Will glares at his reflection that shines in the knife. Somewhere inside him agreed much so, he walks back to the corpse finding the older man's eyes upon him, he doesn't care. He looks at his canvas finding the heart, coated with white fat, and it was a mere miracle the man hadn't fallen over from a heart attack given his state of health, in a flash Will finds the heart slicing it as the blood shot up his shirt he turns handing it as a peace offering to the doctor.
"How delightful." Hannibal smiles wolfishly, he offers his hand as Will finds him he sets the heart down on a table.
Hannibal pulls him in for a kiss, the younger man doesn't protest only the feverish desire to kiss back as he could. Their noses bump and Will resists the urge to laugh, his eyes widen when Hannibal bites down on his lips drawing Will's blood that escalated the kiss, a sweet venom to seal the evening.
When Will pulls away for air, gasping as Hannibal is unchanged, the only evidence was his swollen lips and the blood that trickled down his chin.
"You bit me." Will says sourly, not at all minding he had just kissed the Chesapeake Ripper, he dabs at his lip that was swelling slowly.
"My apologies, Will. Your blood is rather sweet, now enough foreplay. Let us play a hand in the purge." Hannibal wrapped his stained fingers around Will's own.
Will laughs, "the ripper has a soft side."
Hannibal cuts his eyes at Will, as they climbed the stairs opening the hidden door in the pantry, inside the living room they play the uncertain party hosts, as the men and women who remained gawked and one screamed seeing the blood covered men.
Their screams were delightful, Will laughed as one tried to hide inside a closet, and Hannibal ripped into Tobias who didn't put up much of a fight. Will found himself later around the sea of death, kissing feverishly with hunger into the monster that unveiled itself, as a newborn monster Will was more hungry as he found Hannibal's lips he bites down tasting the sweet blood, he looks up at Hannibal with his teeth stained red, and a mouthful of blood.
"We aren't finished, there is one more vermin."
Hannibal blinks unable to see what Will was talking about, "who Will?"
"Mason Verger's home, couldn't be to difficult to break in, as a detective it is my duty to know all the wealthy are secure." He says astonishing Hannibal.
"Dear little lamb, you are so terrible." Hannibal pulls him in once more tasting the blood that binds them.
Sunlight was creeping upon, but it would be hours until the government saw the damages and Mason didn't believe the look upon his face when Will and Hannibal appeared in front of his door, as he went to gather his car to drive out to the pig farm.
"Hello Mason." Will says coldly as he held a knife, "long time no see."
The End