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Carl Spitzweg
1860
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"AN enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads who descends upon a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head." Jack Crawford furrowed his eyebrows at Will's declaration. "What the hell does that even mean?!"

"Why are you even here?" Will said annoyed. "Alana I told you not to call him."

"Come on, Will, the more help we get the merrier." The director of the hospital sighed at the little argument the two would start.

"I know you are not please about what I've done-"

"You invited Alice to come here and face, Hannibal, of course I'm pissed with you." Will hissed at the agent as an angry feline.

"Um...I'm still here." Alice said, as they finally turned to her, at the corner of the eoom, sitting on an armchair.

It was Will's idea to gather the team and maybe help Alice to solve whatever that enigma Hannibal gave her, but so far, noyhing really worked. Jack couldn't understand, and Alana's best theories didn't work at all. Will still insisited that he would find a solution without needing to involve his wife into the matter.

Alice couldn't eben hear much aboyt what they said, Will just placed her in a cotner as a pretty vase ro just wait while they continued, and that may have irritated her a bit.

"I'd like to know what he said." Alice suddenly spoke, the others didn't even bother to listen, continuing to murmur their ideas. "Hey!" She called, they ignored. She suddenly hot up and walked towards rhem,  and then grabbed the notebook on Jack's hand at once, causibg them surprise.

"Ali!" Will called her as Alana and Javk exchanged proud smiles for the girl. "Ali, we are close to solve this, you don't need to-"

"He said this is for me." She said serious. "That I should be the one to solve it, not you." Alice declared. "So let me do it."

Jack sat down and Alana waited by his side, watching as Will walkes around in circles nervous for her idea. The more she thought about Hannibal, the more she qould feel connected to him, was her husband's theory.

Alice analyzed the text over and over, it wasn't in Hannibal's perfect handwritting, but just a fast note taken by Will in his messy one.

It was a description, and almost a familiar one of she dared to say. She could remembee ot from somewhere...but where?

"Did he say anything else besides this?" Alice asked her husband.

"Only that you would know what it means." He said grumpy. "Look, honey, if you don't-"

It snapped onto her brain.

"The letters." She lifted her eyebrows surprised. "He told me that in one of the letters." Alice suddenly opened a smile and hushed to grab her phone which sa sburied into her purse.

"What?" Will questioned clueless. "Ali, what are you doing?"

"Shh!" She shouted ar him and Jack laughed. She had already dialed the numbers and started a call. "Come on, Colin pick it up..."

While she attempted to call her brother, what really happened inside her home, was a celebration, well, a small party of Uncle and Niece dancing around the livibg room while blasting The Runnaways on the speakers as he spinned her and laughed.

"HELLO, DADDY! HELLO, MOM! I'M YOUR CH-CH-CH-CHERRY BOMB!" He sang along matching sunglasses with Blanche as she giggled and shaked her little body, waving her hands in the air.

Alice on the other hand, was aprehensive, her feet tapped on the carpet anxiously, her jaw clenched. Why couldn't he pick the damn phone? Did something happen? Were they okay? What if the Tooth fairy-

"Oh, hey Ali!" Colin greeted her across the line. She immediatly exhaled relieved

"Colin what the fuck?! Why don't you answrr the phone? I was deadly worried about you!" She yelled, and he chuckled, was already used to protective Alice complaining.

"Sorry, Blan and I were playing. You okay?"

"I need a favor."

"Uh...alright? What do you need?"

She took in a deep breath, well, either way that wouldn't be so good for her wedding. "Go to my room, at the end of ny wardrobe, beneath a pile of clothes there's a box, I need you to take it for me."

"A box? 'Kay, just a second."

Alice waited anxiously as she heard Will's steps across the room and Blanche asking incessantly if that was her father calling. The Graham wife lookes at her husband across the room, and something in her eges already gave ir away that he would be upset about that discovery, but she had no choice.

"Oh found it. Wow, you hid it very well." Colin chuckled. But she was too nervous to laugh.

"Um...Colin...I might need you to open that, but wait." She said first, stopping her brother. "Whatever you find there...please don't be mad at me." She said while looking at Will. "Please don't be upset."

"Why are you asking me that? Is something wrong?" Colin asked confused.

"Just...open it for me, please."

Colin did as she asked. The box was amedium sized and wooden one, it didn't have dust, maybe because Alice took it off the wadrobe often, but the reason for the secret was what kept him motivated to actually open it.

At the first glance, once he did as she asked, was what made him widen his eyes surprised already.

"Oh shit..."He mumbled.

"Colin? You still there?" Aloce asked.

Her brother's eyes shimmered at the objects inside. That wasn't just a simple box, it was almost as a time travlling machine from 3 years ago. Polaroids of a forgotten past of two lovers awakened his senses, a bloody gown was hidden between a pink lavanda-smelling formal shirt, a cartier box with a bracelet and a pair of earrings stood there reminding him of their promise, and a huge pile of letters and drawings were all tied up together at the center.

"Yeah...yeah I am..."He said at the first sight of a picture of Hannibak and his sister in a polaroid, standing elegantly in front of an european landscape. "Ali.." Another picture, an older one, of Abigail, Alice and the cannibal at his soccer gane now, hee sister seemed so happy, so innocent, oblivious to the dark future ahead. "Does...Will know...?"

Alice's whole body trembled. He did find it. She tried to avoid Will's eyes across the room, gatgering courage to whisper "no...no, he doesn't."

"God..."Her brother sighed and ran his hand sthrough his face. "Why didn't you tell me? Do you still lo-"

"I don't have the time now, Colin, please just listen to me." She said fastly. "You see a pile of letters there?  Not the drawings, the letters."

"Y-Yeah, I see it." Colin tried to be strong for her, he knew she wasn't feeling well across the line.

"Take it for me and look for..."She closed her eyes trying to think. "For...right, the 6th one, it dates from October 27th, it has a small heart drew on it."

Colin successfully freed the letters from the pile and followed her instructions, he analyzed the cover of the correspondance, spotting a red pen drawiang of a heart on the cover, the date from October 27th. His fongertips touched the rouch edges and quicjly opened it, revealing two pages.

"You want me to read it?" He asked.

"Yeah, please."

"Okay..."He cleared his throat "Here we go"

"My dearest Alice,

Ready for another round of our game? Let's see if you can guss it this time. Even though I am well aware of your impressive skills, this one is not so easy to solve.

An enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads who descends upon a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head.

Now tell me, what painting is that?

I'll be anxiously waiting for your answer.

Unconditionally yours, H. L."

Will liftwd his eyebrows impressed at the letter. She had all his previous letters and proofs of their love during all these years. She never got over him completely.

"Ali?" He asked his sister.

Alice pursed her lips, her eyes filled up with tears, making them red, as she turned around not to face Will across the room. She felt horrible to keep that secret from him, to still reminisce tgose mementos every night while he was asleep and to sigh over the letters Hannibal wrote her when they were dating.

"Sorry..."She took in a deep breath. "The other page with it, can you read it for me, please?"

"Sure." Will said softly, noticing her trembling crying voice.

"My dearest, Hannibal

Challenge accepted. This one took me a bit longer, since the description was very original, but the traces of this art are unforgettable, so I could obtain your answer.

What you describe to be, is The Great Red Dragon by William Blake, and it was painted in a series between 1805 an 1810.

Better work harder on your challenge next time, my love. I'll wait for my prize♡.

Forever yours, A.M."

"And it ends here." Colin declared. "So?"

Alice's jaw dropped and her heart skipped a beat. She knew it now. "The Great Red Dragon..."She whispered to herself and tuened around. "I know it now." She told them. The team reacted surprised. " I need to meet him." She turned back to Colin. "You are the best my brother, thank you, thank you, thank you!" She fakes a kiss noise and Colin laughed. "Please put these back where they were, and take care of Blan for me."

"I will...Ali?" He said before hanging up. "I won't judge you. Just know that I'm here for you."

A tear broke the shield that involved her eyes and fell on the floor as she heard those aordsm "thanks...I love you."

"Love you too. Take care. Bye"

"Bye"

▫️

"It was a game" Alice explained as they waked towards the cell. "Hannibal would leave...uh...notes around the house so I could guess an enigma. Mostly to discover what was the art he described. And this one was one of the challenges."

"How do you still have that?" Jack asked curious as they continued to walk through the narrowed aisle.

Alice almost failed her step but continued walking, she still couldn't look at Will. "I...just do."

"Open it." Alana said to the guards as they openes the door. "Wait." She said before letting the others enter. "Just Alice and will. Too many people...it can become messy and more vulnerable for him to influenve us."

"You sure?" Jack asked, worrying for his protegieé.

"I think she's right. Besides, Hannibal only wanted to speak to me from the start." Alice explained. "Will is going to be there, I will be fine."

"It's not like my presence ever affected what you feel about him anyway." Will muttered sourly as she looked at him schocked. He entered the room with his head held down. "Let's get this over with."

Jack held Alice's wrist before she could follow her husband, giving her a solitary glance, maybe asking if she was alright, and the truth is, she wasn't, but just nodded, lying and pretending everything was fine.

There she was again, watching that glass cage that imprisoned the man she devoted herself for so long. He seemed busy drawing something in his sketchbook, another masterpiece, she thought. She admired his gift so much that she kept all the drawings he made still in that box.

The box, how would she justify its' existence to Will? She had managed to keep that as a successful secret during  3 long years, but now the truth was out, and it hurt him. She knew he was hurt by how he walked forward, leaving her behind, or avoiding any stare, any touch.

They were doing so well, but it only took one meeting with Hannibal to ruin it all.

"You're back." Hannibal hummed thrilled, but keeping a serene expression, he lift up his head to meet up with her gaze, opening a soft smile at her adorable figure that always manage to speed his heart. "I see you've remembered our game."

"The Great Red Dragon." She replied confidently, stepping forward as Will only watched a bit behind. "What does this has to do with the killer?"

"Enlighten me with your knowledge about this work, Miss Mallory." Hannibal delicately established. "What else do you know about this creature?"

"It's purpose was to illustrate a biblical demon..."Alice thought, Hannibal adored to see her engines moving, her mind was marvelous to him. "Few images in Western art radiate such a unique and...nightmarish charge of demonic sexuality."

He smiled proud of her knowledge, while Will rather wanted to die than to witness the hearts in the cannibal's eyes at his wife.

"It wasn't a random death, was it?"Alice questioned. "He chose the families. The  Dragon wouldn't simply kill anyone without a goal."

"And what is the dragon's goal?" Hannibal continued

Alice analyzed his face's features for a moment, feeling that instant connection with him again. "Transformation," She whispered, Hannibal internally celebrated. "As the Dragon grows in strength and glory, there are families to come."

"There must be a common factor between them." Will finally said, crossing his arms. "And we will find it...soon."

"Otherwise you have to enter more houses and see what the Dragon has left for you." Hannibal teased, tilting his head to the left. "11 days to the next full moon...Tick-tock."He clicked his tongue and smiled to his muse. 

"We are done here." Will declared. "Alice, let's go." He said, turning to leave.

Alice couldn't move her feet, hypnotized by the monster across the glass. "Why did you need my help for this?" She whispered. "You knew it all already...you never needed me."

"Wrong." He shakes his head, standing just an inch away from the glass and whispering softly only for her to hear, blurring in a steamy glass the transparent wall between them. "I've always needed you."

Her whole body jittered as her eyes lift up to meet his sparkling and seductive hazel ones, she could feel that wave all over again, that electricity that could burn that whole place to the ground, that dangerous feeling for a woman to have, especially a well married, and well established in life one.

"Alice," Will called again as she snapped back to reality, turning to leave while Hannibal's words echoed behind her.

"I like this Dragon, Will. I don't think he's crazy at all. I think he may be quite sane." He said with a bloody tone watching his lover and the old frenemy leave the room.  "A magnificent thing, to watch the world through his red haze.

▫️

"It's risky."

"I know."

Alice watched as her husbamd put on a long coat and a scarf around his neck, he had set that he would go to New York's museum to check if the killer wouldn't go after the real Red Dragon's art piece.

She was nervous, of course, she knew how dangerous the killer was, but he was decided as never before. Also impassive as never before. Will was being cold, distant, and would barely speak to her.

"Wiill he kills whole families, if you go there on your own-"

"I can take care of myself." He simply added, struggling to put on the scarf around his neck.

Alice sighed, crawled out of the bed and stood there in front of him, taking the dark blue fabric from his head and positioning it ocrrectely, not withoyt brushing her fingers against his nape, the area he was sensitive enough to melt to her touch and soften his cold gaze again.

"I'm sorry." She whispered to him. "I'm so sorry."

He took in a deep breath. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because it's weird to tell your husband that you keep a box full of belongings of your ex inside your wardrobe."

"It is but..."He held her hands before she could wrap the scarf around him. The warm skin made him remind how much he cared for her. "I thought we didn't keep any secrets...when we tried this out...when we decided to marry, we agreed to don't keep secrets."

"I know." She nodded. "I know, it's just that he...he is a delicate issue to talk about. You know that."

"A very delicate issue." He stroked her hands with his thumbs. "You do remember our promise, right?"

She looked up at him, the gaze still fragile. "Yeah, of course."

Something in those eyes made him suspect that this promise wouldn't last long, or that the love they shared would soon be burned down, be turned into only ashes of what it once was. And that honestely scared him.

"I need to go now." He looked down, wondering now if her words were really ttue.

"Will..."She tried to cup his cheeks but he calmly pulled her hands away, tearing her heart apart once again.

"Bye, Ali." He softly kissed her forehead and walked through the door.

Once his steps' sounds faded, Alice became certain: their normal life obtained in those 3 years was slipping through her fingers...and it would never be the same again.

▫️

"This is for you." A woman arrived with a small origami on her hands. She used the uniform from the hospital's instutution.

"Me?" Alice lifter her eyebrows currious. "From who?" But the woman simply walked away, ignoring her speech.

Aloce came that day to have some tea and talk with Alana and Margot, who was visiting her wife at work, but before she managed to get to the director's office, she was approached with that surprise by the woman.

It was shaped as a bird, a common format, but seemed to have something writen inside. Alice carefully started to unfold the paper edges, until she reached the core of the anonymous gift.

"The Dragon knows.

Unconditionally yours..."

Alice didn't have time to think about the present or the tea she would have with the ladies. Her feet immediatly took its'  own direction, and when she realized she was in front of his cell's door.

The guards let her in, thankfully Jack Crawford and Alana gave her a badge that authorized her entrance whenever necessary. Unsure to say if that was a wise decision or not, Alice immersed herself into following the danger that radiated from her previous lover.

"You received my inviation." Hannibal smiled as he turned around to face her. "I had them prepare a chair for you. Please make yourself comfortable."

Alice cueved her lip, but reluctanly did as he asked. "That's very thoughtful." She muttered.

"You came alone." He noticed. "Is your loyal dog busy?"

Alice rolled her eyes as she realized of who he was speaking of. "It doesn't matter."

"They are probably at the musem by now...the dragon and him." He muttered.

Alice leaned forward. "Is the dragon really there?"

Hannibal smirked realizing she had biten the bait. He looked at her and stuffed his chest imponently. "I quid pro quo. I tell you things, you tell me things, not about this case tho. About yourself." She hesited to answer, she didn't want to open up to him again. "Yes or no, Alice?" He questioned again. "There are families dying."

She took a deep breath and nodded. "Go ahead."

Hannibal opened a smile satisfied. "Do you know Will Graham's wife and child?"

She gulped for a moment, while Hannibal only stared curious.

"Yes...Yes, I do." She replied.

"And you were fine with it? With him having a family?"

"I'm great about it...I have no problem at all."

Hannibal nodded in silence, analyzing each sentence that came from her stiff and nervous posture that crumbled into that chair.

"Quid pro quo, doctor." She replied, Hannibal contained a smile. "Why does the Red Dragon want the painting?"

"Isn't it obvious? He sees himself in it. And to become it, he is passing through a phae of transformation" Hannibal explained as a teacher, with his hands held behind his back. "He needs to overcome the painting, to evolve."

"And how does he do that?"

"Consuming it." He looked into her eyes. "It is similar to other phenomenons, such as-"

"Cannibalism." They met glances, her whole nody jittered as she saw great proudness coming from his expression.

"Exactly."

"Is Will in danger then?"

"Quid pro quo, Miss Mallory."

"No, no, wait-"

"Are you committed in a realtionship at the moment?" He finally asked what he has always wanted to.

Alice paralyzed. How could she tell him? She simply couldn't. If Hannibal knew...he would freak out, he could even attempt to break free, to hurt Will, or else.

"Why that question?"

"Why not answer it?"

"That's personal."

"Well, that is what you agreed to answer, isn't it? Now tell me."

Alice took in a deep breath. "Yes...Yes, I am."

He didn't show what he felt. Or course, Hannibal would hide it to appear superior from it all. But deep inside, it felt like someone had stabbed him multiple times and sucked his blood from his veins until he became a sour shelf from who he previous was.

Alice loved someone else. Somebody else managed to make her smile everyday, woke up by her side, loved her, kissed those tasteful lips and smelled her essence at each monent in her presence.

Someone could call her theirs.

And that made him want to die.

Or rather...kill.

"Are you happy?"

"Very." She said in order to rather hurt him than to be sincere.

Hannibal turned silent again, maybe analyzing his previous question, but now the damage was already done.

"Who is it?"

"Quid pro quo, Doctor." Alice answered instead. "Is Will in danger?"

"You care for Will almost as a wife does." The sentence startled her to death. "Are you two having an affair?"

"No, that is ridiculous."

"Then why do you care about him so much?"

"Answer my question." She said fiercely between her teeth. "Is he in danger?"

"Maybe not a lethal one. But possibly." Alice gasped and immediatly teached for her phone to warn him. "You shouldn't do that." She looked at him angry. "He needs his full attention on the field. And, if Will did go there...he is well aware of what awaits him."

"So you're saying I should just ignore it?"

"Yes."

Alice held tight tothe phone in her hands but knew he was right.

"Quid pro quo, Miss Mallory." He eagerly said. "That necklace you always hide from everyone's sight." She widened her eyes, feelibg her heartbeat stop. "Is it a chain with an engagement ring?"

Her breath became more agitated, she was about to panic, about to loose it, and something hurt inside her, sonething stung as she heard those words from his mouth. Because in some way, she felt bad to see Hannibal discover it, she felt bad to let him know that she wasn't his anymore.

And she caught herself realizing that she did care about what he felt.

"Yes." She replied in a weak voice.

Hannibal decided to ask his final question then. "Are you Will's wife?"

Her lips parted in surprise, but when she was about to deny it, her voice failed, and she almost couldn't speak.

"No." She whispered and shaked her head. "No, I'm not." He didn't look away, almost as if his eyes forced her to speak the truth. "I think the questions are over now."

Alice suddenly got up from the chair, she didn't care about any information anymore, she needed to leave.

What she didn't know, is that beneath the shadows, Hannibal orchestrated an evil plan of his own,

He might not had the intention to kill, but he wasn't so convinced about her answer, and there was only one way to solve that problem, a wild a bold decision and risk he was willing to take.

Even if that meant to risk Will Graham's family.

And it only took a call to a Demon hat called himself a Dragon to make his plan come into action.

"Kill them all."