I do not own anything related to Hannibal, either thru television, or written books. Everything belongs to Thomas Harris and Bryan Fuller. I do own all the created characters. I do not own any songs, or literature mentioned. They are included to enhance the written words. Please read, review, and enjoy!
Chapter 13
Song(s): Bellyache (Devault Remix) (Billie Eilish)
…
Muskrat Farm, Verger Estate, 1400 Greenspring Valley Road, Stevenson, Maryland…
(Flashback)
"The Vergers are one of Baltimore's most wealthy and politically connected families. Money and notoriety thus produce pure disgusted arrogance, and a sense of false entitlement."
Catching the venom tainting Hannibal's words, Oliveah looked down to her lap just as she gently pulled back the sleeve to her black blazer, revealing the sharpness of the surgical scalpel.
"That's my girl…"
Feeling a shiver running down the length of her spine as she heard Hannibal's voice in her head, Oliveah stood at her full five foot eight height and kept both her ears and eyes wide open for any sound or any sight of a moving body, wishing that she had concealed anything that would work as a weapon.
I took your sight and Hannibal took your ability to walk
"But you are still alive Mason Verger," she whispered, catching sight of the floor to ceiling bookcase across the room of the private study. Staring at the turned out spines as she cautiously walked across the carpeted floor, Oliveah sighed as she read the titles.
Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History
Cannibal Talk: The Man-Eating Myth and Human Sacrifice
Helter Skelter
Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery
Hannibal Lecter: The Colleague I Never Really Knew
Fasiculo de Medicinia
"The Wound Man." Hearing the words falling from her dry lips, Oliveah cleared her throat as she closed her eyes, feeling a headache forming.
"This little piggy went to market. This little piggy stayed home. This little piggy put up quite the fight…while you little piggy, are nice and done…"
Spinning around at the sing song words, Oliveah felt her eyes growing wide as she watched Mason Verger slowly walking into the study through a set of dark wood double doors. Staring with frozen eyes, she watched as he stabbed the ends of his metal steel pole canes deep down into the expensive red carpet with heavy thuds.
But Hannibal snapped your spine
Crossing the floor like a spider with a broken back, Mason licked at his dry cracked lips before tilting the left side of his head, staring out his left eye.
"Hel…Hello Mr. Verger."
Sneering as he stopped walking halfway across the carpet, Mason bared his teeth in a threatening manner before chomping his jaws together. "Enough with the formalities. Come closer so I can get a good look at you," he growled, stabbing the ends of both his canes hard into the floor.
Walking slowly across the carpet, Oliveah halted four feet away as she watched the double doors behind him close with no visual assistance.
You are fucking mad for coming here Oliveah
He has every reason to kill you slowly and painfully and no reason to listen to your pathetic presentation
Watching his eyes looking over her body with a disgusting feeling, she knew he would be lingering on a specific area as he gave a small whistle through pursed lips.
"You're not an elephant, so I will say begrudgingly, congrats on the birth of your bastard baby," Mason spat, staring directly into her eyes as Oliveah remained silent.
"Boy or girl?"
Swallowing the lump that had been lodged in her throat since she had first stepped foot on the grounds, Oliveah allowed her arms to fall loose against her sides.
"Girl."
"Shame."
Narrowing her eyes at his callous remark, Oliveah felt the low growl growing in the back of her throat as she took a step forward."I see you still have some vision, though not in your right eye and I am rather displeased to see that Hannibal snapping your spine out of place did not completely paralyze you."
Fight fire with fire Mason
"The marvels of modern technology with a shit load of money to pay for it" he sneered, stabbing his way over towards the bookcases."Your tongue could use some manners at the helm of a very large chef's knife," he added, turning around slightly to fix his dead eye on her. "Who would have thought that the cannibal would fuck you and then not fillet you? You don't even appear to have a scratch on you much less missing any body parts," Mason commented as he read out book titles that Oliveah had observed minutes before he had entered.
"The well bred, Lithuanian aristocratic Doctor. Son of a Count and Countess, who grew up to eat his fellow man and woman," he hummed as Oliveah stood perfectly still.
"It's only cannibalism if we are equals…"
"I hear Doctor Alana Bloom might never walk again and that Frederick Chilton has gone into hiding after he received a mailed, elegantly hand written letter offering congratulations on the publishing of his number one bestseller that you no doubt saw on my shelf."
A book that I will never read
Poor Frederick
How pissed off you must be to not be able to enjoy your new found pathetic fame in public
"WELL!? Have you nothing to say for showing up unannounced on my fucking doorstop? Licking your five year old wounds in my company as I can think of nothing else besides slitting your throat? Hannibal Lecter left you…"
Wincing as Mason's voice echoed loudly off the walls of the study, Oliveah straightened her back and felt her eyes growing dark with the sharp sting of his words.
"Actually Mason, I left him."
Watching Verger slowly turning around, she refused to break his curious glare as he raised one of his canes, pointing it at her in a threatening manner.
"Yet, you live to tell the tale. If you've shown up here on my doorstep like a lost little bitch hoping for some sort of protection for you and your bastard baby, you can go fuck yourselves. However…" he purred looking her up and down "If you are here to see the errors of your ways I can still fuck with assistance and release a full load with very active sperm."
Feeling the cold shiver of disgust running down the full length of her spine, Oliveah crossed her arms over her chest and bit down hard on her tongue
You need his help to get to Europe
You need his help and his money to free Madeline
"Though, to tell you the truth, I could really care less about your viable uterus now that it's used goods."
Fuck him
"You're still an asshole Mason Verger. Just a miserable humpty dumpty who fell off the wall, broken into pieces by a cannibal, and his student. You may have money and this house like castle, but you will never be put back together again. You'll always be looking over your shoulder, waiting to see Hannibal holding his cleaver…"
Squaring his shoulders as Oliveah spoke, Mason growled as he stabbed his way towards her, ignoring the drool that fell from the corner of his mouth.
"I'll show you a humpty dumpty!"
"Manners Mason."
Glancing towards the double set of doors that were now partially open, Oliveah felt her mouth falling open slightly before pursing her lips in a deep scowl. Watching Margot Verger walking into the study, Oliveah knew she was avoiding her eyes as the painfully thin woman came to stand beside her brother. Watching her pull a white handkerchief from her skirt pocket, she held her breath as the corner of Mason's mouth was wiped.
"There we go smiley." Finally raising her eyes onto Oliveah's face, Margot betrayed no hint of emotion as she laid a hand on her brother's shoulder.
"Should we show Miss. Adler what you have been working on for the past five years?"
"Ah yes. Won't you please follow me?"
Keeping a distance as she followed the siblings out of the study and down a long corridor, Oliveah moved her eyes over a series of six separate paintings all labeled beneath with the name William Hogarth.
"All dead ends except for you."
Halting in her steps as she crossed the threshold of another office, Oliveah moved her eyes around the walls of the room where every square inch was covered with various maps, news articles, photographs, and Tattler clippings.
Jesus Christ…
"Trying to hunt down Doctor Lecter has become…an obsession of my brother's," Margot spoke as she switched on a Tiffany style lamp seated on a large oak wood desk.
"How much I have tried to find him, yet, I imagine that just because you've connected with the cannibal on a fuck and procreation level, that you know him best," Mason growled as he chewed on the skin of his lips.
Noticing her photograph tacked up on the wall, Oliveah slowly approached the cork board and felt her mouth go instantly dry as she recognized the surroundings. "This was taken in Minnesota at Abigail Hobbs's home," she whispered, staring at her captured profile. "Freddie Lounds said that I looked like tempting bait for a serial killer" she spoke louder as the stabbing noise of Mason's canes approached her left side.
This was taken before I knew who you were Hannibal
Staring at Hannibal's half shadowed faced in the photograph; she could almost feel his dark eyes staring down at her as she had turned to walk away from Lounds, his hand resting on her shoulder.
"I know the good Doctor came back to America. But not for you…" Mason purred as Oliveah tucked her chin into her chest.
You have to tell him everything for this to work
"He took…my daughter."
Watching a darkness crossing over his face as he listened to her words, Oliveah felt a disgusting rawness inside of her as she laid her soul to bare.
"And how is that my problem that he took your bastard. It's his bastard too," Mason spoke, keeping his eyes fixed on Oliveah's face, wanting to draw out more of the pain from her lips.
"I'm going to find him."
Hearing the low threatening growl in the young woman's throat, Mason simply scoffed as he threw a cane out towards the expansive five year search that painted the walls of his office. "Look around you at five years of work! The Doctor could be anywhere in the fucking world!" he shouted, letting out a snarl as he spit in her direction.
"I know I can find him," Oliveah spoke firmly, watching Mason breaking into a chuckle once more.
"And so what? You want me to finance your way around fucking Europe on a wild goose chase to find a cannibalistic serial killer?" he growled, throwing his eyes onto his sister's face as Margot remained deathly quiet.
"Yes."
Standing as still as stone as both Margot and Mason laughed at her pathetic one word answer, Oliveah narrowed her eyes and stood her ground.
This is for you Madeline
"Distress excites the Doctor. Maybe I should just keep you here and put you in some grave distress. Humiliate you. Degrade you. Undress and carve you up? Would the good Doctor come a running I wonder from wherever he is hiding? Would he save you Oliveah Adler?"
Would you save me Hannibal?
Listening to Mason's threatening words, she had no doubt that he had been chomping at the bit the moment she had spoken into the call box at the tall gates.
(Flashback)
"Mark my words, I will feed each and every one of you to my pigs. But you Oliveah….you especially I will take my time with and degrade in every possible way. Every last inch of your body I will run past my teeth…"
"I would give you Hannibal Lecter."
Watching Mason's dead looking eyes grow wide with her sudden admission, she watched as he struggled to clear his throat before spitting once more on the floor.
"Bullshit. You would sell out Hannibal Lecter to me? Turn on your lover? He'd most certainly kill you and I would gladly lock you two in a room to see it happen," he purred, shaking his head as Margot froze in her steps.
I'm already dead
We're all already dead
Don't you know that Mason?
"He's not my lover," Oliveah growled, narrowing her eyes as she felt the truth in her words.
Not anymore
"Lie to me all you dare Miss. Adler, but you stink of a woman still in pitiful love with a dark demon."
"In addition to Hannibal, you would also have me."
Yes Mason, I can see your mouth chewing over the prospects of having Hannibal and myself laying before you for your own enjoyment
"Interesting. Both of you would die very slow, very painful deaths. You especially," he smiled, running his tongue along hisbottom lip.
I've accepted my fate Mason
I have to do this for my daughter
"Alright, it's a deal…"
Forty minutes later…
Standing in front of the window, Mason stared down into the yard as his eyes followed Oliveah's back watching as she strode towards the iron wrought gates to her waiting Uber ride.
Smart woman to have someone waiting in case you never re-surfaced
Feeling a presence along his right side, he sneered as he smelt his sister's weak Chanel perfume.
"Do you honestly think she is going to be able to find him? You've spent thousands of dollars and countless man hours from overseas and nothing," Margot spoke, taking a step backwards as Mason turned towards her.
"She's very much like him. You can see it in her eyes and when the fox hears the rabbit scream it comes a running. She'll be followed every step of the way, and if she fails from one month time, she'll be brought back to be fucked and then gutted on my dining room table."
…
Two hours later…
Pulling up the edges of her black zip up hoodie, Oliveah kept her eyes downcast as she waited at the street corner for the light to change.
You've been to the house Oliveah
But you need to see the office before you leave Baltimore, for what could be the last time in your life
Shivering but not from any cold, Oliveah shoved her hands into the pockets of her black leather jacket and crossed the street in front of waiting traffic before turning right on the sidewalk. Glancing up at the street sign, she mentally counted that it would take her roughly twenty to twenty-five minutes to hit Bayshore and with each step, she felt the heaviness weighing down on her legs and knees. Listening to the blaring car horns and the stop and go of the general traffic all around her, she counted each and every step as she rounded the corner onto Bayshore. Spying the beginnings of the black iron wrought fence out of the corner of her eye that ran in front and alongside the Heritage limestone property, the young woman kept her hood up over her head and entered thru the entrance, not stopping in her strides until she stood in front of the first stone step.
Six steps up the front stone walkway to the blue office door
Slowly raising her eyes, she was not surprised to see the door had been painted a light drab grey before coming to rest on the floor to ceiling windows that stared out from the second floor and onto the expanse of the front fenced in yard and busy Baltimore street.
More times than not did I feel your dark eyes on me Hannibal. Staring at me from these very windows…
Climbing to the second step, Oliveah nearly stumbled backwards as a black pea coated man wearing glasses wretched open the front door.
"Oh! Excuse me…"
"What building is this?"
Hearing the young woman's question from behind him as he half turned around, the man cleared his throat and nodded his head as he tucked a finger around the white square peeking out of a collar that she had failed to notice.
"It is the office for the church next door. If you are going in you better hurry, they close for lunch in twenty minutes," the Father spoke as he held up a hand in a bid goodbye.
There's a church next door?
Moving backwards off the step, Oliveah walked back to the opening of the iron fence and as she turned to stare up at Hannibal's former office, her eyes fell upon the thin steeple of the brick church just to the left.
"How have I never noticed a fucking church?" she whispered to herself as she took a step back towards the gate.
Even though you are no longer in the building Hannibal, you are still deep within the walls
…
Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport
9:49 pm
Feeling the vibration of her new mobile phone against her wrist, Oliveah set aside her pen and notebook and read the text message from the unknown number.
Three hundred thousand has been set up in an account as per discussion. The account number is 650128 . A one way ticket from Baltimore to Vilnius, Lithuania has been purchased under the name Verger.
"Your men will be tailing me every step of the way Mason Verger," Oliveah whispered to herself as she reached for her cooled Americano coffee. Feeling her hand slightly shaking as she curled her fingers, she couldn't help but observe the people seated in front of her in the Starbucks seating area.
No one is paying any attention to me
They are all in their own little worlds
"Perhaps word will somehow get to you Hannibal that I am coming for you." Shivering as the threatening words left her lips, Oliveah glanced at the time and counted just under two hours until her departure.
This is real Oliveah
You are either going to die by the hands of Hannibal Lecter somewhere in Europe or Mason Verger's here in America
You are likely going to die
"Just as long as I can give you a kiss goodbye Maddie." Whispering to herself as she pushed her coffee away with a sickening feeling, Oliveah inserted her earbuds and turned up the volume to a remix version of a Billie Eilish song in an attempt to drown out her last painful thoughts while on American soil…
Maybe it's in the gutter where I left my lover
What an expensive fate
My V is for Vendetta
Thought that I'd feel better
But now I got a bellyache
Everything I do the way I wear my noose
Like a necklace
I wanna make 'em scared like I could be anywhere
Like I'm wreck-less
I lost my mind
I don't mind
Where's my mind
Where's my mind
…
Thank you to d'elfe, americanlatinajapanesegirl, farrahjohnson21, lestatsgirl15, and guest for leaving reviews!
Hope everyone is staying safe!
Sorry for not updating. Life is crazy as you know. I plan to post the next update by the 1st of September. Does anyone else think that Oliveah escaped from Mason's by the skin of her teeth? Also, this remark version of Bellyache (Devault Remix) is so cool. Have a listen on youtube!