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Title: Devoured By the Darkness
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Hannibal Lecter/Will Graham
Fandom: Hannibal
Rating: PG-13
Table: 1drabble
Prompt: 25, Darkness
Author's Note: Sequel to "The Dark Side."
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my own imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own the lovely Hannibal Lecter or Will Graham, unfortunately, just borrowing them for a while. Please do not sue.

***

He couldn't let Hannibal devour him.

Will shuddered at the thought; he knew that it was a double entendre for what Hannibal would do to him if he realized that Will was playing a game, stringing him along.

The word "devour" only had the most horrifying connotations when it came to Hannibal Lecter. Will knew what he was; he knew that the man he was toying with killed and ate people, and that he was playing with fire by placing himself in this situation.

But it was the only way to capture Hannibal, he told himself. The only way to get him to confess to at least some of the murders he had committed.

He had to make Hannibal think that he was embracing his dark side.

If that meant letting Hannibal believe that he was being devoured by that darkness, then he had to keep up the act. He couldn't let himself turn away now.

He was close. So close. There had been several times when he'd thought that Hannibal would say those damning words, that he would tell Will about some of the killings, give Will a reason to arrest him and finally bring all of this to an end.

So far, that hadn't happened. There had been times when he was sure that Hannibal was maddeningly close to confessing, but the words hadn't slipped out.

And now, the longer that the intimate spins and twirls of this dance went on, the more he felt that he was being slowly devoured by the darkness inside of him.

Hannibal was right, Will mused. He had a definite dark side, one that he had struggled to keep down for all of his life. But now, it was beginning to come to the surface, and Will had to wonder just how much longer he would be able to hold it back.

Hannibal brought out the worst in him -- as he did in anyone. It was becoming harder and harder to hold that darkness at bay, to keep it from taking over.

If he let that happen, then he would be no better than Hannibal.

Oh, he wouldn't go out and commit conscienceless murders, but he would unleash that darkness within his soul, a darkness that had no business being in the world.

That darkness might not be capable of the same kind of evil that Hannibal perpetrated, but it could be a danger nonetheless. Will didn't want to let that dark side come out; he had always struggled to subdue it, and he wasn't going to risk giving it any freedom.

He had already done that, at least a little, by sending a killer after Hannibal. It had been the wrong thing to do, and he regretted the attempt.

Now that the darkness in him had tasted freedom, it wanted to devour him more than ever.

***