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Title: Void
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: gen - Will Graham
Fandom: Hannibal
Rating: PG-13
Table: 20 in 20 Challenge, tv_universe
Prompt: 8 - Black
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my own imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own the lovely Will Graham, unfortunately, just borrowing him for a while. Please do not sue.

***

Where was he?

Will looked around wildly, reaching out his hands in front of him, even though he couldn't see them. He could see nothing; everything was pitch black, as if he was wrapped in a stifling cloak of blackness. There was nowhere to go, no light to grope his way towards.

He couldn't see anything. Not in front of him, and not behind. There was only the stygian blackness, so deep that it seemed impenetrable.

Where was he? Why was he here? Will wanted to take a step, but he was afraid to move -- for all he knew, the ground in front of him could crumble away, and he could plunge into an even deeper void than the one he seemed to be in at the moment.

If that was even possible.

He was stuck here, lost in some unexplainable void. He couldn't turn one way or the other, couldn't take a step, couldn't even crawl along the ground. If he did, he might tumble from a great height. He was rooted in place, afraid to move, almost afraid to breathe.

Will dropped to his hands and knees, searching carefully in front of him as far as he dared to reach. He didn't think there was any kind of a steep drop; the ground seemed to be level. From what he could tell, it was a smooth floor.

But he couldn't be sure of that. He couldn't be sure of anything, not in this black void that wrapped around him like a spider's web.

What was he doing here? How had he gotten here?

He had no answers, and he doubted that any would be coming to him. No, he would be left here, alone and forgotten in this darkness, no one to know where he was or what had become of him. He would slowly go insane, screaming to a world that never heard his cries.

A sudden spasm of terror shook him, and he felt a scream rising in his throat -- a scream that he choked back. Screaming wasn't going to do him any good. It would escalate his fear and make it worse, and that was the last thing he needed.

He had to stay calm and find a way out of this place.

Will took a deep breath, getting back onto his feet. He still felt shaky, but there was nothing else he could do, not if he wanted to get himself out of here.

He took one step, then another. Feeling slightly more confident, he kept moving forward, slowly, shuffling his feet and holding his hands out to either side of him. He couldn't feel any walls there, but he also couldn't feel any sudden steep drops, either.

Another step forward .... And then he was falling, falling into a void, more of the same void that he'd been lost in before. Only now, it seemed much larger, much more frightening -- and the fate he would meet at the end of the fall was completely unknown.

Will opened his mouth to scream, a sound that he knew would go on forever.

His eyes snapped open, focusing on the ceiling above his bed. It took him a few moments of blinking and gasping to realize that the black void had just been a dream, that he wasn't lost, that he wasn't falling through space to finally meet the ground in a lifeless heap.

He was safe. He was whole. He was alive. Will closed his eyes, taking first one deep breath, then another. The void retreated, becoming nothing more than a hazy memory.

It had all been a dream, Will told himself, sitting up slowly and throwing the covers back. He was drenched in sweat; he needed to take a shower, and he doubted that he would be able to go back to sleep after a dream like that.

He shivered at that thought. Back to sleep, and back into that void? Never.

***