Chapter Text
Leaves clung like a second skin to the bottom of Will’s heavy boots. The moon, obscured by a blanket of silver-spun clouds, was pinned high in the sky overhead. The woods behind his house were dense and dark, lovely in the way they caged. Will knew he should be heading back, but the damp underbrush beckoned him to stay.
A branch snapped somewhere in the distance and Will’s heart leapt into his throat. It’s just an animal, he told himself, perhaps the stag he’d glimpsed earlier traipsing through the fog. He could see the lights of his little house bleeding through the tines of the canopy. He pulled back as they drew him near, turning on his heels and disappearing deeper into the cover of the trees.
A sudden rush of air blew past him all around, and just like that he was being propelled forward, all the breath forcibly draining from his lungs. His body was pinned against a towering oak, the brittle bark cutting into the flesh of his cheek. Something — someone — pressed firm between his shoulder blades with enough strength to render him entirely immobile. A hand, he thought. He could feel the pulse of the thing ticking against his back. Through the fabric of his coat he could feel the sharp snag of claws.
As he tried to speak, all that came out was a desperate, choking gasp.
Something pointed and warm pressed against the skin of his nape and traced down the line of his neck. Too dull to be a knife, it seemed to throb with life from within. His hair stood on end as the thing, whatever it was, snuffled at the back of his head, hot puffs of breath falling along his scalp.
A deep rumble rose up from its throat and crawled inside Will’s chest. “Don’t be afraid,” it said, voice as dry as bone. Its heavy accent wore the veil of humanity, but Will could feel the Otherness right down to his toes.
“Says the thing pinning me to a tree,” Will spat out as two strong hands curled around his shoulders. The fingers nearly reached down to his chest. Talons, Will thought.
“I apologize,” it said, shocking in its formality, “most people run when they see me. I wanted very much for you to stay.”
It pulled Will back from the tree but its grip remained strong. Will couldn’t turn around even if his roiling fear hadn’t frozen him to the ground.
Will swallowed around the dry lump in his throat. “What are you?”
“Your kind has no name for what I am,” it purred. The warmth of its hands seeped down through Will’s coat. “My mother called me Hannibal.”
“Well, Hannibal,” Will drawled, “if you let me go, I promise not to run.”
“Perhaps that is not the wisest promise to make.” It breathed again up the curve of Will’s neck. As it pressed in, sharp tines cut into the bark of the tree. “You haven’t seen me yet.”
Will’s heart hammered behind his eyes. His palms grew damp with sweat. “I’ve seen a lot of horrific things in my line of work,” he said. “Trust me.”
The hands gripping him slid from his shoulders and trailed down the expanse of his back. A chill ran through to Will’s bones as it slowly backed away. Will’s legs felt heavier than stone as he choked down the sour sting rising in his throat.
Will’s eyes clicked shut as he began to turn, slowly at first and then all at once. He trembled as he forced them open. What stood before him was black as the inky night, the sharp outline of its body nearly indistinguishable from the sky above.
Its eyes glowed topaz-gold, shooting off sparks of crimson fire. Will had to crane his neck to see it all, the massive rack of twisted antlers rising from its head making it over seven feet tall.
“And how do I rank amongst all the horrific things you’ve seen?”
Will breathed in sharply through his nose. To his surprise, his legs willed him forward. “I’m not afraid,” he said, voice a thin, trembling wisp.
It smiled wide with teeth that were almost human, save for the stark-white fangs peeking out from the swell of its lip. “I can smell your fear,” it said. “It flows from you so very sweet.”
Hannibal, Will thought. This thing speaking to you is called Hannibal. It has a name. It has a voice. It could almost pass for a man. If it were going to kill you, it would have done it already.
“What’s your name?” Hannibal asked, so close Will could see the steady rise and fall of his muscled chest.
Will gazed into his honeyed eyes. They pulled him in like the radiant windows of his home. “Will,” he said. “Will Graham.”
Hannibal dragged one jet-black claw down the front of Will’s chest, the sharpness of it snagging against the buttons of his shirt. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Will,” he said. “You might just be the first person not to run from me in this form.”
“This form?”
“I’m quite different during the day.”
He didn’t elaborate, and Will didn’t ask him to, instead choosing to step even further into the looming presence of Hannibal’s towering form. “Can you still smell my fear?”
“I smell it, yet you don’t appear to be afraid.”
“I am. And I’m not. I don’t think you’ll hurt me.”
“I smell something else, as well,” Hannibal said, spindly finger hooking beneath Will’s chin. “The fevered stench of arousal.”
The throb in Will’s chest had been so all-consuming he failed to notice the one growing between his legs. “And why would I be aroused?”
“You tell me, Will.”
Moonlight filtered through the cracking clouds and Hannibal’s features came finally into view. His skin was like an oil-slick, shining and dark, hairless and nude from the bony curve of his hooves all the way up to the points of his antlers. Sharp cheekbones jutted out from his ghastly face. Drying blood dappled his chin, evidence of a recent feeding on something, or, Will thought more likely, someone.
Will’s gaze dropped down, down, down… landing when it reached the hard curve of the creature’s massive cock. Fully erect, it was as big around as Will’s own wrist and nearly as long as his forearm. Will’s head grew dizzy and he had to shut his eyes, overwhelmed with heady desire and still thrumming with an undercurrent of fear.
When Will dared another look, he found he couldn’t tear his eyes away. He ran the tip of one finger up the underside of Hannibal’s length, drawing from him a shuddering growl.
“Is this what you came out here looking for?” Hannibal asked, the backs of his long fingers trailing across Will’s face. “Wandering around in the dark looking for something to fill you up?”
It occurred to Will he had no idea why he had been drawn into the woods just before the sun went down. “Maybe,” he said. “Did I find what I was looking for?”
Hannibal snarled, and the whole forest around them trembled at his heels. He scooped Will into his arms with no effort at all, moving him through the trees at such a speed they all seemed to blur at the edges like a mirage.
They stopped when they reached a small clearing near an overgrown cave. Hannibal set Will down and from the cave he pulled a bed woven from twigs and overlaid with a blanket of soft green moss. Hannibal tugged Will’s coat from his arms and Will lowered himself down onto the bed.
A split second of panic overloaded Will’s senses as Hannibal crouched down between his knees. There was a monster pulling at his belt and tugging off his shoes. “What are you going to do to me?” Will’s voice shook like leaves in a storm.
Hannibal scented the air. “You’re terrified.” This seemed to please him far too much. “I can assure you, I have already eaten.”
Will forced the dread to settle at his feet as Hannibal tore off his pants and tossed them into a pile alongside his socks and shoes. He could barely feel the chilly autumn air against his fevered, flushing skin. His shirt was the last to go, leaving him naked and trembling and so aroused he could feel the ache inside his teeth.
Claws, Will thought. I hope he’s not planning on… Before Will could finish his thought Hannibal held his inky hand into the air. The sharp talons on each digit suddenly retracted, leaving nothing but the blunt edge of fingernails in their wake. Hannibal’s sunken face lit up in a mangled smile.
Will gasped as Hannibal pulled his legs apart, pushing his knees back and settling down between his thighs. He stuck two long fingers into his dreadful mouth and when he pulled them out again they dripped, shining and slick.
He swirled the tips of his fingers against Will’s entrance until his body began to relax, sticking them back into his mouth after a while to wet them once again. Spit dribbled down between Will’s cheeks as one long finger pressed in, heat flowing into him at the space where their bodies met.
Hannibal didn’t speak, firmly fixated on the task at hand, panting in anticipation as he pressed a second finger in alongside the first. Will cried out and bit into the heel of his hand. Together, both fingers were nearly the size of his own aching cock. Hannibal drooled down onto his fingers as he fucked Will at a steady pace, spearing him in two with slippery warmth. Will began to wonder how much such a thing could understand about human anatomy when a gentle tap of fingertips against his prostate sent stars bursting behind his eyes.
Hannibal wrapped his giant hand around Will’s leaking cock and began to stroke in time with the thrusting of his fingers. Will sucked the inside of his lip between his teeth and curled his toes against the soft bedding below.
“I’m gonna come if you keep that up,” Will whined.
“You would prefer to come with something else inside you.” It definitely wasn’t a question. Hannibal ceased his strokes and his fingers fell from Will’s body at once. “On your knees.”
Will gripped the edges of the moss-covered bed and pushed his ass out into the cool air of the night. He was deafened by the rush of blood in his ears as those blunt nails dug into his hips and Hannibal mounted him from behind.
The first drag of Hannibal’s thick cock head against his hole sent Will into a tailspin of lust-fueled dread. “Oh god,” he huffed out, burying his face into the crook of his elbow. “Oh fuck.”
Hannibal soothed a hand across Will’s tailbone. “Relax now, sweet boy,” he purred. His cock was leaking more pre-come down Will’s crack than any human possibly could. Will was so slick with it that it dribbled down over his balls and pooled between his knees.
Hannibal pushed his thick fingers back into Will’s slippery hole and fucked it open until was gaping and slick. Will grunted and carelessly bucked back onto them. Just when he began to work up a steady pace Hannibal withdrew his fingers and replaced them with the leaking head of his cock.
He pushed, rough, and gripped Will’s hips so tight he knew he would carry the memories against his skin for days. Hannibal’s hips rocked and twitched. Will drew sharp breaths in through his nose and spread his thighs so wide. When Hannibal’s cock head breached his hole Will was racked with sobs so deep all the creatures of the forest grew silent and still.
“That’s it,” Hannibal bellowed. “Fuck yourself on it now.”
Will felt so full he was certain he was going to burst. He could barely move his body at first but when he did the slide was so tight he could hardly take more than a few inches before retreating again. It was so wet, wetter than any amount of artificial lubrication could possibly provide, and as Will continued to fuck back on Hannibal’s throbbing cock he found he could take more and more as the minutes dragged slowly by.
Will’s body was being cleaved in two, but the pleasure bit so deep he couldn’t bear to let up even for a moment. He fucked himself on the monster’s cock like an animal, starved and seeking respite from the hunger in the only way he knew. Then Hannibal’s strong hand gripped Will’s nape and his hips finally started to snap. Will stilled himself and allowed his body to be claimed as the beast began to fuck.
Hannibal grunted and howled, the blunt edges of his nails scraping along Will’s neck and his fingers gripping Will’s hair in a frenzied tug. His pace was rough and unrelenting, the smooth glide of his cock poised to tear Will apart, each inward thrust ending in the perfect slide against his prostate.
Will’s orgasm rushed in as sudden as the rising tide, drawn tight by the moon and spilling from his untouched cock in long, hot spurts that never seemed to end. It lasted for mere seconds that stretched on to days, all the while the creature splitting him in two wrapped its hands around his neck and filled him to the brim with its own sticky, hot release.
The earth melted and spun beneath him as Will collapsed against the bed and rolled onto his back, eyes scanning all around. Hannibal, suddenly, was nowhere to be found.
“Where’d you go?” Will panted out, propping himself up on his elbows and whipping his head from side-to-side.
“Leave me now,” Hannibal growled, voice echoing from deep inside the cave. “It will be morning soon.”
“The sun won’t come up for hours.”
“Go!” His shout seemed to make the ground quake and cower below.
Will was startled to the bone. He gathered his clothes and quickly dressed himself, hands shaking as he attempted to tie his shoes.
“Will,” Hannibal said, just as Will was making his way back toward the direction of his house. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s alright,” Will sighed, catching a glimpse of antlers peeking out from the mouth of the cave. “Thank you for… whatever this was.”
“Leave your door open tomorrow night. I will come to you.”
“How do you know where I live?”
Will could practically feel the smile painted on the air. “Trust me,” Hannibal said. “I will see you then.”
Will stared for just a moment longer and then began to make his way back through the trees. His feet didn’t stop until he reached the field just beyond the glow spilling from every window of his house. He turned back to the forest there, still and black as coal, desire coiling low in his gut. He forced his body forward into the light, glimpsing back over his shoulder as he moved, aching for the sharp embrace of the shadowy dark.