Chapter Text
The first thing Will noticed when he woke up was that he was handcuffed to a radiator. This realization was quickly followed by a pounding in his head that only seemed to get worse as time continued to crawl on. An experimental tug showed that neither the cuffs or the radiator was going anywhere soon, and Will really didn't want to break his thumb again. Looking around the room yielded no further help. The place was completely bare except for a few boxes and a closed door. How had he even gotten here? He couldn't remember much with the migraine punishing every attempt at thought. He'd been in his cell...and...and then what?
The sound of footsteps coming from outside the room halted any further attempts at solving this puzzle. The sound of the steps and a lock turning seemed unnaturally loud and Will closed his eyes in hopes of returning to blessed unconsciousness. Instead, he got a pill shoved in his mouth followed by a glass of water and a command to "Drink." The deep accented tone sounded vaguely familiar to Will, but he couldn't quite place it just yet. The water was more than welcome though, and the glass was quickly drained. The world seemed a bit less sharp as Will opened his eyes again and was greeted by the sight of a paisley tie. Now he remembered. With a groan, Will once again tried to render himself unconscious.
He had been sitting in his cell when Will had heard the guard's running towards the doors at the end of the hall. He couldn't quite make out what was being said through the walls, but the voices sounded very loud and agitated. There was a single gunshot followed by the sound of a small explosion. Smoke started to curl under the doorway and invade the room. The door opened, and a figure appeared within the cloud of fog. Calmly ignoring the cries of the other inmates, the man made his way down the hall. Soon, Will was staring at a very familiar suit accompanied by some sort of gas mask. As a pair of keys was produced, had Will scrambled off his bed to prepare to fight. He hadn't moved fast enough and found his head being slammed into a wall instead. As darkness rushed to meet him, he thought he felt a strong pair of arms catch him as he fell.
"I apologize about the sudden departure, Will. Uncle Jack seemed against allowing me extra time to plan a proper getaway for the two of us. The penitentiary was truly doing you no favors." A silk handkerchief appeared to wipe Will's chin. "I had hoped to have the chance to prepare and explain things to you before leaving, but I have done the best I could under such circumstances." Hannibal turned his attention to the nearby boxes and began opening the first.
"You broke me out?" Will blurted out having finally found his voice again. "But, why? You're the reason I was put there to begin with!"
"True, but fate has deemed fit to prove your innocence despite my efforts." Hannibal paused his work to drape a blanket around Will's shoulders. He tried unsuccessfully to shrug it off. "Miss Lounds somehow heard your claims and decided to investigate. Her findings were...regrettable. So, I set about gathering anything of value and taking my leave. Normally, I would have chosen a more refined area to settle, but I believe this small town will do you good."
"Where the hell are we, Dr. Lecter?"
"Welcome, my dear Will, to Night Vale."
"I've never heard of anyplace called Night Vale before."
Grabbing the second box, Hannibal nodded in agreement before going to work on it's contents. "Not many have. It took me many hours and quite a few personal favors to learn of this place. It's a small desert community. Everyone so far has been very welcoming of us. The local radio host even came by to learn more about the two of us so that the town could better welcome us."
"Wait, someone came here and interviewed you? How long was I out?" Will tried to approximate the time in his head, but his mind still steadfastly refused to cooperate with him. It was becoming a recurring problem today.
"You have been resting for around two days now." Hannibal held up a hand to silence any outburst Will was about to have. "After you began to rouse from the blow to the head, I was forced to inject you with a cocktail of sleeping medications. Nothing that would have any long-term adverse effects, of course, but enough to ensure a trip without any other added delays."
"Delays? Me waking up an trying to escape counts as just a delay? You have just abducted me! Why would you even have taken me? There must have been easier targets to use as a hostage. I was stuck in a cell in a building full of armed men!"
"And now, you are a resident of Night Vale." Hannibal began to assemble the parts of the final box. "Surely that is a favorable change of pace to looking at your cell walls all day?" There was a brief pause as the final parts of the three boxes connected. An IKEA-esk foundation for a bed had been formed. "And please, do not call yourself a hostage. I have every confidence in my ability to evade the authorities. You are my friend Will, and I have missed our talks. I had been planning to remove you from Dr. Chilton's incompetency for some time now. It would be rude of me to leave you alone like to rest of your friends and coworkers did. Now, if you will excuse me, I'll be back with a mattress for you."
Will sat there for a moment silently debating if the benefits of breaking a thumb actually would out-weigh the pain that would be added to his already protesting mind. He settled for shaking the handcuffs again and mumbling about Hannibal's misuse of the word 'friend.' A low whistling sound distracted him from his thoughts. By craning his neck, Will was able to see out of a window in the next room. There he saw a mother and her child talking to what appeared to be a large cloud of constantly changing color. 'Great, now I'm hallucinating again.' Perhaps Hannibal had slipped something other than aspirin in his mouth when he was given that pill. The sound of footsteps returning brought about another rise of anger.
"What did you give me?"
To his credit, Hannibal didn't pause in his current mission to place the mattress while responding in an ever calm voice. "I am afraid you will need to be more specific, William."
"I just saw a woman outside talking to a giant glowing cloud! Now, tell me what the hell did you give me?"
"Oh, the Glow Cloud is a member of the school board here. It was probably just talking to another member of the board. Nothing to worry about. Now, I am going to take off your handcuffs, please try to behave yourself."
Any protest over whether or not to be concerned over the selection of school board members was effectively silenced by Hannibal's statement. "You honestly expect me to stay put once you uncuff me?" Will blurted out before he could stop himself. "You're a serial killer, and you want me to just stay with you? I am beginning to question your sanity, Doctor." The last word came out as a near hiss.
"Now, Will, there is no need for such malice in your voice. I saved you from a lifetime of being studied and wound up by every scientist and therapist hoping to make a name for themselves." Hannibal sat on his haunches in an attempt to catch the younger man's eyes. They remained steadfastly locked on his shoulder. With a sigh, Hannibal took a wrist in his hand and continued; ignoring the way Will flinched at the contact. "Besides, you would never be able to make it out of the town."
Only the sound of a soft click broke the silence that followed the statement. After a second click followed, Will spoke again. "Is that a threat?" He asked, hoping that his voice wouldn't betray the fear that had coiled around his heart. He truly didn't know the man in front of him at all, and that thought terrified him. Will couldn't tell why Hannibal had taken him or what his current plans were. The idea of not knowing when his life could very well hang in the balance was unnerving.
Hannibal rose to his feet and offered a hand to Will, who simply stared at it as if it could provide him with the answers he was seeking. "I would rather not harm you, but I will choose my own freedom over yours. However, Night Vale itself can be a very dangerous place to those who do not know it's oddities. If you attempt to leave, you could run into a pack of feral dogs, or perhaps be picked up by the secret police, or simply die in the desert wastes. If you attempt to contact the FBI, the various agencies that have every phone line tapped will no doubt enter the home and detain you with lethal force. If left unaccompanied, this town will most likely be your end."
"That seems like a bit of a pessimistic view of my situation."
"Not at all, you are no longer imprisoned and are once again safe in my care."
A bark of harsh laughter escaped Will. "Safe with you? I was never safe with you. I was locked up for murders you committed! You hid the fact that my brain was inflamed from me! Hell, I had a seizure in front of you and you still didn't tell me about my encephalitis! I bet you even knew that you were sending me into another serial killers hands when you told be about Tobias. Nothing about the time I spent with you was ever safe."
Pushing away the hand offered to him, Will rose to his feet on his own. The room began to spin, and he found himself quickly loosing his balance once again. Just before his face became acquainted with the nearest wall, those same strong arms from the cell once again steadied Will. The headache was increasing yet again, and the room began to blur. Hannibal began to speak again, but the words were unintelligible to Will. His legs gave out as he was guided out of the room and into another. The darkness he had been trying so hard to find earlier finally came.
When things came back into focus, Will found himself resting on a couch that looked like it also belonged in an IKEA showroom. A washcloth was on his forehead and another glass of water had appeared on a packing box placed next to Will's head. Will ignored it in favor of trying to get into a better position to survey his new surroundings. This proved to be a bad idea, as the shifting of his body ended with him sitting up just in time to vomit onto the floor. His body was protesting too much to notice Hannibal's entrance into the room. He tutted to himself and reentered with several cleaning supplies and a few crackers.
"Eat these and you will feel better, William. Your stomach needs to digest something before your body can work the rest of the drugs out of your system." The crackers were placed near the glass of water while Hannibal set to work on the mess. "You missed a chance to meet the radio host, Cecil. He stopped by again to invite us out to dinner. I believe he was looking for a reason to invite another out to dine with him, but the gesture is appreciated none the less. I told him we would be happy to accept."
"Please don't talk so loud." Will managed to mumble between bites of a cracker. He did not feel like listening to Hannibal, but he really did not feel like vomiting either. So he took the lesser of the two evils and ate the crackers. "And why would you take your hostage out on a dinner date? That doesn't seem like a good way to keep me from escaping from here."
"I am speaking at the same volume as I always have, Will." Hannibal calmly replied without pausing in his current job. "I have already told you that you are not a hostage. This is simply the start of an indefinite vacation for you. The dinner seemed like a good opportunity for you to see where you will be spending the first part of that vacation."
"You know that most vacations are something that people voluntarily take part in, right?"
"But, you are not most people. Neither of us fits into what society would consider normal. Now, if you are feeling well enough, I would be happy to escort you to your new room. The furnishings are still very sparse as you will no doubt notice. Once the necessities have been taken care of, we can begin work on the aesthetics of the house."
With the vomit cleaned, Hannibal rose and offered Will his hand yet again. This time, Will managed to swallow his pride and take it, steadfastly refusing to acknowledge the grin that spread across Hannibal's face at the action. He couldn't ignore the fact that his legs were going to give out a second time without the help of a human sized crutch. Biting back a curse, Will leaned against Hannibal and was half-led, half-carried into the radiator room. "I'm not going to be around long enough to worry about how nice things look around here. As soon as I have a chance, I'm skipping town and finding Jack."
"Well, you shall have ample opportunity to do so when we meet Cecil and his mysterious companion tomorrow." Hannibal responded without the slightest hint of worry in his voice. "You will have to forgive the lack of a place to store your clothing, but I did supply you with several outfits that I believe will suit you much better than your jumpsuit."
The room hadn't changed much in Will's time away from it. It now contained; one radiator, a bag containing several changes of clothes, and one cheap bed with what could only be described as the softest sheets that Will had ever felt in his life adorning the mattress. Other than that, the room was bare. Even though he wanted to feel anger at Hannibal for the numerous wrongs done against him, Will found all his arguments vanish for the time being the moment he was placed on the bed. Instead, he felt drained and a little guilty for wearing his dirty prison uniform while sitting on such nice bedding.
"You should rest, Will. The day is done, and it will help your body work through any lingering effects the drugs may have on your system." With that, Hannibal flicked off the light and wandered out into the main room leaving the door wide open. The siren song of sleep seemed to override the urge to run, and Will soon found himself drifting off while Hannibal tuned a radio. The last thing he heard before sleep claimed him was a soft voice drifting into the room.
"Goodnight, Night Vale. Goodnight."