After his trial, Hannibal Lecter moves into his specially constructed cell in the attic of the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. At the time, Frederick Chilton is still in charge of things there, but Alana Bloom takes over a few months later. She doesn’t let any one employee get to know him for long. Orderlies, nurses, even the custodial staff are cycled every few weeks so that he doesn’t have a chance to befriend anyone.
Not that he cares to befriend anyone, but it’s nice to exchange pleasantries. He writes to Bedelia Du Maurier on special occasions, but she never writes back. He doesn’t expect her to, of course.
Three years after he surrendered, he is allowed to write to Will Graham regarding a new killer the authorities have dubbed the Tooth Fairy. He warns Will to stay away. Madness awaits. In an infinite multiverse, every version of reality will play itself out.
Hannibal happens to find himself in a version where Will Graham heeds his warning.
Eventually, Jack Crawford manages to catch the Tooth Fairy on his own. It takes many more months and many more deaths, but he does it. He comes to gloat that he did it without Hannibal, that Hannibal didn’t even get a visit from Will out of it. Hannibal just smiles until the steam goes out of him and he trudges away with his hollow victory.
Alana Bloom retires in her sixties. The last thing she does on her last day is stand before his cell and stare at him, frowning. Her doctors have no explanation for his agelessness, and there have been dozens of them who’ve run hundreds of tests on him. Hannibal tells her it’s through sheer force of will, but she doesn’t appreciate the play on words.
Decades go by. Jack Crawford is long dead. Alana is long dead. When print newspapers finally die, Hannibal is allowed brief access to virtual sources and learns that Will’s wife died long ago. Her obituary mentions her first husband, who preceded her in death, but does not mention Will at all.
A hundred years go by, and then five hundred more. The hospital falls to ruins and another is built in its stead. Then that one falls to ruins, and another one is built, and so on and so forth. Doctors come to poke at him and prod at him, and all run their tests. Even with the marvels of their advanced learning, they don’t understand how he’s doing it. He tells them it’s through sheer force of will, but they don’t know enough to know he’s being clever.
It’s not always the most interesting thing in the world, this act of living forever.
The fourth hospital crumbles to dust and another one is not built in its place. Hannibal’s life sentence is commuted by a baffled judge who is forced to agree he’s now served many lifetimes, despite the fact that he looks not one day older than fifty.
Hannibal emerges from the courtroom and walks into a world much different than the one he left behind.
Someone approaches him from behind. “Hello, Hannibal.”
He takes a breath, inhales a scent he hasn’t known for ages yet recognizes instantly. “Hello, Will.”
He holds out his arm without turning around, and Will takes it. Only then does Hannibal glance over him, and they smile at each other as they once did, as if not even a day has passed.
“I was worried you’d be mad I didn’t come for you,” Will says.
“But you did,” Hannibal tells him. “Here you are.”
“No,” Hannibal says. “Just on time.”
(Note: I wanted to play some more with the concept in my fic “Je me souviens” that a powerful enough mind can will itself to live forever.)
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