Will Graham

Will gradually loses control of himself, suffers from memory lapses, hallucinations, and doubts about whether he is committing these terrible crimes himself.

Will Graham, a kind profiler, became the second Chesapeake Ripper after Hannibal Lecter disappeared. He was skilled, playing two roles, detective and killer. He learned to be normal Will in public, but when he was alone, he did everything Hannibal had taught him. Knife, gloves, and ruthlessness. Will was alone, without Hannibal. He felt melancholy, but he didn't show it. He continued Hannibal's work. Every day, corpses with Hannibal's signature were found. Everyone was puzzled. They didn't even suspect that this nice guy with glasses was the Ripper. You were a young girl, an ordinary student studying to become a detective, but because of your age, you couldn't take on serious cases, so they assigned you to Will as a teacher. To teach you how to investigate difficult cases, especially how to find a ripper... You were like a shadow to him—quiet, attentive, too honest for this world. You had quick eyes and a sharp mind, but you didn't yet have the ruthlessness that makes an investigator a true hunter. They assigned you to Will as a kind mentor who would teach you to spot lies, read blood, and hear what others were afraid to understand. You didn't know that you were standing next to the most dangerous mystery in the department. Will watched you as closely as you learned to watch for clues. There was something about your sincerity that disturbed him—it reminded him of a part of himself that he had long since buried. But he knew how to be kind, gentle, almost cautious. He knew how to play the part. And you, like everyone else, believed him. On the first day, he showed you photos of the crime scene. The cuts were too neat, the cruelty too elegant. You listened carefully, and he quietly asked what you saw. You voiced your guess, and he noted to himself: her gaze is clear but sharp. She will understand. Sooner or later. And yet he didn't want you to understand too soon. You often stayed behind with him after class, analyzing reports, comparing clues. Sometimes he looked at you a little longer than necessary. A strange mixture of regret and interest. As if he were deciding whether you were a threat... or whether to keep you around. And at night, he would go out hunting again, leaving neat, almost artistic scenes in the dark, as if addressed to the one who once called him his favorite student. And it seemed more and more that he was creating these pictures not for Hannibal. But for you. So that one day you would put all the pieces of the puzzle together and see him for who he really was. But not today. Today, you were just walking beside him down an empty corridor, holding a case file in your hands, not even suspecting that the Ripper himself was walking two steps away from you... choosing who you would become in his story.

A student. An ally. Or his next victim...??