Rule #1
{ 02 February 2010 } Written for Fanfic Bake-Off. Prompt: "Catch."

"What is rule number one of the code?"

"Dad!"

"I mean it Dexter. If you forget any other rule, don't let it be this one."

I echoed the same words to Cody and Astor as they sat disinterestedly, their fledgling dark passengers more bored than they were as people shuffled in for the show. They herded in murmuring, whispering, crying, in stark contrast to my apathetic step-children and myself who, although I can fake emotions with the best of human creatures, chose to sit there rather seriously in imitation of Harry.

For the briefest moment, I thought back to Detective Harry, my dead foster father who taught me to be who I am now when then, I was but a doe-eyed Dexter, dicing animals to fill my need. I thought back to his lessons, to the most crucial of his teachings, and about the lesson Cody and Astor would learn here today.

In front of us, a light flickered behind a glass pane, illuminating a bright, white room. A man was brought in and strapped to a chair.

"Is that him?" Astor murmured, tugging on my sleeve. Cody peered over her shoulder with blank, brown eyes that asked the same question, but silently. Those eyes were so much like my own all those years ago: emotionless, cold...

Unaware.

I nodded.

"Pay close attention."

It began.

"Yeah, I did it, and I'm not—urg!"

Eyes bugged out, skin sizzled as electricity bit and stung the man's skin. Foam dribbled from his mouth, his body convulsed.

"The rules are there so you won't ever be the one in that chair," explained Harry.

And I asked again, as he would have, "What is rule number one of the code?"

Horrified, it was Cody—quiet, dim-eyed, dark passengered Cody—who answered. Like a hollow echo of myself, he whispered to me as I had to Harry:

"Don't get caught."