Deborah stood motionless in the dark of the cathedral, watching Dexer, his knife removed and dripping over Travis' body. Since Deborah shouted and made her presence known, silence had hung in the distance between them. Dexter's heart pounded. He felt his blood pulsing quickly through every limb of his body, his arm wavered with every pulse and the knife protruding from his hand dripped with with every motion. Knowing his position between the two, Dexter spoke first, "Deborah."
Deborah had begun walking forward towards the table, a glimmering focus of light in the center of the abandoned cathedral. Blood passed through the crevasses of the plastic wrap, dancing around the dead body it had once animated.
"Travis…" Deborah's blood has fled her face, which hung ghostly white over Travis. She turned to Dexter, "You killed… Travis?"
Dexter looked at his sister and then down at his hands. The plunge into the heart of his enemy had left his hands and forearms spattered with blood. This was the moment he spent his entire life hiding; the seconds after his kill when his hands were unavoidably spattered in blood. No matter how much plastic wrap and secrecy he layered around himself and his enemies, this was the one moment that he was made visibly vulnerable, and guilty. He was known for what he truly was, a killer. He had to kill her now. Nobody could know, he could make it look like Travis did it.
"Yes." He said it with a conviction that he hoped would show his sister that he still would never lie to her. This was a moment of precedence. She would, from here on out, know him as a killer; he was out, his darkness had been brought into the light. Was this what it felt like, to be known for what you really are? He didn't feel like anything; all he felt was the silence that grew between them. Nothing had changed, then. This is how he always felt. This is all that she knows, she has only seen me kill Travis.
"He deserved to die." Dexter offered the words instinctively. "He used his life to hurt those surrounding him. As long as he lived he was an enemy of innocence." Dexter felt his eyes beginning to well up, but he didn't know why. This is who he is, what should prevent him from talking about it?
"Deborah. He took Harrison. He took him from me. And since then I don't know what has happened to me… He brought the killer out in me." The blood on the knife had solidified. His words were firm as they ever were, his eyes held in contact with Deborah's behind the gloss of the tears he held back.
"Your son?" Dexter rarely witnessed his sister speechless, as she had been up until now. But Deborah, hearing Harisson's name, felt the empathy for the innocence of a child, especially Harrison. For all the time she had devoted in her life to homicide, she couldn't bear to imagine Harrison as a victim. She felt the weight of innocence bearing down on her, trying to justify the slain body in front of her, trying see the atrocity as a protection of innocence.
"How the fuck did you find him Dexter? I had every officer in Miami searching for this fucker. Dex we were stationed on top of every tower in downtown."
"I followed him to the Transcore building."
"So the altar..."
"He was holding Harrison above it with a sword"
"Oh my God Dexter"
"He was going to Kill Harrison, Deborah. I don't know if you can feel what I felt, but when I saw this I knew he was sick, that he had to die. And I couldn't wait for you or Miami Metro, I just couldn't. I couldn't even begin to think of what he would do to the world, who else he would hurt, if I let him get away from me."
Deborah listened, and looked down again to survey the body in front of her. The blood no longer swirled around the body; it had ballooned inside the plastic wrap. This intermission with Deborah had been errant from the beginning, but now it was time for her to leave. The panic of the interruption began to set in. There was so much to be done; this was not the time. She had seen too much but he had said just enough.
"You have to get out of her Deborah. I promise we can talk but this is not the time or place." Dexter said this quickly, taking charge as he needed to. Deborah looked at him with a changed face, was she surprised, or even about to laugh? He didn't know, it scared him. "Unless, you're going to arrest me."
"Jesus Dexter!" It seemed to give her some release to shout this, but it left Dexter as uneasy as he was before. "You know how bad I wanted Travis. I don't know why I'm so surprised that you got to him first. You and your fucking hunches always putting yourself one step ahead of me…" She seemed to remember Harrison. "I'm sorry Dexter. But fuck, you went way more than a step ahead of me this time. What do you expect me to do now."
"Leave. We can talk later, I need to figure out what to do here."
"Dexter, I'm not going to let you figure this out by yourself. Plus, there's nowhere else, especially in public, that I could possibly be right now. I need to be with you Dexter."
Dexter looked at her. Was this possible? What could she possibly be thinking? Deborah always had a big heart, but he never thought she had room for a killer in it. Dexter removed his gloves and withdrew his keys from his pocket.
"Deb, it's safe for either of us here. You can wait for me in my apartment."
Deborah looked at her brother, took the keys, and then looked at the table. The body sat motionless, contained in the plastic wrap. She found it almost humorous, how well he had executed Travis. "Jesus Dexter, you always were such a neat freak."
Dexter showed the slightest smile, which felt to him more like a wince construed to fit what she had just said. It pained him to think that no matter how much he hid himself, even before this point, there was a level to which his sister knew him. It was unavoidable. "I'll be back in a few hours."
Deborah looked down at the keys, and then at her brother. "Ok."
She turned and walked back towards the entrance, remembering herself walking into this place completely unknowing of what was inside. As she approached the door Dexter spoke, "I love you."
As she turned around she knew that she had no idea what that could possibly mean coming from him, that she may never know what he thought that compelled him to say that. But she knew that whatever she was thinking had compelled her to say the same thing, and that she had wanted to hear it from Dexter. So she offered, "I love you too. See you soon."
Dexter heard the cathedral door shut, the same sound he should have heard when Deborah had entered. It was foolishly theatrical of him to do this in the cathedral. Where else would Deborah have gone when she inevitably realized that Travis had slipped through her fingers? He had taken Travis from her to the most obvious place possible. No matter, now was not the time for this. He had to get rid of the body.
