Miami.
The city of sun, sweat, and blood. So much blood.
I'm Dexter Morgan. You probably know my story. I work on blood spatter for the Miami Metro Homicide. That's the story, anyway.
It's a good story. People believe it. They see a mild-mannered guy doing blood spatter. Nobody asks what I do when I'm not on duty. Nobody wonders why I never smile when the cameras flash.
That's my gift. Or maybe my curse.
The truth is, I don't care about the heroes or the villains. Not really. My foster father, Harry, taught me long ago that monsters like me needed rules. A Code. Only kill those who deserve it. Never get caught. Smile when people expect you to smile. Pretend. Always pretend.
And I pretend very well.
Tonight, I'm not on call. There's no raid, no agency press conference, no ambulance running lights. Tonight's the night. The night I kill Raul "Torch" Alcarez.
On the hero registry, he's listed as an independent quirk user, Class D - flame projection. Sounds impressive until you realize he's been using it to cook people alive in back alleys for fun. Villains don't always want money or power. Sometimes they just want screams. Raul is a predator.
I follow him from a distance, watching him stumble out of a club on Ocean Drive. He doesn't notice me.
My kit looks like a paramedic's bag. Bandages, antiseptics, scalpels. The agency thinks I use them to heal. I do. Sometimes. Other times, they're for something else.
He cuts into an alley, still stumbling, drunk. He gave me the perfect opportunity to strike. I slip in after him.
I touched the back of his head, and in a split second, he was unconscious. Simple, I slowed blood circulation to his brain. My quirk wasn't as weak as it seemed. My father wrote it off as clotting blood, but the truth is, I could control blood. On a very high level.
Raul slumped against the piss-stained wall, snoring through half-closed lips. He smelled like tequila and singed hair.
I dragged him deeper into the alley, past the dumpsters, into the neat little kill zone I'd prepared earlier. Neatness is my religion.
He woke up just as I strapped the last wrist down. His eyes flickered with panic, flames sparking uselessly at the corners of his fingertips. I smiled - my best fake smile, the one that never quite reaches my eyes.
"Don't bother," I whispered. "You won't light anything tonight."
That's the beauty of blood. It carries oxygen, heat, power - the very fuel quirks need to work. Slow the flow, change the rhythm, and suddenly even the brightest flame fizzles out. In Raul's case, a small constriction in the brachial artery was all it took. He tried to ignite again, but his blood refused to cooperate.
His breathing grew ragged. The panic set in.
"Heroes, villains, doesn't matter. Without quirks, you're all just meat and blood. And blood…" I let the blade hover just above his neck, "…is mine to control."
I hovered over the blade to his cheek and made a small cut, though I made sure it was painful.
That single drop was all I needed. With a thought, I caught it mid-fall, suspending it in the air.
I slipped a glass slide from the kit, the kind most people assume I use for microscope samples. Technically, they're not wrong. Just not in the way they think.
The drop kissed the glass, spreading into a perfect oval smear. My neat little trophy. Proof that Raul "Torch" Alcarez lived, and that I ended him.
Looking at them made me remember the kill, hold on until my next one. I don't know what I'd do without them. I placed the blood slide in the box where I place my blood slides, obviously.
Raul thrashed harder, muffled grunts.
I pulled out the photographs. Burnt victims. Families in tears. "You cooked them like they were nothing."
He closed his eyes, but I slapped them awake. "Look at what you did!" Raul tried to turn away, but I wouldn't let him.
His eyes brimmed with tears now, but I'd seen this before. Crocodile tears. Self-pity, not remorse. The kind of look predators give when they realize the cage is locked, and they're the ones inside.
I sucked some blood out of him and made a small knife. His eyes widened as he wiggled. I smiled just before I plunged it deep into his heart; the sound of blood, the feeling of his life being taken away, gave me a deep sense of pleasure. I almost moaned. "Feels the same, every time."
And just like that… Raul "Torch" Alcarez was gone.
I exhaled slowly, savoring the moment, feeling the hollow space inside me filled for the first time in weeks. The tremor in my hands wasn't nerves. It was satisfaction. Release.
As I said, I was a very neat little monster. I cleaned up the place, the plastic wraps, the blood. As for Raul, I chopped him up into pieces and packed him in black bags.
I quickly loaded my car with the bags, making sure I wasn't seen.
Harry used to say, 'The ocean is Miami's best accomplice. It swallows secrets.' He wasn't wrong.
I went to the dock where the boat that my father gave me was. A nice little boat he bought for the family. Kinda ironic now that I use it to throw away people I murdered.
I loaded him up, parts of him.
Harry used to bring me fishing here when I was a boy. He thought it was quality time. It was practice.
One by one, I tied the weights. No knots out of place. Each bag double-checked, sealed, tightened. Raul deserved nothing less than perfection.
Splash!
One after the other, I disposed of all of them.
Not a trace left above the surface.
That's the beauty of the ocean. It forgives. It forgets. It doesn't ask questions.
I sighed as I went back to the driving seat. I needed to get back to my apartment.
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I parked my car in the parking lot, locked it up. I took a packet of chips in the backseat and ate them as I walked to my flat.
It was late at night. Everyone was asleep. No one would've even noticed.
I took the keys from a small space below the door, which was almost impossible to see without prior knowledge. I opened the door, taking in the dusty air. Maybe I needed to clean my apartment.
I had the blood slide with me, safe and secure. I held the box in my hand and took a deep breath before walking to the air conditioner. It was where I stored the box. It was a spot so mundane I doubted anyone would even check.
I placed it inside and closed it.
I needed to get a good night's sleep now, most people after killing stay sleepless the entire night. I wasn't like them. I slept like a baby.
I had no thoughts in my mind. I was used to this. This feeling. Like justice. Maybe even a monster like me had a conscience.
It was all good before the alarm rang. It beeped nonstop. At times, I wonder why humans have to be this way. Wake up in the morning, do things. They could've just stuck to fucking their wives and husbands like the cavemen they were.
I slapped the alarm quiet. The room fell into silence again. I sat on the edge of the bed, elbows on my knees, head down.
This is the part of the morning when normal people think about their plans, their bills, and their breakfast. I think about pretending.
Shower. Shave. Get ready.
I took my keys and, on my way to the car, greeted everyone I could. Helps to have a good image.
I drove to my usual doughnut-buying place, giving doughnuts to the people at Miami Metro made them comfortable around me, and not see the creep I am.
I had worked there for over ten years. But in a department full of brilliant detectives, not one suspected me. It's something I take pride in. But I also remind myself not to get complacent, as I said, these are brilliant detectives.
My phone rang. Someone's calling me. I took out my phone, looking at the name. Debra. Debra Morgan. My sister.
"Hello, Deb. What's up?" I asked.
I heard an audible sigh, "Dex, you need to come over here. The captain's calling for you. Uh, I hate him, I can't stand over here for five more minutes, so please, come pretty fucking quick, okay?" She said.
I paused for a moment. "Yeah, I'll be there."
"Thanks, Dex. You're a lifesaver." She said, hanging up.
Okay. Maybe no donuts.
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[A/N: The only characters that are going to be present from the original Dexter series are Dexter, his parents, and Debra. Everyone else is gone. If it's a bummer, I'm sorry. Other than that, how'd you like the first chapter? I replicated the first episode of Dexter pretty much. Do not worry, the storyline will be vastly different. I think it's a pretty interesting idea, Dexter in MHA.]