I'm truly disappointed that this site doesn't have a Dexter section. It's definitely among the, if not the very, best shows I've ever watched. This is set after Season 1 episode 7, "Circle of Friends", where a victim that Dexter spared due to special circumstances killed again.

By the way, can anyone guess the movie reference in the summary? Anyone? No?

For those who don't know, Dexter is a show about a forensics investigator (Dexter Morgan) who moonlights as a serial killer, following his adoptive father's code to channel his urges to kill onto deserving victims only. Honestly, the show is a million times better than I just made it sound.

Dexter is © FX.

FOR I HAVE SINNED

Father Williams shut the door to the locker behind him, checking his clothes were fully reattached as he shut his eyes in some strange satisfaction.

The child's sobs and wails grew fainter as he locked the door into his 'private' room.

Ah, he didn't know how he could possibly make it through the day without his… 'pastimes'. What was it about the way children squirmed, the way they struggled, that excited him so? And he always kept them so scared, so afraid to tell anyone… well, he couldn't have them ruin their games after Sunday School, could they?

Once or twice, someone had tried to tell… so he'd had to make an example of whatever little boy or girl it was. Such a shame, seeing as they were so… useful.

Then there was the incident just a week ago. Someone had told. Tut-tut.

They'd told their big sister, actually. At 16, she was a little too old for his tastes. So his 'exploration' of her had been more of a punishment, a warning to his remaining fifteen little charges that nobody was to ever, ever tell.

Slitting that girl's throat had been so very, very satisfying.

Although, since then a few… odd things had happened. There was that young man in the sermon who seemed to cast him an almost knowing look. Just the previous night, he was sure that he'd heard someone going through his garbage, of all things.

Perhaps he was just being paranoid, Williams told himself. A few would probably take a rather dim view to his activities.

He walked past the altar, and stepped into the confessional booth after assuring the young man in the adjoining booth that he simply had to 'take care of a small matter'.

"My apologies," He stated, waiting to listen to the confession.

"Bless me, father," The man's voice said. The voice was… normal, nothing particularly outstanding or striking about it or its owner's way of speaking, but there seemed to be such a strange coldness to it. Williams oddly realised this voice would remain in his memory or some time. "…For I have sinned. I… I lost sight of my mission, father."

He waited.

"Tell me more, my son," Williams pressed. "What is this mission of yours?"

The main paused, considering his answer.

"Right wrongs, father." He answered. "Very… very serious wrongs."

"Do you believe your mission to be an important one?"

"…Yes, father. I think, sometimes, that…" The man paused again, "That, whatever I may have to do, my… mission… is what I was put here to do. But not long ago, something happened, and I started to question it."

"We cannot hope to question or understand God's plan, my son," Williams lectured, "But what do you think now about your mission?"

"I know I have to do this, father. That's enough for me."

"Then go, my son," Williams advised. "In God's eyes, you have done nothing wrong."

"Thank you, father," The man answered.

Williams heard the sound of the booth's door opening, and stepped out of his own to return to his activities.

Before long, he was down in the cellar, a wicked grin spreading across his wrinkled face as he licked his lips in anticipation of the sweet, forbidden taste of the children…

Suddenly, a pair of strong arms grabbed him from behind, one wrapped around his neck to apply pressure to his windpipe, as he was pulled back with the strength of his assailant and his own surprise.

He felt the needle jab into his neck, and the tingling feeling of the syringe's contents, feeling like ice water being forced through his veins.

He felt himself go limp, his eyelids feeling heavy and his arms and legs feeling like dead weights, before his world went black…

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

He opened his eyes slowly. He couldn't move.

Why?

Where was he? Something about the room seemed familiar, but everything was covered in… cling film?

He turned his head to one side, trying to move his arms. As his eyes adjusted to the darkened room, he saw that more of the material was stretched over him… that, and he was completely naked underneath it.

He was on a table, he realised. The same table he used, whenever he wanted to taste or feel one of the children…

Then he saw them: Photographs, hung around him in a circle. Pictures of the children playing with their families, or coming out of church looking around so shakily. Pictures of the ones he killed, lying dead and blue-lipped on a mortuary slab. And one of the teenage girl, lying face-down in water stained red with blood.

He couldn't speak, and it took him a second to realise that his mouth was stuffed with cotton. A black-gloved hand at the end of an arm covered in a sweater removed the obstruction, its owner looking down from behind a carpenter's safety mask.

"Sorry to bother you again, father," He said in such a calm, normal voice, "But there's one more thing I wanted to get off my chest… and something you might like to talk about a well."

"What is this?" Williams demanded, before the glint of metal caught his eye. The man lowered a scalpel to his cheek, and Williams flinched slightly with pain as the sharp metal cut into the flesh, leaving a pool of blood behind him. "Who are you?"

"I'm Dexter," The man answered calmly as he lifted the scalpel and let a single, small drop of blood fall onto a glass slide. Placing another on top, he placed the sample on the table next to Williams. "Nice to meet you."

"What's going on here?" Williams spat, growing angrier and more frustrated with each passing moment. "What the fuck do you want?"

Dexter didn't answer, but instead removed the photograph on one of the young bodies and held it down in front of Williams' face.

"They were children," He finally answered, his voice starting to shake with anger for the first time, "Children!"

"What do you want!?" Williams shouted.

"I want you to look at what you did!" Dexter roared.

"They're mine!" Williams spat, "God will forgive me, no matter what. He won't forgive that little bitch, the one who got in the way of a man of God…"

"You're no man of God," Dexter replied coldly, his voice growing calmer again, "And it's not God who's judging you right now. I am."

Dexter stuffed the cotton back into Williams' mouth and began pacing around the table as he continued:

"You see, I'm rather fond of children--not in the way that you are, Father, but when someone does something like what you've done… I tend to have trouble with the forgiveness you think you earn yourself when people like me sit in the confessional booth." He stopped as he reached Williams' head again, leaning over him, "That's why you think you get away with this, don't you? You give out forgiveness and you think that absolves you. In case you were wondering, I always make sure I've got the right person."

Williams tried to protest, but the cotton in his mouth kept him silent.

Dexter picked up something from one side that he'd previously plugged into the wall: A handheld saw.

As Williams' eyes widened in horror, the saw sliced through the flesh of his throat, the blood pooling beneath him as his struggling body became still, and Dexter whispered something quietly into his ear.

"Bless you, father, for you have sinned."

And there we have it: My first-ever Dexter fan fiction. I'm pretty proud of it, too. For the uninitiated, this is how Dexter always kills his victims, and afterwards he chops up the bodies and dumps them in the ocean. Gruesome, but when you watch the show, it's just… it honestly makes you think 'Gee, I might kill that guy too'. How anyone can make a Serial Killer likeable is just unbelievable.

All reviews welcome!