A/N: Do not read if you have not watched the entirety of Dexter Season 4! Contains major major major spoilers!

I mean it! Major!

I guess I should put a disclaimer. This is a fanfic. So obviously, I do not own these characters.

Love Me Dead

Chapter 1: Forest Of Thorns

Like Sleeping Beauty, laying there amidst the silk sheets, blissfully unaware of the trouble surrounding her. The forest of thorns outside, the cruel harsh reality of life. But she remains dreaming, dreaming of her perfect life. Nice house in the suburbs. Loving, caring husband. Surrounded by kids. Not a trouble in the world. She thought she had it all.

Now my fairytale princess, my public Disney façade, has come crashing down like a tempestuous wave on a usually peaceful beach, destroying the organisation of each little pebble, each little grain of sand. Every thought process in my head, every part of my life, has been hit by this wave of destruction.

Rita, lying there, so delicate. Her body is my coffin. Cold, stiff. Like me right now. I always thought I was isolated, somewhat disjointed from ordinary society, but now Rita is gone, I have become a whole new level of bitter and twisted. A new and improved Frankenstein. The old me is dead; like Rita. I am colder, and more wrathful than I was before. I am on edge, all the time. I am stiff, afraid to move, to stalk my prey, as I am being watched around the clock. Not being able to kill is making me tense. I have no way of relaxing. So that's the urge to kill rising rapidly, along with generally needing to cut someone up in order to deal with the death of my...partner. It feels strange, to think someone was capable of loving me, the monster that I am. To be responsible for the death of someone who did actually care for me, feels rather awkward. I don't like feeling awkward.

It makes me wonder what happened to her when she was murdered. Did Arthur take his time, like he did with the others? Or did he do it briskly? Did he remain silent, staring coldly as Rita was forced to watch the reflection of her dying self? Or did he communicate with her? Did he tell her why he was doing it? Did he tell her;

"Dexter is a serial killer."

Did Rita die believing I was the devoted family man she fell in love with? Or did she discover the horrible truth in her final moments? I guess I'll never know, but I can only hope she didn't find out my secret. After all, I am looking after her children, and I don't want to make the deceased angry. It's hard enough avoiding Hurricane Astor, let alone dealing with the thought her mother could return from beyond the grave and cut me apart with a chainsaw in my sleep.

If only. Then I wouldn't have to deal with clearing up this mess.