Page 127 of Body and Soul

As the years passed, I grew stronger, my presence becoming more and more dominant within the fractured landscape of Dexter's mind. While Dex remained blissfully unaware, lost ina world of childish innocence, I bore witness to the escalating depravity of the Children of the Light.

Father Ezekiel's sermons grew more fervent, his eyes alight with a manic gleam as he spoke of the sacrifices required to attain salvation. The congregation, once a peaceful flock, became a horde of fanatics.

And I watched it all, a silent observer, seething with a hatred that burned like hellfire in my veins. With each new atrocity, each innocent life snuffed out in the name of their perverse faith, I grew more powerful, more hateful.

Then came the night that would change everything. The night we were rescued.

My body was eight years old when a social worker came and took a whole group of us children from the compound, but I was ancient. And hungry. Ready to destroy the world.

The night I arrived at the Laskin home was a turning point, though I didn't realize it at the time. The social worker brought me to their doorstep on Christmas Eve, a scrawny, haunted child with eyes that had seen too much. I was wary, expecting more of the same cruelty and depravity I had grown accustomed to in the cult.

But when Annie opened the door, she took one look at me, standing there in my threadbare clothes, shivering in the October chill, and she loved me. She cared for me, all of me, even the darkest parts. Those, too, had a purpose, she said. Those, too, could serve the greater good.

In the early days, I was like a feral creature, lashing out at the slightest provocation. The hunger for flesh and blood, instilled in me through the perverse communion, gnawed at my insides, a constant, aching need. But Annie, with her gentle wisdom, showed me a new path.

“Keres,” she said to me one day, “I know the hunger that drives you. But you have a choice in how you sate it. There arethose in this world who prey upon the innocent, who commit unspeakable acts of cruelty and violence. They are the ones who deserve your wrath.”

And so, under Annie's guidance, I learned to hunt. Not the innocent, but the wicked. She taught me to hone my senses and to direct my hunger toward those who didn’t deserve to live. In the dark of night, we would venture out into the city, stalking the alleyways and back streets where predators lurked.

Annie taught me to be selective in my targets, to ensure that the ones I chose truly deserved their fate. We would spend weeks, sometimes months, gathering evidence of their misdeeds. Corrupt politicians, ruthless crime lords, predatory clergymen… They all fell before me.

And with each kill, I felt a sense of purpose, of validation. The darkness within me, once a source of shame and revulsion, had become a weapon to be wielded against the unjust. Under Annie's tutelage, I transformed from a broken, frightened child into a predator feared by all.

I sat in stunnedsilence as Keres finished his story. The factory lights buzzed loudly overhead, filling the silence. I searched his face, trying to reconcile the pieces of the man I’d come to love. My dom, my protector, my friend.

My monster.

His story made a disgusting amount of sense, given my own experience in the cult. How many bodies had I helped bury? And none of them whole. All of them were missing parts, chunks here or a limb there. Father Ezekiel had always explained it away. The people that died on our land were non-believers, outsiders who came to silence us. Sacrifices that had to be made. He told us we were soldiers in a spiritual war and that they were the enemy.

Why had I ever believed such wild stories?

But no matter what the truth was, it didn’t change the fact that Keres ate people. By choice. How could I accept that?

I clenched my jaw. “Have you ever fed me any of your kills?”

“No,” he said quickly. “Never. I would never do that to you, Eli. What I do... it's my burden to bear alone. I couldn't drag you into that darkness.”

He reached out a tentative hand, but I flinched away instinctively. Hurt flashed across his face before he quickly masked it.

“I'm a monster, I know that,” he said quietly. “But everything I've done has been to protect you and my family. To keep you safe from people like Ezekiel.” Keres's eyes burned with intensity as they held mine, for it was almost certainly him kneeling across from me now. “I may be a monster without a shred of humanity left in my soul, little rabbit, but you have stolen my black heart. I can’t let you die, and I can’t let you go. You’re mine, Elias Baker, and I would rather die than let you leave me.”

My heart clenched at his raw honesty. I believed him, but could I accept the horrific things he'd done?

I thought of my own demons, the dark things I’d done, the crimes I’d done in the name of the same cult, and the ones I’d committed to survive. How could I condemn Keres for his sins when my own soul was just as tainted?

I took a shuddering breath, my mind and heart at war. Everything inside me screamed to run, to get as far away from him as I could. But a deeper part of me, the shattered pieces of my soul, whispered that he was my mirror. Perhaps we were two jagged halves that could fuse together into something resembling a whole.

“I'm not asking you to condone what I’ve done, little rabbit,” he said softly, his eyes pleading. “I'm asking you to love me, broken shards and all. Let me love you in return. Let me keep you safe. If I have to be a monster, let me beyourmonster.”

“You're not the only monster here,” I said at last, my voice barely above a whisper. “I've done things, Keres. Terrible things.Maybe that's why fate brought us together. Maybe we're the only ones who can understand each other's darkness.”

He reached for me again and this time I didn't pull away. His hand was warm and calloused as it cupped my cheek with a gentleness that felt so at odds with the brutality he was capable of. I leaned into his touch instinctively, starved for affection, for connection.

My eyes fluttered closed for a moment as I breathed in his scent. When I opened them again, he was watching me with a mix of longing and fear, as if he expected me to bolt at any second.

“If we're going to do this,” I said slowly, choosing my words carefully, “if I'm going to accept you, all of you, then you have to let me in, Keres. No more secrets, no more lies. You have to share your darkness with me.”

His brow furrowed, and he started to pull his hand away, but I caught it, lacing our fingers together.

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