This Will Destroy You | | Dexter & Savannah
@forestsghost | | [listen]
There was so much going on but Dexter couldnât help but focus on Stephanie-- or rather, Savannah, that was what she was going by now and it was difficult for Dexter to even process it let alone call her by that name. In his mind, when ever he saw her the name that he felt on the edge of his lips was Stephanie. But she was damaged, broken, and calloused-- just like him. That was a fate that Dexter never had wanted for his little sister and he would have done everything, walked barefoot for the rest of his life on shards of broken glass through hell just to get to Stephanie, just to keep her from falling down the same dark abyss that Dexter had. It was too late, things had already happened and he hadnât been there for his little sister. He truly had done what she thought, what was so real to Stephanie wasnât far from the actual truth. Dexter hadnât gone back for her, hadnât gone through hell to get to that damn house, pry those doors and not stop until he found the younger Fitzgerald. The Marine should have gone back for her, stopped at nothing to get her back even if--- even if having her was a liability. She was his sister, she was the sun to his moon and the second things got hard, the second the world went to shit; he gave up on her and now-- now she was back to put him through hell for his sins. To tear the flesh from his skin and drive him insane. Maybe that fall in the mall had actually killed him and this horror of not being able to protect those closest to him was Dexterâs personal hell and Stephanie, she was the angel of death.Â
Even still, through all her hostility, the older man loved her more than he had ever loved anything and it would spill from him like a disease. Sinking to the ground in red from the talons that she dug into him, from the piercing gaze of hatred she shot towards him every time he came near her; the hostile and aggressive words she spat at him like snarls from a rabid animal. She was no longer the sheep which Dexter fought viciously to protect, now Stephanie had turned into the WOLF and she would sooner sink her teeth into his soul, tearing the life from his body than curl into him for protection, soothing him that everything was going to be alright. There were no monsters that he had to beat into the ground with bloody busted knuckles and heat on his skin, with fire in his eyes and a forked tongue that lashed out just as violently as his fists. Now his sister was the one with venom in her system and God did it break him, every second of every minute of every hour of every fucking day it broke Dexter into a million small pieces to see his little sister know a suffering he once knew. He had been an angry person, so full of rage and distrust, of red and violence, but she had been his saving grace. Even now, as she tore at the flesh of innocence, Stephanie was still the only thing Dexter really cared about.
But no, that was fully true, not anymore-- because she was no longer his sister, even she proclaimed that. Expressing that she was not this person he knew, she was not Stephanie Andrea Fitzgerald, she was this Savannah and like grasslands she had vicious winds that knocked him over with each gritted reply and hot malice that just seeped from her as if she were a volcano. Dexter didnât know her half as much as she didnât know him, still, there was hope. A glimmer in her eye, the same features that resembled his sister, the same voice but a different person. There was nothing he could do about it, nothing anyone he knew could do about it, she was as she was, a wolf in the folds of these people and Dexter was the shepherd that would protect her from the sheep. That was a thing Dexter would never stop doing, protecting her, whether she wanted it or not it just was in his nature to protect his little sister and it always would be in him-- no matter how much she pushed him away, no matter what vile things, no matter if she shot him, Dexter would claw his way back up from hell just to keep her safe.Â
So what was he doing out in the Red District at this hour? Doing just as he had when they were young, it was an old habit and he wasnât about to let it die. Out of everything that was the last thing he had left of Stephanie, except the crumpled picture he had in his chest pocket at all times. But he figured, out here in the darkness, was where he would find his sister. It was a last resort as he had already searched the entire city, all but turned every stone upside down. Dexter was sure this was where he would find her and that did not settle well with him as he came to a halt, oceanic blue eyes scanning the darkness before he silently slipped into one of the nearby shadows to get out of the light of the moon. She was like a mouse, or rather, a preying lion--- ready to pounce him at any given moment and he knew that but still kept a safe hand on his blade handle, he wouldnât use his gun, not in the middle of the night and the last time that had happened he was being dragged back to the city in worse shape than he had left it. The only noise he made was a soft sigh, exasperated, exhausted, and annoyed, all he wanted to know was that she was safe. He could not rest without knowing it, then again he hardly rested as it was. âGod damnit, Steph.â The man muttered under his breath, not at all meaning for it to be audible to anyone but himself, least of all the infected.