Dexter in the Dark

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JEFF LINDSAY is the author of Darkly Dreaming Dexter and Dearly Devoted Dexter. \
He lives in Florida with his wife and children.


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ALSO BY JEFF LINDSAY
Darkly Dreaming Dexter
Dearly Devoted Dexter
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Acknowledgments
It is impossible to write in a vacuum. The air for this book was provide\
d by
Bear, Pookie, and Tink. My gratitude to Jason Kaufman and his aide de camp,
Caleb, for their enormous help in shaping the manuscript.
And as ever, special thanks to Nick Ellison, who made it all happen.
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For Hilary, as always
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CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE
DEDICATION
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
IN THE BEGINNING


CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CHAPTER THIRTY
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
CHAPTER FORTY


EPILOGUE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
THE RETURN OF AMERICA’S FAVORITE SERIAL KILLER
ALSO BY JEFF LINDSAY
COPYRIGHT
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IN THE BEGINNING

IT REMEMBERED A SENSE OF SURPRISE, AND THEN FALLING, but that was all.
Then IT just waited.
IT waited a very long time, but IT could wait easily because there was no memory
and nothing had screamed yet. And so IT di d not know IT was waiting. IT did not
know it was anything at that point. IT just was, with no way to mark time, with
no way even to have the idea of time.
So IT waited, and IT watched. There was not a great deal to see at first\
; fire,

rocks, water, and eventually some little crawly things, which began to change
and get bigger after a while. They didn’t do very much except to eat each other
and reproduce. But there was nothing to compare that to, so for a while that was
enough.
Time passed. IT watched as the big things and the little things killed and ate
one another aimlessly. There was no real joy in watching that, since there was
nothing else to do and there were plenty mo re of them. But IT didn’t seem able
to do anything but watch. And so IT began to wonder: Why am I watching this?
IT could see no real point to anything that happened and there was nothing IT
could do, and yet there IT was, watching . IT thought about this a very long
time, but came to no conclusions. There was still no way to think any of this
through; the whole idea of purpose wasn’t quite there yet. There was just IT and
them.
There were lots of them, more all the time, busily killing and eating and
copulating. But there was only one of IT, and IT did none of those things, and
IT began to wonder why that was, too. Wh y was IT different? Why was IT so unlike
everything else? What was IT, and if IT ac tually was something, was IT supposed
to do something, too?
More time passed. The countless changing crawly things slowly got bigger and
better at killing each other. Interesting at first, but only because of the
subtle differences. They crawled, hopped, and slithered to kill one another—one
actually flew through the air to kill. Very interesting—but so what?
IT began to feel uncomfortable with all this. What was the point? Was IT
supposed to be a part of what IT watched? If not, then why was IT here watching?

IT became determined to find the reason IT was here, whatever that was. So now
when IT studied the big things and the little things, IT studied the ways IT was
different from them. All the other things needed to eat and drink or they died.
And even if they ate and drank, they eventually died anyway. IT didn’t die. IT
just went on and on. IT