Dark Silence

26 days (2)

“Is something wrong?” he asked with a mockery in his voice.

“Yes… I mean, no, everything is fine… We are here,” she came up to a grid door and opened the lock. She jerked it a few times and finally pushed the creaky grid. Agnes made a step aside letting Darnell and Madeleine walk into the dark depths of the special section. “I must stay with you until you’re done here,” she mumbled trying to walk in after them, but Darnell softly closed the grid and leaned with his forehead against it, smiling nicely. 

“Do you know another ability that the demons have?” he asked.

“What ability?” Agnes repeated after him barely audibly.

Darnell stretched his hands through the wide bars and waved calling Agness to come closer. She came up, and the man saw that she was shivering. Darnell was already anticipating her reaction.

“They can hear people’s thoughts.”

Hearing this information, Agness made big eyes, round like tiny plates. She covered her mouth with her palms, but to Darnell’s discontent, she didn’t hurry to leave. He was going to do his investigations alone without the watchful eye of this girl. Darnell decided to give out his last trick up his sleeve to make her leave this hall.

“By the way, I never told you,” he continued in a mysterious voice, “but I’m half-demon.” He waved his hand carelessly as if he was telling her interlocutress about the weather outside. When she heard this, she slowly turned around and went away down the hall. “Is everything fine?” he called after her in a teasing manner. Agnes went around the corner not saying a word to him.

Darnell laughed and pulled his hands from between the bars, turning to Madeleine. She waved her chin at him as if questioning and poked her finger at him.

“Well, yes, I’m half-human, half-demon if this is what you’re asking about.” He shrugged his shoulders and started looking for a switch on a wall. Madeleine shook her head and pointed first at it, and then at Darnell. He smiled at her.

“You could have understood that if I didn’t guess what you were asking about, I can’t hear your thoughts.”

Madeleine nodded him thoughtfully.

“Oh, finally, I found the switch on this wall,” said Darnell and flipped it with force.

A small room got filled with the crick-cracking of luminous tubes that were hanging in even rows on the ceiling. When they calmed down, Darnell sighed and put his hands on his hips.

“Oh dear, I’m gonna look through all these books for a really long time. Okay, library, which demon leaves black traces when it destroys the barriers?” he shouted into the depths of bookshelves. They answered him with a slightly audible echo of his own voice. Madeleine looked at him disapprovingly. “Well, I should have tried,” Darnell shrugged his shoulders.

He came up to moving library shelvings that stood with their grey sides to the visitors. Each of them had round handles, and Darnell turned one of them moving the shelf close to another one and opening the passage for himself. The man went ahead touching the backs of the lots of books without thinking. They were resting on the shelves far from people’s eyes.

“No one reads you,” whispered Darnell to the books, “no one will learn what is written on your pages.”

He stopped between the book-cases. The book world around him was emitting quiet sounds. It was whispering and rustling. Darnell closed his eyes listening to these sounds and smiled. The majority of the books were written by people, some small part of it - by demons, but each of these books took a part of their soul sealing it on the pages soaked with secret knowledge and power. Madeleine woke him from his dreaminess by touching his sleeve. Darnell looked at her strictly, as he noticed an open curiosity burning in her eyes. She also heard the voice of the library calling for its rare visitors to read and reveal the secrets it was keeping.

“Don’t touch anything here, please.” Madeleine pouted showing that she was offended, and Darnell warned her. “I’m serious, there are dangerous books in here. Who knows what you can find accidentally. Come, let’s look through the catalogs.”

Darnell returned to the entrance where a big case with catalogs was standing. He pulled out a few long drawers filled tightly with cards. The man sighed.

“I have no idea what I should be looking here for. Madeleine, do you have any ideas on what we should do?”

The girl pointed at an old computer standing behind the catalog case.

“Do you think this antiquity is still working?” Darnell turned it on, not believing much into it, and the computer started roaring at the one who disturbed it. In a few minutes, a big square monitor turned on, and Darnell sat at the old creaking chair.

“Fine, I’ll try this. I guess, it should be faster this way.”

A few hours later, Darnell was lying flaked-out with his forehead on the keyboard that was typing in the search an endless gibberish. Madeleine was sitting on the floor near him, leaning to the table leg with her back. She was thumbing an old slick magazine forgotten by someone here a long time ago. Darnell suddenly shuddered, shook his head, and fixed his eyes at the girl.

“I remembered what I had forgotten to do!”

Madeleine gave a start of surprise and tore the page she was reading. She looked at Darnell. On his forehead, square buttons of the keyboard were imprinted.

“I didn’t report to Ewing that we won’t be present in the office today!”

The girl blinked, trying to understand his concern, but then waved her hand carelessly.

“You think, he will forget till Monday?”

Madeleine nodded, giving a sigh, and returned to reading her magazine. She pointed Darnell at the computer.

“I can’t find anything here,” the man shook his head, “this is just an abyss of information. I read so many things, but they are all not what I need. I thought that some fire spirit could have done this, but they can’t destroy the barriers. Like Cole, for example. This is just a waste of time. And, in general, I’m sick of this and tired.” Darnell turned the computer off and stood up. “Come, let’s find Agnes, I need to ask her to stay with you tomorrow.”

Madeleine took out her tablet and typed: “You scared her.”

“Not at all!” argued the man. He turned the switch off and left the room. “We need to call her to close this door.”

The girl pointed at the door, and Darnell noticed that Agnes ran away leaving the key in the keyhole.

“Well, maybe I overdid it a little bit,” he agreed and locked the door. “But believe me, she would awfully bug us if she remained. She would talk and stammer and talk more. Like she does when I meet her in the hall at home. Urgh...”

Darnell and Madeleine returned to the main hall of the library. The man cast a look around it, spinning a key ring on his finger. He didn’t find Agnes behind the counter. He came up to an aged lady who was standing there instead of Agnes and asked politely where he could find her co-worker. She looked at him disapprovingly through the half-frame glasses and pointed at bookcases.

“She’s assembling the books.”

“Madeleine, wait for me here for a few minutes,” he said to the girl. She nodded. “Good, I’ll go quickly, will just set up everything on tomorrow. Don’t go away from the counter, okay?”

Madeleine rolled her eyes and waved her hands at Darnell sending him off to Agnes. He went to the high book-cases looking around. He passed by a couple of rows and noticed fire curls, jumping merrily, while their owner was placing thick books at their places, mumbling something to herself. Darnell approached Agnes closely and heard that she was saying something about lying demons and her own stupidity.

“You should never trust demons,” he said from behind her back. Agnes jumped out of her skin and turned around. Her wide brown skirt flew up in anxious waves.

“It’s… did you… finish?” she mumbled and clung to the book she hadn’t placed at the shelf yet. Darnell waved the key in front of her nose.

“I locked the door. I believe you’ll get scolded if you lose this key.”

“Oh, yes, thank you,” she leaned to take it, but Darnell lifted his hand removing the key out of her range.

“Listen, are you free tomorrow?” He leaned against the shelf near Agnes, and the girl pressed towards the books looking into his eyes like a scared hare.

“I… yes, I have a day off.”

“Wonderful,” Darnell lowered his voice and thought that Agnes reacted at such banal and cheap lines so easily. Looks like apart from comics she was also reading second-rate romantic novels. “May I steal you for a few hours tomorrow?”

“Of course,” exhaled the girl.

“Great,” Darnell smiled, “I need to leave for at least 5 hours on business, and I can’t leave Madeleine alone. Can you watch her for that time at my place?”

“Madeleine?” Agnes rounded her eyes. “Watch her at your place?”

“Yes, everything’s correct,” Darnell moved away from the shelf and straightened up. “Can I count on you?” He gave the key, and Agnes took it not even paying attention to what she was doing.

“Okay, I’ll come. Knock me when you leave,” she looked very disappointed, but suddenly flinched and looked at her feet.

“Thank you, I really appreciate this,” Darnell turned around, but decided to add before leaving, “by the way, I don’t hear anyone’s thoughts. Just happened so, not anymore.”

Agnes lifted her eyes at him, and he saw relief in them. He smiled, shrugged his shoulders, and went to pick Madeleine up.