Dark Silence

20 days (2)

After finishing shopping, Darnell decided to go to work. The day was slowly approaching lunchtime when he and Madeleine entered the Agency. Darnell still had no idea what to do with the girl's case. He hoped that Evangeline had already been able to find something in the tons of information, or at least started writing the theses from the case for him. The man entered open space, and Evvy suddenly literally rolled out under his feet.

“You finally came!” She exclaimed with excessive enthusiasm.

"Well... yes, I came," Darnell said, confused. He surely managed to note that the girl was energetic, but not that much.

“Come on, come, tell me!” She ran to Darnell's office, and he absentmindedly followed her, not understanding what was happening. The man habitually nodded to Madeleine, letting her go to the employees and even forgetting about his yesterday's forbidding to communicate with them, and she went to them looking really surprised.

Darnell watched how Evangeline hopped to the door of his office and fiercely tugged at the handle several times. He could not understand what was going on. Everyone knew perfectly well that he locked his office when he left. Besides, why did she decide to break in there, as if it were her office? The man moved Evvy aside and unlocked the door with the key. The next moment the girl friskily elbowed past Darnell, pushing him on the door, and disappeared in his office, dropping a sheet from the folder that she was holding to her chest on the go. Looking after her in surprise, Darnell picked up the paper. It turned out to be empty. Didn't Evvy come to give him a summary of Madeleine's case? And what was he supposed to tell her himself?

Darnell entered the office and closed the door. Now that Evangeline had nowhere to run around, he noticed that the girl looked quite disheveled. The hair on her head was knotted into an untidy heap as if she had forgotten to comb it in the morning. Her white shirt was only half-tucked into wrinkled brown trousers.

The girl was already standing near Darnell's table, right next to his computer, as if expecting that he would show her something on the monitor. The man frowned and pointed to an empty chair from the other side.

“Have a seat.”

“Oh, yeah, of course!” Evangeline exclaimed. She ran around the table and flopped down at the place that was shown to her. Darnell noticed that she clumsily hit her hip against the edge of the table on the go, but did not even frown or pay any attention to it. “Well, how is your case going?” She asked vividly and put the folder full of blank papers on the table.

Darnell walked around his desk and sat down in a chair, looking at the girl suspiciously.

“Why do you need to know? I only asked you to write out the theses for me from what is already known.”

“Well, I just thought, you know” the girl nervously looked around the room, as if she could find an answer to Darnell's question on its walls, “that I could write what you already know. To do the work twice, so to say” she giggled and began to rearrange the papers as if there was some sense in this occupation. “And Ewing didn't let me see your report.”

Darnell became more and more sure that something was wrong with Evangeline. Of course, he could say that persistence in questioning was due to her workaholism, and clumsiness, for example, because she wasn’t feeling well today, but his instinct suggested that things were much worse. Darnell had the feeling that the girl was being controlled by someone who was not very crafty and prepared. If she was possessed by a demon, then Darnell just had to ask a question to which the demon would not know the answer, or provoke it. As Evangeline was thumbing through her folder on his desk, Darnell asked her in an idle tone.

“So, how are you in general, Jelly?”

“Everything is as usual,” she waved her hand, staring at the white sheets.

Hearing her answer, Darnell tensed. She would have definitely reacted at that unpleasant nickname, but she didn't even lift her eyes. The demon didn't know what this girl did.

“Who are you?” he asked.

“What do you mean?” the girl looked up from the folder and stared at her interlocutor.

“I’m asking, who are you, demon?” He repeated his question.

Evangeline suddenly leaned back frivolously in her chair and broke into a smile.

“No s**t, you did manage to guess this!” She frowned, changing in her face, and continued: “Hell if I tell you. And I won’t let the gal go until you tell me everything you know.”

“Oh, we'll see that,” Darnell said.

He jumped out of his chair and in two steps reached the chair where Evangeline was sitting. The man grabbed her by the scruff of the neck and jerked her up, dragging her to the exit. At first, the girl burst into laughter and began to resist, but as soon as Darnell opened the door with his free hand and pushed her out, she immediately changed her tune.

“Help! Anyone, please! He went crazy, he wants to kill me! A-a-h!” Evangeline began to desperately try to break free of Darnell's grip as if it was a matter of her life or death.

“She’s possessed,” he said to the girls who were staring at him with round eyes.

“It's not true, he's insane! He said he would kill me!”

A shocked hum rolled through the open space. There was the sound of chairs moving across the floor, but Darnell ignored it, dragging the girl down the hallway. Shouts followed him.

“Someone call Mr. Ewing!”

“He's absent at the office today!”

“Is O'Dell out of his mind?!”

“Is he drunk again?”

“Help! Somebody help me!” The demon in Evangeline's body screamed, fighting Darnell's grip.

These screams angered the man more and more. Nobody believed him, but everyone believed the screams of this girl? He never killed people, so how did the employees happen to believe that he was capable of such a thing? Did his word mean nothing to them? Suddenly, someone hung on his free arm.

“Let go of her, you moron!” the petite blonde who desperately decided to save her friend with all her determination squealed.

The rage took over Darnell. He didn’t even feel the extra weight on himself, and just kept walking quickly to his place of destination. Behind him, frightened cries of girls were heard. They followed him but did not risk approaching. Darnell decided to change his route and headed not to the casters who could free Evangeline, but to the department where the demons were staying. If no one believed him, let them hear the opinion of those who knew for sure whether a person was possessed or not. Darnell zoned out from the screams and focused only on his goal. Fortunately, no one else tried to stop him physically, apparently being frightened that he did not notice the weight of the two girls on him.

When Darnell reached the room where the demons were working, he kicked the door with his foot. The lock in the door had anyway been broken long ago by Hector who once had misjudged his strength. It easily swung wide open and Darnell entered the room. Cyril's workplace was empty but was immediately noticeable because of the absolute chaos reigning on it. Willem, the second demon, was also absent. Only Hector was sitting in the far corner, typing something slowly on the computer. Seeing the strange procession barging into his office and interrupting his meditative practice with rumpus, he frowned heavy brow ridges and stared at Darnell, silently demanding an explanation. The man walked over to his desk and held out the hand with the struggling Evangeline.

“Possessed?” He asked loudly so that the girls behind him could hear.

“Hector, stop this psychopath, he completely went nuts!” the blonde screamed, still not letting go of the man.

The demon glanced slowly at Darnell's prey, at the second girl, and at the hushed flock huddled in the doorway.

“This one,” he muttered, pointing at the blonde, “is hysterical. This one,” he jabbed a finger at Evangeline, “is possessed.”

Shocked sighing sounded behind Darnell. The man felt the weight disappear from his other hand: the blonde finally let him go.

“You anyway will not know who I am!” Evangeline spat out and suddenly went limp like a toy with dead batteries. Darnell barely had time to grab her in his arms to save her from falling on the floor.

“Oh, no longer possessed. Released,” Hector made a comment.

Darnell carefully sat Evangeline into the nearest chair. The blonde, who instantly lost interest in him, rushed to the girl and began to drag her back to senses. Darnell pushed rudely the employees who blocked the doorway away and almost ran back to his office room. Rage choked him and boiled in his chest, asking for being released. Darnell walked around the office like a hunted animal, clenching and unclenching his fists. So he's crazy. So his words are just drunken ravings. He was about to help Evvy, and the whole flock attacked him. A cowardly, stupid horde.

Darnell stopped in the middle of the room, breathing heavily. f**k them all. He needed to leave right now, otherwise, he was not responsible for his further actions and what he would do with the first person he came across. He grabbed his coat from the hanger and, putting it on as he walked, left his office. Darnell slammed the door so that the ground glass rattled in it, and walked briskly towards the exit, past the girls who had already returned from Hector's office.

“What about Madeleine?” peeped one of them in Darnell’s back, realizing that he was not going to take the girl with him. He froze in the doorway of the open space and slowly turned to the employees. A mad smile played on his face.

“Madeleine? Why, now she's on you. You know what and how to do, right?” He grinned. Darnell could physically feel the fear of the girls thickening in the room.

“But she’s your responsibility,” another employee spoke barely audibly.

“A responsibility? A responsibility?!” Darnell laughed out loud. “This is the first time I’ve heard this word! Deal with this by yourself!” He opened the door and spat out at the girls in the end. “Brainless hens!”

Darnell slammed that door too. Behind him, there was the sound of broken glass and a couple of female high-pitched screams. Looked like he overdid it, but left just in time. The man went down to his car and slumped into the front seat. He gripped the steering wheel and it creaked under the whitened fingers. Darnell stared ahead of him, trying to calm down. He released the steering wheel, pulled out his cigarettes with trembling hands, and lit one of them. By the second cigarette, he felt his anger slowly backing down. What did those pinheads say about him? That he was drunk? Sounded like a great plan for the evening. After lighting his third cigarette, Darnell started the engine and drove to his favorite bar.