Dark Silence

30 days (1)

The darkness of a small office was wrapped in gray smoke. Darnell was sitting behind his working table with his feet on it. The head was aching unbearably even despite the fact that he managed to pull himself away from the bed only around noon. Darnell closed his eyes, tipped back in the office chair and puffed another plume of smoke. The room was filled with it much, but it didn’t bother him. It was perfectly calming him down. Watching its clouds in the light of the monitor was putting him into a light trance and was bringing him back the balance. The balance - that’s what Darnell always lacked. The balance - the quality that would have improved his life on several levels. At least with it, he could have controlled his demonic side better instead of beclouding his mind with cigarettes and alcohol. Born half-demon and half-human, never knowing where he came from, he didn’t manage to fully learn what to do with his powers. There was no one else like whim who could have explained this to him or showed the ways of controlling himself properly. Losing temper too often due to his inner demon led him to losing all his social connections. There was only Cyril left who surprisingly followed him through his almost whole life.

“Hey, I’ve brought a new case for you,” Darnell heard a quiet whisper near his ear. The man didn't even wince or react at these words. Every day was the same. His demon-friend came to his office the moment he wanted this and whispered to him from a corner of the room something thinking that one day Darnell will believe that there's a ghost now living in there.

“Cyril, you won’t scare me with such appearing,” the man said calmly, keeping his eyes closed.

“You are boring,” answered the owner of the voice and materialized in the room folding his black wings. “Oh, there is so much smoke in here.”

“As always,” dropped Darnell.

“By the way, are you aware what time it is now?” the demon waved his hands showing his dramatic discontent in all possible ways.

“I am.”

“It’s 5 PM! The working day starts at 8 AM, and you come only to its end!”

“I said - I am aware of this!” Darnell gave a rub to his aching eyes and moved his shoulder-length hair from the face.

“This is the definitely wrong approach!” Cyril looked around. “We need to air the room before I tell you more about your new case. And add some light.”

The demon decidedly came up to the window and pulled aside heavy blackout drapes. There were closed louver boards behind them.

“Seriously?” Cyril showed surprise and raised them. The window glass was covered with cardboard. “No, that serious?!” the demon was taken aback. We gave the handle the swing and finally opened the window, letting the fresh autumn air and the street noise in. He poked his long nose out of the window and uttered over his shoulder “I hope no one will think that we have a fire in here because of your smoke.”

“Cyril, too much noise and light,” moaned Darnell hiding his face in palms. “What did I do to you that you cast such torments on me?”

“For the Lord disciplines whom He loves” followed the ceremonious answer.

“You are the demon, how can you quote the Bible?” the man was surprised.

“But what if I’m an undercover angel?” answered Cyril in a scary whisper and rounded his yellow eyes.

“Yeah-yeah, you’ve just bumped with your face when crashing down the ground,” Darnell hardly cracked a smile. “So, why did you show up?”

Cyril came up to the table and opened a small dark portal near himself by a wave of his hand. Putting it in there, he pulled a thick folder stuffed with papers.

“Look what an interesting case the boss charged you with,” the demon boasted, giving the documents to Darnell.

He hardly thrust his hand out and nearly dropped the heavy folder.

“For now I see that it is incredibly huge,” the man grumbled out the answer opening the case. “Maybe you’ll describe it to me in short?”

“You will really like it!” Cyril playfully sat at the corner of the table near Darnell. He took the folder from him with an elegant movement of a hand and started to thumb it. “This is the case about one young charming blondie.”

“Really?” Darnell looked at the demon distrustfully.

“Oh yeah, and this adorable young creature has faced so many misfortunes in her life.” Cyril stopped speaking tragically and carefully put the folder behind his back.

Darnell was looking at the demon for some time, but it seemed that he demanded active participation from his listener in this performance. The man sighed and asked:

“And what happened?”

“The loveliest of the living creatures!” Cyril shook up and theatrically threw his hand forward, looking past Darnell. “Hair of color of the ripe wheat swinging in the winds of horizonless vasts. Eyes like two bottomless icy lakes threatening to drag into its depth everyone who dares to look into…”

“Cut it short,” moaned Darnell, raising his weary glance to the ceiling.

“I didn’t finish yet!” snarled the demon at him. “Why you, made me lose my train of thought!” said Cyril angrily. “So, what was I saying, the wheat, the lake… Oh, yes. And this tender, fragile creature was made to carry the heaviest burdens,” Cyril spread his wings, hid in them, and continued speaking in a horrendous voice from this improvised black cocoon. “She was deceitfully cheated by a demon!” he opened slightly the wing and stared his yellow burning eye into his only spectator. “And now she desperately needs help. The help of someone who can be both in the world of humans and the world of demons. Of someone who will not be deterred by the sharp-clawed paws of…”

“For the sake of all demons and angels, if they do exist, shut up, I’m begging you,” Darnell nearly sobbed. “So, there is a girl and she consorted unsuccessfully with a demon, and the boss decided that I can deal with this issue?”

“Oh, shuck you!” spat Cyril sadly. “I was rehearsing this speech for the whole hour.”

“And how is this girl?” Darnell nodded questioningly.

“How?”

“Yes. How?” the man meaningfully repeated his question.

“Oh, you will surely like her!” The demon waved both his hands and wings. “You are exactly fond of blondes, if I remember correctly, aren’t you?”

“Why do you care?” Darnell propped his head with his hand tiredly.

“Someone is in a sour mood in here,” the demon smiled unctuously. “Well, if you don’t want to listen to my performance till the end…”

“I don’t,” interrupted Darnell.

“Then let me introduce your new case to you!” Cyril went to the door of the office and grabbed the handle. “Prepare to meet Madeleine!”

“The perfect name for the blonde,” made a comment to his interlocutor, closing his eyes dreamingly.

The demon quickly left the room and in a moment came back, mysteriously holding his wings closed in front of him.

“So here is Madeleine,” he proclaimed and opened his membranous wings.

Darnell saw a girl who was approximately 10 years old, dressed in a pink dress of midi length with long sleeves. She had a yellow rectangular bag over the shoulder. Her soft golden hair was braided into two high ponytails, and the short hairs were creating the effect of a halo, shining above her head. She looked like a pure golden angel. The man rolled his eyes at this child. The girl frowned at him back, and Darnell winced: her glance wasn’t childish at all.

“Hi, Madeleine,” Darnell could hardly murmur this out, feeling cheated by the demon.

The girl kept silent. Cyril started fussing around her, freeing a chair from different stuff and carefully sitting her on it. Darnell was following his actions in shock, still hoping that this was just another joke of his. When the demon made sure that the girl felt comfortable, he turned to the man.

“Well, now you made acquaintance,” he concluded.

“You mean, you are serious?” almost whispered Darnell to clear things up.

“Yep, absolutely. And as you have agreed to take this case, I can tell you its details,” the demon moved the second chair closer, throwing carelessly down some books from it right on the floor, and sat near the girl.

“But I didn’t agree,” Darnell ground out scarcely audibly. The demon completely ignored his remark and started the story.

“Madeleine was occasionally found in an asylum a year ago. One of the nurses asked her relative, our employee, to look at the orphan girl who had been in a stupor for two years not reacting to anyone or anything. It turned out that there was a powerful curse put on her, and all that time the girl had spent in her mind palace, unable to break free into the outer world. When our man brought her to consciousness, the most interesting part began.”