Dark Silence

28 days (1)

Darnell hardly snapped out of the sticky reverie. Hot bitter tears were dripping from the eyes on the pillow. Why did he dream about Caren? It was 5 years already… He shoved his hand into a pocket, but there were no cigarettes in there. The man stretched out for another packet on the bedside table. Darnell smoked but started to cough immediately. His guts crouched in a heap and Darnell jerked up from the bed. He ran out of the room and hardly managed to enter the bathroom when he was torn inside out. Looked like he drank much more than he should the day before. Darnell sat near the bowl and leaned against it. Suddenly he understood that he was at his own home. But he didn’t remember how and when he returned. Did someone bring him here? Or he managed to come by himself?

He stood up and came up to the sink to wash his face. Darnell opened the mirror cabinet and chose among a dozen of packs the one with the painkiller. He took two pills and washed them down with tap water. Darnell closed the cabinet and stared at his own reflection. In return, a frowned exhausted man was looking at him. His sunken cheeks were covered with the black bristle with the first grey hair. Green eyes were shining with madness. Somewhere there, behind them, his demon was hiding. Mocking at him. Waiting for his hour.

“I hate you,” hissed Darnell to his own reflection.

The voices sounded from behind the door. The female one was giggling in a silly manner, and the male one was cooing in return. Darnell raised eyebrows: someone was at his home? Why didn’t Cole stop the intruders to his territory? Darnell took the handle and quietly opened the door. When he looked into the gap, he saw a man in a snow-white shirt and black pants who was standing near the sofa turned with its back to the bathroom. The stranger was talking to someone who was sitting there. Madeleine was messing around him, and that calmed Darnell down. He went out of the bathroom, examining the man. Darnell could hardly recognize him.

“Cyril?..” he asked in surprise. How did the demon enter his flat?

“Oh, you finally came out!” he happily waved his hands. “I with Madeleine and Agnes couldn’t wait till you sleep yourself sober.”

“Agnes?” Darnell chilled from inside understanding to whom the female voice belonged. He quickly crossed the room and entered the kitchen. “Cyril, come here for a minute.”

“Ladies,” the demon made a ceremonious bow. Madeleine smiled at him, and Agness giggled in return. Darnell was impatiently tapping his foot holding the door until Cyril finally came in. The man slammed it and asked with anger in the voice:

“How did you get into my flat?”

“Through the door!” answered the demon to him with a shining smile.

“Which f*****g door?!” shouted Darnell.

“The front one,” explained Cyril meaningfully.

Darnell covered his face with palms and moaned.

“My whole flat is covered with spells, how did you crawl by? And what is Agnes doing in here? Why the hell did you let her in?! You can’t even imagine how nuts she is!”

“Oh, I already do,” Cyril whispered mysteriously, coming closer to Darnell. “There is such a mess in her head! Are you actually aware that she is crazy about you?”

“Yes!” Darnell put his hands down and stared at the demon, nodding to his own words. “I am well aware. That’s why I don’t allow her to approach my home closer than the distance between the doors of our apartments!”

“Anyway,” it seemed that Cyril didn’t hear the outbreak of his interlocutor, “at first she tried to rush at me, protecting you. But today she came in, looked more attentively, and there are such the fantasies appeared in her head, I’m just in a rave about her!” he waved his hands and laughed. “I did suspect that the red girls are hot, but didn’t even think that they are that much! She sits there giggling, but in her thoughts…”

“I don’t want to know anything about her,” exhaled Darnell, stopping the demon in the middle of the phrase. “I was asking, how did you pass by my spells? Where is the break?!”

“I have no idea,” Cyril shrugged his shoulders, looking dreamingly at the door where the girls remained. “Your entrance door hit me, but there was only a black pile shouting in your room - that’s it. By the way, does the Agency know that there is the extinguished fire spirit sitting in your flat?”

“Yes, they do,” lied Darnell.

“You are lying,” laughed Cyril in return. “Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been here a long time ago.”

The man sighed and turned back from his interlocutor to the kitchen cabinet. He found there a clean cup and poured some tap water. Darnell drank it and exhaled with satisfaction. The hangover was making him awfully thirsty. He kept silent for a minute and dropped over the shoulder:

“Don’t tell anyone that he’s here. He’ll be eliminated.”

“What do I care?” Cyril waved his hand indifferently. “By the way, you’d better pay attention to Agnes. You’ll surely never get bored with her.”

“I’m not interested,” cut off Darnell not looking around at him.

“Oh, come on!” exclaimed Cyril in despair. “A normal person needs to have someone in his life.”

When Darnel heard this, he skewed. In one step he got to Cyril and grabbed the flaps of the shirt, pulling him down to the level of his eyes.

“I’m not a normal person,” growled Darnell into his face. “You don’t know a s**t on what you’re talking about!”

“Oh yes,” Cyril grinned in return, “you’re not the normal person or human. Come on, go wild finally, let your demon out! Stop locking yourself down and restraining. Come with me, and I’ll help you. Will show you what it is, being somebody like me. How do you think, will that crazy girl endure two demons at once? Her fantasies make me hard…”

Darnell stared at Cyril who started losing his human shape bringing back his sharp rough traits.  His burning yellow eyes seemed to look right into Darnell’s soul, calling for someone, hidden deep inside there. He shivered as if expecting something he was waiting for so long. His demonic part shuddered, leaning to the alike creature. Was that really that simple? Just to stop controlling himself. Giving up all this and letting himself go. To confess to himself that he was not the one he was trying so hard to remain. Just to let the demon free and to finally get a lungful of air. And to start spreading chaos around himself.

Darnell made himself push Cyril away with a big effort.

“Leave my house. You must not be here. And take Agnes the hell out of here too.”

The demon sighed aloud and smiled sweetly, returning himself the human shape.

“Fine, I don’t dare to bother you any longer.”

He went to the door, took its handle, and added:

“By the way, you could have thanked me for dragging you home yesterday.”

“Out!” answered Darnell, hardly taking a hold on himself through the mist covering his consciousness.

The demon chuckled in response and left. Darnell partially heard his muttering and the upset exclamations of Agnes. She had never been in his flat before, and now it would be really hard to get her out of it. But luckily Cyril knew how to convince, so in a few moments, the entrance door slammed, informing the man that his guests had left the flat.

Darnell was still standing in the kitchen, grasping the tabletop and listening to the waves of rage and his demon’s disturbance, getting over him and trying to turn his brain off. Finally, he managed to pull himself away from the table and, waggling, went to the bathroom, not seeing anything behind the red veil covering his eyesight. The man fell in and without undressing entered the shower cabin, turning the cold water on. Its streams sank into his neck like icy needles. The clothes became heavy, pulling Darnell down, and he sat, putting his hands on the knees. Water was flowing down his wet hair in big heavy drops, washing down all emotions and the will to move. After a while, he regained control over himself and shivered. Darnell’s body was protesting against cold water. He undressed slowly, throwing the wet clothes on the bathroom’s floor, and turned on the hot water. The room filled with soft white steam and Darnell completely calmed down.

He finally warmed up and turned off the water. The man sighed: he had never had such coming ups before. Was it an accident, or did Cyril affect him somehow? Could the demon charm him? Darnell kept persuading himself, that he couldn’t, but probably he should have stayed away from Cyril. Lately, his condition was only worsening. Maybe he even didn’t have those several years he expected to have.

Darnell left the shower, found the spare clothes in the closet, being not in a hurry, and dressed up. First of all, he needed to find out why the demon managed to enter his flat. Leaving the bathroom, he came up to Cole’s shelf. To his surprise, the spirit was lying on its bottom moveless. 

“Cole?” Darnell called for him and knocked with his nail on the glass. There was no answer.

The man sighed and went to his working table. He rooted about in its drawers for a while and found a package with an ignitable powder. He returned to the shelf. Darnell carefully raised the dome and sprinkled some powder near Cole. He pulled the lighter from the pocket, putting it on fire. The blue flame flashed brightly, illuminating the black pile near it, and Darnell put down the dome instantly. Cole muttered something with displeasure and lifted from the bottom on a couple of centimeters. He shook himself and noticed his savior. Cole started to fly around, jerking convulsively.

“Darn! It’s awful! A demon’s in the flat! He hit me with a bolt of lightning! Why did it hit me but not him? You said that the symbols must protect me too!”

“They must,” answered Darnell hoarsely and started to cough. Excessive smoking made its presence felt by a sticky lump inside his throat and chest. “I could have botched up somewhere…”

“Botched?!” the spirit boiled over. “I was knocked out for… I even don’t know for how long!”