Dark Silence

28 days (5)

“Am I locking my door with the key just for fun?” inquired Darnell, hanging his coat and coming up to the table. “Hector was looking for you.”

“Oh, not him again,” Cyril hung his wings from the chair relaxingly and put the head on its back. “I can’t find the place to hide from this walking hoot. Do you actually understand him when he’s speaking?”

“He’s not talking to me too much,” Darnell sat behind his table and opened Madeleine’s folder. “What, were you sitting in here for the whole day?”

“No, I was at Agnes’s place,” the demon dissolved into a satisfied grin watching his interlocutor pulling a long face.

“Are you insane or what?” exhaled Darnell. “Are you out of women in the city?”

Cyril laughed loudly.

“She was so interested in me, and I wasn’t mistaken in her. You know…”

“Cyril, I don’t want to hear this another story of yours,” answered Darnell composedly. The demon did like to come to him in the evenings and boast with his victories, sometimes even in persons. The man got used already to turn off and not to listen to his endless tales.

“Are you jealous?” Cyril winked. “But, you know, you’ve spoiled everything for me.”

“Did I?” Darnell got surprised. “I guess I was at work all this time.”

“She was constantly thinking about you,” Cyril folded his arms on the chest and screwed up face. “I’ve never had this before. I can’t understand women. She was dreaming about you, but drag me to the bed, and then started to suffer that she betrayed her love.”

“Listen,” Darnell placed arms on Madeleine’s case and fixed the glance on his interlocutor. “I want to ask you about something.”

“For the payment?” the demon roused himself.

“No,” Darnell shook his head. “I want you to never come close to me ever again. Please, leave my room.”

“What’s wrong with you?” Cyril stared at him in shock. “Is this because of the girl? I’m sorry then, I thought you were not…”

“Cyril,” Darnell interrupted him. “I’m not going to explain to you anything. Get out of my room and never disturb me again.”

“Darn, are you serious?” Cyril waved his hands and wings insultedly, not believing what he had heard. Darnell was silently looking at him in return. “But I’m the last one who still communicates with you in here!” said the demon in despair. His interlocutor still wasn’t answering, waiting for him to leave.

After looking into Darnell’s eyes for a couple of minutes, Cyril stood up. His face with sharp traits hardened, and he quickly went to the door.

“Cyril,” called him Darnell after all. The demon stood still at the exit. “Call for Madeleine.”

“Fine,” snarled Cyril through his teeth and left.

As soon as the door closed behind his back, Darnell exhaled with relief. He grabbed the head with hands and stared into the emptiness of the room. He didn’t even expect that this conversation would be that hard for him. Darnell put all efforts he had to remain composed and not to show the demon that he had some influence on him and, maybe, even some importance. Besides, now Agnes would probably start bothering him with questions on how to meet Cyril again. 

Having all these gloomy thoughts, Darnell didn’t notice Madeleine coming in. She quietly came up to his table and sat opposite to him, waiting until he pays attention to her. The man lowered his eyes on her and sighed.

“There are two of us remained alone…”

Madeleine bowed her head to the shoulder, not understanding what he was talking about, and looked at him attentively.

“Nevermind. I’ve got something for you,” he took the stuff that was supposed to be used by the girl from the pocket. “This is the tracking bracelet, with the help of it, I will always know where you are.” He gave the package to the girl, and she enthusiastically started to tear it apart. “And this is the amulet that protects… against the demons.” Darnell gave the girl the chain. She immediately dropped the bracelet and started to contemplate the jewelry. “Please don’t take off both of them, got it?”

Madeleine started to nod and put on the chain, returning to the package. She coped with it and put the bracelet on the left hand, hiding it under the sleeve of the grey hoodie. 

“Good,” exhaled Darnell. “We’ve dealt with this. Now let’s read your case.” He had moved beyond the pages he wasn’t interested in and stopped on the girls’ characteristics. “It says that you are an excellent pupil?” He moved his eyes to Madeleine and she proudly nodded. Darnell continued. “But there are the repeating complaints about your behavior and… two escapes? Wow! Are you trying to beat my record?” He chuckled in a silly manner and coughed embarrassingly because of the surprised glance of the girl. “Well, you know, I grew up there. I didn’t have parents…”

Madeleine took her tablet out of the bag and, fidgeting for a while, wrote: “But how did this happen?”

“I don’t know,” Darnell shrug his shoulders. “I’ve got to the orphanage being an infant. By the way, is miss Carrington still working there?”

The girl frowned and stared at the floor. She nodded slowly, and Darnell shuddered.

“Nasty harridan. It was because of her I escaped 8 times. And each of them she managed to catch me.”

Madeleine sent him an admiring glance and quickly wrote something on the tablet. Darnell could hardly understand her handwriting. “So it is you are the boy who escaped so many times? I thought the story was a fiction.” The man read this and laughed.

“No, I’m not a fiction. Miss Carrington hated me so passionately, and that was mutual. But when things were turning especially bad, I was escaping. By the way, tell me… is she now…” Darnell kept silent for a minute, collecting his thoughts, “does she still practice physical punishments?”

The girl again stared bitterly at the floor.

“Madeleine,” Darnell called for her, “You may tell me the truth.”

She stubbornly shook her head, and the man sighed, running his hand through his long hair. It was constantly messing up and getting into his eyes.

“You know, she loved to beat me up.” Madeleine raised her frightened eyes at Darnell, and he smirked. “Well, yes, especially for the escapes. Usually, after them, I was spending at least a week in the hospital wing. Do you know, why?” Madeleine shook her head. “Because she thought that this was the only way to head me off from the wrong way. Thought that if she hit me with everything to hand, then she will manage to destroy that part of me I myself can’t get rid of. Usually, this was causing the opposite effect. But still, does she keep on doing this?”

Madeleine slowly lowered her head and raised it, avoiding looking at her interlocutor. Then she wrote on the tablet: “Only me for the escapes, but not too hard.” Darnell grated his teeth.

“I can’t imagine the reason why she is still not fired. She may only work as a guard in prison, not in the orphanage with children.”

Madeleine smiled and nodded.

“So, it is said here about an unidentified entity,” Darnell continued to read. “Did you see how it looked like?”

The girl shook her head negatively.

“Oh, for Christ’s sake, I can’t get any information,” grumbled the man. “Oh, the attack happened at night, probably, that’s why. I wonder, how did the entity get inside, there is powerful protection in the orphanage. But…” Darnell remembered the symbols destroyed in his own flat. “I would like to look at the room where this happened. Do you know, where the consequences removed or not?”

The girl shook her head. Darnell sighed.

“No - you don’t know, or no - they were not removed?”

Madeleine frowned and waved her hands crossly. She wrote on her tablet “No, I don’t know!!!”

“I think we need to go there tomorrow,” answered Darnell, closing the folder. “I will take this home just in case. We will not come here tomorrow, I don’t see any reason for this. I will just send the letter to Ewing now that we will be absent - and we may leave. Okay?”

Madeleine nodded, admiring her locket. Darnell typed a short letter to the boss and turned off the monitor. When it became black, the man stretched tiredly, crackling some joint.

“I’m doing almost nothing - but always feel so tired. This is so annoying,” he exhaled and started to gather home. Madeleine noticed this and stood up too.

 ***

 Coming up to the door of the flat, Darnell decided to check the protection inscriptions, written on it.

“Wait, Madeleine, I’ll check if everything’s fine in here.”

He was following the lines with his finger, silently moving lips. Everything seemed to be in its place. The deep-chested snarl sounded from behind the neighbor’s door, but the neighbor herself didn’t show up.

“Cyril chose a very proper time with his stupid vagary,” grunted Darnell. “I was thinking to ask Agnes to stay with you on Saturday while I’ll be busy. And how am I supposed to speak to her about this? Just in case, will you stay with Agnes?” he addressed the girl, and she nodded in response. “Good. Now I just need to persuade her,” the man screwed up the face and opened the door. “Is everything OK?” he pronounced into the depths of the flat before entering it.

“Yep, it is. Your walls are the same grey and dull, and I’m still without the TV set!”

“Get in,” he nodded the girl, holding the door. She slid into the room and immediately rushed to the computer. Darnell sighed, locking down the door, but decided not to start the confrontation.

“Will we watch cartoons? asked Cole happily, gluing himself to his dome.

“Do whatever you want,” exhaled Darnell. “I’m going to sleep.”

He slammed the door of his room behind his back and first of all took both phones from the pockets, setting the alarms on them at 8 AM. He also checked the work of the bracelet on the smartphone - it really showed where Madeleine was. In the settings, he found information about a SIM card and thought that he should obligatorily find out tomorrow if Madeleine had a phone number to be always in touch with her. Why didn’t he think about this at once?

He put the phones on the bed table and went to bed. His tired mind immediately put him into a disturbing sleep not bringing him any rest.

 ***

 Darnell was standing near the wash-basin. What did he come here for? Was it morning already? He opened the tap - the water run from it. Darnell put hands under it, but they didn’t get wet.

“What the hell is that?” he said.

Darnell raised the eyes and made a contact with his reflection in the mirror cabinet. He sighed, looking at himself. The reflection grinned at him in return and asked:

“So what, will you say again that you hate me?”

“Oh, devil!” Darnell started back from the mirror.

“Almost,” laughed his reflection.

“This is a f*****g dream, the nightmare, I must wake up,” understood Darnell and reached out to the door. But instead of it, there was only a mirror wall, from which he himself was looking mockingly.

Darnell looked around in shock, hoping to find the exit. His bathroom was no longer there: he was surrounded by 4 mirror walls, stretching up to the eternal blackness.

“So what, do you hate me?” asked all four reflections.

“This is a dream, I will wake up now,” Darnell tried to rub his eyes, but the nightmare didn’t want to let him go.

“Don’t you like your eyes? Let me help you.”

The reflections started to press out the eyes with the fingers, one by one. Blood spat at Darnell from all four mirrors at once. He was turning around, but couldn’t get rid of the meaningless performance. The faces of his reflections in mirrors were covered with blood that started dripping on the floor, getting closer to him. The reflections threw eye-balls under his feet and stared at their captive with empty eye-pits.

“Leave me alone, get away from me!” shouted Darnell.

“You can’t get rid of yourself. Want to know what you have inside? I will show you.”

The reflections inserted the fingers inside the eye-pits and started to slowly tear off the skin from their faces. Bloody scraps fell under Darnell’s feet, and he screamed with fear.