Dark Silence

17 days (1)

The day off passed slowly by Darnell. Not knowing what to do all day long and feeling too lazy for anything useful, the man continued to read all the information available on the Internet on Mayerson. Madeleine made a noise with all her might in the apartment and rushed around it as a fierce whirlwind. Darnell barely had time to notice her movements from the corner of his eye. He sighed and once again was surprised at what could have happened with the girl. She usually spent time quietly on the couch going about her business.

Returning to Raymond's website, Darnell suddenly noticed a new link that had appeared there just a few minutes ago. Following it, Darnell got to a page that was framed in the style of a stage, closed by a heavy vinous curtain, fastened with a large lock with a keyhole.

"What is this trash..." Darnell muttered, examining the picture. He clicked at the drawn fabric with the cursor, and it even swayed like a real one. “Made with high quality, I give them that. And what should one do with this entertainment?”

Darnell pressed the keyhole and a window appeared above it that said: "For guests who have received a letter."

“What?” The man asked the computer as if it could answer him. He typed some random mess on the keyboard into the window and pressed the OK button. The picture of the backstage picture changed to a white background with the 404 error.

“Inborn hacker,” Cole commented from the shelf.

“I did that just for fun,” Darnell muttered. “He's probably organizing some kind of event.” The man tried to return to the previous page, but for some reason, he could not get on it. He went back to Mayerson's site and followed the link, but now he kept getting an access error. “Was I blocked for only one incorrectly entered password?” Darnell was surprised. “I wonder what he is preparing if it is so secret, but at the same time exposed to those who were not invited in writing?”

“The password is probably in the letter,” the spirit suggested.

“It must be so,” the man nodded and sent the link to the event to his email.

Madeleine flashed past him once again, far from Darnell's thoughts and mysterious self-blocking sites. Judging by the unicorn clutched in her hand, she was trying to help the toy learn to fly. The girl jumped onto the sofa and began to jump on it. The springs creaked pitifully, hinting that they did not agree to serve as a trampoline.

“What are you doing!” Darnell shouted at the girl. “You will break my sofa!”

He got up to take Madeleine off it, but she was quicker and jumped loudly to the floor. The sound of the hit slapped Darnell's ears and he screwed up his face. A half an hour of such noise more, and he will have a migraine again.

“Oh calm down, what and where has bitten you, that you are running around like that!”

Madeleine just waved her hands like a bird and flew away from Darnell, dodging his attempt to stop her somehow. He sighed as he watched the girl, her hands resting on the back of the sofa, jumping higher and higher, making an unbearable noise, and smiling at Darnell widely showing all her teeth.

“The neighbors will come and shout at us for this stamping,” he warned Madeleine wearily. As if hearing his words, there was a quiet knock on the door. “You see!” Darnell exclaimed. “Just like I told you! Stop it now!”

He walked to the door and put on a guilty expression on his face before opening it. Darnell looked out into the hallway and froze with a stupid half-smile on his face. The eyes, grey like mercury, gazed at him, and despair and hope splashed in them.

"Karen..." Darnell uttered, stepping out into the hallway and closing the door behind him.

She has not changed at all during this time. Even the hairstyle remained the same - a neat blunt bob just above the shoulders of an ash color with straight bangs. The girl raised her head, and suddenly tears began to rain down her eyes. She grimaced and threw herself on the man's chest, sobbing, and clutched his sweater with her hand. Darnell felt as if she crumpled his heart together with the cloth. The thin cold scent of sandal reached his nose. Even her perfume remained the same.

But why did Karen come to him? What happened to her? The man reached out to hug her in a comforting gesture. The fingers remembered all those so familiar curves of the body by themselves.

"He... tricked..." Karen sobbed suddenly against Darnell's chest. He froze tensely, not having time to wrap his hands around her waist.

“What happened?” The man asked, hoping that she hadn’t thought of contacting someone from the dark world.

"I was deceived by a demon," Karen cried aloud, destroying Darnell's last hope.

“I warned you… so many times…” he said quietly, putting his hands down. “Couldn't you remember at least those words of mine?”

“He said he loved me and demonstrated it before I agreed!” Karen whimpered.

“Really... So you decided to try to get your way with a full-fledged demon?” Darnell chuckled indifferently. “You thought his chatter really meant what he said and you believed it?”

“I wanted to be able to draw so much, you know that, but I never had a talent,” the girl continued excitedly, as if not hearing him. “And he gave me a try, I just took the sheet and started drawing, do you understand? I drew it myself! On paper, with a pencil, on the first try. The way I've always dreamed of! No longer to be a designer combining something from ready-made pieces, but a real artist! Creator! You wouldn’t understand... I drew a bird and... and... it seemed to be ready to break off the sheet and fly away! And then he said that I will always be able to do things like that.”

“So what did he take?” Darnell asked, looking over Karen's head at the pale blue wall of the hallway. The girl's tears were absorbed into his sweater, which made him even more uncomfortable. He never hoped to meet her at least once more like that.

“The hand!” The girl howled. “The right hand! I have a stump on my shoulder, I can't do anything! I can't draw with my left, I'm right-handed! Only some scribbles, pure ugliness! I won't even be able to go to work tomorrow, I will be fired!”

Hearing that, Darnell looked down in surprise at Karen's cream puffer jacket. The right sleeve was really empty and dangled along her body. The man chuckled. It was a pretty standard scheme for demons: just to prevent a person from using what they wanted.

It was time for Darnell to finally admit to himself: his relationship with Karen was based on her consumer interest. He loved her. She allowed him to love her and expected that one day true demonic power would awaken in him. Then he could fulfill her desire, and, being deep in amorous feelings, he would not demand anything from her in return. And when Karen realized that she would not succeed in that with Darnell, she created an excuse to leave him by herself.

“So?” he asked.

“What do you mean by ‘so’?!” Karen sobbed. “You do know how to put everything back in place, right? I remember how you could just simply shoot a demon, and I know where he is right now, you just need to…”

“Do you remember what you told me back then?” Darnell interrupted her. “When I slapped you in the face and you left?”

“What difference this makes now?” The girl exclaimed. "Do you even hear what I'm saying?" She pulled his sweater towards herself, and he swayed limply, like a puppet.

“You decided to put forward a theory about my birth. You were so angry that day, but I could not understand the reason. After all, I have not done anything wrong. But for you, it was wrong that I tried hard to remain myself. And you easily guessed that my mother was probably an unlucky w***e who contacted a demon, and because of that, I am not purebred. As if I’m some animal not fitting for the bench show. So tell me,” Darnell finally looked down at Karen, and she looked back at him with eyes red from tears, “what differs you from her now?”

Karen flinched and quickly looked away.

“Forgive me for those words. I was wrong, went too far, and probably deserved what you did…”

Darnell suddenly laughed out loud, maybe too loud, not even expecting this from himself.

“My conscience tormented me for so long. But now I see…”

“It was so long ago. Will you help me?” Karen said with a pleading in her voice.

“The Agency will open tomorrow at 9 am. Go to office 105, the first floor…”

“Is this your office? Can we go there right now?” The girl stared hopefully at her last chance to undo the situation.

“No,” Darnell said shortly. “They will accept your application, and…”

“Application?!” Karen screamed. “They are processed for months!”

“Yes. Sometimes this takes a couple of months,” Darnell shrugged indifferently.

“I don't have that much time! I will be fired if... if... And what will happen when they understand the reason... Can I at least ask the Agency to give this application to you?”

“No,” Darnell said. He carefully pushed Karen's hand away and turned to his door.

“But you can solve everything quickly and right now!” The girl exclaimed in despair.

“I can,” Darnell nodded. “But I won't.”

“You're just taking revenge on me, right?” Karen burst into tears again and began to sob. Darnell glanced at her. Disheveled hair. Red nose, swollen with sobs. Red eyes and painful gray shadows beneath them. The veil suddenly fell from Darnell's eyes. Karen was not as beautiful as he remembered her. As he considered her, deifying her in the warmth of his love.

“Yes,” he opened the door and was about to go to his apartment.

“But why? Several years have passed! I really need your help, please, Darn, I'm asking you, I'm begging you! I will do anything you want!” she hysterically burst into tears.

“Why?” he asked. “Because here,” he tapped his finger on his chest, “there’s none of you remained.”

Darnell went into the apartment and closed the door, silencing Karen's sobs, shielding himself from them with the wall of his house, his fortress, which no one could enter if he did not want that. The man slowly walked over to the sofa and sat down. Luckily for him, Karen was smart enough not to start breaking to him and not to try to keep knocking. He stared mindlessly in front of him. His head and heart were completely empty. This feeling was even somewhat pleasant. He only needed this one last conversation to finally let go of the old relationship and stop suffering over spilled milk. The sofa sagged near him, and Madeleine tugged carefully at his sleeve. Darnell turned to the girl, who shook her head at him.

“That were not neighbors,” he replied.

“Why are you so pale, as if you saw a ghost?” Cole asked.

"In a way..." Darnell shrugged.

Madeleine crawled insistently under his arm and curled up in a ball at his side, starting to comfortably stroke his chest. Darnell pulled her close with a sigh and remained seating like that.

“What are those touchy-feely in here” the spirit grumbled from his dome.

Time seemed to have stopped. Darnell indifferently looked at the two rune chains on the wall and subconsciously began to recheck them, as if he wasn't sure he had done it several times before, and that they were working great with Cole. The spirit quietly muttered something to himself on the shelf and made barely audible rustling sounds. Madeleine carefully freed herself from under Darnell's arm and crawled away, but the man ignored this. Moments later, she came back and showed him a tablet with the words “let's go for a walk”.

“That’s not such a bad idea…” Darnell agreed, despite the fact that he usually didn't see the point of going back and forth around the street without a purpose. He got up from the sofa and went to his room to get ready.