Dark Silence

29 days

Darnell threw his hands up, trying to defend from the hit, and woke up. The remnants of the nightmare were still sounding in his head. It was aching unbearably, and he pressed the palm to the eyes. Darnell found a cachet of painkiller by touch and chewed two last bitter pills, after what he lit up a cigarette, as he always did. In a few minutes, he started to feel a little bit better and sit on the bed. Despite the nightmares, Darnell felt himself more or less rested. This feeling evoked a suspicious idea that something was wrong. He pulled an old cell-phone with buttons and checked the time.

“Dammit, is it midday already?! I forgot to set the alarm!”

He jerked up, changed quickly his t-shirt on the first that fell out of the closet, grabbed the coat from the floor, and left the room.

“I’ve slept in!” pronounced the man in a panic, giving a glance around the living room.

Madeleine was sitting behind his work computer, dressed in blue jeans and grey hoodie, with a hood pulled on the head. The display was turned to Cole’s side, and according to the sounds, she was watching some cartoons. The girl was chewing on something enthusiastically, and Darnell noticed a pizza box near her. His working papers were boldly replaced on the floor. When Madeleine heard that Darnell came out of his room, she threw a cross glance at him, nodded, and continued watching the video.

“How did you order the food?” asked the man shockingly, coming up to his table and gathering the documents. Despite being moved, they were all in the order Darnell left them earlier. If there used to be any order in them. The man sometimes took some files home to fill them in or to write one more report, but eventually never completed his tasks. “I hope you didn’t order anything unhealthy?” he said, moving the piles of paper to the closet. Out of sight, out of mind. “I don’t know what you should eat. Don’t you have allergies?”

 Madeleine angrily waved at him with a piece of pizza and pointed at the screen. Darnell was preventing her from watching the cartoon with his useless one-sided conversation.

“And where did you get the money?” he added, approaching the table.

“She fumbled in your bag and took the credit card,” informed Cole who seemed to also watch the cartoon.

“She… what?! What the…” Darnell got really angry. How dared she to poke her nose into his bag?

The girl loudly slammed on the keyboard, pausing the video, and then several times slapped angrily at the table, pointing at the monitor. She fastened her eyes at Darnell, and even without words spoken he saw her anger. It was so pure and powerful, that the man felt like if his powers were still with him, he would have heard her thoughts right in his head. The girl stared at him for a minute, making sure that he understood her mute message, and finally returned to watching her cartoons. Darnell opened the mouth, not believing his eyes. There was nothing left from that cute angel he saw the day before. Now there was only a perky little devil sitting in front of him, claiming and dictating him the new rules in her own home.

“Such a little b***h, huh?” happily pointed out Cole, making a circle inside his dome. The girl showed him her tongue and turned away the monitor. “Hey, hey, okay, I’ve got it, recognized my mistake, and so on and so forth. Turn it back, I will be good!

Madeleine nodded kindly and fulfilled his ask.

“Okay,” said Darnell, rubbing his nose bridge and trying to gather his thoughts. “How did you get into my computer? And who allowed you to touch my papers?”

“I told her your password,” explained the spirit carelessly, “she promised that we’ll watch something. Finally, by the way!”

Darnell sighed, accepting the situation, and took a piece of pizza from the box. The hunger suddenly woke up reminding him that he hadn’t eaten since the previous midday. Madeleine didn’t react to this, probably decided that sharing the food was fair. The man stood a couple of minutes behind her back, chewing and watching some weird colorful cartoon reminding him of the hallucinations of some addict. He finished and shook up.

“We need to get to the office, I’ve slept in, and half of the day passed,” Darnell started to fuss, gathering his stuff. He found the credit card on the table, near Madeleine, and put it into the right inner pocket of the coat. From the left one, he automatically dragged out his favorite steel flask and nipped whiskey from it. Its bitterness was so habitual that it didn't even burn his throat much. Suddenly he heard two claps from behind his back.

“What?” he turned to Madeleine. She was standing in front of him with arms akimbo. “What do you need from me?” he asked, feeling irritated. He needed to invent another way of calling him instead of clapping as if he was some kind of a pet.

The girl pointed at his chest. Darnell understood that he didn’t even notice how he by force of habit started drinking since morning. His life consisted of rituals that helped him keep himself in one piece. Painkillers, cigarettes, alcohol, sometimes lots of it if the temper started tap-dancing on his ill mind. That was something he shouldn’t have changed in the name of some girl even if she looked like an angel that materialized to finally take care of its ward. Where was that angel when Darnell really needed it. He sighed and waved his hand at Madeleine. She was not the one who had the right to point him at his sins. They were all his, and not a single priest could have purified him from them let alone a stranger little girl. He didn’t want to start overthinking his misery since the very beginning of the day: the boss at the office was waiting for him to do this. But Madeleine stamped and frowned at him, demanding attention. This was an impudence, open as a day. It rapidly resulted in an uncontrolled wave of rage that overwhelmed Darnell up to the hilt, and he lost his self-control. He abruptly sat in front of the girl and grinned at her with animosity. 

“Try to stamp at me again - and I’ll lock you the hell up in the closet for the whole month, you little brat!”

Madeleine started back from him, covering with hands. The pure fear could be read in her big blue eyes, and this instantly sobered Darnell up. His anger gave away to regret and shame, so he opened his hand to her, trying to reach and calm down.

“No, wait, I’m sorry, I didn’t want to frighten you,” he mumbled. “That is what I was saying to them, you can’t stay by my side, this is stupid, nonsense,” Darnell grabbed his head and remained sitting on his haunches.

A sudden reminder of the past flew in his mind, the remembrance from his childhood: a boy lying on the ground in front of him with his head all covered with blood. A stone in his hand, from which long thick red drops were dripping. He deserved that. Everyone deserved, and the rage was justified. No one would stand for him apart from himself… These were the words whispered by a demon into Darnell's ears from inside his mind, and they were wrong. And the man knew that, otherwise he wouldn’t have been a human anymore. Darnell pushed this image into the backyards of the memory with an effort of will and fetched a sigh. He stood up and approached the front door.

“Come, I need to get to the office, and as I was charged with looking after and protecting you, you’ll go with me.”

He clenched his teeth, waiting for Madeleine to get ready. She rustled with something behind his back and quietly came up. The man noticed the bag of the tablet on her shoulder and nodded at her. Darnell went out and cast a glance to the opposite door. It was locked: probably, Agnes was at work. An angry deep-chested snarl sounded from behind it, and Darnell quivered.

“Stupid cat,” he spat, closing his door.

***

Darnell parked his Volvo on the habitual place near the Agency. Despite the unspoken rule “who comes the first, occupies the parking place”, no one risked taking his. He shut down the engine, let the haughty girl out of the car, and turned the alarm on. At the entrance of the office, the man warned her:

“Let’s go to my office quickly to not let Ewing notice me. He hates that I’m always late, and will start shouting.” Darnell screwed up face. “Okay?”

Madeleine nodded and frowned.

“Why are you always so discontented?” surprised the man, letting her into the building. “If you frown that much and often, you’ll get wrinkles since early childhood.

The girl shot a depreciative look at him and showed the tongue. Darnell snorted at her and took her up the stairs to the third floor. Coming to the door of the office, he was going to quietly sneak into his room, but he never had a chance. It seemed that the walls trembled from the deafening shout of the boss, and the employees sitting in the open space stopped speaking, staring at Darnell.

“O’Dell!”

“Dammit,” hissed Darnell. “When did he manage to notice me? Was he seriously watching for my car through the window?”

The man panicked and looked around. He thought that it was approximately 2 PM already, so the ruckus would be huge. Darnell grabbed the girl’s hand and pulled her after himself.

“Come, quickly, we won’t follow me into my office.”

He made a step towards his working refuge but knocked into the snow-white shirt of the boss standing in front of him.

“Where wouldn’t I follow you, O’Dell?!”

Darnell got confused and depressed eyes. In this situation, it was better not to contradict the boss, and just to obediently listen to his outburst.

“Have you seen what time it is?” started Ewing not even letting his subordinate tell a word. “We have discussed this numerous times! Even the penal fines don’t work on you! Why can’t you just come to work like everyone else, at 9 AM?!”

Darnell was silently looking at his feet. He knew that the whole open space was watching this scene. Someone accusingly, others - with empathy. But he didn’t give a damn about this. If Ewing liked to discredit him in front of everyone and thought that this way he would manage to discipline him - let it be so. Darnell didn’t care about the opinion of people around him. For him, only he and his own problems existed. He just turned off from the world around him and concentrated on himself, trying to keep his head. If he blows his mind in front of Ewing, there will be a hard time for the boss. Suddenly Darnell felt someone pushing him at the level of his hip, and he stepped aside finally paying attention to what was going around. Madeleine carefully stepped forward and smiled to Ewing like a beam. Darnell surprisingly thought that this was the first time for two days that he saw her smile. The girl transformed back into a sweet cute angel.

“Oh, hello, my dear,” Ewing dissolved into a smile when he noticed the girl. “How are you? Doesn’t O’Dell offend you? Just let me know, and I’ll show him!” he sent an angry look at Darnell, and he felt a chill running up his spine. If Madeleine lets out his morning breakdown, Ewing will simply throw him out of the window.

The girl looked at pale Darnell, then back at Ewing, shook her head negatively, and shined like the sun.

“See, how wonderful!” the boss flung up his hands. “I did tell that she’ll help you,” he eased off and referred to Darnell more favorably. “Now go, you have lots of work to do, don’t waste your time.” He smiled at the girl again. “And have a great day, child.”

Madeleine waved him happily and took firmly Darnell’s hand, leading him to his office. While the man was recovering, she led him to the door and slightly pulled his arm. Still feeling amazed, he opened the lock and let the child in, turning the lights on. Only when the door closed behind his back, Darnell exhaled:

“Thank you… for covering me up…” He came up to his table and sat behind it. “Why did you do that?”

Madeleine sat on the char in front of him and pulled out the tablet starting to write in it. When she finished, she turned it to him.

“You are weird,” read Darnell aloud. “Oh wow, and how did you manage to notice this?” he asked the girl in an ironic manner. “By the way, why are you writing on the tablet all the time? Haven’t you learned the finger speech yet?” the man showed interest, opening the folder with Madeleine’s case.

She wrote the next phrase and turned the tablet.

“I did. And you - not,” Darnell read out aloud. “That’s fair. Sorry,” he didn’t understand instantly that his question was inappropriate. “If you want, you may read something from my library, while I work on your case, I need to concentrate,” he waved at his book-case, filled with the literature on demonology. “What if you find anything useful in there, or remember something.”

Madeleine nodded and went where she was pointed. Darnell sighed and rubbed face with palms. He couldn’t concentrate at all and was starting to read the first page for the third time, not understanding what it was about. He frowned and shifted the gaze to the first line. Suddenly from the depth of his room sounded a loud rumble of books falling at the floor. Darnell winced and raised his eyes: Madeleine was standing in the middle of the pile of tomes holding one of them in hands. An unspeakable horror was on her face created by the recognition of what she had done. The central shelf of the bookcase sagged throwing off all books from itself. Darnell moaned and covered his face with palms.

“Seriously? You’ve broken the shelf?”

Madeleine moved her glance at him in fear and nodded. He got up heavily and came to the bookcase.

“Go sit on the chair and don’t complicate things even worse,” he muttered, placing the shelf on its place and picking up the books.

He got busy for a while, hardly returning the books to their place, as some of them didn’t want to set to the places where they used to stand, and returned to his table.

“So, back to work,” the man tried to immerse himself back into the grounds of the folder.

Madeleine started to read her book quietly, and Darnell managed to slightly concentrate. From the face, he understood that because of the summoned demon the girl lost not only the voice but also her parents. At the age of 7, she remained an orphan, and because of the blocking spell, she looked insane and was placed in the asylum. Later she was found, brought into consciousness, and put to the Agency’s orphanage to look after and clear things up with what has happened to her and who was in charge of that.

When Darnell reached the report of the casters with the list of measures taken for freeing Madeleine from something blocking her memory, a quiet chuckle and whisper sounded in the room:

“How things with the case are going?

The girl jumped on her place from surprise and dropped the book, looking around. The voice laughed louder because of her reaction, and Darnell cast the displeased look around his office.

“Cyril, enough is enough.”

“But I finally found at least someone who still gets scared! A new little scaredy-cat!” answered the demon happily, stepping out of the opened dark portal. Madeleine frowned at him angrily, picked up the book, and returned to reading. Cyril noticed that and poked his nose curiously into the cover. “Whatcha reading? Wow, the Demonography, aren’t you too small for it?”

Madeleine shook her head stubbornly, showing by all means that she is completely absorbed by reading.

“Cyril, I’m busy,” Darnell looked at him. “And I can’t work productively because of your idle talk.”

“Oh, come one, didn’t you miss me?” the demon gave him a wink.

“If this suddenly happens, I’ll notify you via the e-mail. And now be so kind to remember what business you have and go about it,” Darnell pointed at the door.

“But I came to you!” answered Cyril in despair.

“What for?” asked his interlocutor.

“I don’t remember,” said the demon. “You flew on me right off the bat, and I got so scared,” he presented the unhappy look and sadly hang his membranous black wings. Darnell sighed.

“Seriously, I’ve been reading the third page on this collected writings for the whole hour,” he lifted the folder slightly and banged it back on the table. “And I was going to read it till the end today, because I have no idea where I should start from, and what to do!”

The demon approached the table and lowered his voice to the confidential tone.

“Do you want me to tell you what you should do first of all?”

When Madeleine heard this, she tore her head away from the book and raised her eyes at the demon. Darnell frowned.

“No, this is out of the question.”

“Oh, just as I thought,” Cyril flapped his wings, wakening the whirlwind and moving several pages in the folder.

“By the way, if you are that omnipresent and omniscient, maybe you know, which demon Madeleine has summoned?”

“And if I do, will you buy this information from me?” Cyril quickened. Darnell smirked in return.

“No, I’ll make an official request, and you will have to write down by hand everything you know on twenty pages.”

The demon looked at the girl for the minute and waved his head negatively.

“I have no idea. It feels like there is an unbreakable wall around her memories, and I can’t look over it. Many powerful demons can do such a thing, so even if I wanted, I couldn’t have given you a tip.”

“Powerful you say?” said Darnell thoughtfully.

“Well, I mean, I was saying…” the demon started to stammer.

“I thought by myself that we should look for someone from the seventh level and higher. Just wasn’t completely sure that Madeleine managed to summon someone that strong.”

“Great, I gave out the information to you for free,” the Cyril got angry. “You are more insidious than me!”

“No, you are just a chatterbox,” answered Darnell. “Surely, thank you for the idea, but I really need to finally concentrate on my work.”

The demon snorted in return.

“Cause you shouldn’t booze up that much. You even can’t gather wits now, what will happen to you in 10 years?”

“It’s none of your business,” snarled Darnell in the back of the leaving demon. “And you know what, if you have dropped into, maybe you’ll show Madeleine the office? There are lots of women workers in the open space, I guess it will be more interesting for her there than with me.

Cyril exchanged the mutual discontented glances with the girl.

“And what are you going to do for me in return?”

“I won’t throw an ashtray into you!” Darnell took the heavy glass ashtray and threatened the demon with it. “Get out of my room!”

Cyril lowered his eyes at Madeleine sitting on the chair and sighed heavily.

“Let’s go, we are not welcome here.”

The girl nodded, agreeing with him, and went to the door. She stopped at the doorway, turned around, and showed Darnell the tongue. Cyril noticed this and patterned by her, throwing out the long narrow split-ended tongue lower than his chin. He chuckled hoarsely and closed the door, finally leaving Darnell all alone.

The clock was steadily ticking on the wall. The man stood up and went to the hanger near his door to hang his coat. After thinking for a second, he moved to the bookcase. Darnell pulled out several books from the lower shelf and took a bottle of whiskey, hidden for future use. He brought it to his work table and placed a crumpled packet of cigarettes near it. He had no wish to look for a glass, and besides, there was no use in it. Darnell fetched a sigh, uncorked the bottle, and made a big gulp. Whiskey habitually burned his stomach. Darnell licked his lips and placed the bottle in front of him. The amber liquid swayed invitingly inside of it, like a sea wave, dawned upon the sunset. The man sighed, looking through it at the table that turned into an unusual ginger color. He pulled out a cigarette, lighted it up, and puffed a plume of smoke into the ceiling.

Cyril was constantly giving him a pain in the neck with his questions about his plans for the future. The only thing that gladdened Darnell was that the demons couldn’t hear the thoughts of other demons, so Cyril had no idea what was going on in his head. That was the last demonic ability remained that wasn’t bothering Darnell. He sighed again and made another gulp. The strong alcohol started to gradually mist his mind, calming down the inner demon, constantly weighing down inside, and the man felt some relief.

Once, in the teenage, Darnell learned how to easily use his demonic part. He even didn’t have an idea who of his parents was a demon, but he took after several useful abilities, thanks to which he managed to get a job in the Agency on Assistance in Demons’ Affairs being only 16 years old. At that time, Ewing was approximately the same current age of Darnell and worked with the new joining up entries. When he found out who Darnell was, he fully committed himself to train him with complete dedication to details for drilling into his mind as much knowledge as possible. It was he due to whom Darnell became the operational worker. Everyone highly appreciated his ability to define the demons hiding in the guise of humans by eye, his skills to summon and destroy them, and especially that he was the only human who could cross the Portal and come into the world of demons. With a certain concentration, he could even get into the heads and thoughts of people weak in spirit, but usually, such actions ended up with an hours-long migraine. But most of all Darnell appreciated his demonic part for its inhuman strength and regeneration. He could bravely go for tasks on putting down the spirits and demons of any level because he knew for sure: no matter what, his demon inside will heal him. And that was his first major mistake. On one of the tasks, he broke the arm, and to his surprise, it hadn’t been healing for two months. After that occasion, Darnell started to treat himself with more care, and in all possible ways to avoid too dangerous work. Next, his strength was gone, and he started to constantly feel unbearable fatigue. He also lost the ability to read the thoughts of others. And at some point, Darnell understood that his demonic part tried to completely possess him. It came to surface at any more or less strong emotion. Fear. Happiness. Excitement. Anger. Darnell asked for help from the experts of the Agency, but they had no idea about what to do with the half-human and half-demon. He was studying thoroughly for day and night various literature at the libraries and found no solution to his problem. Darnell tried to seal the demon inside, but not a single spell worked because of the human part that firmly protected his dark side. Finally, the only solution Darnell could come up with was to isolate himself from communication with people at most. He covered all walls in his room at home with protecting spells not just for his own composure but more for the case if once he doesn’t manage to hold his demon. That room was supposed to become his tomb, sealing up the demon and protecting people from its destructive force.

Darnell sighed and put the bottle to lips again. To his surprise, it was already empty. He stood up, waggling, and went around the room trying to remember whether he had some more alcohol hidden somewhere. He stopped near the cabinet for documents with the rickety door. The man dug in it for a while, dropping several folders on the floor. Papers flew out of them like white birds, written all over with the old reports on some tasks. Darnell didn’t pay attention to the mayhem he was making and pulled out more folders, finally finding the well-hidden remains of a bottle of whiskey.

“I’m so provident,” he chuckled, taking a gulp and going back to his table.

Darnell hated his inner demon. He was sure that the main goal of his other side was to destroy everything it could reach. When Darnell lost control, he could harm anyone. And his demon experienced an unspeakable pleasure, hurting other people, and could even kill, enjoying every minute of the victim’s sufferings. Besides, at such moments, all his lost powers were returning to him, and when Darnell recovered, he took fright. He understood that if something happened, it would be really hard to stop his demon. The constant feeling of responsibility for his actions and their possible aftermaths made him feel temporarily depressed. Luckily, once he found out that when his mind was blurred with alcohol, the demon fell asleep. That was the only possible rest for Darnell. And as the demon was waking up in him more and more often, and was becoming more aggressive, he started to drink almost every day. But Darnell knew that he would not wait obediently till the demon possesses him completely.

He hardly concentrated and fished a heavy bunch of keys out of the pocket. It slipped out of the unruly fingers, clinking merrily like a  dozen of small bells. Darnell took them up from the floor, grasping by the keyring, chose the small key from the drawer where his service weapon was kept. He missed the lock several times, but finally succeeded and pulled out his Colt M1911. He checked the magazine with the habitual movement - it was loaded with special bullets against the demons. Darnell put the gun in front of him on the table and stared at it. While the demon was sleeping, suppressed by the drunken haze, he couldn’t stop Darnell. According to his estimation, he was to lose his human shape approximately at the age of forty. That’s why he never thought about his far future. He didn’t have it. Darnell made and accepted this decision a long time ago. The only thing he doubted was if his demon didn’t rise in the dark world after his death, no longer restrained by the human part of Darnell.

A hardly heard rustle sounded in the room, and a small shadow started to dance on the wall. Darnell lifted his red eyes to the ceiling: there was a big moth flying around the luminous tube. Being burnt with the artificial sun, it was throwing itself on it again and again. Darnell smirked and took the Colt from the table. He closed the right eye, trying to aim at the moth. The gun was waving in his hand, and the mind sunken in alcohol didn’t give the opportunity to stop the glance at the insect, dividing in two. Darnell snorted loudly, frowned, and pillowed the hand he was holding the gun in with the second one.

The lock quietly clicked, and Cyril showed up in the doorway.

“Darn, you are a real workaholic today!” Seeing the gun in the man’s hand and two empty bottles in front of him, he stepped back. “Madeleine, wait outside for a couple of minutes.”

Cyril carefully moved the girl behind his back and stepped in, closing the door.

“Watcha doing?” he asked carelessly, going up to the table.

“Sh-h-tn… the bubblfles…” Darnell hardly babbled, still trying to aim the insect.

“Oh well, what’s the point of harming the poor creature?” pronounced Cyril tenderly, and deftly twisted the gun out of his hand.

Darnell stared at his empty palm in surprise. After thinking for a minute, he dropped his head on hands and sighed. Cyril was silently looking daggers at the arched back of his interlocutor.

“Do you know what time it is now?” he finally broke the silence.

“Nah,” Darnell shook his head not raising it.

“It’s a deep evening. Everyone has gone home long ago, there are only me and Madeleine left.”

Darnell didn’t answer anything on this comment. Cyril grabbed the chair and placed it in front of the man.

“Is it that bad?” he asked in a serious manner.

“It’s none of your business,” Darnell grumbled into the table.

“Why isn’t it?” the demon sat back on the chair, carefully spreading the wings. “Who else but I can understand you? What if I’m the one you actually need?”

“Gellost, Cyril…”

The demon laughed out loudly, throwing back is head.

“Darn, I know about you better than you can even imagine. You are a fool if you think that I don’t understand a s**t. I know full well why you are constantly boozing up. I know full well why you live alone. And I know full well why the hell I found you here in an absolutely inadequate condition with the gun in your hand. And do you know what I’ll say to you?”

“Hu-u-uh?” Darnell mumbled, looking out from under his hand.

“You are doing all this in vain,” spat Cyril. “There is no reason for you to fight with yourself. Just accept this. Release yourself off the leash at last…”

“It’s none of your business,” answered Darnell confidently.

“It is really mine because I’m the one who gets everything!” The demon jerked his wings in anger. “But the problem is that the others, in the name of whom you are struggling, don’t care about you. You think that you protect them from yourself?” He leaned to Darnell and uttered with a hissing sound. “But they don’t give a s**t about this. People are indifferent towards other people and are indifferent towards their sacrifices. Only in my world, you can become yourself.”

“I’ll send you the hell back to where you’ve crawled out!” Darnell stood up from the chair clumsily and shove the hand into the drawer.

“Aren’t you looking for this?” The demon mockingly waved the gun, holding it on one finger on the trigger guard.

“I not need dat!” answered Darnell and, pulling another drawer, grabbed an amulet on a long chain from it. The man threw it into the demon, and he deftly caught it in the air.

“So, what is it?” Cyril pointed out, admiring the gorgeous amulet. “Are you going to try to seal me? Will you remember the spell now?” He looked at his interlocutor mockingly not letting the chain out of hand.

“I, Darnell O’Dell, command you, the minion… minion…” the man stopped speaking, looking at Cyril. He laughed in reply.

“Very funny, yeah. You still haven’t figured out whose minion I am, so for today my sealing is rescheduled.” He put the amulet on the table and stood up. “It’s time for you to go home.”

“I won’t go,” muttered Darnell in an offended manner. “Tomorrow will be the first worker in the morning…”

“Oh, you mean, you will not leave, and thus will, so to say, be the first who happens to be at work the next day?” Cyril cleared things up. “Frankly speaking, I hate your stupid drunk ideas.” He snorted and came up to Darnell. Grabbing him, the demon pulled the balking man to the exit. “Are you on your rattletrap?”

“Tis not the rat… rtl… that’s my car!” Darnell answered proudly.

“I absolutely don’t care,” confessed the demon, taking the coat off the hanger and putting it into Darnell’s hands.

Cyril moved the man to the hallway, accompanied by the frowned glance of Madeleine, and started to go through his pockets. Darnell wasn’t even resisting when he pulled out the bunch of keys from his jeans. The demon gasped when he saw the amount of them.

“There seem to be two dozens of keys! Now I’ll have to fidget with these locks,” grumbled Cyril. He started to select the key from Darnell’s office. He cast a glance at the girl and broke into the amiable smile. “Plans have changed a little, child, I’ll have to somehow deliver both of you back to Darnell’s home. This will remain between the two of us so that he doesn’t have the problems tomorrow, right?”

Madeleine rolled her eyes up and nodded. Cyril finally picked the right key, locked the door, and, grabbing Darnell, went outside. The man was stepping in quite a steady manner, and the demon said in surprise:

“He has his brain on a good autopilot.”

The demon brought Darnell to the parking place and turned off the car’s alarm. He nodded Madeleine at the back door.

“Open the door, babe, my hands are quite busy.”

The girl nodded and fulfilled his request. Cyril pushed Darnell inside with a groan, where he immediately passed out. Looking at this, the demon sighed and told Madeleine:

“Looks like you’ll have to sit with me on the front seat.”

She was glad to get in there. Cyril lingered, getting tangled in his own wings. Finally taking the driver’s place, he slammed the door and looked at the panel.

“This is a nightmare, how old is this junk? Older than me?” She showed at the transmission. “Who’s driving on the mechanical one nowadays? Okay, I guess I’ll deal with this, buckle up,” he said to the girl, inserting the key into the starter.

Madeleine took the belt obediently, but it didn’t move. She pulled it several times and gave up bitterly.

“What, is it stuck?” asked Cyril, noticing her actions. She nodded. “No surprise, I did say this is the rattletrap,” ranted the demon, approaching the next seat. He pulled the belt with strength, and managed to free it and buckled up the girl. Suddenly, a loud click sounded somewhere near his stomach, and he jerked of surprise, spreading wings and hitting the roof of the car.

“What’s that?” he got scared and sat back on his place. Madeleine dabbed her finger at the cigarette lighter, and demon sighed, stroking his bruised wing. “That won’t do at all.”

He tipped back on the seat and frowned with concentration. Madeleine was watching in surprise his wings disappearing and the features losing their sharpness and becoming more humanlike. When Cyril finished, he turned the mirror to himself and seemed to remain pleased with the results of the changes. The middle-aged man with brown eyes and neat straight nose, prominent cheekbones, and black hair, brushed back, looked at him in the reflection. His initial appearance could still be recognized, but now at least he wouldn’t scare the people encountered occasionally on the street and would not violate the Treaty. And that was the last thing he wanted with Darnell sleeping at the backseat of the car. He stopped admiring himself in the mirror and turned to Madeleine.

“What do you think? Like me more now?” he asked her in a merry voice and grinned with his even white teeth. The girl raised eyebrows in surprise. “Yes, we can and we must disguise ourselves of humans,” he explained, starting the car and driving off the parking lot.  “I just don't do this too often. By the way, I do know his home address,” the demon nodded at the back seat,” but not where his flat exactly is. Will you help me to deliver him?”

The girl nodded in return.

“That’s nice,” Cyril summed up.

***

Madeleine confidently took the demon, who was holding Darnell, to the necessary apartment. He swept eyes over the door covered with the inscriptions and started to carefully pick up the needed key. However, at some moment he accidentally touched its surface, and it hit his fingers with the fire flare with a loud c***k. The demon hissed in pain and grabbed his hurt arm.

“Oh geez! Is there a hundred of barriers in here?!”

Madeleine carefully pulled his trouser leg and pointed at Agnes’s door. Cyril looked around and saw the neighbor. She glimpsed angrily with her glasses and stuck the head out of her hiding.

“Who are you?” She looked at Cyril from head to toe, after what stopped her eyes on Darnell and blushed.

“Erm… I’m…” the demon paused to think, choosing the best words, “the worker. The co-worker, I mean, his one,” he pointed at Darnell. “We work in the same company, it was a corporate party today, you know,” he laughed awkwardly and carefully turned the key in the hole, trying not to touch the door again.

“And what was the flash?” Agnes was still looking at Cyril with distrust.

“Oh, static, I guess, everything hits me with it, this is unbearable,” answered the demon in a trustful manner, rounding his eyes. “Well, we’ll be going now,” he grabbed Darnell cheerfully and pushed him inside of his flat. Madeleine followed him. “Close the door, babe,” the demon whispered to her. She nodded and did what he asked for.

“Darnell! Darnell! There a demon in here! The demon entered the apartment!” screeched Cole from his shelf.

“What is it? Where does the sound come from?” Cyril was confusedly looking around while sitting Darnell on the sofa.

“Demon! Demon!” Cole didn’t calm down. “Darnell, wake up, who is he?!”

“Madeleine, where does this squeaker shout from?” Cyril looked at the girl and she pointed at the glass dome.

The demon approached the shelf with curiosity finally noticing where the sound was coming from. 

“A spirit lives in his house? Such precise work. Did he really make all these symbols on the glass by hand?” he spread a finger and touched the dome.

The bright blue lightning flashed between him and Cole, and Cyril jerked the hand away. It seemed that the spirit suffered much more: after getting the shot, he shrieked, hit the top of the dome, and fell on its bottom. Cyril viewed the dome and the lines of spells on the walls with caution.

“How curious, really interesting… Looks like this is not just a voice alarm. But why did I manage to come in? Is the chain broken? Hey,” he called for the spirit. He didn’t answer, lying at the bottom like a shapeless black pile. “Huh, looks like you’ve been hit really hard. I guess, Darnell was mistaken somewhere. Obviously, it was me to be hit, not you. Oh well.” Cyril turned away from the dome and addressed Madeleine. “Which room here is Darn’s?”

The girl pointed at the furthest door, and Cyril came up to it. He took the handle, but realized his mistake too late: he was hit so hard that was thrown away through the room at the opposite wall. Cyril landed on the floor and moaned, grabbing the arm.

“Dammit, what is that?! The anti-demon bunker? How is he getting in there?"

Madeleine snorted at him loudly and opened the door. She pointed at Darnell and made the inviting gesture to the bedroom.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ve got it,” grumbled Cyril, hardly getting up from the floor. “This is just… I can’t even find the words. It is really surprising that I’ve managed to get into the apartment.” He took Darnell up from the coach and led to the room. He stopped in front of the open door and squinted, trying to see anything in the darkness ahead. “I think I see these so many spells that I’ll turn into a pile of ash if I get inside. Okay, my dear, next you go alone.”

He placed Darnell in front of himself and pushed into the room. Darnell made a few steps and fell on the bed. After lying there for a minute, he got higher and reclined on the pillow.

“Excellent,” Cyril exhaled with relief. “Mission accomplished!” He offered Madeleine the open palm for high five, but the girl frowned and him and defiantly went around to close the door. The demon snorted in return. “Oh fine, big deal, so arrogant.” 

***

“Can I do at least anything?..”

“No, Darn, you’ve done enough…”

“Please, forgive me, I didn’t want that… This is… complicated…”

“No, I can’t forgive this. I won’t let anyone lay a hand on me.”

“I didn’t want that! I…”

“Farewell, Darn.”

“No, Caren, don’t leave, I beg you!”