Dark Silence

20 days (1)

A cold autumn wind slowly crawled into the room through the window that had opened at night. The first ray of sunlight poked Darnell in the eye with a bright finger, demanding him to wake up and return to the business that could not be delayed. For some, the morning is the beginning of the day. For some, it's the end of the night. It all depends on what you are waiting for more. For Darnell, it was just a change from one endless nightmare over another.

The man moaned and turned in bed, hardly making himself wake up. For some reason, the legs did not listen to him, and at first, the sleepy brain got scared. There was some weight on his back, and Darnell waved his hands and rolled onto his side, completely waking up. He finally estimated the situation with a clear mind. He realized that in a dream he got entangled with his legs in a blanket, and somehow threw a pillow over his back. The cold was getting into the room from the window, and Darnell shivered as he sat up on the bed. He buried his face in his hands, remembering with shame how the previous evening had ended. Now he will have to pray for forgiveness again from Madeleine and, possibly, from Cole.

Darnell didn’t feel like going to work since the early morning at all. He locked the window firmly and dressed up. He cautiously looked out into the living room, as if he were not at home, but was visiting someone, and was afraid to disturb the hosts who had sheltered him. Madeleine was already sitting on the sofa. She was dressed and was looking gloomily at something on the tablet.

Darnell left his room and took a deep breath to call for Madeleine. In the next moment, he exhaled without deciding what to say. After repeating this action two more times, he gave up and simply came up and sat down on the sofa next to the girl, staring at Cole's empty shelf. Madeleine gave him a pejorative glance and went back to smashing colored balls on her tablet screen.

“So, well, erm…” Darnell exhaled, trying to find the right thought. “I was not quite myself yesterday. Again. And also - I'm a shitty teacher.”

He stared silently at his feet, waiting for Madeleine's verdict. She was probably still angry with him and offended, which was well deserved, but Darnell wanted her to forgive him and again just smile at him and follow him everywhere, waving her funny golden ponytails. She had the strength to bring light into his life, the one that filled herself, despite all the hardships that pursued her.

Suddenly Darnell felt a jolt in his forearm. He looked at Madeleine in surprise. She frowned at him, and looked like a little angry imp, just like the one he met in the Portal. The girl swung her arm and, with all her childish strength, hit his forearm again.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Darnell protested in surprise under the avalanche of hits hailing down on him, which he, in general, hardly felt. But Madeleine did not give up. It seems that she wanted to throw out all the insult at him that she had been experiencing all night long. Madeleine threw her tablet on the sofa, and got on the offensive, waving her fists clumsily and hitting Darnell wherever she could reach. When she climbed on top of him and began hitting his chest, waving her tails gloomily, Darnell gave up and burst into laughter, hugging the girl.

“That’s it, calm down, I know that I really offended you. Please forgive me. I didn't have the right to act like that.”

Madeleine faintly resisted for a while, but in the end, she gave up and went limp. She sobbed bitterly somewhere on Darnell's shoulder and buried her face in him, crying quietly. Darnell silently stroked her head, giving her a possibility to vent her emotions. Everyone sometimes needs a shoulder to cry on, sometimes even for no apparent reason. A few minutes later, Madeleine calmed down and sat down next to him on the couch. She wiped her nose with her sleeve and, picking up a tablet, wrote on it in uneven letters "You are an i***t!"

“I know,” Darnell screwed face into a smile.

***

Since Darnell presented himself with a free working schedule, he planned to use it at the maximum while he could. He chose not to go to the office in the morning, but to visit a shopping center. The balcony door was still broken, and after a recent visit from an extremely unlucky spirit, the latch had to be replaced.

The parking lot was pretty empty, which didn't surprise Darnell. During working hours, the mall wasn’t really crowded, so he could calmly walk between the shelves, not rushing to choose. Of course, the calmness was very relative, since Madeleine, whom he constantly had to take with him, decided to turn the short, according to Darnell's plan, shopping trip into a detailed examination of the whole mall’s assortment. An hour later, the man was tired of wandering around in vain. He was trying to persuade her again and again to go to the repairing section he needed, which, of course, was much more boring than the section of garden equipment and decorations. Finally he had to agree and take some awkward pink animal which was a couple of palms high, on the price tag of which "Hamster" was said, for the girl. In addition, Darnell decided that a small gift would not hurt to finally make amends to the girl. When Madeleine received such a bribe, she finally agreed to proceed to the repairing section. While the man was thoughtfully choosing which latch would be easier to install, but at the same time reliable enough, Madeleine admired her distorted reflection in the arched shiny door handles lined up in neat rows on the next rack.

“I literally don’t give a damn about this stupid latch. What's the point of locking the balcony of the fifth floor? Because of you, I will have to fix what I don't consider being broken at all!” Darnell grumbled, not even looking back at Madeleine, who rustled around him.

He was still looking at the two latches, not coming to the conclusion which to choose, when he suddenly felt how the hair slowly started to move on the back of his head. A nasty chill ran down his spine and a feeling that someone was staring at him appeared. Darnell looked around openly without thinking, but there was no one behind the shelves. Even the workers, who usually scurried around and looked for potential buyers, disappeared somewhere, leaving Darnell and Madeleine alone. Having carefully examined the area once again, he turned to the girl:

“Don't you feel anything?”

She looked up from the contemplation of the next handle, and thoughtfully raised her head up, right at the ceiling. Darnell followed her gaze just in case, but there was nothing there either. Only a high ceiling with goffered ventilation pipes, and fluorescent lamps illuminating goods, laid out almost to the ceiling. Glancing back at Darnell, Madeleine shook her head. Having returned one of the latches to the shelf, the man, just in case, took the girl by the hand and led her to the cash desks.

“Come on, I think we are watched after.”

As if someone decided to confirm his words, something fell at the end of the shelving and hit the floor quietly. Darnell turned and walked the other way, dragging Madeleine with him. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed some movement parallel to them, and stopped, turning his head there, but again saw nothing.

“Looks like it's some kind of spirit again,” he said to Madeleine, clasping her small hand. He felt that she grew cold. “Don't be afraid,” Darnell tried to calm the girl down. “It's just looking at us for some reason. I noticed it, which means that it is not completely invisible, and belongs to rather weak spirits,” the man continued, leading Madeleine on. “It can be seen either out of the corner of the eye, or in the reflection. I think we'll see who it is now.”

Darnell walked to the section of bathroom accessories, where mirrors and bathroom cabinets were on display. In one of them, he really managed to see a flickering dark spot.

“Hey, I can see you!” Darnell shouted to the spirit, hoping to scare the observer away. He hugged Madeleine to him with one hand, and with the other he opened some mirrored cabinet that was the closest to him.

Setting a pair of mirrors so that he could see the space in front of him, Darnell stopped, waiting. At first it was quiet around them. Nearby, a roll of wallpaper fell and rolled down the aisle. A vague, displeased grunt followed this sound. Madeleine trembled greatly under Darnell's arm and pressed her back against his chest, seeking protection. The man listened intently, glancing at the mirrors that gave him an overview of almost half of the department. A small shadow flickered near them. Moments later, someone flew by them even closer, clearly trying to get close to a target that did not want to move or run away. Darnell heard a rustle beside him and saw a shadow that lingered for a second out of the corner of his eye. Throwing his hand forward, he, to his surprise, grabbed someone small and almost weightless. Darnell pushed Madeleine away from him and raised his hand to the mirror. It reflected a little coarse brown creature that seemed to consist of thin gnarled branches.

“It's a forest spirit,” Darnell said in surprise, disbelieving his luck. He carefully held the captive by the thin neck covered with rough bark. It wriggled with all his might, clutching the sleeve of his leather coat with thin wooden fingers, and swore loudly and hoarsely in an incomprehensible language. “I wonder where it came from here? Maybe they brought it here on the panels from the sawmill,” Darnell came to a thoughtful conclusion, looking at the spirit through the mirror. “Why did you follow us? Did someone send you?” he slightly shook the prisoner, and dust of rotten wood fell from it.

Darnell looked critically at the debris that became visible under his feet. This spirit looked too withered and even exhausted. It smelled of dry, lifeless wood. While Darnell was staring at the floor, the spirit leaned on his arm, stretched out its neck, and with all its might sank its sharp teeth into his palm between thumb and forefinger. Darnell screamed and released the creature, which, with screams of indignation, immediately jumped onto the rack and, already visible, galloped into the depths of the mall, dropping tiles, light boxes, and samples for sale along the way. Darnell grabbed the injured hand, pressing the bite with his palm. Madeleine immediately appeared by his side and looked up at him with worried eyes. Fear and panic were read in her glance.

“It’s nothing, it's just a forest spirit,” Darnell chuckled, trying to stop the bleeding with the bottom of his black sweater on which, luckily, it was not noticeable. “It's not even poisonous, like the water spirit, for example. So I won't turn into some tree, don't worry.”

Madeleine relaxed a little and exhaled soundlessly. She nervously crumpled her toy hamster, as if seeking for support from it.

“I’ve been assigned to guard you, so nothing will happen to you,” Darnell assured her as he walked on to the cash desks. The girl, still looking around, followed him. “I can be angry with you, but I won't give you to some lousy spirit,” he winked at Madeleine, and she shyly smiled back at him.

On the way to the desks, the girl grabbed wet wipes and a pack of bandages so quickly that Darnell didn’t even have a chance to ask what she needed them for. When he was going to pay for the goods they had collected in the mall and not to make anything dirty with his blood still oozing from his palm, Madeleine persistently nipped into his bosom and grabbed the credit card that he was going to use for payment.

“She is so self-sufficient” the cashier made a comment on how Madeleine dealt with everything while Darnell was just following her in amusement and trying not to let the blood drip on the floor and make the staff of the mall ask questions. The girl even insisted on putting everything into a pack by herself. As soon as she grabbed the purchases, she pulled Darnell by the sleeve to the furthest tables for customers where currently no one was standing.

“What are you doing?” Darnell finally dared to ask when she placed the packages on the table and took out the wet wipes. Looking extremely serious and determined, she grabbed his injured palm and started to wipe the blood that finally stopped and started to dry out. Darnell hissed from pain and tried to stop her. “Hey, no need to try to take care of me, this is literally nothing,” he snatched the wipe from her hands and continued what she started more carefully. “I will survive this, seriously,” he said to the girl who pursed her lips in offence. “I’ve had worse cases of being bitten,” the man smiled trying to calm Madeleine down. “Just to name Mister Muffin. Seriously, that stupid cat turned to be poisonous like a freaking cobra. His bite didn’t heal for two weeks. And this,” he removed the wipe and showed his palm to Madeleine, “is a trifle.” There were four small red dots still visible on skin, but while Darnell was speaking, they suddenly started to slowly heal up. The man didn’t expect this to happen right now, as his inner demon was turning more and more careless for his health. However, the demonstration of his powers became handy at the moment, and Madeleine seemed to take her ease. She exhaled silently and put the bandages away. “It is me who should worry about you, not vice versa. I'm the grownup, so relax,” Darnell patted her on her head. “But still thank you. Now let’s go to the car, the day has just started.”