Dark Silence

22 days (4)

Darnell had to fiddle with the lock for a while before he managed to unlock the front door to his apartment, preparing to enter. Suddenly, Cole screamed from inside:

“Darn, don’t come in, don’t come in, there’s someone in here!”

“What? Who?” Darnell asked, pushing Madeleine behind him and closing the door, leaving only a narrow gap.

“I think someone made their way through the door when you were leaving, I don't see who it is and where it is right now! It kept staying here quietly while you were gone!”

“Small, big one?” Darnell shouted, thinking over what to do next. All his instruments and amulets for detecting spirits were in the apartment. With empty hands, he could do nothing.

“Small and weak one. Even half-dead, I think, as it pushed itself right through your barrier. It seemed to me that someone pushed it in somehow. I saw nothing from my shelf!”

“Cole, can you kick it out if I open the door?”

“I can't, I don't even understand where it is. It doesn't respond to me for the second day no matter how much I tried to call for it! It just hides somewhere in the apartment.”

Darnell looked at the frightened Madeleine. She looked up at him. There were confusion and fear in her eyes. An evil hissing sounded from behind Agnes’s door. It gave Darnell a sudden idea.

“I'll be right back,” Darnell shouted to his apartment, closing the door firmly. “Don't let it out.”

“I would have gladly kicked it out if I could!” Cole answered before the door closed.

Darnell knocked loudly on Agnes's door. Mister Muffin began to rage again from the other side, hoping to finally break through the metal obstacle dividing him and his beloved victim. Darnell knocked nervously again, hoping that Agnes was already at home. After a while, the door opened and the neighbor looked out into the hallway.

“Oh, Darnell? Hi... Did something happen?” She cast a surprised glance at the worried man and the frightened girl.

“Hi, look, you won't believe it, but I need your cat,” Darnell exhaled.

“Mister Muffin?” Agnes rounded her eyes in amusement. A fluffy gray lump started to crawl stubbornly into the hallway from under her feet.

“Yeah, exactly him,” Darnell said, leaning over. Grabbing the cat by the front paws, he pulled the animal out of the apartment and lifted it up.

The cat unexpectedly turned to be very heavy and combative. Darnell barely saw the animal itself behind the whirl of claws and paws. Accompanied by a deafening cat howl, the man grabbed the animal by the scruff of the neck, opened the door of his apartment, and threw him inside.

“Cole, don't call the cat, watch what it is going to do.”

“Won't it gobble me up?” the spirit screamed.

“You're in your dome, you will survive this somehow. Maybe,” Darnell replied, closing the door. The man leaned against it and put his ear to it, listening to how his idea would work out. Madeleine also leaned against the door next to him.

“What are you doing?” Agnes boiled over too late, finally coming to her senses.

“Hush!” Darnell hissed at her.

“But Mister Muffin…” the girl tried to thrust in a word.

“You shut up now, I don't hear a s**t!” Darnell growled. Madeleine, who was standing next to him, also waved her hands at Agnes, who huffily fell silent.

At first, the cat scratched for a while at the front door, still sensing its nemesis behind it. After a few minutes, he went quiet, and Darnell decided that the animal went to explore new territory. As far as he knew, Muffin had never been a well-mannered creature, and was quite bigheaded and insolent, to the scale these qualities could manifest in an animal. Something fell to the floor and rolled. Probably, the cat decided to walk on the table.

“Darn, it tries to crawl under the closet!” Cole shouted.

“Yeah, under the closet, sure,” Darnell grinned, “there’s a palm-wide distance to the floor, there’s no way this fatso can get in there.”

“My cat is not fat!” Agnes tried to tell at least something from behind the man.

“Quiet!” He hushed at her again.

The girl walked over and leaned against the door next to him. The glasses, which rested against the surface of the door, got uneven on her face, which made Darnell think she looked even weirder than usual.

“It really crawls under the cupboard, Darn! And growls somewhere in there!” Cole said.

“Oh my, he did find it.” Darnell raised his voice for the spirit to hear. “As soon as he comes out, or you will understand that he caught someone, let me know!”

“It caught something, the cat has something in his teeth, come take it away quickly, he will eat it now!”

“Oh, no, no, just don't eat it!” Darnell jumped away from the door and hastily pushed Agnes and Madeleine away from it. He pulled the door open and ran into the apartment. Mister Muffin, giving a deep-chested growl, was fiddling with something on the carpet near the closet. Darnell grabbed the cat under its front paws, but the animal furiously clutched all its claws into the carpet and began to anxiously chew on his prey. The man pulled the cat towards him and tore it from the carpet with the sound of tearing fabric. He turned the animal's face towards him. Darnell could only see how the cat swallowed something and licked itself with satisfaction.

“Ma-aw,” the cat said, staring at Darnell. It hung relaxed in the man's arms, whipping his arms with a fluffy tail.

“Why the heck did you eat it?!” The man exclaimed. You needed to catch it, not to eat!”

The cat looked indifferently at Darnell. Looked like he wasn’t going to give an answer. Apparently, it was necessary to set a task for him more clearly before sending him on a mission. Darnell, still keeping the animal away from him in outstretched arms, went out into the hallway, and handed the animal to the owner.

“Thanks for the cat,” he told Agnes. She grabbed the animal and hugged it to her chest, burrowing into his fur as if he was a nearly lost jewel.

“What did you need him for?” She asked huffed.

"A mouse," Darnell said shortly.

“A mouse? On the fifth floor?” Agnes was surprised. She was patting Mister Muffin chilling on her hands. He lied more comfortably in his owner’s arms and gazed angrily at Darnell.

“s**t happens,” the man shrugged his shoulders and pushed Madeleine lightly with his palm, leading her into the apartment.

He slammed the door in front of the stunned Agnes and flopped down on the sofa.

“My apartment turns into a thoroughfare.”

“It's not my fault!” Cole hurried to proclaim.

“Then whose fault is this? You've let a spy in! Someone small and weak pushed in by someone - looks like a real tap inside my apartment!” Darnell proclaimed, looking around the room. His attention was caught by the light coming from the computer monitor. “Why is the computer turned on?” Darnell got up and walked over to the table. The monitor continued to broadcast a cartoon. The man stopped the video and turned to Cole. “So you let some spirit sneak in because you stared at the box all day and that made you too busy to perform your main function in this house?”

Darnell sighed and walked over to the dome. He stared at its inhabitant. Cole backed away and spoke ingratiatingly:

“I have nothing to do with this. It was the spirit, not me.”

“The spirit, you say? And I’m saying that it was a nice idea to place you back to the closet long ago.”

“No, not into the closet!” Cole screeched. “Look, your balcony door is open! It probably got in here through there. It’s your fault, not mine!”

Darnell looked around in surprise. The balcony door was indeed opened, and a fresh autumn breeze was getting inside the room bringing the season smells with it. How could it happen so that he didn’t notice this at once? The lock got broken a long time ago, and Darnell usually just slammed the door. He looked at Madeleine, who was struggling to hide in the corner near the closet.

“What, showing mercy to whomever you want?” He asked the girl, walking to the balcony door. The torn off latch laid next to it on the floor. Anyway, it did not take much effort to break it. “I told you not to listen to Cole. Well-doer.” He took up the latch from the floor and turned it over in his hands. The two last screws by which it was previously attached to the door fell between his fingers on the floor with a clang. “These are the consequences of the anarchy…” he told himself. “So, I will finally have to replace it as soon as possible. And, I think, I’ll have to write the symbols outside too so that no one manages to get inside ever again.”

“That’s right!” Cole got delighted. “I told you I had nothing to do with it!”

“At first you said that the spirit was shoved through the front door,” Darnell noted, tossing the latch on the table. He turned to Madeleine. “Don't leave the computer turned on for him ever again.”

The girl frowned and turned away, admitting that she was wrong. Darnell sighed, looking down at depressed Madeleine.

“Well, what can I do with you two... What if someone bigger and more dangerous got in here? And what if you were in here at that moment?”

The girl looked up at him with her eyes full of remorse. Looking into their blue abyss, Darnell zoned out in fascination, as if hypnotized. The urge to keep on scolding her for her fault faded and he smiled kindly to her.

“Oh fine, to hell with it. I’ll buy a new lock and fix it. After all, nobody was hurt.”

“Yes, no one was hurt,” Cole said, wanting to curry favor with Darnell.

“You’d better shut up on that shelf of yours,” the man threatened him. “You’re just too lucky that I’m in a good mood today.”

Cole mumbled something quietly at Darnell's back as he went to his room. The man took Fanny's box out of his bag and carefully pulled the dreamcatcher from it. The smell of herbs that was previously held back by the cardboard carried through the room reminding of the forest and a cute small house in the middle of it. Darnell took carefully the yellowish-green vines twisted into a firm circle and looked around his room. There was only one and only place suitable for this item: above his bed. But it was already occupied by a large dreamcatcher from some store. Darnell carefully placed the present on the bed and removed the bulky structure of five rings, beads, and a heap of white and black feathers from the nail. How did he even come to the idea of buying it? Darnell carefully hung the new catcher in the vacant space and carried the old one to the balcony to shake it out. After that, back in the room, he examined the toy more closely. The white feathers turned out to be not so white, having absorbed the cigarette smoke. A couple of them managed to disappear, and one of the threads tore in the middle of the central ring.

“Yuck, what a piece of rubbish,” the man screwed up the face, “it's time to throw this crap away.”

To Darnell's surprise, Madeleine suddenly appeared in front of him and held out her hands to the catcher. Her eyes burned as if she had seen some incredible treasure. She jumped on the spot, trying to persuade Darnell by all her means to give her this item.

“Do you need it?” he asked in surprise. The girl nodded with all her might and reached for the toy more persistently. “Well, alright, take it,” the man replied indifferently, holding out the rings to her. "It’s dirty as hell," he added, but Madeleine snatched the present happily from his hands and ran to the couch to contemplate it.

Darnell shrugged his shoulders and returned to his room. The tiny catcher, that had taken the place of the old one, looked weird on the empty wall. The lone feather swayed as the door slammed behind Darnell's back.

“Let's see if you work,” the man said with hope in his voice, referring to the catcher, and fell on the bed.

A soft herbal scent enveloped the room, and Darnell smiled as he drifted into a restful calm sleep.