Dark Silence

24 days (1)

Darnell woke up in fear. His heart was bumping fiercely somewhere in his throat. The feeling of hands all over the body didn’t disappear completely, and he rubbed his face with palms to make the remnants of the weird nightmare go away from him as quickly as possible.

The man sat on the bed and screwed up the face. Pain pressed his temples and cut his eyes with a sharp knife. He remembered that his pills were left only in the bathroom, so he had to make himself get up and go there to get to the precious medicine box.

Darnell covered his eyes in advance before going into the room. He moaned quietly and stumbled out of his room and went to the bathroom.

“Don’t wander around the house naked,” Cole growled out to him.

Darnell made an incomprehensible mumbling sound in response and locked the door of the bathroom. He rummaged through his mirror cabinet again and finally found the pain killer. He took two pills at once and returned the pack to its place. He needed to buy a new one as soon as possible, those morning migraines were killing him. But before closing the cabinet door, he hesitated for a second, remembering his recent nightmares.

“That’s some bullshit,” he said and closed the door.

The reflection in the mirror showed him only himself. He followed it for a few moments but didn’t see any difference between what he and his reflection was doing. Just in case, he pulled his lower lid down and made sure that his eyes were still green. Not taking into account the red net of thin blood vessels.

“I am going crazy,” said Darnell and opened the tap.

He put hands under cold water and suddenly felt the burning on the middle finger of the left hand. He remembered that he didn't clean up the wound the day before. He didn’t even wipe dry blood completely. Darnell carefully took the ring off the finger. It took some effort and lots of pain. Small red dots on the finger started to bleed, as the hidden needles were thin and sharp. This was a really special ring to him but at the same moment almost a teenage whim. When Darnell came to a jeweler, he loved his demonstratively gloomy image and style he wore at those times. He was only eighteen, but his rebelliousness was still burning inside. So he decided to order something unique only for himself, which could also represent his inner suffering for being lonely. Darnell smiled a sad smile. Who could have supposed that several years later his stupid wish for inner spikes, as if the spikes on a collar of a too aggressive dog, would serve him well? When he started losing himself for the first time, this made him almost hysterical. Losing himself was a path down the madness ladder, and he didn’t know what to do with this. He turned his ring for the first time the moment he started feeling that his inner demon tried to take over him - and this worked as if he didn’t want to harm the body that partially belonged to him. And it brought Darnell into senses immediately, like a painful anchor attaching him to reality, helping him feel that he is still alive and inside his own body that still belongs to him. This piece of steel was his favorite item that never left him, and no one knew about its small symbolic secret. Darnell washed it thoroughly and put it at the edge of the sink. He found a band-aid in the cabinet and put it around the finger after he cleaned all wounds thoroughly and wiped his hands dry. He hardly managed to put his ring on the right hand: fingers there turned to be a little bit thicker, but he by no means wanted to leave his favorite ring at home. In general, he was satisfied with the result. Besides, his migraine started to leave, and it was less painful to think.

Darnell counted days in his mind and came to the conclusion that it was Sunday. His only normal day off this week. And, according to traditions, one should do household chores on the weekend. Darnell sighed, took his time to shave slowly, and took a shower. When he left it, he stared into the mirror. It was literally the only one in his whole apartment. He didn’t like looking at himself, and Cyril’s words that he looks older than his age usually spoiled his mood. Besides, he didn’t want to think about his other personality in slumber more often than he already did. He brushed his wet hair back and said to himself:

“We are in our right mind. In right. Mind,” he left the bathroom and went to his room.

“Don’t wander around the house naked,” Cole growled out to him.

“Get lost, I’m not naked, I’m in boxers,” snapped Darnell hiding in his room.

He locked the door and stopped when he suddenly remembered that Agnes could still be in his apartment, and he was asking for her undesired admiration. On the other hand, no one attacked him with the embarrassed stutter. So what time was it and how long did he sleep?

Darnell found his cellphone among various garbage on the bedside table. It showed that the time was moving to the evening. He missed the whole day off.

“Well, in this case, I may not work around the home,” he stated and shrugged his shoulders.

He came to the pile of clothes that he left lying near the wardrobe the day before. Darnell dressed up and grabbed the pile, shoving it with force back to its place just the way it managed to find there. He hardly locked the door hoping that the small lock would not give up. Darnell grabbed his phone and pack of cigarettes and went to the balcony to smoke, casting a glance at the living room on the go. Agnes was really absent. The sofa was made, and Madeleine was sitting at the computer. Quiet idyl.

Darnel opened the door of the balcony and went outside. In the street, twilight died into the darkness. He sighed and lit up a cigarette, staring at the distance with a faraway look. The door clicked behind his back and opened by itself. Darnell kicked it making it shut down.

“I do need to replace the fastener and fix this door,” he told himself.

The evening was going to be cold, and Darnell hunched his shoulders in a chill shiver. Wet hair stuck to his neck, and he felt that he got completely cold. He threw the stub from the balcony and returned into the warmth of his apartment. Darnell came up to the sofa and stretched on it in full length. He put his cellphone on its armrest.

“So, Cole, start telling me what was going on here yesterday. And why the hell were you talking to Agnes? Do you want somebody to find out that you are here, and both of us have problems?” Darnell turned to the dome where Cole was flying in nervous excitement.

“But I had to!” the spirit desperately tried to explain this.

“Is that so? And what happened?” asked the man.

“Well, Madeleine went to the bathroom. And Agnes tried to sneak into your room. What else was I supposed to do? To let her go in there? I had to call for her… Shameless girl. Can you imagine how obedient she became when she understood who I am?”

“M-m-m,” Darnell hummed. “Fine, let it be, you are forgiven. Today I’m kind,” he turned his head and smiled, looking at the ceiling.

“Kind? You are a lazy shrub!” Cole boiled over. “You woke up in the evening, again! And are you going to spend the rest of the evening on this sofa?”

“I prefer to rot in a horizontal position,” answered Darnell. “And since when are you so worried about how and when I’m doing my stuff?”

“You should go into the kitchen and see what the girls did there yesterday.”

“And what will I see there?” Darnell slowly moved his eyes at Madeleine. She looked at him in return and hurried to stare away. “A black hole?”

“Stand up and go there!” Cole swung in the direction of the kitchen door.

“Fine,” Darnell sighed and stood up. “But if there’s an apocalypse in there, I know who will deal with it, and it won’t be me.”

Darnell prepared for the worst in his mind and entered the kitchen. To his surprise, the first thing that caught his eye was the complete absence of dirty dishes on the table and in the sink. Besides, the room looked much cleaner in general. Even the fridge seemed to look whiter.

“Did they wash the whole kitchen?” said Darnell being in a deep shock.

He opened the fridge. Inside, everything was also really clean. Everything that shouldn’t have been there was thrown away, and a few plastic boxes with ordered food, that probably remained from the day before, were standing on the shelves. There was even a bottle of milk. Darnell didn’t buy milk for ages.

He was stunned by everything he saw. He turned away from the opened fridge and looked at the unusually clean kitchen. It used to be like this before. A long time ago. When Darnell’s life was good. When he didn’t leave alone. Memories squeezed his throat with the bitterness of the loss, and Darnell sighed brokenly trying to calm down. He took one of the plastic boxes from the fridge and found some salad in it which he decided to eat remembering that he didn’t have anything since the previous day. He threw the box away, washed the spoon, and returned to the living room, crushing back at the sofa.