Danny woke up the next day fully rested. It had been an uneventful Monday night, much to his happiness. He turned off the alarm on his wristwatch that ringed non-stop, warning him that it was 5:00 am, and therefore, the usual time for him to get up.
He lazily stretched his arms and legs and placed the objects he slept with back on the nightstand. Then, he went around the room turning off lights, music players and putting out candles.
Following that, he unlocked the door and took his bag upstairs before he started preparing his breakfast and checking on his agenda. Every day he would wake up at the same time, prepare his breakfast and then exercise, no matter if it was a weekend, a holiday or a normal weekday, came rain or sun.
Danny knew about the importance of a fit body and a clear head. He learned very soon in his life that being able to run, dodge, maintain a steady breath and being overall quick on his feet might help him avoid a whole lot of trouble. 'Better have and not need than need and not have’ were words he lived on by.
After eating his meal and washing the dishes, Danny went outside for his morning run and performed his exercise routine before finally returning home. Then, he took a shower and got ready for his classes, much like the previous day.
Like many other days, Danny was at the bus stop at 7:25 am, waiting for the 7:30 am bus, and like most of his days, there were no surprises. Nothing happened outside of what his agenda foretold.
One could say that Danny lived a boring life by following to the letter the routine that he imposed upon himself. He never allowed himself to be carried by the moment, to follow his own spontaneous desires, or to give the world a chance to show him something new.
However, Danny believed that it was truly a fortunate thing to be able to dictate how his life should go. No matter how mundane or small it might seem to other people, he really cherished the ability to determine how things should happen and have the power to actually follow through with his plans. He really liked taking the reins of his life and leaving few things to fate.
After all, as Danny very much knew, not everything that was new and surprising was good, and fate can be an uncaring mistress. Some things could not be changed by the mere willpower and discipline.
In that same way, two days passed. Danny would wake up, get ready to college, attend classes, study a little bit, go home, and make his preparations for the night before going to bed.
During those couple of days, Jane and her group of friends made many attempts to get closer to him in the name of getting to know each other better. After all, they would have to spend a considerable time together working on their group research project.
They would invite Danny to lunch, to sit together with them during classes, ask if he wanted to go somewhere after college, ask about his past, dreams, hobbies and many other things.
Sometimes Danny would agree to join them and talk it over, other times he politely refused or dodged their questions. However, he always managed to keep important things about himself obscure, never truly revealing anything of real substance. They learned a few of his preferences, like food or music, but knew nothing of where specifically he was born, or even where he lived outside of the campus.
Jane tried many times to satisfy her curiosity about Danny’s supposed mysteries, however, he always managed to dodge the questions or change the subject, much to her frustration and Janice’s amusement.
That Thursday, Danny returned home and performed his chores like clockwork. He went to bed in a well-lit basement at the soft sound of a popular pop music playing in his various sound systems.
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Calming his beating heart, he held his Walkman and wooden cross close to his chest as if he was a little kid with his plush toys as sleep took him over.
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That night, Danny did not wake to the sound of his alarm clock. He was awakened by the sound of silence.
He was used to always sleep accompanied by some form of music, so it was only natural that the resounding silence that now filled the room would disturb his rest.
However, there was something more to this silence than mere disturbed sleep. As soon as clarity returned to his thoughts, a trace of understanding and apprehension revealed themselves in his eyes. Then, he jumped up and stood on his two feet atop his bed. A chill traveled through his spine and his hairs stood on end as Danny cautiously looked around the room.
The room was still lit thanks to the candles, but other than that, every electrical-powered appliance was turned off, suggesting that his house might be experiencing a black out.
“A power shortage?... It might be just that…” Danny whispered softly. He hoped dearly in his heart that this was indeed the case, simple electrical issue with nothing more than meets the eye, but believed none of that in his mind.
He looked attentively towards the door while his knuckles started turning white from the strength with which he was holding his wooden cross.
Danny had felt this way many times in his life. The chill that starts at the bottom of the spine and slowly creeps towards the base of the neck, making one feel cold but still sweat at the same time. The standing hair in the arms and legs and the contracting muscles that scream something is not right.
He knew in his gut that tonight was one of those nights, a darker night.
Almost as if to confirm his thoughts, the door that was supposed to be locked opened inwards, allowing a soft and chilly wind to blow inside the silent room. In a closed-up house with no windows opened, it made no sense for there to be a breeze, but no matter how little sense that made, reason did not stop the gust of wind from putting out all the candles that illuminated the basement, with the sole exception of the candlestick beside his bed.
The bed at the center of the basement now felt like a single boat crashing through the waves of shadows, the flickering candle light to its side helplessly struggling to keep the darkness at bay.
Danny watched tensely the doorway to his resting place without being able to discern anything. The darkness was so intense at that moment that he could barely see the outline of the door. The blackness stuck to his body as if it was a dense fog, licking his skin and dimming his vision.
Nevertheless, even if he could not see anything, he could feel that something was on the other side of the doorway. Much like his house and the basement, the door to his room now felt like a gate to another world. A stranger and scarier world.
This was not Danny’s first rodeo. He knew what was to come, and even with all the preparations he could muster in place, sometimes he came out on top, and sometimes… well, most times actually, he did not.
Almost as if to validate his thoughts, a shadowy outline appeared under the doorway, just outside his vision range. As soon as he saw something, that by all manner of reason should not be there, a primal sense of fear was invoked in his heart. A feeling of true fright that came from the deepest parts of his brain screaming at him to flee, and to flee fast, in such a powerful way that he could barely stop his body from shaking.
But he knew better than that.
There was no fleeing from this. No hiding either. He learnt those things the hard way. For more than 10 years now, Danny had been haunted by something. The very same thing that now stood in the entrance to his room.
However, it did not stand around in ceremony for too long before hurling itself through the door and disappearing into the darker parts of the room. It was so fast that Danny merely caught a glimpse of it. Despite not seeing it clearly, he knew what it was, and he knew it was now inside the room.
He stood on top of his bed, turning around while pointing his wooden cross towards random places in the room, trying to get a reaction or to see something. He did not dare to leave his bed, much less the small circle of light.
Although he did not know a whole lot about the thing that haunted him, he knew it liked neither light nor music for a fact. Other things… were difficult to say for sure.
Traditional weapons were a no go. Fire and electricity also seemed to do nothing. He tried many things to kill it or drive it away, but the thing was smart. Sometimes it would fake being afraid of something only to take advantage of a false sense of security it created by its actions at another time. Danny got himself quite a few scars for that lesson to sink in.
He had some confidence in the wooden cross, but then again, he could not be too cautious under the circumstances. He did not want to pay the price entailed in making that same mistake twice. His real trump card, however, was actually the Walkman he held close to his chest, and he was sure the thing knew it as well.