CHAPTER 10

  "Have You Seen the Time?"

  The night had completely taken possession of the sky. Darker than usual, like a velvet blanket, it enveloped the sleeping streets, carrying away the last sounds of city life. Dan remained sitting in the courtyard, alone with his thoughts. Bringing another cigarette to his cold lips…

  "Dan! You're back! Why didn't you text?" a joyful, slightly hoarse voice shattered the silence.

  Dan flinched, more from the unexpected intrusion into his isolation than from the sound itself. A man in his thirties emerged from the shadows, wearing a worn leather jacket over a hoodie, with kind, somewhat tired eyes and a wide, friendly smile. With a light and carefree gait, the human figure approached Dan, arms spread wide as if ready to hug anyone in his path.

  This was Theo. The one person Dan had, by chance, befriended over his many years on Earth when he first moved to this city. Theo was an IT specialist and a handyman in general. It was he who had set up Dan's computer. That's how they became friends. Theo had been deeply impressed by Dan's lack of knowledge about modern technology and his helplessness in the matter. Dan, in turn, was interested in learning something new, especially everything related to "modern magic": the Internet, smart devices, AI, etc. For five years now, they often spent evenings together. Dan saw in him a friend and a person whose company he enjoyed, someone who, despite his own difficult life, knew how to be happy. His aura was light and warm, yet, as befits this species, tinged with shades of "negativity."

  Dan's true nature didn't allow him to plunge headlong into "friendship." He kept his distance, and as soon as he felt his Darkness beginning to affect his friend's health, he would disappear, inventing "business trips" for himself to avoid meetings with a friend.

  "Ah? Yeah, I... got back this morning. The trip dragged on... tired from the road, just woke up recently," Dan lied, justifying his month-long absence from his friend's life.

  "It shows... you look awful... as if you weren't working this month, but being dragged over rocks. You look beaten and abandoned," he joked, poking a finger in Dan's direction through the air. "Who hurt you? Your boss?!"

  "Hurt me? Me? Beaten and abandoned?.." The thought flashed with irony. "If only he knew... If only he had seen how I just... beat and abandoned someone myself..." The image of Seline, her eyes dimming from his words, hit him with renewed force. He felt the asphalt swim beneath his feet for a moment.

  "No one," Dan brushed it off, forcing his voice to sound even with an effort. "Just tired, that's all. Don't make things up."

  "Weeell, alright," Theo drawled, giving up, but concern remained in his eyes. "So what are you doing out here?"

  "Can't sleep. Came out for some air. What are you doing here so late?"

  "Was fixing a friend's wiring. A real head-scratcher! Smart home, the works!" Theo perked up, ready to go into details, but after a glance at Dan's stony face, he changed his mind.

  "I see. Feel like taking a walk?" Dan asked calmly.

  "With pleasure!" Theo exclaimed, delighted by the unexpected offer from Dan.

  Dan stood up, trying to give his face its usual neutral expression. And they set off. They walked in silence. The familiar quiet of their joint walks settled over them. Theo hummed something disjointed under his nose. His steps were light, almost springy. Dan, however, moved like an automaton: measuredly, lifelessly. Each step echoed with a dull thud in his own emptiness. He tried not to think about what had happened earlier that evening.

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  "You know, I've known you for quite a while now..." Theo broke the silence, cautiously, as if testing the ice, "...never seen you like this..."

  "Like what?" the Lord inquired without any emotion, the familiar chill in his voice.

  "Sad... this isn't road fatigue. You're carrying something... Something heavy. And you're carrying it alone." There was no reproach in his voice, only sincere concern.

  Dan raised an eyebrow. Theo's perceptiveness surprised him, but deciding to steer the conversation away, he merely said:

  "We all carry our burdens. It's fine, I'll handle it..." he said with a semblance of a smile.

  "Burdens? You're not even thirty yet! You talk as if you've lived a thousand years!" Al laughed.

  "Actually, four thousand..." Dan corrected himself inwardly with a bitter smirk he carefully hid.

  Theo, of course, didn't expect confessions. He was used to Dan's walls.

  "Or maybe..." Theo suddenly moved closer, lowering his voice to a whisper, a mix of excitement and hope lighting up his eyes, "Maybe... you're in love? That's the whole 'burden,' isn't it? Huh? Admit it!"

  The question hit like a hammer to the head. Dan literally recoiled. "In love? Me?" His throat went dry. He couldn't answer. This feeling was alien, incomprehensible to him.

  "Haha, what? Me? Don't make me laugh!" Dan forced out something resembling a laugh, but the sound came out sharp, fake, like the screech of a door.

  "Fiiine..." Theo drawled, but then added immediately: "Who is she?"

  "He... he's talking about her... about Seline?" Dan felt yet another mortal trying to breach his millennia-old armor. "Who is she?" The question once again conjured the image of that very girl before the Lord's eyes. The girl who made him experience strange and incomprehensible sensations.

  Dan tried not to give anything away, and certainly not to reveal the name of the one he no longer planned to see. He took a deep breath.

  "There's no one," it sounded firm, with that icy authority inherent to the Dark Lord, not a confused man.

  "Well, alright..." Theo retreated, sighing with disappointment, but a spark of doubt still flickered in his eyes. "Ah, I was hoping... thought someone had finally managed to reach that icy heart of yours... A shame..."

  "I'll let you know," Dan attempted to play along cheerfully again, but the smile was strained, more like a grimace. He felt the mask cracking at the seams.

  "Please do, man!" Theo said cheerfully and clapped Dan on the shoulder. "I've been waiting for so long..."

  "Waiting for what?" Dan asked, a note of bewilderment in his voice, turning his head to his friend's kind, smiling face.

  "For what?! For you to finally find your love... and be happy!" he declared briskly. The fire of hope in his eyes burned brighter. "I really want you to be happy..."

  Dan lowered his gaze. "Find love... am I even looking for it? Do I even need it? And what does it even mean to be happy..?" Too much humanity had happened to him in the last month. It was pressing down on the ancient being, even exhausting him. It was more exhausting than any battle; he felt an uncharacteristic fatigue and a slight tension. Dan tried to control himself, his face, and his intonation. He was used to hiding, lying about himself, pretending to be human. However, it's easy to hide things the human brain would struggle to believe; it's much harder to hide the truth about your state and what troubles you.

  Dan gathered all his sincerity into a barely noticeable smile.

  "What makes you think I'm unhappy?"

  "You?!" Theo laughed, his face contorted in bewilderment at the question. "You're a walking bundle of cold! A happy person shines! Warmth just radiates from them! Their eyes are full of fire and joy, but yours... no offense, of course... they're like empty... darker than the night sky..."

  Theo's words hung in the night air. Dan's face finally turned to stone. His gaze went out, became lifeless, like a statue's. Dan pondered every word. He remembered Seline. Her shining eyes, the warmth that emanated from her. "Was she happy? And me? How can you be happy if your existence is eternal cold? If the only warmth you've found, you left at a cold door?"

  "Hey... sorry, didn't mean to offend you... just..." he looked guiltily at Dan's face and regretted his words; he felt he was rubbing salt in a wound that wouldn't heal. "Idiot... friends are supposed to support... and I... he's having a hard enough time as it is..."

  "It's fine," Dan said dryly. He wasn't offended. These were facts underscoring his existence.

  "Sure?"

  "Yeah, let's go, I want coffee."

  Theo exhaled with relief and immediately cheered up. From Dan's face, he understood that his words had struck a chord, however faintly visible, but he decided not to poke at his soul anymore.

  "Coffee?! Have you seen the time?!"