Danny woke up the next day fully rested. It had been an uneventful Monday night, much to Danny’s happiness. He turned off the alarm on his wristwatch that ringed non-stop, warning Danny that it was 5:00 am, and therefore, the usual time for him to get up.

Danny lazily stretched his arms and legs and placed the objects he slept with back into the nightstand. Then, he went around the room turning off lights, music players and putting out candles.

Danny 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 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 his breath and being quick and nimble overall might help him avoid a whole lot of trouble. After all, better have and not need than need and not have.

After eating and washing the dishes, going outside for a morning run and performing his exercise routine, Danny returned home, 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 outside of what his agenda foretold happened.

One could say 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, 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. Somethings could not be changed by the mere power of will 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 tucking in bed.

During those couple of days, Jane and her group made many attempts to get closer to Danny in the name of getting to know each other better. After all, they would have to spend a considerable time together working on the 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 himself, his past, dreams, hobbies and many other things.

Sometimes Danny would agree to join them and talk about himself, other times he politely refused or dodged the questions, but every time he managed to keep the important things about himself obscure, never truly revealing anything of 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 subjects, much to her frustration and Janice’s amusement.

That Thursday Danny returned home and performed his chores like clockwork. He went to sleep in a well-lit basement at the soft sound of a popular pop music playing in his various sound systems. Danny calmed the beating of his heart, held his Discman and wooden cross close to his chest as if he was a little kid with his plush toys.

That night, Danny did not wake to the sound of his alarm. He was awakened by the sound of silence.

Danny 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. Danny 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 that was the case, a simple electrical issue with no more than meets the eye, but believed none of that in his heart.

He looked attentively towards the door while his knuckles started turning white from the strength Danny 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. Danny 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 blow inside the silent room. In a closed-up house with no windows opened, it made no sense for a breeze to appear, 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, Danny sometimes came out on top, and sometimes… well… most times, 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 Danny’s 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 Danny knew best. There was no fleeing from this, no hiding either. He learnt those things the hard way. For more than 10 years now, Danny has been haunted by something, the very same thing that now stood in the entrance to his room.

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 its outlook, he knew what it was, and he knew it was now inside the room.

Danny 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 was aware it liked neither light nor music for a fact. Other things were difficult to say for sure. 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 and a drop of guard at another time. Danny got himself quite a few scars for that lesson to sink in.

Danny 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 was actually his Discman close to his chest, and he was sure the thing knew it as well.