The darkness of a small office was wrapped in gray smoke. Darnell was sitting behind his working table with his feet on it. The head was aching unbearably even despite the fact that he managed to pull himself away from the bed only around the noon. Darnell closed his eyes, tipped back in the office chair and puffed another plume of smoke. The room was filled with it much, but it didn’t bother him. It was perfectly calming him down. Watching its clouds in the light of the monitor was putting him into a light trance and was bringing him back the balance. The balance - that’s what Darnell always lacked. The balance - the quality that would have improved his life on several levels. At least with it, he could have controlled his demonic side better instead of beclouding his mind with cigarettes and alcohol.

“Hey, I’ve brought a new case for you,” Darnell heard a quiet whisper near his ear.

“Cyril, you won’t scare me with such appearing,” the man said keeping his eyes closed.

“You are boring,” answered the owner of the voice and materialized in the room folding his black wings. “Oh, there is so much smoke in here.”

“As always,” dropped Darnell.

“By the way, are you aware what time it is now?” the demon waved his hands.

“I am.”

“It’s 5 PM! The working day starts at 8 AM, and you come only to its end!”

“I said - I am aware of this!” Darnell gave a rub to his aching eyes and moved his shoulder-length hair from the face.

“This is the definitely wrong approach!” Cyril looked around. “We need to air the room before I tell you more about your new case. And add some light.”

The demon decidedly came up to the window and pulled aside heavy blackout drapes. There were closed louvre boards behind them.

“Seriously?” Cyril showed surprise and rose them. The window glass was covered with cardboard. “No, that serious?!” the demon was taken aback. We gave the handle the swing and finally opened the window, letting the fresh autumn air and the street noise in. He poked his long nose out of the window and uttered over his shoulder “I hope no one will think that we have a fire in here because of your smoke.”

“Cyril, too much noise and light,” moaned Darnell hiding his face in palms. “What did I do to you that you cast such torments on me?”

“For the Lord disciplines whom He loves” followed the ceremonious answer.

“You are the demon, how can you quote the Bible?” the man surprised.

“But what if I’m an undercover angel?" answered Cyril in a scary whisper and rounded his yellow eyes.

“Yeah-yeah, you’ve just bumped with your face when crashing down the ground,” Darnell hardly cracked a smile. “So, why did you show up?”

Cyril came up to the table and opened a small dark portal near himself by a wave of his hand. Putting it in there, he pulled a thick folder stuffed with papers.

“Look what an interesting case the boss charged you with,” the demon boasted giving the documents to Darnell.

He hardly thrust his hand out and nearly dropped the heavy folder.

“For now I see that it is incredibly huge,” the man grumbled out the answer opening the case. “Maybe you’ll tell it to me in short?”

“You will really like it!” Cyril playfully sat at the corner of the table near Darnell. He took the folder from him with an elegant movement of a hand and started to thumb it. “This is the case about one young charming blondie.”