“So, what you guys think about Danny?” Asked Janice out loud when Danny was out of hearing range.

“Anybody that treats Chris the way he did today can only be a good guy in my book”. Said Carl with his arms crossed and certainty in his voice.

“It was really strange the way he knew right? How he paid attention to little details of random people like that right?” Janice interjected.

“I guess it was a bit strange, but not in a bad way. I just don’t get why everybody couldn’t just nod at each other or… make finger guns or whatever. Handshakes are weird”. Said a smiling Chris.

“In that case… I guess it was a little cool. Felt like some of those cop shows on the tv right? Like when they deduce the culprit by some bizarre clue or reason”. Grinned Janice.

“Well girls, it’s been a pleasure, but we gotta go. See you tomorrow”. Said Carl.

Prompted by Carl, the boys said their goodbyes and went east to the male dormitories while the girls went west for their own.

“Okay, speak up, don’t hold it from me.” After splitting, Janice suddenly turned and spoke to Jane.

“What are you talking about?” With a raised eyebrow, and an innocent look, Jane questioned back.

“Don’t play games with me girl, I am talking about Danny, I will poke you till you spill the beans!” Said Janice while her outstretched index fingers threateningly approached Jane’s ribs.

“What are you talking about?” Answered Jane with a plain face while cautiously protecting the sides of her body.

“You know what I mean! You may have thought you were really inconspicuous by suggesting we include Danny like that, but I know you have been throwing glances his way for at least a week!”

“And how would you know that?”

“Hehe, I have my ways. You think only Danny can pull some detective shit like that? I am like Sherlock Holmes little Jane!” Said Janice while grinning from ear to ear at the twitching mouth and crumbling poker face of her friend.

“So, tell me, are you into him or something? What happened between you both for all that interest? You never showed interest like that before to any of the boys I introduced to you”.

“Nothing happened, and I am not interested, you should stop watching those romance series you like so much. They are messing with your head”. Answered Jane as she quickly recovered a neutral face, as if the previous slip never happened.

“How dare you?! To badmouth the holiness of Gossip Girl you shall receive severe punishment!”. Exclaimed Janice in false indignation as she started poking her best friend.

The two friends went back and forth in between fierce poke jabs and uncontrollable laughter until all resistance left Jane.

“Okay… okay…, please… just…stop… I will tell you anything”. Finally said a short of breath Jane.

“So, are you into him or something?” Asked Jane while allowing her best friend recover.

“I don’t know yet. Is just that I find him very intriguing”.

“That’s a strange way to describe a crush, but okay I’ll bite. How so?”

Rolling her eyes to the sassy reply, Jane answered, “Don’t you find it curious? I never saw Danny without long-sleeves or pants, no matter the heat. Also, I noticed he always carries a pocket agenda, but he never opens it in front of others”.

“Holly fuck Jane. You must be madly in love to have perceived all that”.

“Shut up Janice. Are you not the least bit curious why he had been keeping his distance from everybody? Or the reason of those things I said”.

“Not really, no. He may not like cold, he might enjoy being left alone. What the fuck do I know?”

“I don’t think that is the case. It may be nothing, and I am just curious, but I have this feeling that there’s something about Danny”. Said Jane while holding her chin in a contemplative way.

“And what would that be?”

“I don’t know yet. It is not something I can just ask straight away, right? It would be weird”.

“Yeah, you are right. Better to just keep creeping on him, much less weird”. Answered Janice in a mocking tone.

“Shut up Janice!” Said Jane for the hundredth time this day, while pushing her giggling friend away.

Danny got down the bus two blocks away from his home. It was a fairly big house he rented from a kind old lady that pretty much never bothered him. As long the rent was paid on time, their contact was minimal, just the way he liked.

Danny walked home while thinking about his group project. Being always alert as he was, there was no way Danny would have missed the glances Jane had been giving his way for the last week.

Danny thought Jane was a beautiful woman, and from what he could see from her actions and the short time he had interacted with her, he thought she had a very nice personality as well. However, despite having realized her interest, Danny pretended he saw nothing. Even if she were to approach him, he still would act as if he knew nothing.

Danny had no intention to let anyone get too close to him. A very long time ago, he taught himself to keep his distance, to never get too involved with anyone.

Danny opened the door to his new place. It was a fairly spacious two-story house. There were two rooms on the ground floor, a living room and a kitchen separated by a long hallway that went from the entrance door to a stairway at the other end of the hall leading down to the basement.

From the living room in the right, you could access the backyard, and the upper floor. At the backyard, there were some fruit trees, a swing and an empty doghouse. Remnants of the people who once lived there before Danny.

In the second floor, you could find two dusty bedrooms and a storeroom that Danny kept locked all the time. Differently from what one would expect, the two bedrooms were mostly empty and without any signs of use, clearly showing that Danny spent his nights elsewhere.

As Danny walked through the door and turned the lights on, one could think him to be a very frugal person. There were almost no decorations in most of the house. There were neither paintings, nor pictures on the walls. No rugs on the floors, nor trinkets filling the empty spaces on the desks and other furniture. The living room contained a single couch and a television resting in front of it. The kitchen, although equipped with all the necessary electronic appliances, still felt empty, as it only housed a single pair of everything: glasses, chairs, plates, cutlery, etc.

Danny locked the door and walked towards the spiraling stairs leading downwards. He casually descended and opened the door to the only room in the basement. As soon as the door opened, it seemed that a completely new world presented itself.

The whole environment appeared completely disconnected from the building above. If anyone were to arrive into that confined space, unaware of what sights awaited them, they would surely be filled with a sense of wrongness and unease.

Thick soundproof walls and ceiling, filled to the brim with engravings of numerous symbols, sentences and single words disconnected between themselves were exposed on the walls. The only element in common perceivable between those engravings were their spiritual or religious origin, depending on the bystander.

A single large bed stood in the middle of the spacious room, surrounded by a square scribbled in the stone floor. But instead of single straight lines, the square was formed by even more words and symbols, tightly packed, in a way that resembled the sides of a square. Surrounding the bed in both sides, there were numerous sound systems, radios and speakers, numbering more than 20.

Besides the musical equipment, there were also many lamps, light bulbs, candles and other light-producing objects placed randomly at the sides of the room. At the right side of the bed, but still within the scribbled square, stood a single nightstand with a candlestick, a wooden cross, and a worn-out portable tape player. It had a yellow color and you could read ‘Walkman’ in faded letters in the bottom of its rectangular shape.

The whole place painted a scenario that one would expect to see only in horror movies or maybe in a mental asylum. Definitely not something that should be in the basement of a first-year college student.

Danny walked towards the room as if there was nothing wrong, sat in the bed and opened his personal agenda while mumbling after checking the time “Okay, six in the afternoon. I still have a couple hours. Let me see… half an hour for dinner, taking a shower afterwards, turning everything on and checking if it still works…”

Danny closed his agenda, placed it into the nightstand and dragged his backpack to the side of the door. Afterwards he checked all the electronics in the room, lighted a few of the candles, and turned on some of the lamps.

After making sure everything was working properly, Danny went up, cooked a decent and healthy dinner and washed the dishes. Danny went to the bathroom and slowly started to undress revealing what lied beneath the clothes.

Numerous tattoos covered his body completely. From slightly above his wrists and ankles to the lines of his collarbone, his body was fully painted in black and white. The same engravings that filled the walls of the basement could be found on his skin. However, by paying attention and looking closer, in between the lines, following the traces of the drawings, ink was not the only thing that lined his body. Scars of many shapes and forms presented themselves haphazardly under the tattoos.

It was hard to know how Danny came to be so scarred at his age simply by looking. Some injuries looked to be the result of bites, some appeared to come from slashing, others seemed to be inflicted by puncturing.

Danny calmly took a shower, dried himself and put on clean clothes before finally returning to the basement. Danny locked the door behind himself sighing at the futility of the action.

Danny laid on his bed without turning of the electronics or putting out the candles. He then noticed that only 10 minutes remained for eight pm. Danny never stayed up later than eight o’clock, no matter what. That period of time was a period of darkness, and the darkness was the natural place for terrible things to happen. And home ground of other horrors.

While calming himself, Danny took the wooden cross from the nightstand, and the worn-out Walkman. Danny looked at his tape player, sadness and longing filling his eyes.

Danny took a deep breath, placed the Walkman above his chest, and closed his eyes. It only took a few seconds, but as he exhaled and opened his eyes for the last time this day, there was no more sadness in his eyes, only pure and fiery determination. Danny slept that day in peace.