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After an exhausting week of work, I left the city to rest in my country house. It was night, and I was sitting in the armchair examining each of the luminous branches of the Christmas tree that we had assembled days ago with Simona.
She had always been my playmate and was never seen in my family as a servant, even replacing my mother after her mysterious disappearance.
I continued to stare at the tree in fascination; if you looked carefully you could see how from its imposing branches multicolored flashes of light were released, as if they were rays of sunlight that flooded every corner of the room.
I turned on the lights in the living room to be able to read an exotic book that brought to my mind pleasant memories of childhood, since I had found company in its lines for my free time. Abstractly I read word by word, page by page… in those moments, the world around me did not exist.
However, the idyllic moment was interrupted by a strange noise coming from outside the house. I didn’t give it too much importance, because a big storm was approaching and the wind must have knocked something over, I thought at the time.
A few minutes passed and I hadn’t been able to concentrate on the book again. The hum of the wind had always caught my attention and this time was no exception. I think it sounds like souls in pain who seek to be freed from their agony.
At that moment another strange noise interrupted the high-pitched whistle and all kinds of paranoid suspicions began to weave in my mind: everything suggested that there was someone lurking around the house. Typical childhood fears of the dark and monsters took over me. Just thinking about a killer lurking around made my skin go cold.
Luckily he wasn’t alone; I immediately called the butler and Simona and told them:
– Do not waste a second, check that all windows and doors are completely closed, I heard strange noises outside the house.
Anxious I couldn’t stop moving, I was upset, I needed to have some news. Unexpectedly the light went out and the corners, previously illuminated by Christmas lights, darkened again.
Groping in the thick darkness, he found several candlesticks with candles that he had reserved for these occasions. I turned them on, but they were of little use, for the room was spacious.
The passage of time began to calm my nerves, I was finally able to sit on the couch waiting for news. My eyes stopped at a fixed point located in the center of a flickering candle flame. For a moment I thought it was all a dream, I felt transported, out of my body, I was like in ecstasy; I was in a tremendous and uninterruptible inner peace. But the slamming of a door made me react. They came from a small door on the outside of the house that led to the basement and that I had personally taken care of locking, how could the wind open it?
Without realizing it, I was facing the external door that was shaking violently against the wall. I stopped for a few seconds to observe the deep and dark basement from the outside; only the strong lightning illuminated it to the bottom. From that perspective, it looked like the gates of hell had opened.
The raindrops ran all over my body soaking me more and more. The wind and the slamming doors disconcerted me. Without thinking, I slammed the door shut and suddenly an inexplicable force forced me to look down, discovering a puddle of mud and blood under my feet. Terrified, I ran madly towards my house, entered quickly and locked the front door.
As I dried myself I thought: Who had opened the cellar door? Whose or what was the muddy blood? Steeling myself, I took the largest chandelier and slowly opened the small inner door that led to the basement. I started down the stairs. The creak of each rung increased my fear and even scared me of my own shadow. I reached the basement floor and quickly my shoes got wet, as everything was wet from the rain. I shone the light into every corner, but there was nothing to be seen but old books and stacked shelves. Everything was very dark, but my sharp eyes would detect the slightest movement, I was on continuous alert. It had been a long time since he’d visited the cellar; seeing those dirty objects, I began to remember distant times when this place was forbidden and my imagination as a child led me to think of the most surprising stories.
Suddenly I felt the strange noises very close to me, now I could distinguish them better; They seemed like hooves hitting the ground energetically and a chain dragging slowly. The wooden floor began to creak louder and louder, and the inexplicable noises came closer to me, but I couldn’t see anything. My heart started pounding, and beads of sweat ran down my face, I was almost paralyzed with terror. At that moment I began to remember all the most important moments of my life, from my communion, my marriage, my family, in God. Suddenly a cry from Simona called me from above:
– Sir, sir! Come quickly, hurry up.
Without waiting, I ran up the stairs, but a rung gave way and my leg got caught. The efforts I was making to free myself were totally in vain and my desperation increased, as the strange noises continually approached. In those moments of desperation I saw Simona’s silhouette coming down to where she found me and with all her strength she tried to free me. But suddenly, he stopped helping me; surprised I looked at her face, the feeling I felt seeing her absolutely pale complexion was inexplicable. It seemed as if she had seen the face of death.
– What is that! Simon yelled.
I managed to free my leg and without looking back, I ran terrified up the stairs with her. Arriving in the living room, I secured the door with an iron rod. At that moment my butler Jaime and my cook Juana arrived in a hurry. she l she said:
– Sir, we heard the screams. What happened?!
– There’s something in the basement! Simona’s the only one who saw it,” I said breathlessly.
We began to look at each other’s faces, a long silence invaded the environment: my maid Simona was not with us.