CATACUMBAS De Un Orfanato Religioso Historias De Terror - REDE

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I was an orphan child in the
seventies and the truth is that to this

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day I do not know if my
parents simply abandoned me in one of those

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places, if they died or if
they had a real reason to leave me

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alone. Whatever the case, I
guess it doesn' t matter. The

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second important thing in this whole situation, without a doubt, has to be

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the fact that, although to this
day the institutions of orphanages are not so

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well controlled in Mexico, imagine in
the seventies the place was crowded and everyone

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there knew that we were alone.
Everything that happened inside that place, no

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one was interested in whether we were
beaten or left without food, we were

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orphans and we had no family that
cared for us many caregivers very often felt

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free to take out all their frustrations
of life with us. I' ve

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always been a quite rebellious person,
I' ve always had this almost pathological

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need to challenge all authority. This
could not be stopped even when physical punishment

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reached the point of causing injuries that
left me scarred to this day. And

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this trait of my personality is the
one that made a house, home or

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orphanage run out of space. The
first person to be moved from such places

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was me, which led me to
live in different places for a long time.

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It should be noted that at that
time the Catholic religion was very strong

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throughout Mexico. In fact, all
the orphanages and homes I was in were

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part of the church already know a
place that was disk funded by it.

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And while that was how it worked, the truth is that in the places

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where I had grown up I didn' t feel like it was. They

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were normal people trying to do a
job. Of course, we were being

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asked to pray and memorize parts of
the Bible, but we were not so

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pressured to do so. At least
this had been the case until I turned

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ten. Shortly after that, the
site that was filled had been so filled

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that some of us were moved elsewhere. When I heard the news, I

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was fully aware that one of the
selected children would be me, almost without

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being told anything. I packed my
stuff by the time I was confirmed,

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as it had happened a few times
when I was taken out of a place

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so fast that I lost some of
my few belongings in the process. The

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truth is that at that time I
didn' t care where I was taken,

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as it was always a similar place, a small house with land large

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enough to house some children. But
as soon as we got to the place,

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I realized this place was different than
anyone I' d ever been.

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It looked very strange, it looked
like a church, it had tall towers

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and they were very large. It
didn' t look like any construction I

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' d seen in Mexico at any
time in my life, but it was

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right there in front of my eyes. It looked as if it had been

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built many years ago, perhaps long
before even the largest adult in that place

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had been born. Soon after we
entered the place, I think we were

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in the entrance a little more than
twenty minutes. The place was even bigger

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inside. They really looked very old, but the scariest thing about that place

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was not how old it looked,
but the pictures and figures with which it

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was adorned. The corners and walls
of the place were decorated with sacred art,

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but they were not pretty pictures like
Angels j or Jesus help someone.

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All the paintings and sculptures were too
explicit. You know Jesus crucified with the

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classic crown of thorns, the nails
in the hands and feet sores in the

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body, and not only that,
but they looked too real. Seriously,

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it seemed like the blood could come
out of the paintings or drain directly from

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the statue. I was grateful for
the moment when the man in charge of

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the orphanage arrived to receive us,
because at least I was able to turn

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my gaze away from that art,
at least for a moment. That man

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was very serious, dressed like a
father and seemed kind enough. As soon

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as he started talking, very quickly, I realized that appearances deceive, as

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he was clearly a very strict man. He told us that we could only

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address him as Father Manuel and that
he would not tolerate any kind of tone

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in his orphanage, that we would
follow the word of God to the letter

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and that whoever had some kind of
objection would be rebuked with a hard hand.

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He also told us that escaping from
that place was impossible and anyone who

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tried would be punished so hard that
he would not want to try again that,

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in fact, he was so sure
that he would swear that if any

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of us did, no one would
go looking for him, but he would

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not be received back either. When
he realized that life was cruel and immediately.

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He made us walk to a gigantic
bath where there were different showers,

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which had no separation between them.
He gave us a huge glass bottle and

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told us that we should wash our
heads very well with the shampoo it contained,

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as it was a safety measure to
prevent lice in that place. The

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truth is, none of us were
quite sure we should use those showers.

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They were just weird. As if
that were not enough, that man also

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did not seem to have any intention
of getting out of the bathroom. I

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was just rushing us to do it. He didn' t do anything to

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us. He just stayed there until
he was sure we washed our heads like

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he ever wanted the whole time he
was there. He saw us again while

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we were bathing the first night in
that place. I realized that, with

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regard to maintenance and food, it
was one of the best places I had

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ever been. I mean that there
was enough for everyone, not in excess,

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but the portions were not a misery
that left you with more hunger than

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you arrived and, moreover, did
not know at all bad, although the

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dining room was full of that sacred
art in which the only thing you could

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think or want was to get out
of there as soon as possible. After

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entering or in the place, I
realized that the orphanage was mixed. I

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mean, everywhere I' d been
was exclusively for kids. I knew there

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were orphanages for girls only, but
for me the fact that there were both

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girls and boys in this place seemed
something really unique, because I had spent

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my whole life in that kind of
orphanage. The truth was that I had

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never even talked to a girl my
age, only caregivers who came to be

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in orphanages. There were two long
tables at each side end of the dining

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room. In one went the boys
and in another the girls, and sometimes

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this came to break and Father Manuel
let it be so. It was known

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that if you did it a short
time later you would receive a punishment.

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Usually, most of them avoided doing
so. In addition, they assumed that

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eating with the girls was not worth
it, as during the hour of rest

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we took it at the same time
as them. It was easier to talk

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to them without Father Manuel seeing us. And in fact, that' s

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how I met Maria when I first
saw her, she made me a very

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pretty girl and I liked her instantly
and always looked for a way to want

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to talk to her, and that
was one of the things that brought me

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the most trouble in that place,
because if she needed or wanted something.

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Then I was there trying to get
it at all costs for her and it

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was also what led me to discover
that the punishments there were another level.

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They weren' t ear jerks or
pats. I mean cold showers and standing

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in the yard, getting you to
kneel on beans at the same time you

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held Bibles in your arms until they
decided it was enough. Maria had a

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best friend at that place, called
Samantha, and they both accepted me.

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In his group of friends we were
five people, three children, Martin the

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eldest, who was about to turn
twelve, Manuel, who was my age

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and I This was the first time
I felt part of something clear that I

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had already had friends before in the
other places where I had been, but

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I never felt that I really belonged
to any of them. You know how

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when you' re in a group
of friends, but something inside of you

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knows that they' re friends with
each other. But if they had to

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say goodbye to one, the first
one would be you was the way I

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had felt all my life, but
at that time I felt involved in something.

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I didn' t feel excluded and
for the first time I had no

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desire to leave that place. Mary
was the funniest girl I had ever seen

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and unlike most Mary, if she
had met her parents, they had both

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loved her, but her parents died
of Viruela two years ago. Maria always

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fantasized about the idea that her grandfather, who lived in Mexico City, would

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come looking for her one day.
I had only seen him once, but

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I remembered him as a very good
man, who really cared about the family.

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I was convinced that one day he
would realize that he had ended up

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in that orphanage and go and find
her. We encouraged this fantasy and told

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her that maybe she could take us
with her when this happened, and in

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turn, she would say yes.
I guess it was something we were doing

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to imagine that there was a possibility
of a better future for us. Away

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from that horrible place full of mistreatment, statues and art photographs. The five

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of us became such friends that,
despite the ill- treatment and punishments we

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had come to receive for sometimes being
in a group too long. The truth

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is, we were all happy to
be in that place. But all this

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changed when, a year and a
half after what I am counting, Mary

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did not appear in the courtyard at
the time of rest. We asked Samantha

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what had happened to Mary, as
we had seen her during breakfast. We

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assumed she wasn' t sick.
Samantha mentioned to us that one of the

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nuns had been very hard on her
and had told her that her grandfather would

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never come looking for her. And
not only that, but he had also

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made it known that they had tried
to communicate with all their remaining living relatives,

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but none of them wanted or had
the slightest intention of taking care of

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her. This had destroyed her and
she said she had been crying in the

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girls' room. As a child
we were totally forbidden to go to the

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girls' room and in fact,
we tried. One of the nuns saw

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us and returned to the courtyard.
We couldn' t comfort her until the

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next day. As soon as we
went out into the courtyard, we realized

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how discouraged Mary was. She was
very happy and lively and now she was

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just sitting there like a shell of
what she had been. Of course we

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tried to comfort her, tell her
that the nun did not know what she

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was talking about and I even told
her that I was sure her grandfather would

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come for her one day, but
there was no word to say for Mary

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to believe it again. Now she
was convinced that, like us, she

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was alone. I remember well that
to encourage her we agreed to meet at

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night. We' ve done it
before. We left our rooms at hours

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not allowed, went into the kitchen
pantry of the place and took some things

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like chocolate, and we had even
recently begun to pretend that we smoked only

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rolled paper. This seemed like a
good idea to cheer her up. I

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remember well, that night we were
all sitting behind the boarding school, a

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place hardly anyone was going to check
out. It was very big and full,

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with so much grass and different types
of weed that reached your knees.

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We talked about how much fun our
life would be when we were great with

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the intention of doing it again,
that Mary would again believe in the hope

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of a better future for us.
But she was just very quiet. His

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eyes were still swollen. It looked
like she had been crying that day too

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and I remember well that in how
many lovers she tried to ask Mary what

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she wanted to do when she left
that place. Maria didn' t say

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anything. Da tried to encourage her
to respond, as she really believed that

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would make her feel better. Instead
of responding optimistically. She just told us

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that we wouldn' t leave that
place, that we' d stay there

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forever and that no one would come
looking for us. It never seemed like

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I was about to cry again and
I, seriously, felt a strong feeling

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of wanting to protect her at all
costs even from depression. In my last

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attempt to get him back to normal, I decided to give him another hope

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and almost without thinking, I told
him that all the people in our families

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and even the caregivers of that place
could go to hell, that we didn

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' t need anyone and that if
nobody was going to look for us,

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then we left. From there we
could run away, get a job,

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buy a house and live by ourselves
doing what we wanted and eating chocolate until

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this hurt. I don' t
know how I got into it or how

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quickly it climbed, but suddenly,
not only Mary, but all my friends

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were completely convinced that that was the
solution to all our problems. They said

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that it would be wonderful to get
out of there, buy a house and

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have nothing to do with that place
anymore. They even reproached themselves for not

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having thought about it before. Martin
said we could wait until we were a

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little older so we could get a
job more easily, but none of the

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others was willing to wait. They
said we should do it at the time,

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although we were all already convinced of
what we wanted to do. Now

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the hardest thing was to try to
figure out how to escape from that place.

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Because of what Mary had told us. The truth was that no girl

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who had tried had succeeded. We
all said we had to try to find

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somewhere where all five of us could
get away and start a new life,

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even myself, who at first wasn' t quite sure. Quickly everyone'

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s emotion invaded me. We were
more than willing to find a way out.

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We thought this would not be difficult, but soon we realized that it

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would be an almost impossible mission as
much as we tried. There was not

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a single place that could even be
suitable for climbing. The walls were so

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tall and smooth that it didn'
t matter how many times we tried,

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we didn' t make it,
to the point that for a moment we

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thought it would be best to just
leave it that way. After all,

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at some point they' d just
kick us out. But Mary was not

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willing to wait so long, and
even though all of us had already stopped

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trying she was still looking for him. At first we wanted to tell him

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to stop, but again he had
regained that ambition and happiness in his eyes.

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Now I had something else to wait
for the truth. None of us

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thought he was going to find anything, since we hadn' t made it.

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All this changed when one afternoon,
during the break, he told us

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that he thought he had found another
door. We all asked him what door

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he meant, since there was only
one door. Even the same father had

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said it, but she insisted.
He told us he found a door behind

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the orphanage. All of us had
been in that place hundreds of times and

208
00:17:41.319 --> 00:17:48.839
we were completely sure that we had
never seen a door, but she insisted

209
00:17:48.920 --> 00:17:52.960
and told us that it was not
an ordinary door, because it was a

210
00:17:53.119 --> 00:17:56.720
door that was on the floor and
there was weed that covered it in such

211
00:17:56.799 --> 00:18:00.720
a way that it was not seen. It was like I was completely forgotten

212
00:18:00.880 --> 00:18:07.759
over the years. At first we
doubted, but Mary didn' t used

213
00:18:07.799 --> 00:18:11.279
to be the kind of person who
invented that kind of thing. We decided

214
00:18:11.359 --> 00:18:17.680
to give her the benefit of the
doubt and that same night we went to

215
00:18:17.799 --> 00:18:22.519
that door and as we walked towards
her, Mary told us that she had

216
00:18:22.680 --> 00:18:27.039
tried to open it, but it
was closed with a lock, which was

217
00:18:27.200 --> 00:18:30.799
very rusty, but it still looked
resistant. When we arrived at the place,

218
00:18:32.039 --> 00:18:37.160
we were all surprised because if there
was a door it was covered by

219
00:18:37.279 --> 00:18:40.400
a lot of weed and it was
seen that it had not been used in

220
00:18:40.400 --> 00:18:44.599
a very long time. It was
metal and it was all rusty. Between

221
00:18:44.720 --> 00:18:48.920
Martin, Manuel and I tried to
pull it in the hope that the lock

222
00:18:49.000 --> 00:18:55.240
would be given, as it looked
rusty enough to break, but that didn

223
00:18:55.240 --> 00:19:00.279
' t happen. After that,
Martin took a huge rock and began to

224
00:19:00.359 --> 00:19:04.559
hit the padlock over and over again, until it finally happened almost without wasting

225
00:19:06.720 --> 00:19:11.079
time, he opened the door.
It should be noted that by now,

226
00:19:11.680 --> 00:19:15.839
for obvious reasons, we did not
have lamps and had not even lit public.

227
00:19:17.599 --> 00:19:21.079
The only thing that served to see
in the dark was the moonlight,

228
00:19:21.240 --> 00:19:26.400
but it could not help us at
that moment, as it looked too dark

229
00:19:26.519 --> 00:19:32.640
in there. I mean, everything
around us was already dark, but in

230
00:19:33.240 --> 00:19:37.640
the middle of all that darkness you
could see that rectangle even blacker. It

231
00:19:37.720 --> 00:19:42.599
was like I absorbed all the light. Not letting anything see, we all

232
00:19:42.680 --> 00:19:48.599
stood silently looking inward. For obvious
reasons, none of us dared come down.

233
00:19:49.640 --> 00:19:55.039
There was also a smell of moisture. We didn' t know where

234
00:19:55.119 --> 00:19:57.160
he was leading or what he was. Not knowing what to do. The

235
00:19:57.319 --> 00:20:02.359
only thing we thought was that I
should close it and cover it again with

236
00:20:02.480 --> 00:20:07.799
soil and weeds, hoping that it
would not be noticed again. We'

237
00:20:07.880 --> 00:20:14.799
d try to get some candles so
we could light up inside and the next

238
00:20:14.920 --> 00:20:15.880
night we' d come back and
try to see where that place was headed.

239
00:20:18.440 --> 00:20:22.160
For all that time I felt very
strange something inside me I told me

240
00:20:22.240 --> 00:20:27.000
that we should not go in,
that the best thing was to look for

241
00:20:27.119 --> 00:20:33.640
other options, but everyone seemed to
be too convinced that that was the answer

242
00:20:33.759 --> 00:20:34.720
to what we wanted to do.
I didn' t dare say anything.

243
00:20:36.279 --> 00:20:41.680
I only followed the current the next
morning. We tried with all our means,

244
00:20:42.440 --> 00:20:47.079
to get candles, but we didn' t make it. They were

245
00:20:47.160 --> 00:20:51.240
usually reserved for nuns or the father, and none of us were allowed to

246
00:20:51.319 --> 00:20:56.839
have any of them for two reasons. The first was that we could cause

247
00:20:56.920 --> 00:21:02.119
a fire and the second was the
most obvious. If we had light,

248
00:21:03.200 --> 00:21:08.279
we could wander more easily. For
everything, the orphanage Manuel managed to get

249
00:21:08.480 --> 00:21:12.519
matches and having nothing better, we
decided that would be more than enough.

250
00:21:14.160 --> 00:21:19.079
We gathered and returned to the place
where that strange door was and once there

251
00:21:19.200 --> 00:21:27.640
we removed all the herbs and reopened. We were in front of that totally

252
00:21:27.640 --> 00:21:33.200
black rectangle. Manuel, without wasting
time, lit a match and burned a

253
00:21:33.279 --> 00:21:37.680
truoso of cardboard and for a few
seconds lit up. They were stairs that

254
00:21:37.759 --> 00:21:41.839
were going to take us even further
down. It looked really weird. It

255
00:21:41.880 --> 00:21:48.160
was like two or maybe three meters
down and we could only detect that scent

256
00:21:48.200 --> 00:21:53.759
of moisture. I think by that
time we were all afraid, because the

257
00:21:55.079 --> 00:21:59.559
dim flame of the cardboard wouldn'
t even let us see at what times

258
00:21:59.640 --> 00:22:03.720
the steps end but still we built
ourselves up of courage and entered. The

259
00:22:03.839 --> 00:22:10.759
vibrating of the place was very heavy, but still we continued to descend and

260
00:22:10.839 --> 00:22:15.680
every time the piece of cardboard went
out, we all stayed totally paralyzed in

261
00:22:15.839 --> 00:22:21.160
the dark until Manuel lit the next
one. Finally we reached the end of

262
00:22:21.200 --> 00:22:27.279
the steps and just then the cardboard
Manuel was holding went out. We couldn

263
00:22:27.319 --> 00:22:33.559
' t see much, but when
we lit it we found something that went

264
00:22:33.680 --> 00:22:37.440
far beyond what any of us had
been able to imagine up to that point.

265
00:22:37.160 --> 00:22:42.359
They seemed to be long and dark, passageways, quite narrow and the

266
00:22:42.440 --> 00:22:48.319
walls were not at all common,
they had divisions. It wasn' t

267
00:22:48.359 --> 00:22:52.400
until I was an adult that I
found out those places were catacombs and for

268
00:22:52.480 --> 00:22:56.640
those who don' t know.
Catacombs are like some kind of underground place

269
00:22:56.720 --> 00:23:00.880
where the church used to bury the
dead. In ancient times, the place

270
00:23:00.960 --> 00:23:06.680
was abandoned and as far as any
of us knew. No one in the

271
00:23:06.759 --> 00:23:11.680
whole orphanage knew that there were catacombs
in that place. Being the kids we

272
00:23:11.839 --> 00:23:17.400
were and not knowing they were catacombs. The first thing we thought was that

273
00:23:17.519 --> 00:23:22.000
those passageways were no more or less
than our departure ticket. We assumed that

274
00:23:22.079 --> 00:23:29.279
at some point, those passageways might
well lead us out of that horrible orphanage

275
00:23:29.599 --> 00:23:34.200
and so we could escape we called
them the tunnels. At that time,

276
00:23:34.480 --> 00:23:38.920
none of us dared to advance more
than a metre after the steps, as,

277
00:23:40.519 --> 00:23:45.519
as I mentioned earlier, it was
very dark. In addition, it

278
00:23:45.839 --> 00:23:49.920
seemed that the more we advanced the
humidity it made the matches and cardboard go

279
00:23:51.000 --> 00:23:56.240
out much faster, so we all
agreed that it would be best to prepare

280
00:23:56.319 --> 00:24:00.200
ourselves, try to get a candlestick
or some oil lamp. I would also

281
00:24:00.279 --> 00:24:06.480
like to clarify that by that time
we had not realized that on those strange

282
00:24:06.559 --> 00:24:11.920
walls there were dead. We just
thought it was part of architecture or something.

283
00:24:12.039 --> 00:24:17.559
Rather, I remember the excitement coming
back to everyone and we were convinced

284
00:24:17.640 --> 00:24:21.640
that we would get out of there
and live as we had always wished.

285
00:24:22.480 --> 00:24:29.240
I think it takes about three days
to prepare everything, to collect our scarce

286
00:24:29.240 --> 00:24:33.039
belongings. We managed to get a
pair of candles and an oil lamp.

287
00:24:33.559 --> 00:24:37.960
It was a total miracle that no
one noticed they were missing. We were

288
00:24:37.079 --> 00:24:42.279
convinced we' d get out.
We lowered the steps again, this time

289
00:24:42.519 --> 00:24:48.319
a little more prepared, achieving light
without any problem. At first, our

290
00:24:48.480 --> 00:24:52.640
step was very slow, as,
although we were very excited, a part

291
00:24:52.640 --> 00:25:02.000
of us was convinced that this place
was very scary. We wanted to look

292
00:25:02.000 --> 00:25:06.400
brave. Fear didn' t give
in. I remember Mary holding me firmly

293
00:25:06.559 --> 00:25:11.279
by the hand. I think we
walked about three meters in before we saw

294
00:25:11.359 --> 00:25:15.559
the first lap. That place was
like a maze, as on the other

295
00:25:15.720 --> 00:25:22.599
side only a few centimeters away there
was also a turn. We quickly realized

296
00:25:22.720 --> 00:25:26.920
that it would be much harder to
find a way out in that place.

297
00:25:26.440 --> 00:25:33.599
If there was one. We decided
to go a little further hoping to have

298
00:25:33.759 --> 00:25:37.880
some sign of being approaching a way
out, but it was not so and,

299
00:25:37.440 --> 00:25:41.799
in fact, the more the minutes
passed, we realized that the candles

300
00:25:41.880 --> 00:25:48.440
and the little oil we had managed
to get for the lamp were running out

301
00:25:48.440 --> 00:25:52.920
quite quickly. By that time we
were all walking with a little more confidence.

302
00:25:52.559 --> 00:25:57.319
Of course it was very dark and
smelled of moisture, but by being

303
00:25:57.400 --> 00:26:03.160
together we had already lost some fear. Or at least that' s what

304
00:26:03.279 --> 00:26:07.680
we thought until Martin came up with
the idea of reading something that was written

305
00:26:07.839 --> 00:26:14.039
in one of the passageways we were
about to turn around in. He said

306
00:26:14.119 --> 00:26:21.720
aloud leave hope to everyone who enters
here today. Of course I know that

307
00:26:21.880 --> 00:26:26.720
' s a phrase from a famous
book, but at that point none of

308
00:26:26.799 --> 00:26:32.480
us knew and for obvious reasons,
we were very afraid. We had grown

309
00:26:32.599 --> 00:26:36.839
up hearing stories about God and the
Devil and how good and evil existed.

310
00:26:37.759 --> 00:26:41.200
Therefore, that prayer that was there
implied that we should not cross, We

311
00:26:41.319 --> 00:26:48.599
decided to go a little further and
go towards the other. There seemed to

312
00:26:48.720 --> 00:26:53.759
be no warning at all, but
by that time Martin was already intrigued by

313
00:26:53.839 --> 00:27:00.200
those walls. He began to see
around until he realized that in one of

314
00:27:00.359 --> 00:27:06.039
those rectangles that were on the walls
he could still see quite clearly the letters

315
00:27:06.160 --> 00:27:14.319
Martin read that said Francisco Esquivel also
had two dates in a row, which

316
00:27:14.839 --> 00:27:18.920
clearly indicated the day on which he
was born and the day on which he

317
00:27:18.000 --> 00:27:23.519
died. Right now, I'
d be lying if I said I remember

318
00:27:23.519 --> 00:27:27.519
the exact date. All I know
is that Martin mentioned that he had died

319
00:27:29.160 --> 00:27:33.759
very young, but I think that
after he said that was when we all

320
00:27:33.079 --> 00:27:37.160
realized that all those rectangles that looked
so old and full of dirt, which

321
00:27:37.799 --> 00:27:47.000
we had previously believed were just decoration
of the walls, were tombs. It

322
00:27:47.440 --> 00:27:51.200
was probably that in all of them
there was a different person. This scared

323
00:27:51.240 --> 00:27:56.400
us so much, so we decided
it would be best to come back.

324
00:27:56.240 --> 00:28:00.759
After all, we had already had
a good time looking for a way out

325
00:28:00.880 --> 00:28:07.960
and all we had found were many
more passageways that we didn' t even

326
00:28:07.960 --> 00:28:11.319
know were there. First of all, there really wasn' t a way

327
00:28:11.480 --> 00:28:15.480
out anywhere, but we knew there
should be one, because our children'

328
00:28:17.079 --> 00:28:22.599
s mind made us unable to accept
that we were wrong. But we still

329
00:28:22.920 --> 00:28:29.880
decided that it was best to return
to our steps in order to return more

330
00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:36.519
calmly the next morning. We also
thought we could try to get something to

331
00:28:36.640 --> 00:28:41.000
mark the passageways we had already traveled. Since they all looked quite the same

332
00:28:41.279 --> 00:28:42.920
and so we would know which ones
had a way out and which ones didn

333
00:28:42.920 --> 00:28:48.119
' t. Disappointed, but also
convinced that it was the best decision we

334
00:28:48.240 --> 00:28:53.079
could make. At that point,
we turned around and started walking out into

335
00:28:53.599 --> 00:28:59.640
our mind was easy. The floor
was of land and so many years it

336
00:28:59.680 --> 00:29:03.279
is the place had been abandoned.
Our steps would be the only ones to

337
00:29:03.359 --> 00:29:07.799
be seen on the floor. We
just had to follow them and that'

338
00:29:08.519 --> 00:29:12.200
s what we did at first.
We were all doing that, but all

339
00:29:12.519 --> 00:29:18.400
of a sudden we felt that we
had already made too much progress, and

340
00:29:18.519 --> 00:29:23.759
not only that, but we also
seemed to be going to places that none

341
00:29:23.839 --> 00:29:29.039
of us remembered coming in, despite
seeing clearly that if it were about the

342
00:29:29.200 --> 00:29:34.359
shoes we had, each of us
seemed to be going in directions that made

343
00:29:34.359 --> 00:29:40.200
no sense. I think at first
none of us wanted to accept it.

344
00:29:40.960 --> 00:29:45.599
We were very quiet, we all
thought about it, but I think after

345
00:29:45.680 --> 00:29:51.519
walking about an hour without seeing the
slightest exit signal, we all accepted that

346
00:29:51.640 --> 00:29:56.519
we were lost. In addition,
the steps we were following led us to

347
00:29:56.599 --> 00:30:03.400
that passageway where everyone who enters here
was to give up hope. I think

348
00:30:03.480 --> 00:30:10.160
that was the moment when we all
startled that message, and we were already

349
00:30:10.240 --> 00:30:15.119
afraid of it, and now it
seemed like the steps were going to that

350
00:30:15.240 --> 00:30:21.640
altered passageway. We just started running. We didn' t even have a

351
00:30:21.640 --> 00:30:26.680
clear address. We only knew that
following our footsteps was no longer reliable and

352
00:30:26.799 --> 00:30:30.440
that we had to get out of
there or we would probably die. Samantha

353
00:30:30.519 --> 00:30:37.440
was crying, Mary too Martin,
Manuel and I were trying to contain our

354
00:30:37.519 --> 00:30:42.039
tears of concern, but seriously we
were nowhere to break. Also by my

355
00:30:42.160 --> 00:30:47.599
mind, I was just crossing the
idea that we could never find our way

356
00:30:47.960 --> 00:30:52.319
out again and that we would probably
starve to death in that place. But

357
00:30:52.400 --> 00:30:56.759
from one moment to the next,
almost without thinking about it, we all

358
00:30:56.880 --> 00:30:59.359
managed to see a small entrance of
light at the end of one of the

359
00:30:59.359 --> 00:31:03.960
corridors. We had run in such
random directions that we didn' t know

360
00:31:03.079 --> 00:31:07.200
if it was an exit from the
orphanage or the same place we had entered.

361
00:31:07.319 --> 00:31:11.759
But still, at the time it
didn' t matter we just wanted

362
00:31:11.759 --> 00:31:17.720
to get out. We arrived and
when we opened the underground door we realized

363
00:31:17.839 --> 00:31:22.759
that it was the same place we
had entered. We were at the orphanage

364
00:31:22.839 --> 00:31:26.400
back, and not only that,
but it was already starting to dawn.

365
00:31:27.480 --> 00:31:33.720
Very soon they would realize that we
were not there, so the relief we

366
00:31:33.880 --> 00:31:38.079
felt for getting out of the tunnels
was totally overshadowed by the idea of the

367
00:31:38.160 --> 00:31:42.599
punishment that awaited us. As soon
as they realized we weren' t there,

368
00:31:45.160 --> 00:31:49.200
and in an attempt because they didn' t know that our intention was

369
00:31:49.319 --> 00:31:56.440
to escape, we threw our backpacks
back into the catacombs and closed down trying

370
00:31:56.559 --> 00:32:01.599
to hide the door as much as
possible and running into our rooms, begging

371
00:32:01.720 --> 00:32:06.279
that we could arrive in time for
the caregivers not to notice. We split

372
00:32:06.400 --> 00:32:09.359
up with the girls. Luckily,
they weren' t found out. For

373
00:32:09.480 --> 00:32:15.799
us. It was a totally different
story. We were barely climbing the stairs

374
00:32:15.880 --> 00:32:22.319
when the director was already leaving the
angry room, as we were not there

375
00:32:22.519 --> 00:32:24.440
he found us and didn' t
even let us up the truth. I

376
00:32:24.519 --> 00:32:30.160
' m not so sure I can
relate exactly the kind of physical punishment we

377
00:32:30.240 --> 00:32:37.200
received that day, as they were
really strong going through that initial pain.

378
00:32:37.559 --> 00:32:42.480
The truth is that we were grateful
that nothing had happened to the girls and

379
00:32:42.559 --> 00:32:45.680
that at least they would have been
spared the punishment. Besides that, we

380
00:32:45.960 --> 00:32:51.240
were all happy to have managed to
get out of the tunnels. None of

381
00:32:51.319 --> 00:32:54.079
us wanted to come back at the
time. And, moreover, it'

382
00:32:54.119 --> 00:33:00.519
s not like we could have done
it either, because because we were found

383
00:33:00.599 --> 00:33:06.079
maximum security to make sure we didn' t leave. But this was only

384
00:33:06.160 --> 00:33:09.359
for a couple of months before they
thought no one would try anything anymore.

385
00:33:10.200 --> 00:33:15.799
I guess it was partly because of
the fact that they didn' t know

386
00:33:15.920 --> 00:33:20.799
exactly what we wanted to do,
because while the punishment was being applied to

387
00:33:20.880 --> 00:33:24.400
us, we realized that they imagined
that we went wandering around the orphanage at

388
00:33:24.440 --> 00:33:30.480
night to steal food from the pantry. And I think that as all this

389
00:33:30.599 --> 00:33:35.960
time passed, that' s when
all of us started wanting to take that

390
00:33:36.599 --> 00:33:40.759
idea of coming back, because our
backpacks had stayed in that place and we

391
00:33:40.839 --> 00:33:45.319
had to manage without them. And
the more we thought about it, the

392
00:33:45.759 --> 00:33:52.599
more we all agreed that maybe we
were confused after all, if we had

393
00:33:52.720 --> 00:33:55.559
been walking in different directions. We
assumed that, being such a large place,

394
00:33:57.160 --> 00:34:00.200
it would be easy to get lost. But s s s we thought

395
00:34:00.240 --> 00:34:05.319
that if we could find something to
mark a path, it would be much

396
00:34:05.359 --> 00:34:07.960
easier to find the way out that
we wanted so much. Besides that,

397
00:34:07.280 --> 00:34:13.599
Manuel had managed to steal a small
pocket watch from the Director' s office,

398
00:34:13.960 --> 00:34:17.880
so we would have a better sense
of time. We agreed we didn

399
00:34:19.000 --> 00:34:22.039
' t need to go out the
first night. Now we had a better

400
00:34:22.159 --> 00:34:28.119
perspective on the whole place. We
knew how enormous it was and we were

401
00:34:28.239 --> 00:34:31.599
all convinced that, one way or
another, there must be a way out.

402
00:34:32.000 --> 00:34:38.599
We also understood that the site was
so gigantic that we probably couldn'

403
00:34:38.719 --> 00:34:44.039
t make it through everything in one
night. We agreed that we would go

404
00:34:44.119 --> 00:34:50.119
a maximum of two hours to explore
a little and mark different passageways and after

405
00:34:50.280 --> 00:34:52.719
that we would return so that we
would have no more punishments. We agreed

406
00:34:52.800 --> 00:34:58.760
on everything and, again, we
re- prepared ourselves to enter the beginning.

407
00:34:59.079 --> 00:35:04.840
We couldn' t find anything good
enough to use as a marker and

408
00:35:04.920 --> 00:35:08.039
a couple of days later, Mary
had the solution to that problem. The

409
00:35:08.119 --> 00:35:14.880
girls began to take sewing lessons.
He had plenty of yarn of different colors.

410
00:35:15.440 --> 00:35:20.079
Our plan was, in fact,
quite simple. We' d just

411
00:35:20.199 --> 00:35:23.079
make a path with the strings to
leave the trail and we' d just

412
00:35:23.079 --> 00:35:29.360
have to follow it. After thinking
about it for a moment, we assumed

413
00:35:29.440 --> 00:35:32.760
that we should also have different types
of thread to mark the passageways that we

414
00:35:32.880 --> 00:35:38.559
were already passing through and those that
we found blocked or without the possibility that

415
00:35:38.559 --> 00:35:42.400
there would be any way out.
Around there, after thinking about all that,

416
00:35:42.800 --> 00:35:46.960
we decided to come back, although
I remember well that the night we

417
00:35:47.079 --> 00:35:53.079
had all planned to return a heavy
rain was released all over the orphanage was

418
00:35:53.159 --> 00:35:58.760
so strong that going out would be
just crazy. And the worst thing was,

419
00:35:58.960 --> 00:36:01.079
it wasn' t a one-
day rain. This was something that

420
00:36:01.199 --> 00:36:07.000
lasted about a week. Sometimes I
wonder if it was God trying to keep

421
00:36:07.239 --> 00:36:13.599
us from going back into that horrible
place we had miraculously managed to get out

422
00:36:13.760 --> 00:36:17.119
of last time. But none of
us saw it that way at the time.

423
00:36:19.119 --> 00:36:24.199
Rather, we were very disappointed and
angry that we could not leave for

424
00:36:24.280 --> 00:36:29.159
the fourth night, although it was
still raining. It was no longer a

425
00:36:29.360 --> 00:36:32.199
storm like it had been in the
previous days. It was just a light

426
00:36:32.199 --> 00:36:37.400
breeze. We decided that it would
be best to carry out the plan once

427
00:36:37.480 --> 00:36:40.760
and for all. When we arrived
at the entrance and went down the steps,

428
00:36:42.480 --> 00:36:46.760
we quickly realized something. The place
had flooded, the water reached our

429
00:36:46.840 --> 00:36:52.960
knees and the ground felt so muddy
that only lifting the foot implied a great

430
00:36:52.079 --> 00:36:58.440
force, but the worst thing for
us at that time was to realize that

431
00:36:58.559 --> 00:37:04.239
our mochas were no longer there We
assumed that the flood had made them float

432
00:37:04.320 --> 00:37:10.840
and now they were somewhere in that
gigantic place disappointed. We went back to

433
00:37:12.119 --> 00:37:15.599
our rooms to wait for the site
to dry again in a few days.

434
00:37:16.599 --> 00:37:21.000
We came back the next few days, but it was almost the same.

435
00:37:21.920 --> 00:37:25.039
After two weeks, the water had
come down so much that it was no

436
00:37:25.119 --> 00:37:30.159
longer a problem. We didn'
t know where the water had gone,

437
00:37:30.760 --> 00:37:34.400
but by that time, barely if
it covered our shoes, it was fine.

438
00:37:34.800 --> 00:37:40.239
Considering all that, our plan came
back again. We tied the first

439
00:37:40.320 --> 00:37:45.719
thread to the security railing of the
stairs so that this would indicate the way

440
00:37:45.800 --> 00:37:51.639
was red. We' re starting
to walk. We turned around in the

441
00:37:51.719 --> 00:37:55.119
first hallway, even though we had
already been there the previous time. But

442
00:37:55.440 --> 00:38:00.360
we all agreed that we had to
check everything well, because our belongings might

443
00:38:00.719 --> 00:38:07.719
well be in one of those places. But we also agreed that if we

444
00:38:07.880 --> 00:38:10.639
found the way out, we'
d leave without them. After all,

445
00:38:10.960 --> 00:38:15.199
even though, according to us,
they would be our most precious belongings,

446
00:38:15.760 --> 00:38:21.280
we had not missed them so much
in the time when we had not had

447
00:38:21.400 --> 00:38:23.880
them with us. It would be
a way to get rid of it.

448
00:38:24.559 --> 00:38:29.960
As I said before, the place
was quite extensive. Many of the places

449
00:38:30.199 --> 00:38:35.239
were dead ends. We only marked
them with a black thread in the entrance

450
00:38:35.400 --> 00:38:38.760
when we went out and continued to
check the others. This system was very

451
00:38:38.840 --> 00:38:43.519
easy. In fact, that first
day we didn' t have any problems.

452
00:38:45.559 --> 00:38:49.920
After two hours of setting markers,
we had not managed to find our

453
00:38:50.000 --> 00:38:55.000
belongings or a way out, but
we felt that it had been a quite

454
00:38:55.000 --> 00:39:00.800
productive night, at least more than
the first time, and after that we

455
00:39:00.880 --> 00:39:05.199
returned without any problems. The thread
plan had worked very well and we left

456
00:39:05.280 --> 00:39:10.760
it tied there to return to our
rooms. I think we' ve been

457
00:39:10.960 --> 00:39:14.559
going around those places for, like, four days without finding a way out.

458
00:39:15.360 --> 00:39:19.719
Moreover, it seemed that the site
became much more gigantic as we moved

459
00:39:19.840 --> 00:39:23.840
on almost as if it were even
bigger than the orphanage. As such,

460
00:39:24.679 --> 00:39:30.239
we decided to add another two hours
to our search range. After all,

461
00:39:30.559 --> 00:39:35.320
coming back was much easier. Now, obviously, we always skipped. The

462
00:39:35.400 --> 00:39:39.400
passageway that I said abandons hope to
everyone who enters here, but outside of

463
00:39:39.519 --> 00:39:45.719
that we continue to review the others. Next night we came across something quite

464
00:39:45.880 --> 00:39:50.960
strange as we walked through one of
the passageways, we realized that there was

465
00:39:51.039 --> 00:39:54.320
a rare bump in the middle of
it and as soon as we got close

466
00:39:54.440 --> 00:40:00.000
to see what it was, it
turned out to be Samantha' s backpack

467
00:40:00.559 --> 00:40:05.119
at first gave us all some laughter
and also satisfaction to know that at least

468
00:40:05.360 --> 00:40:09.840
we had found one of the backpacks
at the time, when Samantha picked it

469
00:40:09.920 --> 00:40:15.360
up from the floor, she realized
it was empty was closing. It would

470
00:40:15.440 --> 00:40:21.559
have been impossible for the water to
get their stuff out. The scariest thing,

471
00:40:21.840 --> 00:40:23.800
at least for me, was to
see that the closure was closed.

472
00:40:24.360 --> 00:40:29.280
What I had was a big tear
on the side of the backpack. It

473
00:40:29.360 --> 00:40:34.119
looked so weird as if someone had
broken it. With all intent. I

474
00:40:34.239 --> 00:40:37.559
can' t speak for everyone,
but at least I know I had a

475
00:40:37.639 --> 00:40:43.159
strong urge to run out of that
place. I was very afraid to think

476
00:40:43.559 --> 00:40:47.599
that among those passageways I would live
something that I would have managed to open

477
00:40:47.599 --> 00:40:52.360
that way. The backpack was true
that it was made of fabric and maybe

478
00:40:52.440 --> 00:40:58.119
it could have been torn with something, but it was still rare. We

479
00:40:58.199 --> 00:41:02.400
continue our search. We were all
restless about what we had found. I

480
00:41:02.519 --> 00:41:07.679
guess a part of us didn'
t think a glass nail or whatever could

481
00:41:07.079 --> 00:41:12.760
have done that. The backpack would
have to be traveling at a very fast

482
00:41:12.880 --> 00:41:15.920
speed to be torn that way,
and we doubted it could be that way.

483
00:41:16.599 --> 00:41:22.920
But it was the most logical explanation. We were walking when, all

484
00:41:23.360 --> 00:41:28.400
of a sudden we all started to
hear something strange. At first we didn

485
00:41:28.480 --> 00:41:32.199
' t give it any importance,
because when we were four, we made

486
00:41:32.199 --> 00:41:36.039
quite a lot of noise when walking. As time passed, we realized that

487
00:41:36.119 --> 00:41:40.440
there were more steps than ours.
The steps of a sixth person were heard

488
00:41:40.559 --> 00:41:46.639
walking far behind us we turned,
but at the same time the steps stopped

489
00:41:47.239 --> 00:41:52.320
and with the scant light given us
the oil lamp we could not see many

490
00:41:52.400 --> 00:41:58.440
meters after the tunnel. At some
point everyone turned black. We decided not

491
00:41:58.519 --> 00:42:04.800
to give it much importance, because
we thought that maybe we had been confused

492
00:42:04.880 --> 00:42:08.679
and were only about our same steps, which echoed between all places. It

493
00:42:08.840 --> 00:42:15.039
was weird, since we' d
been doing that for many days and none

494
00:42:15.199 --> 00:42:19.519
of us had noticed it until that
moment. And the more we walked the

495
00:42:19.719 --> 00:42:23.880
clearer it was for us. We
knew he wasn' t any of us

496
00:42:23.960 --> 00:42:29.360
and we knew there was someone else. We were trying to keep saying that

497
00:42:29.440 --> 00:42:34.760
it was just a sound effect from
the echo of the passageways, but none

498
00:42:34.920 --> 00:42:39.360
of us was totally convinced. We
only advanced about two meters when something happened.

499
00:42:40.719 --> 00:42:45.760
The jar where we had the oil
for the lamp fell to the floor

500
00:42:45.840 --> 00:42:52.079
instantly breaking. We quickly started yelling
at her and blaming Samantha who was the

501
00:42:52.159 --> 00:42:57.880
one with the bottle, claiming how
she could have dropped something so important.

502
00:42:59.280 --> 00:43:01.719
But Saman told us that he did
not know why he had dropped it,

503
00:43:02.559 --> 00:43:07.199
since he had it very well attached, but it was as if something had

504
00:43:07.239 --> 00:43:13.679
taken it from his hands at that
time, along with all the strange things

505
00:43:13.800 --> 00:43:17.480
that had been happening to us all
the time we had been there, the

506
00:43:17.599 --> 00:43:22.119
truth is that none of us was
able to doubt his word. Already frightened,

507
00:43:22.480 --> 00:43:28.679
we decided that it was best to
return and perhaps return the next day

508
00:43:28.760 --> 00:43:32.280
we began to walk back, following
as always, the red thread. I

509
00:43:32.360 --> 00:43:37.480
think we were about halfway there.
When the oil lamp started to warm up,

510
00:43:38.119 --> 00:43:43.199
it was like a warning. Samantha
was the one holding it in her

511
00:43:43.800 --> 00:43:47.280
hands and suddenly she told us she
was feeling the hot handle. We did

512
00:43:47.400 --> 00:43:52.840
not take much importance because it was
quite unlikely, since the handle was not

513
00:43:52.960 --> 00:44:00.559
made of metal, but of wood. Precisely to prevent such incidents. We

514
00:44:00.639 --> 00:44:05.199
thought maybe Samantha was just a little
nervous about what happened with the oil.

515
00:44:06.400 --> 00:44:09.800
But the further we moved on,
Samanth said he couldn' t take it

516
00:44:09.800 --> 00:44:14.719
anymore. Manuel took her and told
her he' d take her. But

517
00:44:14.840 --> 00:44:19.000
almost the moment he grabbed her,
he let go of her by throwing a

518
00:44:19.119 --> 00:44:22.599
loud cry of pain, causing her
to break, making us stay in darkness.

519
00:44:23.840 --> 00:44:27.840
At first, we all cried out
for the fear that this caused us.

520
00:44:28.360 --> 00:44:31.480
Martin quickly pulled out the matches and
lit half the candle we had left

521
00:44:31.559 --> 00:44:37.480
to light it. First we could
see it was Manuel' s right hand.

522
00:44:37.079 --> 00:44:40.360
It had a red line, almost
as if it had taken zero.

523
00:44:40.440 --> 00:44:46.360
About to melt down, we knew
something very bad was going on. We

524
00:44:46.519 --> 00:44:52.199
begin to rush through, carefully following
the path marked by that bond. We

525
00:44:52.280 --> 00:44:58.360
were all very scared and all we
wanted was to get out. Yeah.

526
00:44:58.440 --> 00:45:02.599
We didn' t mind finding other
sas None of us wanted to go back

527
00:45:02.719 --> 00:45:09.000
to that place again we started running
along the way Martin was going to the

528
00:45:09.440 --> 00:45:14.639
front of all of us until suddenly
he braked dry. I ran right into

529
00:45:14.760 --> 00:45:19.840
his back and fell in the mud. I asked him why he had stopped

530
00:45:20.480 --> 00:45:23.239
and he was still with the candle
in his hand, mute and despite the

531
00:45:23.320 --> 00:45:28.679
dim light, he could see how
pale he was. The path of the

532
00:45:28.920 --> 00:45:34.440
thread was leading us directly to that
passageway that had written the sentence that scared

533
00:45:34.440 --> 00:45:37.679
us. The red thread that we
had been following in the hope of leaving,

534
00:45:38.519 --> 00:45:44.840
had been untied and was now inside
that strange passageway in which none of

535
00:45:44.920 --> 00:45:50.400
us was willing to enter. It
didn' t even give us time to

536
00:45:50.400 --> 00:45:54.639
say anything. When Mary felt a
strong pull that seemed to come from the

537
00:45:54.760 --> 00:45:59.480
other end of the cordon. It
was like we were invited into that place.

538
00:46:00.000 --> 00:46:05.960
Almost immediately. Mary let him go, for it made no sense to

539
00:46:06.039 --> 00:46:09.400
follow that path. The only thing
we could see at that time was the

540
00:46:09.559 --> 00:46:15.880
red thread, being slowly dragged into
that dark passageway that had given us so

541
00:46:15.920 --> 00:46:21.760
much distrust ever since. At first, our first intention was to run,

542
00:46:22.360 --> 00:46:28.000
but I guess before we even wanted
to do it, we all remembered how

543
00:46:28.079 --> 00:46:32.400
it had turned out the last time
we had tried to do it, the

544
00:46:32.679 --> 00:46:36.639
first time we had come down and
how we had come out practically of pure

545
00:46:36.639 --> 00:46:42.000
miracle. Martin started lighting the passageways
with the candlelight, trying to come up

546
00:46:42.079 --> 00:46:45.119
with some plan to get out of
there as soon as possible. On this

547
00:46:45.239 --> 00:46:51.800
occasion we were already a little more
experienced, although we always used that red

548
00:46:51.920 --> 00:46:57.119
cord to go out all in the
background, we knew that if we just

549
00:46:57.239 --> 00:47:01.039
put our brain to work a little
bit, we could remember exactly where to

550
00:47:01.119 --> 00:47:05.920
go, as we had done it
before. Trying to calm our nerves,

551
00:47:06.119 --> 00:47:10.039
we started walking. None of us
trusted the trail that our steps had left,

552
00:47:10.440 --> 00:47:15.280
for they had not only caused us
to be lost the first time,

553
00:47:15.840 --> 00:47:22.039
but by that time we had walked
so much between the passageways that there were

554
00:47:22.159 --> 00:47:28.440
treads in all directions. We were
walking just praying to God that we knew

555
00:47:28.760 --> 00:47:34.079
exactly where the exit was and allowed
us to find her. While we were

556
00:47:34.079 --> 00:47:39.320
walking, none of us could ignore
that those steps that were heard behind us

557
00:47:39.320 --> 00:47:44.960
were coming back. But this time
another sound began to be heard was similar

558
00:47:45.079 --> 00:47:49.320
to that of a crying. It
was like someone was seriously suffering, specifically

559
00:47:49.840 --> 00:47:57.199
a grown man. Those tears were
so hurtful that they made you freeze your

560
00:47:57.199 --> 00:48:01.360
blood. It was impossible to ignore
them and it was even impossible to try

561
00:48:01.480 --> 00:48:07.199
to deceive your brain that it was
the echo or anything else. We start

562
00:48:07.280 --> 00:48:13.760
walking in a slightly more hasty way. We quickly realized one thing. The

563
00:48:13.840 --> 00:48:19.440
place looked different. I mean,
we' ve been through those passageways for

564
00:48:19.559 --> 00:48:22.519
a long time and we haven'
t seen them as such yet. What

565
00:48:22.679 --> 00:48:27.320
' s more, you didn'
t even see the markers we had placed

566
00:48:27.320 --> 00:48:30.840
anymore. Everything looked exactly the same
and there was not a single way to

567
00:48:30.920 --> 00:48:37.440
guide us. But everyone in the
background was perfectly aware that even having the

568
00:48:37.559 --> 00:48:43.199
best sense of orientation or even the
cord that led the way, the truth

569
00:48:43.960 --> 00:48:47.800
is that it seemed as if those
catacombs were a kind of conscious construction,

570
00:48:49.360 --> 00:48:54.000
which could be able to change and
modify its appearance, because the more we

571
00:48:54.119 --> 00:49:00.480
saw those passageways that we had been
going through for several days, we realized

572
00:49:00.639 --> 00:49:07.599
that it looked like it was a
totally new place for us. For obvious

573
00:49:07.719 --> 00:49:12.639
reasons, we began to despair and
enter different passageways to see if that way

574
00:49:12.760 --> 00:49:19.360
we would find the way out again. Of course we were trying not to

575
00:49:19.840 --> 00:49:24.039
separate after all we knew we had
better chances of surviving by staying together.

576
00:49:24.960 --> 00:49:29.320
But the more we moved on,
the more scared we were. We were,

577
00:49:30.159 --> 00:49:34.800
despite being a situation like the first
time we entered that place. The

578
00:49:34.880 --> 00:49:38.320
truth was that it was different in
many ways. To begin with, we

579
00:49:38.440 --> 00:49:44.119
felt watched and, secondly, we
did not stop listening to those steps that

580
00:49:44.199 --> 00:49:50.440
were also running right into our direction. We were very desperate and, in

581
00:49:50.440 --> 00:49:54.719
fact, it seems to me that
at some point Martin stumbled upon something making

582
00:49:54.800 --> 00:49:59.960
the candle that was left not only
go out, but also fill with water

583
00:50:00.199 --> 00:50:06.559
and mud, which made it totally
useless for us. But at that time

584
00:50:06.920 --> 00:50:12.800
no one could blame him, as
we could only hear how those steps were

585
00:50:12.840 --> 00:50:17.159
approaching. We just keep running without
looking back. To be completely honest,

586
00:50:17.760 --> 00:50:23.159
it' s not like we could
see much either. I remember well that

587
00:50:23.280 --> 00:50:28.840
we all turned around in one of
the passages and Samantha, who by that

588
00:50:29.159 --> 00:50:34.239
time had taken the lead, threw
a whining. It was also clearly heard

589
00:50:34.360 --> 00:50:38.199
how his head bounced against one of
the walls. This was probably one of

590
00:50:38.280 --> 00:50:45.360
the many closed passageways that we had
been bumping into during those days. She

591
00:50:45.679 --> 00:50:51.719
was crying saying she thought she had
opened her head. Without much thought,

592
00:50:52.119 --> 00:50:57.159
Martin pulled the matchbox out of his
pocket and lit one in the hope of

593
00:50:57.320 --> 00:51:04.079
seeing if Samantha was well. With
the light of the match, we could

594
00:51:04.239 --> 00:51:07.079
see that he had a crack in
his forehead, which was bleeding a lot.

595
00:51:08.039 --> 00:51:14.239
Samantha started putting pressure on her head. This was a very shocking thing

596
00:51:14.320 --> 00:51:19.960
to see. Very soon we realized
that that passageway was not at all like

597
00:51:20.119 --> 00:51:24.599
the others. He had no graves. The walls were of porous rock due

598
00:51:24.679 --> 00:51:30.400
to humidity, but not only that, but on all walls there were different

599
00:51:30.599 --> 00:51:35.360
paintings of sacred art, as well
as some figures of normal size like those

600
00:51:35.599 --> 00:51:40.559
you could find in any Catholic home. They all looked like they were looking

601
00:51:40.679 --> 00:51:46.159
down and from our perspective, they
looked like they were staring at us.

602
00:51:47.000 --> 00:51:52.760
I could even feel the pupil in
her eyes moving when you did We didn

603
00:51:52.840 --> 00:51:58.559
' t stay long, as all
of that seemed even scarier than everything we

604
00:51:58.960 --> 00:52:05.719
were already living. We ran again
trying to keep Samantha from following the pace,

605
00:52:06.280 --> 00:52:09.159
but because of the heavy blow she
had taken seriously, she seemed a

606
00:52:09.239 --> 00:52:15.119
little disoriented and couldn' t run
at the same speed as she normally did

607
00:52:15.199 --> 00:52:22.119
miraculously. The steps had stopped and
now it seemed like we were alone.

608
00:52:22.760 --> 00:52:28.400
This was only for a couple of
minutes, as something else was heard again.

609
00:52:29.719 --> 00:52:34.360
This time they were not steps as
such and neither were they heard precisely

610
00:52:34.480 --> 00:52:38.559
at a considerable distance from us.
This was heard at the sides, heard

611
00:52:38.760 --> 00:52:45.760
almost by our side and seemed to
be what caused that sound. He walked

612
00:52:45.840 --> 00:52:52.519
on all fours, he sounded much
bigger than some rat. We could even

613
00:52:52.599 --> 00:52:58.960
see dust coming out of those rectangles
on the walls, almost as if moving

614
00:52:59.039 --> 00:53:05.440
from within. Even at first we
thought that all the tombs were shaking something,

615
00:53:06.000 --> 00:53:09.599
as if there was some sort of
earthquake that would cause the entire construction

616
00:53:09.719 --> 00:53:15.559
of the catacombs to collapse at any
moment. But it wasn' t like

617
00:53:15.559 --> 00:53:22.440
that. It just seemed like different
beings were running along with us I can

618
00:53:22.559 --> 00:53:24.599
' t say for sure anymore.
Every time I think of that night,

619
00:53:24.920 --> 00:53:30.440
I can only imagine that they were
attracted to the smell of blood. I

620
00:53:30.559 --> 00:53:35.599
' m saying that because the side
Samantha was on was where this kind of

621
00:53:35.719 --> 00:53:40.079
movement seemed the most. Some strange
grunts were also heard. It was almost

622
00:53:40.159 --> 00:53:45.199
like something was marrying us. I' d like to say that I remember

623
00:53:45.199 --> 00:53:50.159
everything perfectly. The truth is that
all this happened so quickly and was the

624
00:53:50.679 --> 00:53:55.920
most traumatic event in my life.
For that moment. None of us were

625
00:53:57.079 --> 00:53:59.480
convinced where you are. S to
N or N N. N o n

626
00:53:59.519 --> 00:54:02.639
o s u s that we had
even entered passageways that we had never explored

627
00:54:02.719 --> 00:54:09.320
and that were totally unknown territories.
Everything was very dark, but at some

628
00:54:09.440 --> 00:54:15.320
point I saw what I can only
describe as a humanoid shadow but also at

629
00:54:15.440 --> 00:54:20.440
the same time it was too small. It looked much darker than the rest

630
00:54:20.519 --> 00:54:25.079
of the place, which was quite
difficult. By itself he moved in a

631
00:54:25.239 --> 00:54:30.400
very rare way, as if he
were some kind of ape. He hung

632
00:54:30.519 --> 00:54:32.639
from the ends of the walls and
jumped from one side to the other.

633
00:54:34.079 --> 00:54:37.920
I' m not so sure each
of us had seen it and I think

634
00:54:38.039 --> 00:54:43.840
we were more determined to try to
find a way out. When he suddenly

635
00:54:44.280 --> 00:54:47.840
came down and looked at us,
we knew he was looking at us,

636
00:54:49.440 --> 00:54:52.840
since his eyes were not normal,
they were red and glowing as if they

637
00:54:52.920 --> 00:54:57.719
were two spotlights in the middle of
the darkness. We were all petrified looking

638
00:54:57.840 --> 00:55:00.679
at it for a few minutes.
He' s not doing much, he

639
00:55:00.760 --> 00:55:07.440
just squatted there staring at us.
None of us knew what to do.

640
00:55:08.960 --> 00:55:15.920
When all of a sudden Samantha was
laid down and dragged away, what we

641
00:55:15.000 --> 00:55:20.599
could hear was Samantha' s screams
moving away from those dark passageways. But

642
00:55:20.679 --> 00:55:23.440
in the darkness it was heard,
as it had ceased, to be dragged.

643
00:55:24.079 --> 00:55:29.519
All we did was run in the
opposite direction, begging for not being

644
00:55:29.599 --> 00:55:34.800
the next ones. The funny thing
about all this is that, the more

645
00:55:34.800 --> 00:55:38.079
we ran, at some point we
realized that nothing was heard anymore, only

646
00:55:38.559 --> 00:55:44.840
Samantha was yelling at us to wait
for her while she was crying. I

647
00:55:44.960 --> 00:55:49.239
' m not quite sure. At
what point they stopped chasing us, but

648
00:55:49.320 --> 00:55:54.360
the truth was that we were so
exhausted that we stopped. Samantha caught us

649
00:55:54.840 --> 00:56:00.639
crying and still bleeding a little from
her wound. At some point I felt

650
00:56:00.719 --> 00:56:04.920
that I would return my stomach for
all the physical effort and fear I felt.

651
00:56:05.519 --> 00:56:08.280
We didn' t know which way
to run. Manuel pulled out another

652
00:56:08.400 --> 00:56:14.360
box of matches. We were afraid
that the flash would reveal our location,

653
00:56:15.199 --> 00:56:19.400
but the risk might well be worth
it if that light could give us a

654
00:56:19.480 --> 00:56:24.239
vision of where to go we were
on unknown ground and there might well be

655
00:56:24.239 --> 00:56:28.840
some way out. I don'
t know. I guess at the time

656
00:56:29.159 --> 00:56:32.920
we just wanted that magical exit we
had dreamed of so much to be real.

657
00:56:34.440 --> 00:56:38.679
He lit the match, and with
little light, everything looked exactly the

658
00:56:38.800 --> 00:56:44.000
same as porous walls filled with tombs. It wasn' t even possible that

659
00:56:44.199 --> 00:56:49.440
that place could be that big.
But still. There we were. We

660
00:56:49.519 --> 00:56:53.800
walk more cautiously by making a left
or right decision for our next move.

661
00:56:54.239 --> 00:56:58.920
That' s how we did it. Manuel turned on a match to verify

662
00:56:59.000 --> 00:57:04.559
that there was no wall in the
background. First it seemed like I had

663
00:57:04.559 --> 00:57:07.960
a way out. I can almost
swear that in one of the times he

664
00:57:07.039 --> 00:57:12.960
lit a match I could see how
there was an entrance leading to another passageway,

665
00:57:13.360 --> 00:57:15.639
but when he lit this one again
it was gone. The truth.

666
00:57:15.920 --> 00:57:21.800
It' s just that at that
moment I thought it was just my imagination,

667
00:57:22.440 --> 00:57:25.760
probably next to my desperation to want
to leave that place as soon as

668
00:57:25.760 --> 00:57:30.360
possible. I didn' t mention
anything and very soon we got to the

669
00:57:30.519 --> 00:57:34.719
bottom, where there was a wall. We turned around, knowing we couldn

670
00:57:34.840 --> 00:57:38.840
' t go through there. But
suddenly something brought our attention back to the

671
00:57:38.960 --> 00:57:45.760
wall. It sounded like it was
some kind of crackling. We all turn

672
00:57:45.880 --> 00:57:51.039
almost instinctively. The match that Manuel
had lit so we could see the end

673
00:57:51.159 --> 00:57:57.960
of the passageway was still on the
moment we turned around. We could still

674
00:57:58.039 --> 00:58:01.920
see for a second or two something
that we all agreed wasn' t there.

675
00:58:02.320 --> 00:58:07.800
The first time. It was a
gigantic representation of a crucified Christ.

676
00:58:08.199 --> 00:58:14.039
It was the size of a real
person and the cross was so high that

677
00:58:14.159 --> 00:58:19.400
it almost reached the ceiling it looked
too real it was as if a person

678
00:58:19.519 --> 00:58:24.199
of flesh and blood had been applied
liquid ceramics on top. This was just

679
00:58:24.239 --> 00:58:29.639
something we could see for a few
seconds. I was about to run again

680
00:58:29.679 --> 00:58:37.920
when Manuel lit another match again.
He was still there as if he'

681
00:58:37.000 --> 00:58:40.960
d always been there. He had
a crown of thorns and nails on his

682
00:58:42.079 --> 00:58:46.119
hands and feet, and his eyes
looked to nothing like watching the darkness.

683
00:58:46.760 --> 00:58:52.119
I can' t say for sure, but I think I said get out

684
00:58:52.119 --> 00:58:55.119
of there. Sometimes, when I
remember it, it might be that I

685
00:58:55.239 --> 00:59:00.800
just thought it really hard and didn' t say it, but I know

686
00:59:00.880 --> 00:59:05.360
that at that point we all realized
something, and that blood that looked so

687
00:59:05.400 --> 00:59:10.119
realistic, in fact, it was. I was dripping, and if you

688
00:59:10.400 --> 00:59:15.960
kept looking at it carefully, you
could see how it emanated directly from the

689
00:59:15.960 --> 00:59:21.599
ceramics. Maria dropped a couple drops
on her shirt. We all looked up

690
00:59:21.719 --> 00:59:25.440
at the same time, only to
see with horror that that Christ was no

691
00:59:25.559 --> 00:59:30.880
longer looking into the void, but
by that moment he was already looking directly

692
00:59:30.960 --> 00:59:36.679
at us. And not only that, but also the expression on his face

693
00:59:36.880 --> 00:59:43.000
had changed. She was no longer
that calm face that had already accepted her

694
00:59:43.000 --> 00:59:46.119
destiny. Now that he was looking
at us, he seemed to be dying.

695
00:59:46.760 --> 00:59:50.840
It was as if with the look
he was begging us for help.

696
00:59:51.639 --> 00:59:55.000
At the same time as we listened
to a man' s tearful cry,

697
00:59:55.519 --> 00:59:58.840
it was the same one we had
heard at the beginning of all that.

698
00:59:58.880 --> 01:00:04.400
Ah now we all knew that it
had always come from him. We start

699
01:00:04.519 --> 01:00:08.000
running in the opposite direction to the
passageway. While we were doing so,

700
01:00:08.639 --> 01:00:15.199
we could all hear clearly how those
thick and heavy nails fell to the floor

701
01:00:15.280 --> 01:00:22.199
and also how the ceramics began to
fall off the gigantic cross that held that

702
01:00:22.199 --> 01:00:25.519
Christ prisoner. The worst thing is
that they also began to hear footsteps,

703
01:00:27.159 --> 01:00:34.480
which were running fast toward us.
I will never forget that as we ran,

704
01:00:34.719 --> 01:00:38.440
there was an echo in all directions, and there was a sound of

705
01:00:38.519 --> 01:00:43.480
crying and asking again and again to
forgive him. The truth is, I

706
01:00:43.599 --> 01:00:46.400
don' t know how long we
ran. I guess he gave us some

707
01:00:46.480 --> 01:00:52.880
kind of adrenaline rush and we were
just groping for the passageway, where we

708
01:00:52.039 --> 01:00:57.519
could get in so we could keep
running, and we had nothing to see

709
01:00:58.039 --> 01:01:02.679
anymore and that thing seemed to be
stepping on our heels today. I cannot

710
01:01:02.800 --> 01:01:09.000
assure or affirm the following, but
I feel that at some point we entered

711
01:01:09.119 --> 01:01:14.920
the passageway that had the phrase that
terrified us. I know because the moment

712
01:01:15.039 --> 01:01:20.960
we entered, the vibe completely changed
the whole place. It felt strange.

713
01:01:21.639 --> 01:01:25.599
But that place, which had always
given us a lot of distrust and fear,

714
01:01:27.239 --> 01:01:31.400
felt even worse. The smell of
moisture was so unbearable that you thought

715
01:01:31.519 --> 01:01:37.400
you could suffocate at any time for
not breathing the right oxygen. Moreover,

716
01:01:37.920 --> 01:01:44.079
unlike the other passageways, in this
one the walls were so narrow that you

717
01:01:44.199 --> 01:01:49.599
felt that at any moment you would
be crushed or stuck. Between them they

718
01:01:49.679 --> 01:01:54.079
were so glued from each other that
it was almost impossible not to scrape your

719
01:01:54.159 --> 01:01:58.480
arms when trying to cross it.
But at that time, being persecuted by

720
01:01:58.599 --> 01:02:00.360
that Christ, we could not or
or or or two turn back and only

721
01:02:00.480 --> 01:02:07.039
keep moving forward. In fact,
at some point I tore my face from

722
01:02:07.159 --> 01:02:10.039
the side of my nose to almost
my ear, so I think it was

723
01:02:10.360 --> 01:02:15.400
a wire or something. All I
know is that it started to bleed a

724
01:02:15.800 --> 01:02:22.039
lot, which wasn' t good, as we almost immediately started to hear

725
01:02:22.159 --> 01:02:27.440
the walls go back to rumbling.
For a moment I thought I would be

726
01:02:27.760 --> 01:02:32.039
dragged, just as Samantha had been, but at that time the walls seemed

727
01:02:32.119 --> 01:02:38.119
to become a little wider. The
further we moved on, it still sounded

728
01:02:38.239 --> 01:02:44.719
like something was running. As we
turned our heads, we all saw some

729
01:02:44.920 --> 01:02:49.880
steps and what seemed to be a
gate that let some light in. Without

730
01:02:49.960 --> 01:02:54.280
saying a word, we all started
running as fast as we could. We

731
01:02:54.440 --> 01:03:00.559
kept listening to that rumbling of the
walls and those four- legged things ran

732
01:03:00.639 --> 01:03:05.639
between the boxes of the deceased,
just like that ceramic Christ, chasing us

733
01:03:05.800 --> 01:03:09.840
all over the place, when suddenly
we were already there. We didn'

734
01:03:09.920 --> 01:03:15.519
t even realize it, but it
was a different door. This was made

735
01:03:15.639 --> 01:03:21.000
of wood, which allowed the light
to come in and had a rusty and

736
01:03:21.119 --> 01:03:25.400
very old bar lock. At that
moment, I only opened it and helped

737
01:03:25.519 --> 01:03:31.480
Mary out. When he left,
the first thing he received us was that

738
01:03:31.599 --> 01:03:37.039
it had already dawned. There was
some light. However, it was raining.

739
01:03:37.639 --> 01:03:40.599
The sun was not in its utmost
splendor. That rain was the best

740
01:03:40.679 --> 01:03:47.039
feeling of my life after I survived
that hell. I remember we started jumping

741
01:03:47.280 --> 01:03:53.119
euphorically celebrating that we were already outside
that feeling, or little lasted us,

742
01:03:54.079 --> 01:04:01.079
as we realized that Manuel was not
there and immediately we returned to the door

743
01:04:01.199 --> 01:04:06.800
and started shouting his name over and
over again without getting any kind of answer.

744
01:04:10.039 --> 01:04:14.679
No one was brave enough to re- enter something inside of us.

745
01:04:15.519 --> 01:04:18.760
He told us that if Manuel hadn' t made it out, maybe it

746
01:04:18.880 --> 01:04:23.760
was because he had been caught long
before and we didn' t want to

747
01:04:23.760 --> 01:04:28.440
be next. I think we were
silent for several minutes until we turned towards

748
01:04:28.519 --> 01:04:34.440
different directions and realized something else that
we had overlooked. That wasn' t

749
01:04:34.519 --> 01:04:40.519
the orphanage. There were no walls. We were outside and the walls of

750
01:04:40.840 --> 01:04:45.920
the orphanage could be seen in the
distance, perhaps a mile away. We

751
01:04:45.039 --> 01:04:49.360
were wounded and we did not know
what had happened at all, as there

752
01:04:49.480 --> 01:04:55.039
was no simple way to explain what
we had experienced. And I guess we

753
01:04:55.159 --> 01:04:59.719
were a little in shock, too. We just turned around and walked into

754
01:04:59.719 --> 01:05:04.599
the village. The wonderful life we
imagined as children was not fulfilled as we

755
01:05:04.639 --> 01:05:10.880
wanted it to be. Sometimes I
think that wasn' t worth it It

756
01:05:11.320 --> 01:05:15.559
was because none of us came back
to be himself after that day. The

757
01:05:15.639 --> 01:05:18.559
truth is that, being children living
on the street, we had a really

758
01:05:18.639 --> 01:05:24.360
bad time. We asked for money
or food, sometimes we worked. There

759
01:05:24.440 --> 01:05:28.960
were people who helped us and others
who, by thinking about doing a good

760
01:05:28.960 --> 01:05:32.360
deed, suggested taking us to the
orphanage, which was the worst thing that

761
01:05:32.480 --> 01:05:36.840
could happen to us, to which
we always distanced ourselves from the people who

762
01:05:36.840 --> 01:05:42.079
said that. But despite years of
living on the street, we managed to

763
01:05:42.159 --> 01:05:46.800
get ahead by sharing what we had
with each other. The ones who got

764
01:05:46.880 --> 01:05:51.079
us the most help. It was
an elderly couple who came to provide us

765
01:05:51.159 --> 01:05:57.679
with a roof where we could stay. Thanks to them we got to improve

766
01:05:57.800 --> 01:06:04.400
our way of life. Story written
and adapted by Lisa Hernández