I ran through the extensive area of land. As always, the entire place was dark.
In the orphanage at least there were lamps that illuminated most of the place.
The rock formation with all its blind spots, the earth and debris surrounding the house on all sides.
I scanned the area, my eyes trying to catch any detail.
Besides earth and rocks, there was nothing else.
I kept walking, heading southeast, until I reached the edge of a narrow ravine.
What could this be?
I carefully passed my fingers over the weak fold, camouflaged to look like a common crack along the steep cliff.
It was a door.
It was the same earth door that I had found back then, which had refused to open.
Curious, I tried to push the hidden entrance once more. However, the earth door refused to move.
There must definitely be some way to open it. I'm missing something.
Think, Cassie. Think.
I knelt after reaching a conclusion.
I passed my hands over the rocky wall again, moving aside the bush that covered most of the lower half of the hidden door.
After several minutes of trying to find the handle, the button, the lever, anything to open the lock mechanism, I finally found it. About four feet from the ground, near the crest of the door, my left hand sank into the cliff. At first, it felt like I had accidentally touched some kind of sap or glue-like substance, but as I made patterns with my hand, the wall's viscosity changed.
Each time I guessed the pattern wrong and tried to introduce my hand deeper into the lock's hole, the earth surrounding my hand became more viscous and pushed my hand out of the lock.
—Damn it.
I muttered softly after the twentieth failed attempt to open the door.
Without having given up yet, and with no time to waste, I concentrated on the area where the lock was.
When I made the correct pattern with my hand, for an instant the area lit up, which allowed my hand to sink deeper into the hole without fear of having to start over.
I pulled the handle buried deep in the hidden door's lock mechanism. With a satisfying click, the earth wall rumbled before opening.
I stood up and didn't waste time in heading down the narrow corridor.
The passageway, which was approximately almost two meters wide and had a ceiling that brushed the top of my head even when I was hunched, was more like a rudimentary tunnel than a real corridor.
What a strange place, I thought.
Fortunately, there were candles that cast a dim light inside small cubicles excavated on both sides of the walls.
I could feel the heat of the candles, but after venturing through the strong earth winds, I welcomed it enthusiastically. I stayed on the left side of the corridor, to be a bit hidden, I didn't want my mama to discover me.
I continued through the dimly lit corridor until something luminescent (which wasn't a candle) appeared in the distance and without thinking much, I headed towards the light.
The tunnel curved slightly as I approached the motionless light and my ears could capture distant echoes of sounds. The sounds became louder as I continued advancing through the tunnel, but too many things were happening at once for me to distinguish specific sounds.
There were conversations, echoes, and multiple heavy footsteps. Finally, after a few more minutes of walking, the tunnel's exit was right in front of me.
I walked towards the exit carefully, trying not to accidentally kick any stone or make any other noise that might alert a guard who could be around the corner.
Not perceiving any signs of activity outside the tunnel, I walked quickly to the edge of the exit, where a curtain of shadows hid me from any unsuspecting gaze.
I stood looking, unable to comprehend the magnitude of what I had discovered.
The corridor opened into an enormous cavern with a flawless vaulted ceiling, so for a second, I doubted I was still underground.
Instead of candles, huge torches covered the walls to reveal how large the cavern actually was and who was inside.
I let out a string of curses in my head while looking down. In the center of the cavern floor, approximately two floors below, there was an enormous stone wall rising up to a white circular hole, which seemed to be the sky. According to the books in our house, only the sky had clouds.
The rough and uneven stone walls, with small protruding stones and cracks, rose to a dizzying height.
Beneath them, there were dark silhouettes of figures I couldn't recognize. Afraid of being discovered, I stepped back while hiding and focusing my view.
Wow! Could these really be Lulu's parents? They're so tall!
The thought crossed my mind, and I continued looking.
When the silhouette was completely focused, illuminated by the fire's light, I began to examine it. It looked very strange. Not like people usually look.
Then I realized.
It wasn't a sweet vision of loving parents, but something horrible.
The monster had a long white face with four vertical eyes looking in different directions. Two above, two below with a gigantic mouth in the middle full of hundreds of knife-sharp teeth and a terribly long and thick tongue from which saliva dripped.
Holy heaven!, I screamed in my mind.
The creature was dark, 3 meters tall and standing on its hind legs. Its gigantic thin arms with long and sharp claws seemed capable of crushing anyone. It also had two mini sharp horns on each side of its head.
The vision of the creature made my eyes open abnormally and my mouth open wide with horror while I began to step back.
However, what scared me most was not the monster's size nor its terrifying figure, but the container it was balancing in one of its large hands.
The little Lulu who had greeted, smiled, and said goodbye to me was locked up upside down and her small body unnaturally bent inside the container.
The girl was lifeless, swimming from head to toe in a crystalline liquid, with an expression full of pain in her open eyes.