Well, I left Rodolfo there, with his look lost in that city that was going to the Abyss. I went downstairs and opened a door at random to see if it was the bathroom, but it was a perfumed room that smelled so good it was quite out of tune with this doomed city. I thought it must be Mint's room: she smelled good too.

I rummaged through her clothes: in the wardrobe, in the chest of drawer... nothing of her fits to me, but there were some clothes that were a bit bigger and fit me like a glove. I took the T-shirt of a rock band called Lacón Fusión and some jeans that I always liked a lot.

I also came across a drawer full of quality panties: soft as a baby's bottom, I picked out some pink ones because I thought they were the prettiest of all. No bra was in my size, so I had to keep wearing the one I had on, but as it didn't get full of blood I didn't care.

On the bedside table, there was a photograph of Mint with a large man who looked familiar. After looking at it for a while, I realised it was the dead man from the dungeon of the fallen. From the way he had his big arms around her, I guessed they were lovers.

Then I tried a few more doors until I found the bathroom and was delighted to discover that it had my favourite brand of shampoo: Medusa Cuca. As I reached into my pocket I touched Abdon's letter. I felt bad, but there was nothing I could do about it, so I tore it to pieces.

I threw my stinking clothes in a corner and got into the shower, which was a bathtub, pulled the curtain and turned the knobs. It was really wonderful to be under the water and to be able to forget for a few moments all the misfortunes that surrounded me, threatening to drown me.

I poured Medusa Cuca shampoo all over myself and massaged my blessed hair: it's what I like the most on my body. Once I was soaking wet, I put my head under the water.

It felt great, but all good things come to an end and that was no exception. The shower stopped running and I stood there, wanting to continue. I still had some shampoo left on my head.

“Come on, shower! Work!” I shouted and hit the tile in front of me.

I took a step backwards with such bad luck that my foot stepped on a bar of soap and I slipped, fell and hit my head. Not the kind that makes a bump, but the kind that breaks your head.

Again, darkness surrounded me.

895 lives

Could you please not waste lives in a stupid way?

“As if I did it on purpose...”

The darkness melted and I returned to Time between Seconds.

“Time... come on, work,” I said and removed the treacherous soap.

It didn't take long for the shower to work again, but that dying thing had already ruined the experience.

When I finished, I got out of the bath and something happened that made me uneasy. I felt something looking at me from behind the curtains and a shadow appeared, one in the shape of a person.

“Rodolfo...? If it were you...” I said, he didn't answer me.

The shadow raised his arm and brought it to the end of the curtain. I was pissed off by the fear I felt, so I decided to act bravely and pulled the curtain myself: there was no one on the other side.

“Maybe... it was my imagination...” I said, but I knew it wasn't true.

I dried myself, got dressed and left the bathroom. The corridors of the Healing House were dark, and I hurried to the kitchen where Laura and Melinda the brat were. Laura was peeling some potatoes and had a glass next to her and a bottle of red wine.

Melinda was sitting and resting her head on the table, looking rather bored. She wasn't wearing her hat, so her hair was free. They were quite nice and made me want to ruffle them. I didn't, he didn't like it too much the other time.

“You woke up,” I said to Laura.

“Yes, and I'm better than ever!” she answered me, her cheeks were the colour of the wine, scaring a bit her usual pallor.

“Better than ever?” I answered.

“Yes, yes... Look, I've come to a conclusion: none of what's happening is real. Do you understand? This must be... a dream, a chimera, a hallucination... That's it! Maybe I'm on a peyote trip or what do I know? But it's not true, it's false! You're false and so is that child!” she exclaimed, beaming with joy.

Melinda didn't like that at all.

“Me fake? I'm not a dream, drat! That crazy woman hasn't stopped saying weird things since I came downstairs and she's making me really depressed.... I'm not false and I'll prove it to you!” As soon as he said that, he ran to my side and gave me a pinch on the arm, it hurt.

“Hey, why?” I asked.

With a triumphant expression, Melinda turned in the direction of the revived:

“You see, you see, if it was a fake it would hurt? In dreams it doesn't hurt at all, dammit!” Melinda exclaimed, but Laura shook her head and said:

“All this is nothing but a dream....”

“But...!” I tapped Melinda on the shoulder and she turned in my direction. “What, now you're going to tell me I'm a fake too?”

“No, no... But I don't see any harm in her believing it. Look, this is a sharp situation...” I said, putting my ring finger to my lips.

Melinda threw her head back and asked:

“What...? Isn't it called “hairy situation”?

“But what's hair got to do with it? Hey, brat... If she controls herself by thinking it's all a lie, why not let her believe it? It's not bad for us... In fact, I think it's even good,” I said, although I didn't like lying to her too much.

“Did you call me a brat?” Melinda asked.

“By the way... What do you have in that big backpack?” I asked, and a beaming smile appeared on her face.

“You want to see my best friend? I'll introduce you to him!”

“Best friend...?” I asked: it was a pretty big backpack, but I didn't think any friend could fit in it.

“Do you like onions in your omelette?” asked Laura.

“I do,” said Melinda and forgot to introduce me to her friend.

“I don't, are you making dinner? That's great... If you don't put onions in it of course. I'm actually pretty hungry,” I said.

Laura made the omelette, a rather large one, with lots of eggs, potatoes and parsley. As soon as she finished it, she put it in the middle of the table and Melinda immediately regained her good mood: she licked her lips and picked up her fork and knife, pointing the tips upwards.

“Do you want wine?” Laura asked.

“I don't think this is the best time to drink,” I replied.

“I do!” Melinda exclaimed, and Laura and I gave her equal looks of denial.

“You're a girl, girls don't drink,” Laura said.

“But I'm an imaginary child, and it's false alcohol!” said Melinda.

“I don't care if you're real or false, underage people don't drink, full stop,” Laura replied as she cut the omelette into triangles.

“Boo! But I want to drink,” said Melinda, her eyes never leaving the bottle of wine, sure she would try to grab it and drink as much as she could.

“If you drink you won't grow,” I sentenced, pouring myself the biggest piece of omelette because as the biggest of the three I needed to eat more.

“And what do I care...?” The brat's gaze dropped to her chest, "Does that mean I'm not going to grow floobs? “

It was the first time I’d heard that word, but it didn't take a genius to know what she meant.

“Certainly! If you drink alcohol before you're eighteen, you'll be as flat as an ironing board,” said Laura.

“Oh, really? Well, I'd better not drink... at least not until they grow up,” said Melinda.

After that we ate the omelettes, the three of us. I ate about half of them and a bit more because Laura and Melinda ate like birds. I didn't think it was bad, because eating is one of the things I like to do most in life.

“Sabela... Where is your boyfriend?” Laura asked me.

“What? I don't have a boyfriend or anything like that”

“Yes, yes... That handsome blond guy... What was his name?”

“His name is Pandolfo Violentin,” said Melinda, very sure of her failure.

“I left him upstairs, looking at the... Nightmare Nation...” I said and put a hand to my head, completely forgetting about him.

“Shit, Sabela! After spending so much time up there, I'm sure he's a Fallen!” Melinda groaned.

She was going to answer him, but the dining room door began to open and Melinda ran in his direction with her broom in her hand.

“The Fallen, the Fallen is coming!” she shouted and, as soon as the door opened, she gave Rudolph, who was not a fallen but an ordinary human, a good whack on the head.

“Gosh! What was that for?” Rodolfo protested, rather annoyed.

“Oh! Sorry... I thought you were a Fallen..,” said Melinda and threw the broom on the floor.

“Is my hair all right?” he asked, as he tried to comb his hair.

“Well, the truth is that I've already noticed that the blonde you have is a bit lifeless, not shiny at all? That is to say, a dull tone that I don't like at all. I mean, I can tell you're a guy who takes care of himself, but I think you take it more as a general thing and don't focus on the details. And they say the devil is in the details. If I'm honest, I don't like the state of your hair... Besides, the ponytail doesn't look good on you and regarding the hair ends...”

Rodolfo gave me a tired look.

“Thank you very much, Sabela, but I was referring to this particular moment, I didn't mean for you to give me a thesis on how badly I treat my hair....”

“Oh, you're a bit dishevelled now,” I said.

Rodolfo looked at Melinda:

“And may I know the reason for this unfounded attack? Have I done something that deserved to be hit with a broom?”

“It's just that you spent so much time up there that we thought you'd become a Fallen, dang! And one, who is a bit impulsive.... I'm sorry...” she added, lowering his head and looking down at his feet.

“Ah! Now I understand, you were worried about me, weren't you?” Rodolfo asked and smiled again.

More worried that he'd turn into a monster and kill us all, but sometimes it’s better not to say some things, even if they’re true.

“You can say yes. You know, isn't it that if you get too depressed you go down the hole and, boom, you're a monster? The view up there wasn't exactly a dead man's delight,” I told him.

Rodolfo poured himself a glass of wine.

“Certainly, Sabela, certainly.... A sight as gruesome as that would drive even the sanest man mad. Fortunately, I am not ashamed to admit that I am a person who, above all things, praises beauty, and the very thought of perverting my beauty into the deformed appearance of one of those nefarious Fallen is enough to keep me from falling.” At that speech, Melinda wrinkled her nose. “Besides, I also have to say that I didn't stay on the roof much longer, Sabela. In fact, most of my time was spent investigating the length and breadth of the House of Healing, trying to find a way out of the situation we've fallen into... And I think I've found the solution to all our problems.”

“And what is it about?! I asked

“I think you'd better see for yourselves,! said Rodolfo, drinking his glass in one gulp.

“Well, let's see what this thing you're talking about is. Shall we go or what?” I asked.

“Yes, yes... but there's no need to be so impatient, Sabela. Let me enjoy the little pleasures of life for a moment.” And no sooner had he said this than Rodolfo refilled his glass of wine to the very brim and then drank it in one gulp.

“Yeah! That's drinking and all the rest is nonsense!” said Laura, with a drunken smile on her face.

She was no longer sitting down, but sprawled out on the chair: one arm on the back, her arse over the edge of the seat, her legs bent in a strange way. Rather, she stood on the chair as if she didn't quite understand what it was like to sit down. Rodolfo refilled his glass and Laura stared at the bottle with a worried look.

“Hey, at this... pace... we're not having booze for long...” she said. She put the glass on the table and walked in the direction of the fridge, but he staggered rather than walked.

She opened the fridge, all his worries disappeared in a flash: there were more bottles of wine in there, so many that he couldn't drink them even if he spent the whole night partying. Meanwhile, Rodolfo was filling up his fourth glass of wine, and that seemed a bit much to me.

“Hey, Rodolfo, are you going to show us that or what? Then you can get as drunk as you want when we get the hell out of here. You know, when we're not surrounded by monsters who want to eat us.”

Rodolfo sat on the edge of the table, cup resting on his chin:

“You know, Sabela? That's true, but... But isn't it also important to know how to enjoy every moment of life as if it were the... Ow! But what's the matter with you, girl?” Rodolfo asked Melinda. She was smarter than me and instead of trying to convince the blond guy with words; she kicked him in the leg. And she answered the question with another kick.

“The important thing is to get out of here now and if we don't go and see what you've found I'll keep kicking you!” Melinda shrieked and gave him a third.

Rodolfo pushed the brat away, resting his hand on her forehead and making her recoil, and her mouth closed on his hand. But I think what bothered Rodolfo the most was that the wine glass fell on the floor.

“Auch! You're so wild! Now I have to take... a bottle...” said Rodolfo and he was already going towards the fridge.

“Ah, no! Ah, no, no, no, no! No, eh, no!” I said and grabbed him by the arm. “No, Rodolfo, not that, eh? No, no, no, no!” I dragged him to the corridor, he resisted, but I'm much bigger and stronger than him, so he couldn't do anything to get free. “And now you're going to take us to that thing that can save us from dying here, understood?” I said.

With an annoyed expression, Rodolfo cast a glance at Laura who, standing close to us, stood with a bottle in her hand and a glass in the other. On her pale face was a mocking smile, which seemed entirely dedicated to Rodolfo.

“It's all right... It's all right! I don't know why you're in such a hurry. Besides, I never said that what I found was the solution to our problems. Just that it might be. Actually... Bah! Let's go, the sooner we get this over with, the sooner I'll be able to...” said Rodolfo.

Laura took a sip of her drink and said:

“I don't care about getting out of here... So excuse me, but leave me completely out of that... I’m not at all going to see what you're talking about... I'm going to watch TV.... I saw a living room before, with a pretty big TV, so I'm going to see what... what kind of rubbish you've got here...” She said this and walked away up the corridor.

We followed Rodolfo until we reached a door with a hand-written sign that read "Please, don't come in here or I'll get angry!” And, also at hand, Mint's face with puffy cheeks.

“Is this what you wanted to show us?” I asked him and Rodolfo denied with his head.

-“This is not, Sabela! This is not! No, it's what's inside” he said and reached for the door, but before her fingers could even touch the knob, Melinda stood in the way and said, “Hey, don't you see what it says on the sign? If we open it, Mint's going to be pissed! And I like her; I don't want to piss her off.”

“I don't think it matters too much to her....”I replied: “people who were eaten alive don't care much about anything anymore, because they're all dead.”

Melinda stared at the drawing of the balura:

“When he comes back and finds out that we didn't listen to him, he's going to be pissed off....”

“Hey, Melinda... Mint... she's not coming back. You know that, don't you? After what happened in the operating room...” I told her and she looked at me confused.

“What happened? It's just that after I threw the fireball at that head, I dropped my glasses on the floor and without them I can see less than a mole.”

I'm an honest person, but sometimes telling the truth is like throwing punches for no reason.

“Nothing, nothing... And we can go in, there's confidence, can't we, Rodolfo?” I asked him and he nodded his head.

“Of course we do! Do you take me for the kind of person who goes through life hurting women! There's no way I could stoop so low.”

Melinda didn't look too convinced, but shrugged her shoulders:

“It's OK...”

We opened the door and it led down a flight of stairs and from the bottom there was a chill that made you shiver and made you want to stay at the top of the stairs. But we went down because it was the right thing to do and at the end of the stairs there was a classy door: it was metal, as solid as an oak tree and it had three letters on the surface VHX.

“VHX... Those are like an investigative group, aren't they?” I asked, I didn't really know much about them.

Rodolfo nodded and explained:

“Yes, they are an organisation that don't like too much publicity and prefer to move in the shadows. They are involved in research on unethical issues. In other words, they are not the kind of people who would be cowed by any moral dilemmas in the pursuit of their goals.”

“The end justifies the means....” said Melinda, with an absent expression on her face.

“I couldn't have summed it up better,” said Rodolfo, smiling.

“And why do these guys have a door here?”

“It must be funded by the VHX... maybe it has something to do with your miraculous recovery, Sabela. I know Mint didn't have enough faith to heal a wound as big as the one you had. Behind this door...” said Rodolfo and rested his hand on the metal surface, "we may find the solution to our problems. The members of the VHX are cautious people and may have had an evacuation plan, perhaps tunnels?”

“What are we waiting for? Let's go in at once!” I said, anxious to get out of the city once and for all.

“Unfortunately, we need a password to get in,” said Rodolfo, pointing to a number pad next to the door. “And I have no idea what the password is!”

“Perfect...” I said, rather disappointed.