Well, when I took a step forward, all the fear went away. Maybe it was because fighting made everything easier: I just had to kill everything that wanted to eat me and stop when nothing didn't want to. I grabbed Melinda by the rectangular backpack she was carrying and pulled her back with all my might:

“Eeehhh!!!“ the brat shrieked, and over my shoulder I saw her slam into the sofa.

The hand was falling on me and I lifted the axe over my head, put the blade up and rested the length of the handle on my left forearm and my left forearm on my forehead. The hand fell on me, the axe sank into the flesh of the palm and the blood slid thickly down the blade, kissed the wooden handle and slid down my forehead.

The force with which it was trying to crush me was immense, and I had to use every last drop of energy to avoid being crushed. Around my feet, the ground broke into cracks and I sank a little, such was the strength of the giant. I gritted my teeth, tried to raise my axe to launch a counterattack, but it was impossible. The only thing I could do was to resist so as not to be crushed to death like an ant.

I heard a wet sound, as if someone had just cracked an egg on the floor. I saw something sliding slimy from the window, down the wall and sliding on the floor a little: it was a fallen man with skeleton arms, with no flesh between skin and bone.

It had no legs… Well, it did have legs: I seem to remember that it was dragging tiny, baby-like ones that were useless to it. Its head was split in two, forming a mouth that, like a fish, kept opening and closing, making a loud clicking noise.

It was coming closer, using his arms to move as his tiny legs just kicked in the air. He had sharp teeth and I had no doubt that he wanted to bite me, but if I tried to do anything I would be crushed to death by the giant's hand.

“Fireball!” Melinda shouted and flames surrounded the monster.

Howls of pain. It moved from side to side like a fish out of water, but it didn't help to get rid of the burns, only to make the fire jump to the curtains which burned immediately and that saved my life: the tongues of flames began to lick the giant's wrist and, from the screams coming from the outside, he didn't like it very much.

The pressure on me slackened, and he withdrew his hand, so tired was I that I fell to the floor. Long fingers appeared at the edge of the window and soon a bald head emerged, and finally a large, round eye like the moon, black as a bottomless pit. I couldn't look away from the eye, a burst of light inside it, a white spark that no sooner emerged than it disappeared. It left me open-mouthed, wanting more.

“Can you tell what are you waiting for? We have to get out of here immediately!” Laura shouted, and she was absolutely right.

I shook my head, erasing the fascination of that eye, and used the axe as a support to stand up. I turned around, just at the moment when, between the burning curtains, the Fallen with the eye put his whole arm inside the room.

Close to me was Melinda, but something wasn't right: her gaze was lost, she was moving from one side to the other, and before I had time to ask her what was wrong, she went to the floor. I caught her before she hit the floor and she whispered to me:

“My limit… of balls…” she said before fainting completely, I picked her up in my arms.

Laura was behind the sofa and looked at the girl with concern.

“She's not…? She's not…?” I shook my head and handed her to her because I figured my axe might still be useful.

The Fallen with the eye half tucked his body inside the room, he didn't mind the flames at all, even when part of his skin was burnt. And even taking this into account, he moved slowly, it seemed almost as if he thought about every little movement of his body. And he didn’t take his eyes off me.

Again, color rose in the black of his eyes: now it was red, like blood pressed against a blank wall. I cut my palm with the axe, slashed open a gash to distract myself with the pain and forget about the eye, and faced Rodolfo, who was also staring at the newly Fallen, I gave him a shove.

“Hey, what do we do now? Come on, you're the smart one of the three, aren't you?”

He stared at me for a few seconds with his mouth open, in a way that didn't give the impression that he wasn't even smart, in general, I mean. And just when I was afraid he was going to leave us, he answered in a confident voice.

“The gate. We have to go to the gate. If we can get in, we'll be saved.”

I didn't mention anything about the password, there was no need to waste time with arguments: what was really necessary was to have a goal, even if it turned out to be a dead end. We left the hall and went down the corridor, it seemed longer and narrower than in the afternoon, it was as if the building itself was also against us.

I heard sobs, short, sad, continuous… they were not from a Fallen. It was Laura, she was crying in a low tone and I felt a pang in my heart, a feeling of pity or compassion or something similar.

As we turned a corner, we were confronted with an unhopeful sight: there was a Fallen blocking our way, occupying the entire corridor, the very same corridor where the staircase leading to the gate was located. The Fallen was a ball of flesh from which protruded an endless number of arms that formed a thick thicket of elbows and hands with long fingers like the legs of a spider.

I looked back, over my shoulder: he was coming towards us, the Fallen with the eye, going on all fours, slowly but steadily. He was like a man with the wrong proportions: the head was too big, the arms and legs long and skinny, the body shaped like a tube, but with many rolls of fat. Moreover, he had only one eye, one in which it was easy to get lost, so this time I didn't even notice him and turned forward.

The one-thousand-leg Fallen, he was my target as he blocked the stairway to salvation. The ball that formed his body would not even reach my knee and the countless arms that emerged from him only left free a rounded space. In which there would be a mouth with bulging lips and three eyes of different sizes.

He was smiling too, it seemed that he was mocking us, that he was telling us: “You are trapped, you are trapped and you are going to die, we are going to eat you and not even your bones will be left” I felt the burning fury in my heart and instead of trying to calm me down. I let myself go: I had nothing to lose and much to gain, I threw myself in his direction and his arms shot out towards me.

A fingernail cut my cheek, hot blood came out along with the pain, but neither one nor the other was enough to stop my advance. I also felt a cut on my belly, above my navel, on my thigh, on my arm, across my forehead, but the pain only served to renew my determination.

His arms snapped before me like dry branches and no matter how hard they grabbed me, how hard they cut me, how hard they tried to stop me and kill me, it was all useless. Soon I stood in front of the bug and put my hand in its mouth, I wanted to destroy that imbecilic smile.

His teeth closed over my fingers, but it only caused pain, nothing more. I threw the axe aside and grabbed the lower lip and pulled with all my might, the flesh stretched like gum and he shrieked in pain as he hit me with all his arms opening small wounds on my back, my arms, my face….

The skin wasn’t able to stretch more and began to break, starting at the corners of his lips and going down, with one last pull I took with me a good chunk of flesh and also the underside of those lips that, not long before, formed a mocking smile.

The screams of the creature, pure pain, were music to my ears. I preferred not to waste any more time, and as I again had the axe in my hand I struck it across the forehead, opened a wound, and, blow after blow, made it bigger and bigger, until I saw the lazily beating heart-gem: I destroyed it with an axe blow.

When I turned around I almost fell flat on my face against Laura and Rodolfo, they were right next to me and the reason was more than obvious: the Fallen of the eye was coming closer and closer. Rodolfo said to me:

“I have to cure you…” I slapped his hands away.

“You said you didn't have Faith enough to make light… I know what will happen if you try too hard,” I told him.

We went down the stairs at full speed and, once we had finished the steps, I could see the eye was at the top, looking at us and it didn't seem to be rushing to catch up with us. It kept looking at me, but I had learned not to look at its eye because I thought something bad would happen if I did.

“Laura…” said Rodolfo.

She didn't even look at him, she was holding Melinda against her chest and her head was lowered, strands of hair crossed over her gray eyes that seemed incapable of looking at anything.

“Laura…” repeated Rodolfo, in a sweet tone, and gently brushed her hair away from her face. “Laura, we need your help. You have to use your power over the panel, you have to use your power to find out the password. Do you understand?”

I hoped with all my heart that she understood because the eye was halfway up the stairs. I was in front of the last step, holding the axe with both hands and my head down, to avoid the temptation to look at her eye.

“What about her?” said Laura, referring to Melinda.

“Leave her to me. She’ll be all right,” said Rodolfo, taking the fainting wizard in his lap.

I couldn't take the eye out of my head, and my desire to stare at him increased.

“Can you hurry a bit?” I groaned.

I bit my lower lip to avoid looking at the Fallen’s eye as Laura stepped in front of the panel and touched it with both hands.

“It's 1234,” she said, and I looked back, not believing she was right.

The gate creaked open from the bottom up. I felt joy because it meant that we might get out of this nightmare alive, but as I looked ahead again, I couldn't help but notice the big eye of the fallen.

Red, yellow, blue, green lights… lights of all colors danced around me and their touch was pleasant, capable of erasing all the pain that was stoking my body and also the fear that was hidden behind my heart. And there was also music, faint at first, but as I took the first step forward it grew louder.

“This music doesn't go with this place at all,” I said, and I was confused, what place was I referring to?

The music was slow, with a certain melancholy, music that made me forget all the wounds that covered my body and also made me yawn. Until that moment, I didn't realize it, but I was quite sleepy. A bed appeared in front of me, and I decided that it wouldn't be bad to go to sleep for a while.

“Stop!” shouted an unpleasant voice.

A shadow of darkness appeared beside me, with a sable in his hand and a fierce face. Rodolfo, it was Rodolfo, and he plunged the sable into the bed. The mattress bled and cried out in pain, I rubbed my eyes and the illusion vanished. It wasn't a bed where I wanted to sleep; it was the open mouth of the fallen eye.

“Are you all right?” Rodolfo asked me and I nodded.

We didn't waste any more time, we went inside the place protected by the gate and, as soon as we entered, Laura typed on a panel quickly making the doors close.

The relief I felt soon disappeared: there was no way out, the place we entered was nothing more than a small warehouse. There was a shelf full of cans of food, four beds, a radio and in a corner a long thing covered by a blanket. On one of the beds was Melinda, and kneeling next to her was Laura.

As I was nervous, I grabbed a can of beans from the shelf and ate it without a spoon or anything else: sticking my fingers in and eating at full speed. Then I threw the can on the floor — what did it matter if I didn't use the bin in the situation we were in?

“There has to be a way back to my world, doesn't there?” Laura asked, still kneeling beside the bed where Melinda was. “I mean, … if I've been able to get this far, doesn't that mean I can go back? There has to be a way to do that?”

“Who cares about that now? What we have to do is to find a way out of here and also out of the city, we have to come up with some ingenious plan like the people on TV do. Something simple, but effective…” I thought for a few seconds: the only thing I could think of doing was to charge the monsters and hope that at the last moment, someone would appear to save us all: it could be my father, my best friend Lucia, who wasn't at all bad at fighting, or even my brother Fufu. “Rodolfo, do you think the radio works? We could talk to the outside and see if they send someone.”

He shook his head.

“From the state it's in, I think it would only be good for scrap,” he said, and he was right: in the middle of the radio was an axe. And sparks were flying and everything.

“Can it be fixed?” I asked.

“Yes, of course it can. We just need to find someone with experience in fixing this kind of mechanical device. I wonder if we can find someone around here?” he said, as he touched a finger to his chin and stared thoughtfully at the ceiling.

“Yeah, right…” I said.

“Maybe it's under the bed, don't you think, Sabela? Maybe we'll find someone capable of fixing the radio,” he said and, without hesitation, looked under a bed. He clicked his tongue in disappointment.” Bad luck! There's no one here.”

“That's enough! There's no need to get so stupid,” I told him because my embarrassment hurt.

Rudolph burst out laughing and came over to me: he was a bit too happy for the situation we were in.

“Sabela, Sabela! There's no need to get so serious! We're safe here, no doubt about it. The gate will withstand the onslaught of every Fallen who tries to get in, and we've got food for months. I know, you're thinking: the border will be here in no time and we won't be able to avoid ending up in the Nightmare Nation. But… Do you think the Children of the Sun are just going to sit back and do nothing? No, they will come, kill all the fallen and save us.”

“What if they decide to make a clean break and use the Hand of Helios?” I asked him because I knew that if they launched it, they would wipe half the city off the map.

Rodolfo's smile faltered as little as he listened to me.

The door took a blow so hard that it dented it a little, and then a heavy silence fell on the room. After the first knock, a second one so tremendous that everything shook, and then a child's voice came from behind the door:

“Mommy...? Mommy...? Mommy...?” Three times, then it fell silent, and then came the third knock. That's when I knew that the gate wasn't going to hold up for long.

I turned to Rodolfo and said to him:

“What now? What do we do now?”

“Sabela... I...”

“It's OK, me too...” I answered.

I took my axe from my belt and stood in front of the gate, I would wait for the fallen to come in and I would kill them. Then I would kill all those who tried to enter, I would do it until there were no more monsters left or they would kill me.

¡The continuous knocking was enough to wake Melinda up. She stood up a little and touched her beautiful hair that I loved so much, but she didn't wear it in a mane, they were shorter.

“Mommy...? Mommy...? Mommy...?” said the Fallen once again, that childish voice making me tremble from hair to toe.

“Why don't you open the door? That little girl wants to come in... She’s looking for her mum... like me...” said Melinda, in a sleepy voice.

“It's not a girl... it's one of them...” replied Laura.

“One of whom...? Oh... Oh dear, are we still here?”-asked Melinda, and then she touched her beautiful red hair. “And where is my hat?”

It was Rodolfo who answered:

“It must have stayed in the living room. I'm sorry I didn't pick it up, but... the situation....”

“In the living room?” Melinda jumped to the floor, full of energy, and ran to my side.

“Melinda, I don't think your hat is there anymore?” I said.

“What's the matter, did it grow legs and wander off?” she asked, sulking.

“No, I think your fireball burnt your hat away.”

“Oh, shit!” she exclaimed, smacking his forehead, “I'm so angry! It was a present from my mum... What a pity! Ugh! Anyway, this is when we leave, isn't it? Out of town, I mean. It's just that everything's a bit aggressive...”

“Mommy...? Mommy...? Mommy...? Mommy...?”

We remained silent.

“And how do you try to do that, child?” Laura asked, now sitting on a bed.

“Well, there always has to be a way out, or not?” Melinda wrinkled her nose and her gaze went over everything in the room: the shelf with the food on it, the beds, the broken radio...

“I think the only solution is to open the gate and start killing the Fallen until... finish them all...” I said, not too sure.

“Nonsense!” Melinda shrieked and ran towards the long thing that was covered by a blanket, and with one swipe, she pulled it off to reveal the statue of an egg.

“Is that what it’s going to get us out of here?” I asked with some derision.

Melinda jumped on top of the bed, which was next to the egg, and started jumping up and down with excitement.

“Of course it is, Sabela! I have no idea what this is doing here because it can't be here because it's forbidden to move it from wherever it is, but it's here and that's what matters!” said the girl and I didn't understand, but Rodolfo did and when I understood I could see how hope was born on her face in the form of a smile.

“It's a Heavenly Egg, isn't it?” he asked as he approached, and Melinda shook her head up and down.

“Mommy...? Mommy...? Mommy...?”

The bug continued to thump without tiring.

“What is that?” Laura asked.

“A strange magical device that serves as a means of teleportation! But we don't really know who built it, or when, only that it's ancient? They're found in ruins and places like that, abandoned places, and they were forbidden to be moved from their place of origin a long time ago... but, the problem is that.... it's not like a video game where you just ZOOM and that's it! To use it, you have to know how to use it... Otherwise, nothing at all...”

Rodolfo looked at Laura with intensity:

“You can do it, Laura. Your power is not only based on knowing the price of the objects you touch... I think it goes much further than that. Didn't you know the password just by touching it? I'm confident, if you try, you can activate this Heavenly Egg. Do you understand? If you can do it, we can leave this city behind...”

Laura nodded her head, rested both hands on the surface of the Heavenly Egg and it began to glow with a white light, as if it was a wonderful and magnificent lamp that would free us from that nightmare.

“I see it... I see it now...” said Laura and smiled.

I hoped that egg could take us far away from the Nightmare Nation. I wish I was going to the beach because I've always wanted to see the sea and I guess it would be great to have a swim too.

“Mommy? Mommy? Mommy?” The childish voice whispered and then gave it a few more hits: the gate was not even a breath away from falling to the ground.

That didn't matter anymore because we could get out thanks to the Heavenly Egg, I just had to cross the room and join Melinda, Laura and Rodolfo, who were surrounding the wonderful artifact that would free us from that hell.

“Ha! What a disappointment you're going to get when you enter and see that there's no one here,” I said.

I turned my back to the gate and walked in the direction of the Heavenly Egg. The white light coming from inside it grew stronger and enveloped Melinda, Laura and Rodolfo. Then it sparked and disappeared along with the three of them.

“But what...?” I said, not understanding what happened.

I was left all alone.

“Mommy...? Mommy...? Mommy...?”

Well, not all alone.

The Fallen hit the gate hard and it fell to the ground.

“Mommy...? Mommy...? Mommy...?”

I approached the Heavenly Egg because I thought I could activate it, just like Laura did. I ran, my foot landed on the can of beans and I lost my balance. I slammed my head against the egg with such force that it cracked.

I broke the only way I had to escape and despair overcame me completely.