Latest / Niebla en el bosque con Evelith von / Mi Vida Se Volvió Un Infierno Desde Ese Día ( Recopilación De Maldiciones #5 ) - Voces De La Noche
Transcript
- 0:05When I was a kid, my brother, my mom and I were constantly
- 0:10moving. My mom was an excellent mother. He always made us see the
- 0:14glass half full and told us that moving was not so bad and made us
- 0:19look like we were explorers. And even as a child, it worked as
- 0:24an adult. I can know that my mother, being a single mom and
- 0:27having two jobs, could hardly keep the rent for a long time, so
- 0:33that' s why we moved every time I heard about a cheaper place or
- 0:37when I just couldn' t pay that rent anymore. I remember that was
- 0:43the reason why, when my mother told us that she had found a new
- 0:47and better place to live, both my brother and I, at that time
- 0:51I was nine years old and the seven were very excited and we told her
- 0:56that we already wanted to meet her to tell this story. I asked my
- 1:00mom how she found that place and she told me she had gotten a friend
- 1:04' s contact from her job. She told him that her brother' s
- 1:10girlfriend had told him that the building had lowered the price of that place to
- 1:15a ridiculously cheap rent. Considering it was a place with two bedrooms, living
- 1:19room and kitchen. My mom told me she doesn' t remember how much
- 1:25she paid anymore, but if she remembers that she was too good to let
- 1:29it go. Also, that was a very good thing for everyone, because
- 1:33before that, my brother and I slept in the same room with Mom and
- 1:38the idea of having something just ours was wonderful. However, I remember when
- 1:44we arrived in front of the apartment door, I felt a chill running around
- 1:49my back. It was as if the air had become denser and the atmosphere
- 1:53had cooled instantly. I don' t know if to say where this is.
- 1:59I guess it won' t matter if I say it' s somewhere
- 2:02in Tacubaya, Mexico City. As far as I can remember, the apartment
- 2:07door was metallic grey and had an old, rusty plate showing the number fifty
- 2:13- five, although we not only knew that we were in department number seven,
- 2:19but that there were not even fifty- five apartments in that building.
- 2:23The landlord explained to us that an old man had lived there years ago and
- 2:29had put the badge without permission. They tried to remove it, but it
- 2:35seemed melted with the door and it did not seem that they could remove it
- 2:38without taking a piece of the door in the attempt, so eventually they had
- 2:45decided to leave it there, but that we should not worry about anything.
- 2:47As we entered the apartment, we found an unexpected panorama, smelled awaited and
- 2:53the interior was full of abandoned objects, furniture, old, worn pictures,
- 3:00among many other things like statuettes and other things that I don' t remember
- 3:05well, were not frightening. It was just weird. We were used to
- 3:08getting to almost empty places. The landlord told us that he had had troubled
- 3:15tenants in the past, that, after not paying rent for months, they
- 3:20simply left behind their belongings to think they hadn' t left at all and
- 3:24that they would pay him back He told my mother that he was free to
- 3:29use what he needed. My brother and I exchanged intrigued looks while my mother
- 3:36accepted the landlord' s offer. Although the idea of taking advantage of abandoned
- 3:42objects sounded tempting, something in the atmosphere of the department filled me with restlessness
- 3:46and a feeling that something was not right. The first few days in the
- 3:52department passed with an apparent normality. Honestly, we were already so desensitized to
- 3:59new places that creaked or some other sound during the early days was just part
- 4:03of the experience, so when we heard them there, we didn' t
- 4:08give them any importance. I wish we had. I' ve always believed
- 4:14that if we and my mom had thought that place was rough and with sounds
- 4:18in the night that looked like footprints, we' d probably have left and
- 4:24I wasn' t telling this. As time progressed, we gradually adapted to
- 4:28the routine in Tacubaya. My mother would get up early to go to work,
- 4:34wake us up and get ready to go to school with her. We
- 4:40were very early. I remember sometimes before they opened the school, although we
- 4:45had to wait a few minutes before they opened it. One day, however,
- 4:50this new routine broke in that morning I felt unusually ill I woke up
- 4:58with some fever and a little runny nose. It wasn' t serious enough
- 5:03to take the day at work or take me to the doctor, but it
- 5:08was to decide that it was better for me to stay home with my brother
- 5:13and mother. Outside the house I was alone in the apartment. Sitting on
- 5:17the couch, I was trying to distract myself by watching TV because I couldn
- 5:24' t sleep, because it wasn' t long before I had a pill,
- 5:28as my mother had indicated. While I was having a tea my mom
- 5:30had left without warning. The screen suddenly went out. My first reaction was
- 5:38to think that electricity had been cut off, something common in our life at
- 5:42the time. However, when I get up to go to the light switch
- 5:47and turn it on. The room lit up right away. I just shrugged
- 5:53on my shoulders assuming that the electricity had come back just the moment I got
- 5:58up. I went back to the couch and turned on the TV, although
- 6:03it was a strange thing, since when I turned it on it was on
- 6:09the news channel and I was sure that was not what I was watching.
- 6:11Still, I didn' t care and changed the channel. However, minutes
- 6:15later, the screen turned off again. This time a chill ran through my
- 6:24back, but I was still trying to stay calm. I was just about
- 6:29to get up to check the light again. When the TV turned on again
- 6:32I shrugged back and continued to watch TV. I think about ten or maybe
- 6:40fifteen minutes passed, when the channels began to change quickly. As if someone
- 6:46were frantically pressing the remote control buttons, the volume increased by filling the room
- 6:54with a deafening noise. That was impossible since I had control in my hand
- 7:00and I was absolutely sure that I was not pressing anything. I tried to
- 7:05press the switch off to try to regain the TV controller, but no matter
- 7:11how much I pressed the control. I was not desperate to stop that horrible
- 7:17situation, I got up and disconnected the TV cable. However, instead of
- 7:23the television turning off as usual, it began to play that static noise that
- 7:28sounds when there is no signal from the channels with some curiosity and, above
- 7:33all, fear. I looked back at the TV and the static began to
- 7:40take shape as if a face was emerging from the depths of visual noise.
- 7:46The figure was blurred, but recognizable. A woman with sunken eyes and a
- 7:50twisted smile that seemed to transcend the screen. My heart was pounding and fear
- 7:58was paralyzing me as I watched the image solidify as if someone or something was
- 8:03trying to get through the television. The panic seized me and ran into my
- 8:09room, closing the door behind me. My hands were shaking as I sought
- 8:16refuge in my bed trying to understand what I had just witnessed. It was
- 8:20hours before I heard the front door open and my mother' s voice waving
- 8:26was about to tell him what had happened to me. But even at that
- 8:31young age, I knew that my mom already had too many problems to deal
- 8:35with something I thought I had seen. So I decided to keep quiet at
- 8:41the time, at the same time that I was trying to self- convince
- 8:45myself that what I had seen was only about my imagination. However, something
- 8:50happened that afternoon that made me confirm that something was very wrong in that department.
- 8:56My mother, worried about my state of health, made me a chicken
- 9:01soup. However, I still felt sick enough for my feeling of hunger to
- 9:07disappear almost entirely. I explained I couldn' t eat. My mom never
- 9:15used blackmail or threats to force us to eat. He always said we'
- 9:18d get hungry sometime and then we' d eat. Although that day,
- 9:22worried about my health, I was encouraged to drink at least a few vegetables
- 9:28from the broth, while my mother was retiring to rest before having to go
- 9:33back to her second job, I was left alone on the table, took
- 9:37the fork and started pecking at the carrots, trying to make it look like
- 9:43at least I tried to bite some while my mind was mired in thoughts about
- 9:46what had happened to me that morning. Every noise was ringing in my ears
- 9:52and I was getting a little scared again, when, suddenly, through the
- 9:58corner of my eye I saw a tall, dark figure fast as lightning had
- 10:03gone through the back of the kitchen door. My heart was beating in my
- 10:07chest as I tried in vain to discern what I had seen. Maybe she
- 10:13was my mother. I thought I was trying to find a logical explanation,
- 10:18but when I looked back at the table, I faced something even more frightening.
- 10:22Under the table, my mother was crawling. His eyes stared at me
- 10:28with an intensity that frozen my blood. A chill swept through my body and
- 10:33fear clinged to me. My mother' s face was contorted. His expression
- 10:39was a mixture of anger and something darker, something he could not understand.
- 10:45Not only was it not normal behavior in her, but she hadn' t
- 10:50even seen her come in. Yeah. I don' t want to eat
- 10:54babble My words were barely audible. My mother or whatever was in front of
- 10:58me didn' t seem to listen to me without knowing exactly what to do.
- 11:05I said it again with a little more security, but before I even
- 11:07finished talking she answered me, but there was something different about her. I
- 11:13don' t know how to explain it, because even though it sounded almost
- 11:18the same, I could assure that it wasn' t his voice. It
- 11:20was as if someone very good at imitating him was doing it. I don
- 11:24' t care. You' re not going to get up until you swallow
- 11:28everything He told me in a threatening way a penetrating fear. He walked my
- 11:33back stopping my person in my place. I saw him crawling away really.
- 11:39That was the most surreal experience I' ve ever had in my life.
- 11:43I heard the door slammed in my mother' s room, so I figured
- 11:48I was back in it, but still. I was so scared that I
- 11:52ate all the broth on my plate and went to my room. My thoughts
- 11:56became a whirlwind. As I tried to understand what my mother had just witnessed,
- 12:03that figure who had cared for me and protected me all my life,
- 12:07had become something terrifying, something I could not explain or understand. The days
- 12:13passed with a disturbing normality. However, my mother’ s behavior, while
- 12:20sleeping, began to get too strange and disturbing. During the early hours of
- 12:26the morning, his footsteps resounded in the apartment. It was as if he
- 12:31were marching or on other occasions, it was as if he was running everywhere,
- 12:37followed by the unmistakable noise of his body, violently hitting the furniture and
- 12:41walls. Every morning his bruises were evidence of what he was doing every night,
- 12:46but he sincerely stated that he had no idea how he had been hurt.
- 12:54Finally, my brother and I decided that we should tell him what we
- 12:58heard almost every night, so we did. At first he looked at us
- 13:05with skepticism, but in view of the persistence of our narrative and the impossibility
- 13:09of finding an alternative explanation, he finally accepted the possibility that something unusual was
- 13:15happening. Her answer was simple, attributing her actions to sleepwalking and assured us
- 13:22that we should not worry if we listened to her wandering around the house during
- 13:28the night. We just had to do what we had done until then and
- 13:31stay in our room. However, even with this explanation, the restlessness did
- 13:37not really disappear. Every night it felt like hell in our own house.
- 13:43As children, we could not fully understand in sleepwalking and we could not help
- 13:48but be afraid. One night in particular, the tranquility was shattered by a
- 13:54desperate blow and frantic scrapes at the door of our room and my mother'
- 14:01s voice ordered us to open it, but there was something in her tone
- 14:05that filled us with fear. My brother, without stopping to think, got
- 14:09up and opened the door and there she was. His figure illuminated by the
- 14:15pale moonlight. His face had something strange, though it was hard to see.
- 14:20He just stood in the door frame for a few seconds, but before
- 14:24we could react, his hands scratched my brother' s face, leaving deep
- 14:30red furrows on his skin. An outburst of sick laughter escaped his lips,
- 14:37a sound that made our hearts stop in our breasts. Fear paralyzed us for
- 14:43a moment, but my brother acted quickly, closing the door in one blow
- 14:48before my mother could move further forward. The room was plunged into tense silence,
- 14:56only interrupted by my brother' s agitated breathing and my own rapid heartbeat.
- 15:01They spent hours with my mother' s deranged figure, knocking and scratching
- 15:07the door, unintelligible whispers and sinister laughter filling the air. My brother had
- 15:13his face covered in scratches and terror had left its mark on both of them.
- 15:18We couldn' t get back to sleep that night. I even tried
- 15:22to cure my brother, but since we couldn' t get out, I
- 15:26couldn' t do much. Finally, when the sun began to rise,
- 15:31the blows and whispers ceased, We looked through the crack of the door only
- 15:35to find our mother kneeling in the hallway. She was very frightened, since
- 15:43she had dry blood on her fingers, but she had no injuries and we
- 15:46told her what had happened, and she didn' t get tired of apologizing.
- 15:50He told us that from now on we should lock the door of our
- 15:54room at night. The nights turned into endless torment, with my mother'
- 16:02s screams and blows resounding through the walls of the department demanding that we let
- 16:07her in. He terrified us every night. Although we knew that their struggle
- 16:12was the result of sleepwalking, our relationship began to crack under the constant pressure
- 16:18of this nightmare. However, a ray of hope broke through the darkness when
- 16:23my mother started dating a kind and understanding man. His presence brought temporary relief
- 16:32and a sense of normality to our lives. My mother' s boyfriend was
- 16:37a reassuring figure and quickly earned our affection with his kind and attentive behavior.
- 16:45But even his presence couldn' t protect us from the darkness that persisted on
- 16:51the first night he spent in the apartment. His presence triggered a series of
- 16:55events that plunged us even further into the abyss of restlessness. An urgent knock
- 17:00on the door of our room got us out of our dreams and my mother
- 17:04' s boyfriend was there his voice full of concern. While he was asking
- 17:10us to open him up. Without hesitation, my brother opened the door and
- 17:14my mother' s boyfriend rushed in closing the door. Behind him. She
- 17:19explained that my mother had confessed to her sleepwalking, but it was more alarming
- 17:26than I had imagined. As he spoke to us, his voice was tinged
- 17:30with urgency and I could see the concern in his eyes. The next morning
- 17:36he talked to my mom and, as far as I knew, it was
- 17:38with a specialist to try to control it, although there was no improvement in
- 17:45spending the week no matter what I tried, so I remember one day,
- 17:48while my mom was cooking and we were at the kitchen table doing our homework,
- 17:55when my mom' s boyfriend came in and said he had been investigating
- 17:59a hypnosis special that had succeeded in similar cases and proposed to take my mother
- 18:03to see him. It was then that a change in the environment became palpable,
- 18:11the air cooled and became dense as if the darkness itself had materialized around
- 18:15us. My mother turned her back on us while cooking, uttering words that
- 18:22were both frightening and disconcerting. His voice seemed to be his, but there
- 18:29was a dark and menacing tone. My mother' s boyfriend asked us to
- 18:33leave the kitchen and at that moment my mother turned to him with a dagger
- 18:38in her hand and threw words that could not be hers. It was as
- 18:45if a dark force had taken control of his body and mind and his gaze
- 18:48was full of malice. Quickly, my mother' s boyfriend told us that
- 18:55we had to get out of there to stay safe We laughed at our minds
- 19:02full of confusion and fear, but also with a determination to stick together.
- 19:07We left the apartment, escaping that nightmare that had taken over our home.
- 19:14The moment my mother walked through the apartment door, her appearance and behavior changed
- 19:18dramatically. The darkness seemed to leave her and she staggered as if waking up
- 19:26from a deep, dark sleep. He looked at us with eyes full of
- 19:32confusion and fear without understanding what had happened. It was then that we began
- 19:37to understand the terrifying truth. The department had manipulated and distorted my mother,
- 19:44making her a dark reflection of herself. With the support of my mother'
- 19:49s boyfriend, we made the decision to leave that cursed place behind, pack
- 19:56our belongings and move around breaking ties. With that dying nightmares, my mother
- 20:02stopped having sleepwalking since the first night we walked away from that place. In
- 20:07time we again found the peace we had lost and never returned. I don
- 20:14' t know what was in that apartment, but I really hope no one
- 20:18else will rent it back. Never again since I have used reason, I
- 20:30love hiking and almost any outdoor activity. The idea of seeing nature live and
- 20:34in full color was a really nice thing. For me as a child,
- 20:41this turned out to be a bit of a problem, as I used to
- 20:45sneak away to the most retired places possible. My grandmother always told me to
- 20:49stop, or I could get lost or maybe find something I didn' t
- 20:53want to meet. But I never listened to him. For me to go
- 20:59without ex exploring was much worse than getting lost or seeing something strange. At
- 21:03least that' s what I thought. This taste did not disappear over time.
- 21:07On the contrary, as I grew older, I was perfecting and getting
- 21:12more and more into hiking, although unfortunately I did not have many friends to
- 21:18share my love for him. Same. Usually I did take anyone to complain
- 21:22or ask me to be stopped relatively often, so at the age of thirty
- 21:27it was an activity I preferred to do alone and practiced almost every weekend.
- 21:36He usually left early and did not return until the next day or even sometimes
- 21:40until Monday. Most of my friends and family knew it by getting to the
- 21:47point where they didn' t care if communication with me was lost for that
- 21:51period of time. I think I' d lie if I said that sooner
- 21:56than I' m about to tell, I never saw anything dangerous strange or
- 22:02out of the ordinary the truth. On several occasions I came across some strange
- 22:03people who used those places to do questionable things and, of course, from
- 22:10so many nights staying in the open or walking in places with a lot of
- 22:15vegetation, I also came across situations to which I could not find much explanation.
- 22:22However, the latter had never passed beyond a few easily forgettable frights of
- 22:26the different hiking sites. The mountains had always been an inexplicable fascination for me.
- 22:37You could say that they were my favorite place and, for my fortune,
- 22:42from the part where I was a place I prefer to omit, because
- 22:47I would not like some brave one to try to go and look for something
- 22:51that, without a doubt, must remain hidden. But at the end of
- 22:53the weekend, as was my custom, I enlisted all my things, took
- 22:57my mountain bike and left my home. Usually, I used my car to
- 23:03reach my destination. On this occasion, however, it was so relatively close
- 23:10that I saw no need for it, and in retrospect, it must be.
- 23:15I remember barely getting into the mountain area, where I would spend that
- 23:18weekend, something inside me told me something wasn' t quite right. However,
- 23:25I thought I only had the feeling that I had not closed the house
- 23:29properly or something like that, so I went ahead with my tour of that
- 23:33day during the first night. There that feeling of discomfort did not go away
- 23:40and I did not understand why, since at some point in the afternoon I
- 23:44had gotten enough telephone signal to call my cousin and ask him to check that
- 23:49everything in my house was in order and he himself had confirmed it to me,
- 23:52so that should no longer be a reason to worry. However, no
- 23:59or no p or could remove that feeling from my head. The next morning
- 24:03I got up early and decided to explore a little. The truth was still
- 24:08with that strange feeling, so, although my plan was to spend two nights
- 24:14there, I thought that after the walk I would return to my house,
- 24:18at first everything seemed to be relatively in order. The place was very beautiful
- 24:23and I could take very beautiful photos, both of spectacular views as well as
- 24:29of some local fauna. I would dare say that even for a moment I
- 24:34began to calm down. However, there was something that began to draw my
- 24:40attention. As the song of the birds advanced, which, for obvious reasons,
- 24:45was heard almost every hour of the day because of being in the middle
- 24:48of nature, it was unusually absent. Even the buzz of insects seemed to
- 24:56have vanished into silence. It was as if the place itself was not holding
- 25:00its breath, as if nothing and no one dared be near that place.
- 25:07Despite the restlessness that was beginning to grow within me, I kept walking.
- 25:12My curiosity was mixed with the uncomfortable feeling that something wasn' t right.
- 25:18Every time I looked up at the treetops, it seemed that the leaves were
- 25:22agitated with their own restlessness. That' s when I heard it. Laughter
- 25:29noises, dim noises and strangers similar to childish laughter, but with a nuance
- 25:33that he could not decipher. They were like the echo of a distorted and
- 25:38discordant laughter that seemed to resonate from all directions at once. That was very
- 25:45strange, since I did not believe that children were so happy in the middle
- 25:51of nowhere, for as far as I knew, no one lived in the
- 25:56intrigued surroundings and with the heart. Beating ahead, I turned to him.
- 26:00Sound of those laughter, the landscape around me began to change. I don
- 26:04' t know how to write it, but it felt different, like when
- 26:10in a dream you realize you' re dreaming and in that moment everything gets
- 26:15weird and you think someone can realize that you don' t belong there.
- 26:18My steps were cautious, but my curiosity exceeded my caution. Who he is
- 26:25or who they were responsible for those strange laughs. Finally, I came to
- 26:30a part of the mountain where there was a sort of spring of water running
- 26:36and what I saw left me paralyzed by a group of tiny figures, barely
- 26:41reaching half a metre in height playing in the middle of the clearing were not
- 26:48like any goblin or creature I had ever imagined. They were of a somewhat
- 26:52strong blue, but not so much something in the middle of blue sky and
- 26:56navy blue. Their bodies were thin and the sexed users and their pointed ears
- 27:00moved with every laugh. His big, completely black eyes seemed to absorb the
- 27:08light around him, they had no clothes, and I can almost swear there
- 27:15was no sign of any clothes being brought with them and taken away. But
- 27:18his appearance did not generate any sense of indecency. In their faces they mixed
- 27:25the innocence somewhat infantile. There, in the midst of lush vegetation, those
- 27:30creatures that at the time could only describe as blue little ones, had created
- 27:37their own world of play. Some of them splashed their laughter in the water,
- 27:42filling the air like tiny tinting bells. Others played on the banks,
- 27:48pushing and laughing like little children on a summer afternoon. Although I was bewildered
- 27:56by what I was seeing, I could not help but feel a strange sense
- 28:00of amazement at the sight of these playful creatures seemed so out of place and
- 28:07completely in tune with their surroundings, They radiated a vitality and a connection with
- 28:12nature that I could barely comprehend. I was raised by my grandmother, a
- 28:18kind and respectful woman with all kinds of life. In fact, there was
- 28:22no life that she did not believe, that deserved respect and preservation, and
- 28:26so she educated me with the same values, not to mention that she was
- 28:32also a faithful believer of creatures living in nature, which the human being was
- 28:37not ready to see. And I remember that as a child I deserved that
- 28:41there were things that were best left alone. And even though I believed him
- 28:47as a child when I grew up, I stopped doing it. However,
- 28:48at that time I realized that my grandmother was right I decided to go back
- 28:55to giving her space, not only because of my grandmother' s teachings,
- 28:59but because, although impressive, the scene became somewhat disturbing the more laberies.
- 29:06However, bad luck seemed to be on my side a trip with a stone
- 29:11hidden in the ground, caused me to lose balance and fall to the ground.
- 29:15The dry impact mixed with my surprise exclamation, disrupting the harmony that the
- 29:21elves were splashing at that spring. The sound of my fall made all the
- 29:27goblins suddenly stop around ten of them. Their blue bodies, contrasting with the
- 29:34greenery of the vegetation, turned in my direction. His eyes completely black as
- 29:41a bottomless well, seemed to absorb sunlight and in his eyes there was no
- 29:45fear or surprise, only an intensity that seemed to challenge reality itself. My
- 29:52pulse accelerated as I struggled to stand up. But before I could regain my
- 29:59balance, the goblins began to run to me their nimble little bodies, moving
- 30:03with a speed that left me breathless. My survival instinct went off and in
- 30:11the middle of the confusion I managed to stand up and get away from them.
- 30:15I ran without looking back, feeling the fear and adrenaline, running through
- 30:19my veins. The laughter of the goblins had disappeared and had now been changed
- 30:26to grunts and some screams of fury. I knew I couldn' t let
- 30:32them catch me, I couldn' t let those creatures surround me again.
- 30:37But as I ran, I stumbled once again this time against something that was
- 30:42on the ground. Before I could react, I felt an impact on my
- 30:48back that made me finish falling without even being able to put my hands in.
- 30:52The feeling of something hitting was followed by a feeling of oppression, as
- 30:57if something was keeping me in that place. I turned my head to see
- 31:03the goblins surrounding my being their dark eyes fixed on me with an intensity that
- 31:07paralyzed me. I tried to fight, screamed and struggled, but it seemed
- 31:14like they were everywhere at once their little bodies dodging my desperate attempts to free
- 31:21me I felt scratches and bites and every time I tried to raise a hand
- 31:26to protect myself it was as if they knew my movements beforehand. I remember
- 31:30that at some point I could see a sphere was something like energy. It
- 31:36was very bright, even though it was sunny. That shone even brighter was
- 31:40the size of a baseball. And then I can only remember how painful it
- 31:45was when it started coming through my chest. That pain was the most terrible
- 31:49I' ve ever had in my whole life and it was so strong that
- 31:53my strength abandoned me and everything became blurry. I felt like I was floating
- 31:59in a distorted reality, like I was losing my connection to my own body.
- 32:05And mind, in the midst of that confusion, the leprechauns were still
- 32:09around me, their oppressive presence, filling the air. And the last thing
- 32:15I remember after that sphere of energy came in came out of me, but
- 32:19it looked different color. Although I only noticed the latter years later, when
- 32:23I remembered, I don' t remember much. After that, I can
- 32:29' t even remember how I managed to escape that situation. My memory that
- 32:35day in the following hours is a confused world of sensations, fragmented images and
- 32:40turbulent emotions. Next thing I know, I was crawling away from the clearing,
- 32:46my shaky body and my thoughts in indescribable chaos. I had no idea
- 32:52how I had gotten there somehow I had managed to get off the mountain and
- 32:58I was surrounded by other people. The voices seemed distant as if they were
- 33:05coming from a distant place. My mind was fragmented as if something essential had
- 33:09been torn from me. Every thought, every memory seemed as if someone had
- 33:16taken a dagger and cut through them. My vision faded again and I found
- 33:22myself struggling to stay conscious. Every breath was an effort and my body seemed
- 33:29to be in a state of shock as my senses were devastated. A sense
- 33:35of loss and confusion invaded me as if I had experienced something that my mind
- 33:40could not understand or process. I woke up in a hospital, didn'
- 33:45t know if it had been hours or days. Everything was confusing. The
- 33:50hospital room felt cold and sterile. My grandmother and some family members were next
- 33:55to me worried about my health, which seemed worse day by day, the
- 34:01chills ran through my body and the fever was burning on my skin. Every
- 34:07move, every word seemed like a monumental task. I don' t know
- 34:13how else to explain this, but out of constant physical pain from bites and
- 34:17other wounds I didn' t know how they had been caused, I couldn
- 34:22' t feel anything. I mean emotions. I wasn' t happy to
- 34:28be alive that little sad. I didn' t care if my family was
- 34:30there or not. I just wasn' t able to feel anything, just
- 34:36the physical. I didn' t want to eat the food. I didn
- 34:37' t know anything. It was like I was a doll surrounded by people
- 34:43saying I looked really bad. However, the studies they were doing to me
- 34:49indicated that it was from the wounds. I was supposed to be fine and
- 34:52recovering, but instead, I seemed to be getting a little worse every day.
- 34:57And the worst thing was that I didn' t even care about it
- 35:00anymore, I hadn' t even told them anything I' d seen on
- 35:04the mountain. I just didn' t see him on the case. I
- 35:07remember that about five days passed of this until on the fifth day, my
- 35:13grandmother, with her eyes full of concern, encouraged me to eat something,
- 35:16to regain my strength, but my mind was in a state of disconnection,
- 35:22as if an essential part of me had been trapped in that place with the
- 35:27blue goblins. My grandmother was about to cry for not getting any reaction with
- 35:32me. When my grandmother' s friend came into the room, I can
- 35:37remember how almost immediately she looked at me receding from the impression as if she
- 35:43had seen the most horrible thing in the world. She approached my bed and
- 35:46her eyes seemed to contain a deep knowledge, as if she had explored the
- 35:52darkest corners of the world and returned with secrets that only a few could comprehend.
- 35:58My grandfather and wife talked quietly, exchanging words I could not understand in
- 36:04my weakened state. However, there was something in the way they looked at
- 36:09me in how they addressed me with a mixture of empathy and determination. And
- 36:15then she took my hand and told me not to worry, that her cousin
- 36:19would know what to do, but at the moment that didn' t make
- 36:22me feel anything. My grandmother' s friend' s cousin arrived the next
- 36:27day, her presence made me feel something. I don' t remember that
- 36:32exactly, but I was the first person who wasn' t completely indifferent to
- 36:36me. He took my hand firmly and his eyes deep and wise. They
- 36:40ran into mine. He shook his head and told me that I had found
- 36:45something I shouldn' t have met and had taken something away from me.
- 36:51He put a ointment in my chest and finally told me he already knew.
- 36:55At that moment he looked at my grandmother and began to explain to her the
- 37:00different parts of the soul that inhabit us. I asked him again recently to
- 37:04make it a little clearer, and he told me this, the telly that
- 37:07is in the heart, which is the source of our identity and consciousness,
- 37:12the tonal in the head, the vital force and destiny and he Iyot in
- 37:17the liver, the breath and the emotions, explained to me that something had
- 37:23taken a portion of my teyolía, which was causing my state of emptiness and
- 37:28disconnection. According to him, whatever had taken a part of my teyolía from
- 37:34me was causing my body to start shutting down as if I was losing what
- 37:39defined me was as if my essence was being consumed by a presence that resisted
- 37:45being identified. My body was struggling to survive in a state where it no
- 37:52longer recognized its own essence. The shaman mentioned the possibility that a type of
- 37:58creature, specifically one of the different species of chaneque could be behind what had
- 38:04happened to me. He showed me a drawing and in it I recognized the
- 38:08beings I had seen in the forest, the blue goblins, with their dark
- 38:13eyes and their mysterious aura. I felt weakly. When the shaman asked me
- 38:17if those beings were the ones who had attacked me, he explained that,
- 38:22while some chaneques only did some innocent pranks, that specific type of chaneques were
- 38:29creatures, naughty and malicious who hated humans and hated being seen by them.
- 38:35Even if it was by accident. The shaman spoke of a possible solution.
- 38:39My family had to go to the place where I had seen them and make
- 38:44offerings of food and drink, as well as ask forgiveness on behalf of the
- 38:47affected person. It was an ancient rite intended to appease these creatures and recover
- 38:52the part of my Teyolia that had taken from me, but there were no
- 38:59guarantees of success, already knowing that the chaneques were unpredictable in their actions.
- 39:04The shaman recounted how he had had a vision of the place where the blue
- 39:07goblins had surrounded me. His experience and knowledge had enabled him to connect with
- 39:15invisible forces and see beyond the obvious. It was a ray of hope.
- 39:19In the middle of the darkness surrounding me. My grandmother accepted the mission and
- 39:23went to the right place. Although his face was full of concern, his
- 39:30determination was evident and to my relief the next day I began to feel an
- 39:37improvement, as my body regained its vitality and with every heartbeat, I felt
- 39:42that a part of me that had been lost was returning. I' ll
- 39:47always be grateful that I ran into someone who could have known I had,
- 39:52since I always believed that under other circumstances I would have died. Currently I
- 39:57still practice hiking, but whenever I have a strange feeling. I turn around
- 40:02and come back clearly remember the day my brother Gemelo Dimitri and I went to
- 40:13our grandfather Paterno' s house. To tell you the truth, we'
- 40:17ve never heard of him before, let alone seen him in person. According
- 40:22to our father, he just one day left Both my dad and his brothers
- 40:28were too small. My Uncle Edmundo was the oldest and barely seven years old
- 40:32and as it was quite common, back then my grandmother got so upset that
- 40:37she banned them from all contact with the rest of her father' s family,
- 40:42but from what my dad tells me, Grandpa simply never tried to get
- 40:46in touch again. And that' s the main reason why both my dad
- 40:52and my mom were surprised when Uncle Edmund spoke to them and told them that
- 40:57Grandpa had died. I remember that both for me and for my brother was
- 41:02strange, since, as I said before, we never met him. In
- 41:06fact, we didn' t even know he lived in the same city.
- 41:10For my dad it was a big surprise, especially because this is not a
- 41:15story of redemption in which a repentant father leaves something to his children as some
- 41:20kind of compensation for leaving or at least leaves a long letter to each explaining
- 41:24to them why he left and that kind of thing. More like the call
- 41:30was because Grandpa sold the house to people we didn' t know. But
- 41:36since it was full, those good people had decided that the right thing to
- 41:40do was to get in touch with that old man’ s family so that
- 41:45they could take things away for ever. It was evident that they had no
- 41:51idea that that man disappeared so quickly from the lives of their children that they
- 41:54did not even remember his voice. And even though Uncle Edmund told them he
- 41:59wasn' t interested, they insisted that they could take anything but the furniture
- 42:05and what they didn' t take away would not be thrown away. So
- 42:08there we were standing in front of our grandfather' s house. The house
- 42:14looked a little careless. It was evident that his age had simply prevented him
- 42:19from taking care of it, which in retrospect, makes me wonder how alone
- 42:22I was or whether the events I am about to relate somehow had to do
- 42:28with it. Upon entering, I noticed that the house seemed normal, although
- 42:32there was a disturbing echo resounding in every corner. Dimitre and I decided to
- 42:38explore a little, as our dad had told us we could keep anything we
- 42:43liked. We climbed the stairs and explored superficially, although, to be honest,
- 42:51there seemed to be nothing worthy of keeping until we entered the room,
- 42:57which used to be our grandfather' s. On the night table I saw
- 43:01a small key attached to a gold chain. At first I thought it was
- 43:07just a nice necklace. The key looked very old and even though I was
- 43:12just an eight- year- old girl seriously, I liked things that looked
- 43:15old, so I said I loved her. While Dimitri was looking for something
- 43:22in the drawers so he wouldn' t leave there. With empty hands,
- 43:25we discovered a small wooden box that seemed to fit perfectly with that key.
- 43:31With enthusiasm, I tested the key in the lock of the box and,
- 43:36to our surprise, not only opened, but revealed another larger key inside.
- 43:43Excited, Dimitre and I set out to find out that it belonged to that
- 43:47key. We spent almost an hour trying to find something in the house that
- 43:52had a compatible lock, but we were about to surrender It was then that
- 44:00ons Mitria found an old dusty trunk at the bottom of the closet, which
- 44:05was in a room that looked like no one had entered in decades. He
- 44:09looked as old as the rest of the house and was adorned with strange symbols
- 44:15carved rudimentaryly. But we were both so excited that we didn' t care
- 44:22about that and we decided to try the key in the lock of the trunk
- 44:27with a rusty creak. The lock opened, we looked at each other with
- 44:30a mixture of emotion and nervousness, while lifting the lid of the trunk.
- 44:36To our surprise, we find nothing but a doll or rather a puppet used
- 44:40for ventriloquia. She wore an intense red tuxedo, had a brown hair so
- 44:49soft that it seemed real. His lips were peachy and his green eyes shone
- 44:52in a disturbing way, although it was undoubtedly beautiful to the eye. The
- 44:59guy gave me a chilly feeling as soon as I saw him, although that
- 45:04puppet gave me chills, Dimitri seemed to find it pretty cool. He pulled
- 45:10the doll out of the trunk and started trying to manipulate it, trying to
- 45:15give it a squeaky voice to make it sound funny. I was trying to
- 45:20hide my discomfort. I didn' t want my brother to make fun of
- 45:22me for being afraid. I just told him that he was dumb and that
- 45:28it would be better to leave him there to do other things. However,
- 45:30Dimitri was delighted with the puppet and liked it very much, as he was
- 45:37dressed remembering that our father had told us that we could keep something from the
- 45:42house. He decided to keep it even though I tried to dissuade him and
- 45:47suggest that he look for something else. He ended up taking him home.
- 45:51For the first few days everything seemed normal. Dimitri named him very quickly.
- 45:57Javier put him there was no reason with r as such. In fact,
- 46:00on the way home, he had said he was going to call him Flipp
- 46:04but out of nowhere he changed just because, apparently, the doll had told
- 46:07him that was his name. As the days passed, my brother was extremely
- 46:13annoying with that doll. He took it everywhere and repeated the same jokes.
- 46:19Without grace, over and over again I only knew how to make the classics.
- 46:23Nock noct was driving me crazy, but I was trying to be patient
- 46:29and tolerant. One day while I was watching a TV show, Timiti appeared
- 46:35out of nowhere and sat next to me. He had that puppet sitting on
- 46:38his lap and was trying to tell a joke he had heard at school.
- 46:44I was a little upset because he wouldn' t let me watch my show.
- 46:47I asked him to leave me alone, but instead of doing so,
- 46:52he became even more annoying, sticking the doll in my face and continuing with
- 46:57his Nock Nock jokes after a while after I had cornered myself on the couch,
- 47:01rubbing that doll in my face, I couldn' t contain my frustration
- 47:06and anger. Instinctively, I gave a strong fist to the doll, causing
- 47:13him to get rid of Dimitri' s hand and slide down the floor until
- 47:17he crashed into the wall. My brother picked it up quickly, but I
- 47:22noticed Charol' s tiny little shoes were scratched. Although Dimitri was angry about
- 47:28it, I couldn' t help seeing the look of that doll. I
- 47:31could swear the puppet looked at me with an annoying expression. I couldn'
- 47:37t say for sure, but his face seemed to reflect a glaring displeasure at
- 47:43the fear this gave me. I tried to apologize, but the atmosphere in
- 47:45the room changed immediately. I felt a sinister presence filling the air was not
- 47:52cold. It was like when someone is so upset with one person and feels
- 47:57tension between them. Dimit and he told me he wouldn' t apologize to
- 48:02me and then run up to his room with the puppet in his hands.
- 48:07Although I tried to convince myself that they were just my imaginations, I couldn
- 48:13' t ignore the strange feeling that took over me that night. While I
- 48:16was reading a comic book under the sheets, I heard a noise coming from
- 48:22the knob on my door. I quickly turned off my flashlight and pretended to
- 48:29be asleep, thinking that I was one of my parents who had gone to
- 48:32check that I was asleep, since I used to stay very late reading and
- 48:37my parents did not like that the next day I was sleeping at school.
- 48:40Although when the door opened and I heard someone come in, I realized that
- 48:45the steps sounded more like my brother Dimitri' s, it didn' t
- 48:50seem so strange to me. Sometimes, when Dimitri was afraid of something,
- 48:54he came to take refuge in my room. Usually, I gave him rrgüenza
- 48:59to admit that he was afraid, so he just got into my bed.
- 49:04It didn' t bother me, but this time it was different. A
- 49:07few seconds later I felt something stuck to my face above the Sheets. It
- 49:14was that varnished wooden doll. However, the voice I heard was not that
- 49:19of Dimitri. It was more snoring and difficult to emulate for a child.
- 49:23Also, instead of words, the doll only uttered grunts as if it were
- 49:29holding back laughter while sniffing. In addition to being very abrupt, Dimitri did
- 49:35not often play in a sudden way, but at that time he was hitting
- 49:39that doll so hard on my face and body that I thought I would get
- 49:44a bruise the next day, but I still didn' t have the courage
- 49:47to face it. That whole situation seemed too frightening to me. However,
- 49:52I was hurting myself so much that with a trembling voice I told Dimitri,
- 50:00let me sleep out of my room, but instead of my brother' s
- 50:05voice, I heard an answer that frozen my blood. I' m not
- 50:08Dimitri, I' m Javier. With that voice that a child could not
- 50:13really imitate because of how serious and natural it sounded, I didn' t
- 50:16know what to say. I could feel like the doll. I kept sliding
- 50:22through my body as I said I can smell your blood, I can smell
- 50:25your kidneys. He used some rudeness he' d never heard of Dimitri say.
- 50:31What' s more, they weren' t rude we' d even
- 50:35heard. Even our parents made sure we grew up in an environment free of
- 50:39them, so they didn' t even say them at school. Nobody used
- 50:44to talk like that, so I had no idea where I' d heard
- 50:47them. She was terrified, not only by her words, but also because
- 50:53the room seemed to get colder. Every time I cried and begged him to
- 51:00resign to leave me alone, warning him that I was going to accuse him
- 51:04with our parents. However, he kept insisting that I could smell each of
- 51:08my organs. Suddenly I could see how the tiny hand of the doll took
- 51:15the sheet and was about to remove it from me, when suddenly the light
- 51:20of the room went on and I heard my father' s voice saying Dimitri
- 51:23what are you doing? But instead of Dimitri answering, it was the doll
- 51:30who did it with that same sinister voice using again such vulgar words that I
- 51:36don' t think I can repeat around here, but what I can rescue
- 51:39was this. Shut the fuck up or I' ll take your guts off
- 51:44with a rusty spoon and then I' ll give them to your bastard kids.
- 51:49At that moment, my dad took Dimitri by the shoulders and shook him
- 51:52making my brother wake up. It seemed like all that had made him sleepwalk.
- 51:59Dimitri seems stunned and disoriented. I didn' t know what I was
- 52:04doing in my room or what had happened before Dad came to them until I
- 52:07woke him up. As for Dad, he bewildered looked at Dimitri and then
- 52:10the doll in his hands could not believe what he had witnessed. I tried
- 52:19to explain what had happened, but the words got stuck in my throat.
- 52:23Dimitri, confused and sleepy, didn' t understand what was going on.
- 52:29The atmosphere in the room became even more tense and I felt that the doll
- 52:34kept watching us with those eyes as bright as two marbles. Dad couldn'
- 52:39t allow his son to talk like that, but, on the other hand,
- 52:44he couldn' t punish Dimitri for saying something while he was asleep.
- 52:47It just wasn' t fair. So, not knowing what else to do,
- 52:52he just escorted him to his room and told me to sleep again.
- 52:55However, that was only the first day of what quickly became a total nightmare.
- 53:02Dimitri had never been sleepwalking and out of nowhere he walked around the house
- 53:07with that doll in his hand and said horrible things. Several times. My
- 53:13father stopped him when he was about to leave the house. We don'
- 53:16t know where he wanted to go, but because my parents slept with an
- 53:22open eye, he never managed to get past the garden. And, in
- 53:25case that wasn' t bad enough, on one occasion my parents, wishing
- 53:30to sleep eight hours in a row, even one night, bought a lock
- 53:36and put it on Dimitri' s door outside. So, even if he
- 53:40woke up, he couldn' t leave the room. But after hearing how
- 53:45he hit so hard that the walls of his room rumbled, I opened the
- 53:50door to try to wake him up and that no more harm was done.
- 53:53And that' s when I saw something that keeps giving me nightmares until today.
- 53:58Di Do was sitting on the edge of his window and the head of
- 54:02that puppet was turning directly towards me. I remember well that he mocked me
- 54:07and then he told me with that deep and snoring voice, if I wind
- 54:12it, it will bounce. And after that, Dimitri just dropped out the
- 54:15window. I was running to tell my parents and for our luck, a
- 54:21tree. He had managed to stop his fall and at least he was not
- 54:25dead, he was only very scratched by the branches and also had his arm
- 54:30broken. But the doctors said that, given what happened, those wounds were
- 54:34nothing compared to what might have happened to him. After that, my parents
- 54:39put bars on every window in the house, as well as looking for professional
- 54:45help for my brother, but he kept getting up at night. Sleepwalker so
- 54:50my parents set up an alarm on his door, so when he opened it,
- 54:53it sounded so loud that it woke him up. It wasn' t
- 54:58for the best. It bothered us all in the house and also the neighbors,
- 55:01but the truth had already run out of ideas and that although unorthodox,
- 55:07it worked and that had made no more incidents. Several days passed in which
- 55:14the problem seemed to have been solved, until a very hot afternoon, our
- 55:19neighbor invited us to his yard to enjoy an inflatable pool that had been given
- 55:23him we accepted his invitation with enthusiasm, but Dimitri and decided to take that
- 55:30doll also even when Mom told him that he could not put it in the
- 55:34water or the varnish would be ruined and the wood would rot. He said
- 55:37he was fine and that he would only wet his feet and not lose sight
- 55:40of him. However, once we arrived, he quickly forgot about it.
- 55:46When he wanted to dive into the pool, he left the doll sitting in
- 55:52a chair under a tree, not realizing that the neighbor' s mother took
- 55:57the chair and left the puppet on the floor. The doll rolled a little
- 56:00and came out of the shade of the tree, being exposed to the sun
- 56:05all afternoon. When it was time to return home, Dimitri picked up the
- 56:09doll from the floor and realized that not only was his elegant suit stained with
- 56:15mud, but his hair seemed battered and rough no longer silky as before.
- 56:22Moreover, his gaze seemed to convey anger. Despite that, Dimitri took him
- 56:28home and our mother assured him that he would clean it up and not look
- 56:31like new. However, years later, she confessed to us that she had
- 56:37simply taken it away, as it also gave her chills. He told us
- 56:43that when we were in school, sometimes he heard someone talking in my brother
- 56:47' s room and saying weird things. Moreover, on one occasion, while
- 56:52ordering some toys from my brother, he put the puppet in the trunk,
- 56:57but, as it was a big thing, his legs were left out of
- 57:01it, making it impossible to close no matter how hard he whipped the lid.
- 57:07Mom told us that she left the trunk half open and went to do
- 57:09her things, but when she was about to leave the room, she heard
- 57:15that loud voice insulting her. She ran out of there when she went back
- 57:19through Dimitri' s room and saw the doll sitting on the closed trunk,
- 57:22staring at her with that angry look she was looking at. Sometimes, Mom
- 57:30said she didn' t tell anyone because she didn' t want to scare
- 57:35us and, moreover, all the time she tried to convince herself that she
- 57:38had imagined it and maybe she had put the doll sitting in the trunk before
- 57:44leaving, despite having had it as her favorite toy for several months, Dimitri
- 57:49and quickly forgot the doll and stopped insisting on having it. At the same
- 57:53time, his sleepwalking disappeared as if by magic. But a couple of months
- 57:59later, for a weekend, as a family, we were all playing several
- 58:04games. I proposed to play tea party and our parents accepted enthusiastically. We
- 58:12went into the little house that our father had built for us to play.
- 58:16Dimitri took care of choosing the other guests and ran inside the house to look
- 58:21for some stuffed animals. But when he entered the house with us and released
- 58:27everyone to the little toy table, among the stuffed animals, there was that
- 58:31puppet. Dimitri claimed that he had found him in his bed and that he
- 58:37wanted him to participate in the tea party Our mother seemed uncomfortable, but he
- 58:44said nothing and allowed the game to begin. Everything seemed to happen normally,
- 58:49until, suddenly, a serious and profound voice uttered the words not nob We
- 58:53all became horrified, realizing that no one had the hand or inside the puppet
- 59:00and that, however, it was speaking. We scream and we don'
- 59:06t know how. We all ran out of the house, closing the door
- 59:09to keep that thing from coming out. My father, in an act of
- 59:14despair, demanded matches and set the house on fire with all the dolls inside
- 59:21the truth. We never knew it was or, because my grandfather had it,
- 59:24but I know whatever the reason my late grandfather got it. The truth
- 59:30was that at some point he realized that it was too dangerous a thing to
- 59:34let go of the world. I don' t know if what my father
- 59:37did to destroy her was good, because I' m sorry Grandpa would have
- 59:43done it before he put it in that box. I guess I' ll
- 59:46never know. For security reasons, I' ll change everyone' s names
- 59:58in history. This happened to my cousin when I was twenty- five and
- 1:00:01I got involved. I know it' s real, because I was in
- 1:00:06some of those events, so I can attest that what my cousin lived through
- 1:00:08was just totally real. And although I couldn' t say exactly what happened
- 1:00:15to him, I' ve always believed that there are spirits in the world
- 1:00:21who are only looking for the slightest chance to get into anything, even a
- 1:00:25doll, and just call them and invite them in. Okay. I'
- 1:00:30ll start by saying that I was just a kid when this story started.
- 1:00:34I was about nine or maybe ten years old and I remember back then,
- 1:00:38in Mexico, or at least the part of Mexico where I grew up,
- 1:00:43some goblin dolls became fashionable. I guess more than one can remember them.
- 1:00:50I don' t mean those little colored monkeys with hair you could comb.
- 1:00:53No more were those realistic dolls that measured about fifty centimetres which, as you
- 1:01:00were supposed to put them on an altar and take care of them so that
- 1:01:04they would bring you luck or money. I remember people starting to say that
- 1:01:07they were the devil' s and that they moved on their own and that
- 1:01:10sort of thing that older people used to say, which is usually quite religious.
- 1:01:15And this began to intensify when some people began to say that to activate
- 1:01:22it it had to be done only some sort of ritual some hour in the
- 1:01:27morning and, as far as I remember, it also had to be done
- 1:01:30during the full moon. My grandmother was one of those people who used to
- 1:01:35say that such things were evil and satan' s. My dad, on
- 1:01:39the other hand, had always been a total skeptic of it. He said
- 1:01:44that those were just nonsense and that it was just collective hysteria. Because of
- 1:01:49that fashion, he didn' t believe any of it and being a single
- 1:01:52father, he educated me with the same beliefs he told me that ghosts didn
- 1:01:58' t exist, nor that dolls were just dolls and nothing paranormal was real.
- 1:02:02However, despite their support, I could not help but feel a strange
- 1:02:07restlessness every time I ran into one of those goblins in the shop windows of
- 1:02:10local shops. I swore that his eyes followed my movements as if they were
- 1:02:20alive, but I always calmed myself by repeating my father' s words that
- 1:02:23everything should have a perfectly logical explanation. Besides, since no one in my
- 1:02:30circle had one, I didn' t have to worry. Like I said,
- 1:02:35my dad was a single father, so he used to take care of
- 1:02:38me while I went to work. When I was younger, he only left
- 1:02:42me with my grandmother, but later he considered that Grandma was already too big
- 1:02:46to take care of me, so he left me three days with Grandma and
- 1:02:51three days at my cousin' s house, which had its own tattoo room
- 1:02:54at his house and besides, he liked the children, so he didn'
- 1:02:59t hurt her I was upset to take care of myself so that Grandma would
- 1:03:05rest I liked to stay with him very much. It was fun and I
- 1:03:07never felt like an intruder in his house. On the contrary, I always
- 1:03:10felt that he treated me as his equal, despite the age difference. One
- 1:03:15day, when I got to my cousin' s house, I saw one
- 1:03:19of those goblin dolls. I was sitting on the couch where I sat the
- 1:03:22customers. His skin was pale green, his eyes were deep green and his
- 1:03:28teeth were pimply with a long pointed nose. He wore a typical set of
- 1:03:36Goblin, including the characteristic hat. I was petrified when I saw him,
- 1:03:42but I tried to hide my fear, although something in his gaze troubled me.
- 1:03:46I didn' t want my cousin to think I was a scary guy.
- 1:03:51He approached the leprechaun, took it into his hands and examined it carefully.
- 1:03:57He told me that one of his friends had bought it, but that
- 1:04:00his mother had told him that he did not want it at home, since
- 1:04:03he was afraid of it, so his friend had sold it to him very
- 1:04:08cheaply and that he bought it because he thought it would be an excellent decoration
- 1:04:13for his tattoo salon. Like I said, I didn' t want to
- 1:04:17look like a coward, since I told him it would be a great decoration.
- 1:04:20I remember I even told him that I had heard that you could bring
- 1:04:25them into life with a ritual, something that my cousin apparently hadn' t
- 1:04:28heard, since he said that sounded pretty cool. And after that he began
- 1:04:33to investigate about him and discovered that, by the symbol of his clothes,
- 1:04:39he seemed to be a leprechaun of prosperity. I asked him if he planned
- 1:04:44to activate it, to which he replied that he did not believe in those
- 1:04:47things, but if it were real, it would be pretty cool. After
- 1:04:51that it was a few months when goblin doll was just sitting in a corner
- 1:04:56of the tattoo parlor and although I was uncomfortable ba every time I had to
- 1:05:00go through it, there was no major problem. One day, though,
- 1:05:04when my dad left me at my cousin' s house. When I came
- 1:05:10in, I realized that the doll wasn' t in the place I was
- 1:05:13always in, but it didn' t matter. On the contrary, the
- 1:05:16idea that someone had bought it from him or that my cousin had simply decided
- 1:05:21that it was not a good decoration and would simply have disposed of it I
- 1:05:26liked very much, but the reality was different, completely different. When I
- 1:05:31entered his living room, I realized that that doll was sitting in a small
- 1:05:35custom- made chair, it was above a table surrounded by sweets and some
- 1:05:41fruits. I' ve never really seen anything like that and as I'
- 1:05:47ve always had enough confidence to ask him anything. I asked him what that
- 1:05:53was all about, and he told me it was really cool that a client
- 1:05:57of his had told him how to do the ritual to make him come alive
- 1:06:00and even though he was very skeptical at first, but he had done the
- 1:06:05ritual and he left it on the floor and in the morning it was in
- 1:06:09the armchair of his living room. And he also told me that now that
- 1:06:12he was alive, then I had to put things in him to eat.
- 1:06:15I didn' t know what to say, since, although I was afraid,
- 1:06:19my dad always told me that that was not true and those who said
- 1:06:24that they did just do it to attract attention, so I told him that
- 1:06:29it was a total lie and that, surely he just wanted to laugh at
- 1:06:31me. But he told me it was real that he didn' t believe
- 1:06:34it either, but it was pretty real. Then he asked me if I
- 1:06:40wanted to see him smoke me, believing that it was just a game and
- 1:06:45that if the current followed him I would just forget it. I said yes,
- 1:06:48I' d love to see him smoke. He told me he was
- 1:06:53going to impress me and then. He took out his cigarette pack and lit
- 1:06:59one I looked at with esthetism while inhaling a little smoke and then offered it
- 1:07:03to the leprechaun. However, what happened next left me speechless. The doll
- 1:07:11seemed incredibly inhaled from the cigarette. I think we' ve all seen the
- 1:07:16difference when you consume a cigarette because it' s on when someone' s
- 1:07:21inhaling from the other end. And that was just what was happening. Only
- 1:07:26the cigarette was glued to that silicone mouth with that perpetual and disturbing one.
- 1:07:31Smile and in case that' s not enough. When you took the cigarette
- 1:07:35out of the goblin' s mouth, I can swear a cloud of smoke
- 1:07:41came out of it as if a person were exhaling. I went into some
- 1:07:44sort of denial. I had always been taught that that was a lie,
- 1:07:48so I told him that I didn' t believe him and that it should
- 1:07:53be some trick and that he was just bothering me and wanted to make fun
- 1:07:57of me. But almost immediately he told me that he didn' t stay,
- 1:08:00he wanted to scare, and in fact, that was true. He
- 1:08:02used to be a joker, but he never used to scare his jokes.
- 1:08:06It was more like giving me false data or stuff his idea of jokes had
- 1:08:13never included scaring me, but I still kept saying it was a trick and
- 1:08:17I didn' t believe him. For the next part, I think I
- 1:08:21should say that my cousin' s house was very dark, so much so
- 1:08:26that even during the day I had to turn on the light in the room
- 1:08:30where I was with the only exception of the kitchen, where if I went
- 1:08:33in enough natural light so that I didn' t need to turn on the
- 1:08:36light during the day. But, well, knowing that, my cousin approached
- 1:08:42the leprechaun and suggested with some mocking little buddy you should get off my cousin
- 1:08:46' s chair and caress my cousin' s cheek to see that it'
- 1:08:49s not a trick. I was just about to tell him to stop playing
- 1:08:54because I was definitely not going to believe anything. When out of nowhere the
- 1:08:59room was plunged into the dark, when the light went out of nowhere,
- 1:09:01what was worse was that switch to turn it off was to the other side
- 1:09:06of the room. This was before Alexa or those remote controls or if there
- 1:09:12were in that part of Mexico. It wasn' t something we were used
- 1:09:16to seeing, so it wasn' t possible that my cousin would have been
- 1:09:20unless he had sent to install a second switch just for the joke. But
- 1:09:26still, my ten- year- old self, kept clinging to that he
- 1:09:29wanted to scare me. I felt overwhelmed by a deep sense of fear and
- 1:09:33my voice trembled when I said Stop this I don' t like it.
- 1:09:39I guess my cousin noticed even in the dark that I was about to let
- 1:09:43myself cry because he already told me in a more serious tone, that he
- 1:09:46swore to me that he was not doing anything to scare me, that he
- 1:09:50was swearing to me by his life. Then I felt something small climbing up
- 1:09:56my leg and fear turned into panic for please, to beg as tears filled
- 1:10:02my eyes. Suddenly, a small hand caressed my cheek and a scream escaped
- 1:10:10from my throat. While this was happening, my cousin advanced to the switch
- 1:10:15and lit it by lighting up the whole room and I was paralyzed to see
- 1:10:20that the goblin was sitting on my legs. My cousin was on the other
- 1:10:26side of the room, clearly incapable of being. Whoever touched me again told
- 1:10:31him that he had done it and that the dolls didn' t do that.
- 1:10:34I kept babbling trying to find a logical explanation for what happened. My
- 1:10:42cousin, noticing my discomfort at the presence of the leprechaun, hastened to clarify
- 1:10:46his intention. He told me that his intention had never been to scare me,
- 1:10:51that he just wanted me to see how great it was, but that
- 1:10:56if I didn' t like it, then we could do something else,
- 1:11:00like play some game on my table or just watch TV. I think that
- 1:11:01was the first time I felt that he saw me as a little boy and
- 1:11:05not as one of his friends. That made me feel bad as if he
- 1:11:12didn' t like it there anymore, although his tone wasn' t at
- 1:11:15all like that it was just someone trying to comfort a scared child. Then
- 1:11:20we spent the rest of the afternoon playing video games and the leprechaun theme didn
- 1:11:26' t play the rest of the afternoon again until my dad came to pick
- 1:11:30me up. And even though I knew he still loved me at home.
- 1:11:33That experience had left me somewhat traumatized, so during the next week I managed
- 1:11:40to avoid going to my cousin' s house. The fear that that goblin
- 1:11:45had unleashed in me was too intense and I preferred to spend my time with
- 1:11:49my grandmother, with the excuse of tranquility, to do my homework. But,
- 1:11:55as I said to my dad, he didn' t like my grandmother
- 1:11:58having to take care of me much, since he was already very old,
- 1:12:01so eventually my father needed me to stay with my cousin again, and I
- 1:12:06had no reason to refuse, since my father didn' t believe any of
- 1:12:11that and would just tell me to stop telling lies or. In the worst
- 1:12:15case scenario, I' d think he' d done something to make me
- 1:12:18not want to go home, and that wasn' t the case, so
- 1:12:23I ended up coming back. When I got home, I noticed my cousin
- 1:12:27looked a little tired and seemed a little nervous. When I entered, I
- 1:12:32could notice that the goblin was not at the altar that my cousin had prepared.
- 1:12:38It became strange to me, so almost instinctively, I asked him where
- 1:12:41the leprechaun was, to which he replied with fear in his voice that it
- 1:12:45is not there. I looked at him disconcertingly and he smiled nervously to later
- 1:12:53tell me that I was probably walking around that I used to do that,
- 1:12:58although I shouldn' t worry about that at the time I didn' t
- 1:13:00understand him. It looked too emaciated to be a joke, but it wasn
- 1:13:05' t like I wanted to find out from what I said yes. I
- 1:13:11decided to pretend everything was okay. During the day, everything seemed to happen
- 1:13:15normally, but when the night came and we were watching a movie, I
- 1:13:20fell asleep on the couch in the middle of a dream, I could hear
- 1:13:26my cousin talking on the phone quietly. I must find a way to get
- 1:13:30rid of him. He mumbled with restlessness. I heard him running around the
- 1:13:35house in the morning and once forgot to leave fresh food at the altar.
- 1:13:42I woke up with a severe pain in my calf and saw a small bite
- 1:13:46in my skin. Besides, I could hear a laugh and hasty footsteps.
- 1:13:51Getting out of my room. My heart accelerated when I heard those words my
- 1:13:58cousin was worrying and his experiences with the leprechaun seemed increasingly disturbing. Not entirely
- 1:14:05sure what to do for my young age, I decided to tell my father
- 1:14:10about the strange experiences with the leprechaun. As always, he was skeptical and
- 1:14:15underestimated what he told him. He told me he wouldn' t worry about
- 1:14:21that, that probably my cousin was just suggesting himself and that none of that
- 1:14:27could be real. Desperate to find a solution, I dared to tell my
- 1:14:31grandmother what had happened. To my surprise, she believed me immediately. He
- 1:14:39told me we had to do something to help him and that she would go
- 1:14:43with the father of the church to go bless my cousin' s house and
- 1:14:46expel the demon at once. That' s how my grandmother accompanied the father
- 1:14:51of the church to my cousin' s house to try to bless her and
- 1:14:57turn away any bad energy that might be there. However, despite his efforts,
- 1:15:00nothing seemed to change. The goblin stood still in his small chair,
- 1:15:08as if not affected by prayers or blessings. My cousin told me years later
- 1:15:15what happened that night, when he stayed home alone as he was getting ready
- 1:15:19to sleep, he heard steps coming from the kitchen. Although his door was
- 1:15:25closed, the steps came closer and closer. Luckily, he had closed his
- 1:15:30door before going to bed. However, if he could hear a soft,
- 1:15:34malevolent voice behind the door, you invited me in now. You can never
- 1:15:40get rid of me no matter what you do. Although this was bad enough.
- 1:15:45I' ll never forget the last time I had contact with that thing
- 1:15:48when I got home to be cared for by him, something even he had
- 1:15:54been postponing, but I guess he just wanted to feel normal again. Upon
- 1:15:58arrival, I noticed that his house was not as clean as ever, as
- 1:16:01he used to be quite tidy and, on top of that, he seemed
- 1:16:06to be sleeping in his bathroom. Asking him why he slept there, he
- 1:16:11confessed to me that it was the only place I could rest without dawn with
- 1:16:15bruises or bites. He was physically and emotionally exhausted. My cousin told me,
- 1:16:23something that made him see the light at the end of the tunnel,
- 1:16:27because a client of his had mentioned that he knew a shaman who might be
- 1:16:31able to help him with his problem. According to his client, he was
- 1:16:34kind of a repellent of evil things. I told him that was fantastic and
- 1:16:40we both tried to spend the day as normal as we could. That day
- 1:16:45Dad had already taken a long time to get me, usually picking me up
- 1:16:48before dark night fell quickly and the house plunged into darkness. Suddenly I heard
- 1:16:59quick steps. Running in the kitchen. I looked at my cousin to warn
- 1:17:03him, but he had already fallen deep asleep. I turned to the kitchen
- 1:17:09and found two bright green eyes watching me from the dark. It was the
- 1:17:15leprechaun crouched over the stove. Terror paralysed me. I tried to scream,
- 1:17:23but no sound came out of my mouth. A sinister laugh filled the air
- 1:17:27from all over the house. I finally managed to wake my cousin. He
- 1:17:32looked at him and scared. He told me to go out the back of
- 1:17:36the house. I saw him so scared that I listened to him immediately we
- 1:17:42ran, but the sound of footsteps chasing us filled us with dread. Just
- 1:17:45as my cousin and I were about to leave the house, the goblin attacked
- 1:17:49him by sinking a tattoo needle into his calf. The macabre laughter continued to
- 1:17:58rumble. In our ears. We heard my dad' s truck parked.
- 1:18:02Then my cousin helped me jump the fence of his yard, which led to
- 1:18:06a vacant lot, full of weed and grass out of control. I don
- 1:18:11' t know how, but he also managed to cross and we both ran
- 1:18:15into the truck, Dad. He didn' t know what happened, he
- 1:18:17just drove. After that terrifying experience, my cousin took three more days to
- 1:18:24return home, awaiting the arrival of the shaman who could free him from the
- 1:18:29goblin. Finally, the man came and entered the house with determination. Suddenly
- 1:18:34they heard something rushing out the back of the house. He told me that
- 1:18:43they both looked out behind the fence just to see how the grass moved,
- 1:18:46as if someone had fled the shaman. He proceeded to paint protective symbols at
- 1:18:53every possible entrance to the house and performed a spiritual cleansing. Since then The
- 1:18:59Goblin has disappeared from my cousin' s life. No one knows, for
- 1:19:02sure, where he went. But one thing' s for sure. We
- 1:19:05never saw him again or felt his dark presence. Story written and adapted by Lisa Hernández