Returning to the moment when Sarah was about to reach the end of the staircase.

  When she reaches the bottom of the hole, she comes across a cement floor and a tunnel similar to that of a mine, but without rails, with wooden pillars on the sides and beams above. There are pairs of oil lamps, one on each side, and they are unlit. A story her father once told comes to her mind. In the past, this region where they live was a mining zone that the nobles of ?nia used to search for riches, but mysteriously they abandoned it out of nowhere.

  She wonders about the possibility of her father having found one of the tunnels, and why he would keep it a secret. A feeling of anxiety mixed with sadness takes hold of her, an adventure right beneath her house that she could have had long ago presents itself.

  As she walks through the tunnel, lede lamps begin lighting up in a shocking pink tone in the corners high above, and then go out after being left behind. After walking about fifty meters, she reaches the end of the tunnel, which no longer has ledes lighting up, only a short darkness before opening into another one, now transversal, this one four times larger.

  Looking more closely ahead, there are other tunnels similar to the one she is in. Each with numbers above them, 125, 127, 129. High above, red lights on the sides give a strange and heavy atmosphere.

  Then a voice coming from the left emerges from the depths.

  With a slight retreat as she lowers herself, she hides in the shadow of the small tunnel she just exited. Soon, a young dark-skinned man, together with an apparently older man, also dark-skinned with a beard and gray hair, cross from one side to the other.

  “Today you may choose as many as you want! After all, it is your birthday!” the gray-haired man exclaims while raising and waving his arm. Both are dressed in designer formal clothes.

  They move away until they disappear from sight. Sarah begins to walk cautiously in the same direction. She looks back and notices the number 128 above the tunnel she was in. Walking stealthily, she goes from tunnel to tunnel, hiding in their darkness. 132, 134, 136, she continues for about 7 minutes, and the farther she goes, a small light at the end of the great tunnel grows larger.

  After tunnel 479 there is a grand portal, and she approaches it.

  Her eyes widen at what she sees.

  Beyond the portal, there is a gigantic rounded hall. In front of her and downward, a wide staircase descends in a straight line, alternating several small steps with a large one. This pattern appears to repeat until its end. Down below, at the center of everything, a pillar as wide as a round gray building rises imposingly. As her gaze runs along it, Sarah’s head moves from a diagonal downward position to a diagonal upward one until she sees the ceiling. The pillar merges with the rounded dome-shaped ceiling.

  On the sides of the staircase, cement walls rise and follow the small steps downward, ceasing at the larger one, then returning after the large step. This pattern repeats until the end. The walls bend and follow to the left, disappearing behind the previous wall. The same repeats on the right side and along the entire staircase.

  Turning her gaze to the left side, trying to see what lies beyond the gray wall, she observes that the walls are part of cement blocks that run circularly throughout the place like a ring. There are small rooms inside them, because far ahead on the other side of the hall, small windows and doors can be seen side by side like bedrooms.

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  There are several layers of these rings, each one below the other, rings divided by staircases like the one she is on, which also lead to the central pillar. At the top of the staircases there are also portals. The first to her left has the number 3 drawn very large above it. The second has the number 4.

  Running her eyes along the rings and past the pillar, after it to her right, a new portal with the number 6, then another one, now number 7. From that point on she can no longer see, because the cement wall blocks her view. Looking in panorama, she realizes the place resembles a rounded stadium, where rooms have been placed in the stands. In place of the field, the great pillar.

  Returning her eyes to the staircase, she notices someone down below coming in her direction. She hides once more, now deeper inside a small tunnel. A large dark-skinned man, wearing a black suit and short hair, reaches the portal and stands there like a statue.

  Forty minutes have already passed since she hid. He has not moved a single centimeter from his position. Crouched in the corner, almost falling asleep, Sarah suddenly hears a voice.

  “Hey Fernando, how are you?” asks a short white man with brown hair.

  Then the guard opens a smile.

  “It has been a long time, Luiz! Everything is great with me. And with you?” he replies with another question.

  “I am doing well!” Luiz answers. “If you are at portal one that means…”

  “Yes, I am the chief of the guards now!”

  “Congratulations, my friend!”

  “Did you come to have fun today?” asks the guard.

  “Yeah, today I am going to make up for lost time!”

  “Follow me, please!”

  “Man, that is so cool! Now you are the chief guard!” the man exclaims cheerfully as his voice fades while they descend the stair flights.

  The two descend the staircase and Sarah sees the opportunity to enter the hall or return to her tunnel. Once again, she lets herself be carried away by curiosity and crosses the portal, quickly descending the first flight of small steps. Looking back, she sees the portal she just passed. Above it is the number 1. When she looks at the sides of the staircase to closely see what lies beyond the walls,

  Confirming her assumption, a sequence of doors and barred windows. On each door there is a number and a letter. On the first door to the left there is the letter F and the number 01, on the next F and the number 02, then F 03, F 04.

  There are more doors and windows, but she cannot make out their numbers. When she looks to the right, it is the same thing. A door with the letter F and the number 48, on the other F 47, then F 46. Descending to the second flight of stairs, there the letter E now appears, with more numbers. Another flight, D, another, C. She quickly reasons that if she descends all the way, the alphabet decreases until the letter A.

  She descends another flight of stairs, enters row B on the right, tries to open a door and fails. She tries another and nothing, another and again nothing. She runs to the end of that block and looks upward along the stairs, then sees the number 8 above the portal. She climbs two flights of stairs until reaching row D.

  Entering to the left, the first door is D 35. As she is about to try opening it, she notices it is already opening. A quick run begins toward the staircase in an attempt to hide behind the wall. A bearded and fat man exits the room, he pulls the door closed and walks to the other side. An opportunity presents itself and she runs to see what lies behind it.

  Upon opening it, darkness fills her vision. Feeling along the walls near the entrance, she finds a small rounded core attached to the wall. As she closes the door, she presses the core. On the ceiling, a lamp illuminates the space with a weak white light. The brightness reveals a sink, a mirror, and a toilet to the left in front of her.

  There is also a small table in the right corner beside her. In front of the table, there is a bed with its feet fixed to the floor and a ring attached to one of them. Attached to the ring there is a chain, which piles up for several centimeters before rising and slipping beneath an entirely white blanket.