The Gate In The Bleeding Sky

III

Half an hour had passed, they ordered us not to say a word, not even to the villagers, they closed and put my uncle Rogelio to watch that no one entered the house. The celebration of San José Praga had begun, the music resounded in the speakers, the laughter, dances and smoke from the firewood cooking the food for sale and consumption had begun, but both my friends, the villagers, and in general those of us who knew about all this, could do nothing but think, I would even say that the celebration only made us more nervous, not helping at all to release the tension.

Me and my friends, Carlos and Jose Luis, this time together with Miguel and little Julito, sitting in the farmhouse, were having a drink. However, both myself and Carlos and Jose Luis were too tense, so it didn't take long for Miguel and Carlos' brother Julio to spot us.

- Hey guys, why are you looking so stupid?" said Miguel, to which we just smiled and tried to change the subject.

A light rain had started, although this wouldn't stop the party at all, people wouldn't mind getting wet as long as there were drinks and music to dance to.

Far away in the forest near the village, on the other side of the farms, where out of nowhere we swore we heard the scream of a little girl, a voice just like that of Beatriz, the lost child. Subsequently, the face of all those present changed into an expression of bewilderment when we saw her running towards us, getting up with a start.

For us, it was like seeing a ghost coming towards us. Julio, who had been friends with that girl, whether out of ignorance of not knowing what was happening or the innocence of a child seeing his friend appear, ran towards her. Carlos did not hesitate to rush after the infant, shouting her name and trying to stop him, both me, José Luis and Carlos were afraid, it was worse when Carlos' shouts became more and more aggressive and desperate to prevent his little brother from approaching the missing girl who, from one moment to the next, turned around and ran in the direction of that forest of dry and old trees illuminated by that blood red light from the broken sky.

We all started to run trying to stop the child, Carlos was practically crying running after his brother, everything was total desperation, even Miguel, who knew nothing, was trying to stop the child. As we ran after the boy shouting for him to stop and he ignored us, a fog that was getting thicker and thicker as we got closer and closer to the forest appeared more and more imposing.

Without realizing it, a great amount of dense clouds had appeared, or I don't know if it had always been there, over the entrance to the forest, which froze our blood and made us accelerate our pace to stop that child. Then, it was that from those clouds a strong crimson red light burst out, shading the mist, as if the firmament was bleeding or there was a broken wound in that piece of sky.

When we realized, we were inside the forest, with a dense fog all around, the red light in the sky seemed to have disappeared, in its place, there was only a totally cloudy night sky. We were all terrified and thought about going back to ask the adults for help, but Carlos, totally desperate, aggressively refused to leave his little brother alone in the forest.

- "You go away. I must find my little brother," he uttered, proceeding to run forward, shouting his brother's name.

A quick glance among those of us who remained made us decide to follow him, only José Luis, who knew everything, decided it was best to seek adult help and said he would go to town, finally running in the opposite direction.

Miguel and I followed Carlos, but the thick fog made us lose him. Everything was such an unsettling atmosphere, we felt very out of place, somewhat dizzy, even with wrist and joint pains, feeling also a strange kind of vibration or sound around us, but nothing that could be described with words, because it was not any instrument, it was as if the wind was whistling thickly.