Chapter 3

Diego looked around in dismay, searching insistently for the source of the voice, until he fixed his gaze on the rusty horn above them.

—Did you hear that? —asked Diego.

—Hear what? —Victoria clung to him tightly.

—Someone said "It's going to be all right".

Everyone was petrified and silent, trying to hear what Diego was saying, but they heard nothing but the whistling of the wind and the static of the horn.

—The university radio stopped working years ago, Diego —Estefany told him.

—But I heard it...

They did not want to insist and standing in that place seemed to be a bad idea. They set off again, but they did not even take five steps when the road they were on was blocked.

The fluorescent bulbs, the ones Diego had been seeing in the distance, began to go out. One segment of lights at a time and at a dizzying speed, followed by dry blows like someone hitting a concrete wall with a hammer. They were loud, consecutive impacts coming at them as fast as a predator pouncing on its dinner. The dark maw of a wolf opening to engulf them.

Why hadn't they started to run? In some it was disbelief at what they saw, in others their legs did not answer. Each one had their reasons, but no one moved an inch until, by a miracle, the light above their heads stayed on, leaving them facing an immense gloom over which they dared not take a single step.

—We'd better... We'd better go through Plaza Cubierta —said Gabriel, stupefied by what he had just seen, pointing to the right with his trembling hand. There was no need for anyone to respond.

They immediately crossed the street and, without looking back, entered a ramp into an open hallway near the entrance to the Central Library.

None of them wanted to look back, but a collective hunch compelled them. They all turned toward the Hall of Flags one last time to see the light where they were standing go out an instant after they turned.

—Well... —Edgar was trying to find words for what had just happened.

—The light went out in the hallway, nothing's wrong, —Gabriel used a thick, artificial voice, breathing hard between words.

—And why hasn't it gone here? —Estefany pointed out to him, hoping it wouldn't be bad luck to say so.

—Aaammm, it's just....

—It could be a localized fault, couldn't it? The power goes out in one section, but not in another —said Victoria, emboldened but without letting go of Diego's arm.

—Y-yes, yes, these things happen —Gabriel reaffirmed—. Let's get out of here.

That new space, Plaza Cubierta, was larger and, unlike the Hall of Flags, felt less outdoors. It had a high, wide ceiling, a polished floor, and several thick cement columns stretching down a long corridor lit by warm yellow bulbs.

There were no longer any flickering lights, strange sounds or deep darkness waiting for them at the end. It was just a square they knew and had walked through many times.

Perhaps it was the familiarity, the change in the hue of the lights, or the hope that there were people in that central place, but being there gave them a sense of security that they were grateful for. Even if they were still in the heart of the university, far away from the exit.

The trip continued along that passage, with a wall of red mosaics on the right and trying to leave behind the ungrateful memory of what had just happened in the Hall of Flags. They barely had to walk for a few seconds to pass in front of the entrance to the central library.

Diego expected to find it open, with students and employees still inside, however both glass doors were closed. Inside, they could not make out much except silhouettes, the detectors that prevented the unauthorized exit of books, and the wide hallway, illuminated by the poor moonlight coming through the multicolored Fernand Léger stained glass window.

They walked on, somewhat discouraged by this new encounter with the suffocating solitude; but they did not even take ten steps when the creaking of the door made them slowly turn around. The glass doorway leading to the library had opened almost completely, making all five of them's blood run cold as they waited for someone to come out... nothing.

Diego could no longer tolerate that and, letting himself be carried away by anger, he let go of Victoria's grip and advanced without hesitation towards the door, inspecting it and checking the interior of the small anteroom of the library. There was no one there and nothing to be heard other than a powerful, steady draft which, he assumed, was able to open the door from the inside. He closed it carefully and returned to his friends, oblivious to the small figure watching him from the shadows just below the stained glass window.

—Some intern forgot to pass him a key and the wind blew it open, that's all —he explained immediately, playing it down before walking on.

They even joked about it, talking about how someone would soon be fired, managing to get far enough away so as not to hear it squeak again, opening and closing by itself a couple more times.

That brief episode, even if Diego managed to justify it, had plunged them back into a nervousness that made their skin crawl. The prevailing silence, interrupted only by their footsteps, increased the tension, one that Diego tried to break with an unusual anecdote.

—Did you know that I worked in the library a long time ago?

They all turned to look at him as they advanced along the path that led to Aula Manga.

—Yes? -They almost all answered spontaneously, making them all let out a laugh that lightened the load a little.

—In the afternoon-evening shift. I had the opportunity to get to know all these corridors and many parts of Aula Magna. In fact, through that door —he pointed to a doorway on the right, with thick wood and paper-covered windows—, you can get to the basement of Aula Magna.

—Does Aula Magna have basements? —Victoria looked surprised.

—Yes, there are many interesting things, even a room with puppets and marionettes... although I don't know if that club is still working.

—Puppets and marionettes terrify me —Estefany exclaimed, not understanding why Diego would say something like that right then and there.

"As if this couldn't get any scarier" she thought pulling out her phone to check the time. It was already twenty past seven.

In front of them opened up a wide space full of cement pillars, murals made of small mosaics, shadows and nooks and crannies where no light could reach. The conversation did not manage to go any further, failing in its attempt to liven up the remaining road to Plaza Venezuela and making everyone continue moving forward without saying anything.

It was because of this silence, without several simultaneous voices or static coming from horns to which he could attribute the confusion, that Diego knew that what he was hearing was not a figment of his imagination.

—Shall we play the ladder game? —whispered a clear voice behind him, affable and sing-songy, accompanied by shrill chuckles.

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