Discovery

Normally, Coral had never paid much attention to the hermitage, one of many, well, she had never really paid attention to any of the architecture that decorated her neighborhood, but this one, now, seemed imposing, impenetrable and somewhat gloomy.

"Who was the brainiac who said he would come at night?" Adassa demanded.

It didn't help that the mist was coming down the hill, and even less so living in a town where silence reigned at night.

"It was for the best, that way we wouldn't attract attention" Coral replied.

"Yes, sure, four teenagers in the dark sneaking into the hermitage."

"There are five of us, Imobach corrected him."

"Ahhh, yes, I forgot to tell you." Adassa didn't give it any importance, he focused on looking intensely at the brunette.

"During the day we would be more visible, more… guilty."

"Sounds good to me." Yûsuke added.

"Well, that's it, nothing more needs to be said. Shall we go?"

They crossed the square with Coral leading the way. Her equipment was not the best, a medium-power flashlight that Teresa had gotten from her grandfather's toolbox, plus the other flashlights from her cell phones, a portable charger just in case, whatever Adassa had in his suitcase, and coats.

"I don't know what they're expecting, it's a structure of about eight square meters. We're not going to see anything." the brunette complained again.

"Why have you come?" The one with straight hair and thick bangs answered again. Luckily, for his number one fan, he was just as direct as in the manga, but without the bad mood...

"For the sake of fun" Adassa send a mixed message again.

It was Imobach who opened the doors, and who closed them again when everyone had passed through. Among so many flower offerings there was not much space without them touching each other, something that someone took advantage of.

"Be careful. Some of the chapels date back to the 17th century." Imobach said.  "I don't know if the rest of the decoration is."

"Yes, getting tetanus wouldn't be pleasant, although my immune system would handle it." said Teresa with a sly smile.

No one answered, was that something to be proud of? They didn't know what to say. They moved the plants away, which inevitably raised the dust that had accumulated for days, perhaps weeks, and degenerated into a sneezing fit from the athlete.

"There are some identical ones, almost all of them are wilted, but the pot is always the same, constant, black and made of plastic." Yûsuke had noticed it.

"Yes, and although they look wilted, they seem to be the same ones." Teresa remembered having seen them somewhere. "This one seems to be the "newest" one, it will have been there for at least three weeks."

The reaction to the powder had made Coral's eyes water, her nose blocked and her hands almost numb, the handkerchief fell to the ground and, if it weren't for the fact that she didn't want to leave her DNA impregnating the place, she picked it up.

"And this?"

Even with blurred vision he could make out something between the altar and the reredos, something on the floor.

"Let me see." Adassa pushed her away. "There's nothing. She put her foot in front of the uneven ground. She didn't want to admit that they had been right, even though she had been the first to sign up."

"Yes, look. Do you see it?" Coral began to wonder if there really was nothing and it was just an allergy, but he continued pointing at where he thought there was something.

Ignoring the lie of the girl with more than eight piercings, Teresa crouched down to observe, she saw how under the altar table, where the light barely reached, there was a small space to put the beginning of the fingers, she held it tightly, pulled from one side to the other, until she realized that she had to pull upwards. Imobach had to help her, she was quite heavy, and the position of the table did not help either.

"Well, in the end there was a mystery…" said Imobach, stunned.

"Were you doubting?" his sister replied.

They looked into the "abyss", or rather into the impenetrable darkness of the shaft, the lights having almost no effect. The icy humidity that rose up did not invite them to descend either, but Imo spoke.

"I'm going down first" he said, getting into position.

"You've big balls!" Adassa shouted, Yûusuke thought the same, but he didn't verbalize it and was polite.

"How are you going to get down?!" Coral worried.

"In case something happens, I am the strongest and the only one with climbing knowledge."

"But… no, no and no. We don’t know what’s down there. Don’t you have anything to see if we can go in?" Coral said to Adassa. She hadn’t felt so desperate since he got his first phone at the age of eight and received a cursed chain of messages which, if he didn’t manage to forward it to twenty people that night, a dead girl would appear to him. Luckily, nothing happened.

"Do I look like a millionaire or like Doraemon?"

"Nothing is going to happen, we have come to investigate" her brother knew that the sooner he came down, the sooner the fear would pass.

"I... I agree, if we leave now it will be useless. Besides, I have my amulets, I recharged them last night," said Teresa, taking out several necklaces from under her blouse, either with crystals or Turkish eyes.

"I refuse. Don't come down, eh!"

The chestnut's complaints were of no use.

"Bored, if you're so worried, you go down next and protect him" Adassa took her by the shoulders and moved her forward, almost pushing her down so that she would begin to descend.

Once everyone had descended, the tunnel became slightly more visible, the light from the flashlights refracting against the sweat of the stones and the small puddles on the ground.

For a few seconds no one said anything, they didn't know what to look for from the beginning but this had exceeded expectations.

"As in the Tower of Doom …" whispered one of them.

"Come on, brave one," the one in the fluorescent orange jumpsuit urged him.

"Yes." Imobach nodded, although he would feel safer if he had a long stick. He also saw his sister's face, a mix of anguish and adrenaline, he hugged her from the side and gave her a kiss on the forehead, which embarrassed her a little in front of the boy she liked, but also comforted her enough to allow him to continue - Nothing is going to happen.

"You better…"

"Come on, so much drama... If we don't get out, I've never scheduled a message on my social networks at dawn, they'll come to get us out" Adassa gently pushed the brothers, they began to walk.

The road seemed eternal to them, without a destination to go to, they did not know how long it would take to get there, and if they did get there, would there really be anything?

"So, are we going to be long? It's just that... it's already quite a while since my bedtime" Teresa said this last word in a whisper, almost inaudible.

"Don't worry," Coral replied in the same tone, then took a thermos out of her suitcase. "It's tea." She knew that coffee would make her friend very drunk.

"By the way, when are you planning to go to your universe ? You've been here for a week now."

"Ada! Don't be rude," the brunette with a pink bow on top of her bun scolded her.

"I can ask you the same thing." Yuusuke replied, she had not been invited and had settled into the house as she pleased.

"To be honest," the dark-skinned boy paused for a moment. "He's not bothering us, he's polite and tidy, and he doesn't have anywhere to stay. He's not bothering us." He repeated.

«Beep, beep, beep» An annoying, high-pitched beep hit all the walls of the underground hallway and continued its journey for several more seconds, putting almost everyone on edge. Coral jumped, screamed and grabbed her friend by the hands, she responded by holding her tighter, while suppressing a scream; Imobach wrapped his arms behind them, standing in front, although if you looked closely, you could see his goosebumps and a slight tremble in his legs; Yûsuke stood stiff as a stick, his eyes wide open; And Adassa… well, Adassa didn't even flinch, he took his phone and when he looked up he saw the mess.

"What are they doing?" she asked, surprised.

Yûusuke, who by some chance had decided to investigate at night in the school uniform, tie included, with which he had traveled , was the first to notice, and cleared his throat to cover it up.

"I wasn't scared, huh."  Teresa's cheeks turned red, luckily the dim light made sure no one noticed, what she couldn't hide was the small voice. "I just played along..."

"Yes, I see" - Adassa looked away at his phone. "It's the motion sensor I put in before coming down, it activated, but with all the fog I can't see anything..." She tried to focus her eyes, but nothing.

"How useful," the Japanese said sarcastically.

"It's not normal in the Canary Islands, that's it. It wasn't expected."

"Yes..." - he imitated her.

"Were we really scared by a little machine?" Coral burst out laughing. "We should relax a little, we're too tense" now her eyes were slightly watery, but from laughter. "Let's see, is it still on?"

"No."

"Okay, so whoever it was is gone now. There's nothing to fear (from outside), they won't discover us."

"I'd like to know who the idiot is walking around at this hour! Every time it's turned on, it consumes more energy and uses more!"

"An alcoholic" Imobach resumed walking.

"And a creature of the night? Vampires, souls, The perrete… ?" The member number 3056 of the occult club in Spain suggested.

Coral would never understand how her friend loved to talk and fantasize about all those things during the day, investigate, read books, be almost part of her personality... and at night, fear her appearance.

"What I find interuesting is how you managed to get the signal to this point."

"Hey, yes, it's true. With all these stones and cement, doesn't the signal diminish?"

"An amplifier. I bought the base, but I upgraded it myself." Adassa said haughtily. "Don't they have that on your planet? Huh."

"It's a bit outdated" Yuusuke managed to maintain a neutral and serious posture. "But I'm happy for you."

Coral's mouth opened in surprise, then arched into a smirk; it didn't hurt to occasionally take an old acquaintance down a peg.

"And why did you have that gadget on hand? It would be more useful for protecting the house." Imobach said.

"I have nowhere to put it." She stammered. No one could understand what she had said.

"Can you repeat that, please? I didn't understand you." Teresa didn't always know how to interpret other people's language, much less non-verbal language.

"I have nowhere to put it!"

Adassa began by taking a few quick steps, then a couple of long strides, and then running towards the darkness, immense and captivating. Her flashlight rose and fell to the rhythm of her arms, luckily, and for a tunneled path, there weren't many obstacles to trip over or slip on.

"Hey, wait!"

Coral went after her. She made use of her years as an athlete, which had earned her first praise, and, despite being several seconds behind, which was how long it took her to react, she caught up with her. She grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her back, which made the brunette lose her balance, but she got up quickly, as she always did.

"You're killing me!"

"It wasn't that bad. Don't exaggerate." She said with a smirk.

"Yeah... I know, I should have thrown myself down, faked a bruise and sued you. Your parents are well-heeled!"

"Mmmh… I'll take that as a thank you for coming to comfort me."

"Yes, thanks, I guess."

The rest of the group approached at a questionable speed, the maximum speed that two people who only ran when the bus/subway got away from them would allow a restless brother.

"We're fine, don't worry." Coral calmed them when they were a few meters away.

"I have them all crazy, look how they come to see how I am." Adassa puffed out his chest like a pigeon.

"Yes, huh."

"Have you seen it? You've seen it, haven't you?"

It was not the question Coral was expecting from her brother after running a few meters in the darkness.

"At the speed and light they were going, it was impossible for them to see him. He developed tunnel vision." Yûsuke found the pun he had accidentally made funny.

"What?" Coral answered, smiling for the same reason as Yuusuke.

"It's like a reconstructed natural cave." Teresa said, amazed by nature's hiding places. "Come, come, it's better for you to see it."

She pulled her friend's hand, she didn't dare to do so with the other girl, she knew that she herself was considered extravagant, but the brunette was in a very different way than her.

The boys followed them, not so sure it was mind-blowing, rather, something macabre, gloomy and, well, unexpected, but they were there to investigate whatever Mrs. Milagros had discovered, and besides, one of them used to spend his time reading and listening to events in history, especially from his country, and what better way to reconstruct it for himself?