Chapter 3.

Deceptions and Lies.

She couldn't believe what she was hearing, it was as if a cloud from the past was moving away, it really was true, her thoughts kept tormenting her, her eyes began to fill with tears and she reproached herself inside for having let herself be enveloped in that way, what she so repudiated in women was coming back to her, it was as if she had spit upwards and the phlegm had fallen on her face, her frustration was deep and she began to clench her own hands tightly as if she wanted to cut them off for having failed at that moment, but suddenly he placed a hand hard on her neck making her gasp from the pressure; And then he said to her: darling, there is no reason to pretend that you will cut your hands, because you have not stolen, you just slept with me without knowing it, it is not the end of the world, then she muttered under her breath… Now that I know, ¿could you set me free?, But he laughed and said to her: mistake, you will not leave here, because now you are part of my dirty secrets, I could not let you go airing them out there and even less my identity, so darling, wipe those tears and put on your winter boots, because the game is about to begin…

After hearing those words, she felt that she would die and maybe it was true led her to death without knowing it, but ¿how to repair the past if we live in the present? That was the million dollar question, but it was easy to know the answer, you cannot repair the past by living in the present and walking towards the future, you just have to live with that scar and learn from it, maybe then the present will not hurt so much.

With that in mind, she stood up, put on her boots, and with fear stuck in her throat and her hands shaking, she left that room hoping to find freedom as soon as possible.

Luckily, that wasn't the case, as she saw a blonde girl also come out, who was surprised when she saw her standing there... and with a broken voice she asked her: ¿did he let you go out?, To which she replied: he told me to put my boots on and go out, but I don't know if he's going to let me go; ¿have you been here for long?, But that blonde woman answered her saying: no, I don't have much time; he recruited me two weeks before you at the exit of a cafe where I worked, I'm very scared, I don't want to die, I have a little daughter who must be wondering where mom is, I don't know if I can resist, but I'll do whatever it takes to survive, at least it comforts me to know that my grandmother kept the girl, but I swear it hurts as if my heart had been broken.

To which Glades said, accompanying her pain… I also have three children who are with my mother and every night I dream of being able to see them again and hold their hands, listen to them and share their pranks and their laughter, however, I am trapped in this place.

Suddenly, a siren began to sound, causing the women to get scared and stand back to back, looking at everything around them, both of them breathing too fast… Their hearts were beating a thousand miles an hour, suddenly all the lights went out and Chester's voice was heard through some speakers that were surely hidden in the place… And then, those words began to echo in their ears and said: it is time to start playing, if you manage to stay standing without falling or bending your knees for the next six hours, you will join the others, otherwise, my loves, tonight you will be held in the cold arms of death.

At that moment, red lights began to appear and the walls began to shrink, it was a game of abstraction, things changed places for no reason and they turned around and looked at each other with tears flooding their eyes, but then they hugged each other repeating that they would get out of this nightmare free and return to their children, perhaps that was the engine they had, that which moved them and drove them to survive…

Suddenly, the temperature began to drop, the light bulbs began to twitch from the cold, the mirrors clouded so much that the image was blurry, it was an almost deadly cold, both were shaking, but they had promised not to bend their knees, they knew that at any moment they were going to faint from the lack of mobility in such a cold environment, when suddenly the clock marked that three hours and twenty-five minutes had passed, so both women looked at each other fixedly and encouraged each other… they would only have to endure three more hours to return home, that was how they began to talk to each other so as not to lose the sanity, maybe it was because both had their defenses so low that they knew that at any moment one of them was going to faint, so they came to the agreement of leaning their head so that it rested on the other's shoulder and vice versa, it was not the most comfortable, but it would force them to remain standing without bending their knees for as long as necessary.

Both women stuttered and were delirious, their lips were already purple, the bags under their eyes could be easily noticed, their skin burned as if they had been burned by fire, but they were burning with cold, both had traces of semi-frozen tears on their faces, it was difficult for them to breathe and time also seemed to be frozen, it was then that the temperature dropped suddenly to forty degrees, which made the women feel like they were slipping and straightening their bodies avoiding bending their knees, it was already too difficult for them to stay standing, they knew that they would not resist for much longer... and every time they looked at each other, they knew that one of them would end up losing.

Then the clock rang again, so both turned their faces to see what time it said and realized that six hours had passed, so the lights returned to normal and quickly Chester's voice was heard over the speakers telling them: Congratulations ladies, my beautiful maids, you can join the others down the stairs.

Almost as if he had ordered it, both of them struggled down the stairs, feeling the tiredness in their bodies and that their feet and legs were burning.

They sat down at the end on the steps, but the door was not open, instead there was an iron door, both looked at each other and Glades shouted with a trembling voice, but with the strength and stridency of terror, rage and helplessness: ¡¡¡YOU HAVE PROMISED, WRETCH!!!, you told us to go down to get out of here, so open the damn door; then Chester's voice sounded mockingly again saying: I never promised that I would set you free, I only told you that you would meet up with the OTHERS, but it seems that you have not heard well, now you have fifteen minutes to find the exit to the other room before the floor where you are freezes completely, both women looked at each other, immediately got up and ran in different directions trying to locate the exit, but they could not find anything despite looking at the entire place in detail... It was then that the blonde girl said that the exit could be upstairs, so they both ran out and opened the doors of the rooms they had occupied, but in Glades there was no exit; So, they went straight to the room where that blonde girl was staying and the disgusting smell came out immediately, but when they walked, a multiple sprinkler was activated everywhere, which made both women start to get scared when they heard as if a turbine had been turned on, so the blonde girl approached the door and could notice how everything was beginning to freeze on the floor below, then she quickly entered the room and began to mess everything up trying to find a way out, desperate, both of them moved the bed looking at how the cold was getting closer to freezing that room, but neither had found the way out, they hugged each other on the floor while they backed up with their legs as much as they could until they were stuck against the wall in that disgusting room while they looked at the floor that was getting more and more frozen and it was just at that moment, when they noticed a small hatch under a pile of excrement that was about to be frozen; and as they got closer, they were able to open it... and sure enough, it was the exit, and they both fell immediately into a room full of balls from children's amusement parks... They looked at each other, sighing and looking fearfully around, hoping to find someone else, but there was no one; and when they looked up, the door had closed and the cold seemed to have sealed the previous exit.