- You girls enter the house and lock yourself up! –Soledad says getting off the Caribe. - Let me take care of the Countess!
Outside the screams of terror began, when hearing the screams of the girls, who from the terrace warned them of the crocodiles, that were approaching along the beach, which were already beginning to jump over the railing of the boardwalk, the carriage just remained parked, with the Spirited steeds dancing, controlled by the steady hand of a black slave, who from the driver's seat only looked towards them, while he was surrounded by a dozen huge lizards.
Adelina waited defiantly at the edge of the terrace railing, for the carriage door to open, and the mulatto, taking some things from the bags she had bought, went out to face the Countess, although it was still daylight.
The carriage did not she stopped being scary, and the crocodiles that surrounded her much more, the lizards when they saw Soledad they moved away as if they were afraid of her, as she approached the carriage, whose only passenger drew the curtain on her window, closing it; Soledad opened the coach-type doors wide and yelled.
- GET OUT OF HERE BLANCA BEATRIZ DEL REAL! THIS IS NOT YOUR TIME, NOR YOUR PLACE; TELL ME WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR, AND I WILL TRY TO GET IT FOR YOU!
While from the terrace all the girls and boys, the maids and the multipurpose butler, watched expectantly.
- We can't let her face her alone! –Romaia says coming out of the terrace.
Belinda took photos with a modern high-resolution Kodak Disc camera; When Erika saw her, she remembered her Polaroid instant camera, which fortunately still had enough to take about 25 slides and followed Romaia, while Pamela was also reckless, when she saw her friends going to the exit gate, she steeled herself and the Queco to quickly go down the stairs and reach them.
- YOU DON'T EVEN TO LOOK OUT!
Adelina yells at them when she realizes they were going out, freezing their courage and desire.
The countess of Malibrán got out of her carriage, this time she was wearing long black leather boots.
With an elegant antique white coat, as if it were very cold on that sunny afternoon, under the coat she could see a fitted Victorian dress purplish in color, which made her look tall and thin, with an elegant white hat that did not allow her face to be seen from above.
- She's very pretty, Érika!
Romaia says as they watched the scene through the postman's window, and through the cracks in the mansion's gate.
-And she really knows how to dress like a real lady!
Pamela says admiring their elegance, while Erika climbed on the fence to take some snapshots of them, outside Soledad, surrounded by crocodiles, watched as the elegant woman got out of the carriage and told her.
-The enemies here are just you and me; Beatriz del Real, so please I ask you to leave the inhabitants of this mansion alone, and go back the way you came.
At the height of these events; Leticia Corréa was already arriving at the site of the macabre meeting, since when she realized the general blackout and the failure of the cars, being in the offices of the television station in the center of the city, and the impossibility of boarding a taxi, a bus or her own car, she took the bicycle of the building guard, to go to all that her pedaling gave to the Román mansion, because she sensed that the cause of the blackout, was precisely the return of the countess of Malibrán, where she had been last seen time.
- Tell him to forgive me!
The Countess says to the mulatto in a normal voice and without gesticulations.
- How can I make him forgive you?
Blanca Beatriz del Real de Malibrán, looked beautiful and elegant in broad daylight on that coastal sunset, apparently she felt hot because she took off her coat, and gave it to the coachman, her purple dress looked clean and well ironed, her dark brown hair shone, with violet tones like her dress, she said nothing more, she just stared at the crocodiles, some people watched the unusual scene from a prudent distance, but a new wave of lizards again caused the curious to move away, while the lizards were leaving the beach, the cars were still not turning on, and only a reckless woman dared to approach; Leticia Corréa, who was taking photos with her Nikon camera, getting closer and closer, when she noticed another group of lizards, that were approaching from the side of the beach, she climbed onto the tray of a parked pickup truck, almost in front of the Román mansion.
- How can I make him forgive you?
The mulatto asks her again, to whom she just looked at her indifferently.
- I want the ones who woke me up to suffering again!
The Countess says while taking a few steps towards the gate, where Romaia; Érika and Pamela were watching her secretly.
According to them; Soledad stood in her way defiantly, and when the Countess tried to push her away, by pushing her with an arm to get her out of her way, she immediately withdrew it, taking off one of the elegant white gloves, since it had been lit on fire.
- I already told you to get out of here, Countess, this is not your time or your place! You have nothing to do here, and I won't let you do any more damage.
Inside, the girls watched, between terrified and amazed, the elegant appearance of the Countess surrounded by lizards, who were already reaching a score of twenty.
- Hell's, I love everything about her! –Pamela says. - It could even impose a new fashion!
The reporter had already finished one roll of photos, and had already installed the second, this time achieving very good photographs, where she captured the beautiful woman in the carriage in all its splendor, since it was still daylight.
- Oh, you burned me! - Blanca Beatriz says to Soledad. - You have never been able to stop me Soledad! This time you won't be able to either, I need to take all those who woke me up, so I can go back to sleep, because I can't live without their forgiveness.
And she advanced towards her to push her away with both hands, but this time she was repelled back by a superior force, with the other flaming glove, holding back a wince as she took it off.
- Oh, you burned me again! –said the Countess smiling calmly. -Now burn them!
And getting up from the ground, taking a couple of steps backwards, while she adjusted herself and shook her dress, making her arms forward, the crocodiles closed a circle in front of her, going menacingly towards the mulatto woman, who was waiting on firm footing, interposing between her and the gate of the mansion.
The lizards advanced, but stopped without attacking her, and without opening the circle, as if protecting their mistress.
- You know very well that they won't hurt me Blanca Beatriz!
Says the mulatto Soledad, getting down on one knee, making gestures to the lizards, as if she wanted to touch them, like someone who would caress a pet.
- Of course they will eat you because now they are mine!
The Countess says, smiling evilly at her as a new group of crocodiles appeared on the beach, another on the boardwalk on the Boca del Rio side, another on the Veracruz side and in less than 1 minute, hundreds of crocodiles were heading towards them; Leticia still managed to take some photographs, sheltered from the tray of the truck she was in, but when she saw how the area was infested with lizards of all sizes, she decided to lie down, leaving only Adelina and the y those who accompanied her from the terrace.
- THEY ARE MANY, Soledad, do YOU HAVE TO GET IN THE HOUSE!
The mulatto woman approached the gate, and although a couple of lizards tried to block her path, they moved away before her steps and, taking a couple of chalk and some colored crayons from her pockets, first she drew a well-marked half circle on the floor that started from one side of the gate to the other, and while she was in the middle, she began to draw something, taking as a canvas the huge wooden gate where Queco would not stop barking.
-GET INTO THE HOUSE, LITTLE GIRLS, AND SHUT UP THAT DOG!
Pamela was pulling Queco by the leash into the house, while Érika who had climbed on the front fence to see everything, told Romaia.
- There are so many; Roma! And the Count is nowhere to be seen.
- The Count? –Romaia wondered when she listened to her friend. - Could it be that if I call her, she will show up?
And while Pamela waited for her with the door open, waiting for Soledad to enter; Romaia opened the back of her Caribe hatch back, to let out all the sound, put on the cassette that the boy from the Mustang had given her, and turning up the volume on her stereo, the macabre laugh at the end of the song began to be heard, thriller movie by Michael Jackson and after a few seconds of chords.
The macabre cry of vengeance of the Count of Malibrán was heard, edited with special sound effects.
- JUSTICE, JUSTICEEE, LET THE COUNTESS OF MALIBRÀN DIE, NEMESIIS TO INFIDELITY.
- JUSTICE, JUSTICEEE, LET THE COUNTESS OF MALIBRÀN DIE, NEMESIIIS TO INFIDELITY.
Outside, hearing the scream, the Countess turned scared to all sides, and when she did not see the Count coming from anywhere on the boardwalk, she hurried back to the carriage, the crocodiles left the mulatto disappearing under the parked cars, and Those who were closer to the beach began to return to the water, the bewildered coachman also got into the driver's seat, and seeing that his mistress had already boarded the carriage, he whipped the horses without knowing where to escape, so he just gave the turn on the return of the median, and stopped again in front of the house, heading towards Veracruz, turning insistently towards the Boca del Rio side, which was where the count of Malibrán had arrived the last time, and at Most of the lizards were either gone or gone, with just over half a dozen remaining.
And the mulatto woman continued to draw a kind of natural landscape, the lizards dangerously approached her again while she continued to draw, although they tried to get closer they were unsuccessful, because some invisible force prevented them from crossing the half circle painted with chalk, forcing them to retreat or roll over like it's electrified.
The seconds passed and in the absence of the Count, the Countess descended furious from the carriage, sensing that she had fallen into a trap, when she located where the screams were coming from, and watch the mulatto draw, she walked from the other side of the boardwalk followed by the lizards, that They came out again from all sides, infesting that place as it approached, emerging from under the cars, as if there were a great sewer from which they escaped, as soon as it approached, the tumult of lizards only piled up, without being able to advance towards the gate, where the mulatto woman did not stop tracing and retouching her drawing.
- This time you will not be able to escape; Soledad, because you will never finish your drawing!
Shots were heard in the distance, perhaps from the police, and marines trying to defend the city from the crocodile invasion, or from those who tried to approach the Román mansion, because they already knew that it was the epicenter of that event, and they were concerned about the famous pension for young ladies; Romaia had already returned the cassette, and shouted at the girls, who from above looked terrified as the lizards piled up in front of her house, and around the mulatto woman, who although they couldn't see her, they knew she was there, because Érika kept yelling at her that already got in from the top of the fence.
The reporter Leticia Corréa continued to take pictures from the safety of the truck's pan.
Already with her instant camera, also fascinated with the beauty and elegance of the Countess, who had already begun to transform into a diabolical entity, with her black eyeballs , like her now tousled jet-black hair, the beauty of her skin was cracked, and stained with the furrows of her inflamed and varicose veins, which throbbing seemed about to burst.
Romaia returned the entire cassette, and when the diabolical laughter that marked the beginning of the recording was heard again, she shouted to her companions that, although some were already downstairs with them, most were still on the terrace with Adelina, who was watching helplessly as the girls did not obey her order to enter the house.
- RIGHT NOW, DRUNKETEERS, ALL TOGETHER!
Romaia yelled at them, raising her arms to give them directions, as if she were a cheerleader for the school basketball team, and at the same time as the Earl of Mali bran's shout that was heard on the stereo, the girls also screamed.
- JUSTICE, JUSTICEEE, LET THE COUNTESS OF MALIBRÀN DIE, NEMESIIIS TO INFIDELITY!
The mulatto woman understood that this maneuver could also be very effective in buying time and encouraged Romaia to continue, while she finished her lines at the gate.
- Go on girls, I'm almost done!
- JUSTICE, JUSTICEEE, LET THE COUNTESS OF MALIBRÀN DIE, NEMESIIIS TO INFIDELITY!
The Countess turned around, perhaps sensing the worst as she heard the ritual invoking her husband.
- YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO FOOL ME AGAIN! THE COUNT WILL NOT COME THIS TIME, BECAUSE HE WENT ON A VERY LONG TRIP.
The Countess shouts at they from the outside, already transformed into a diabolical entity that is not elegant or beautiful, furious because she could not penetrate the invisible barrier that her enemy placed in her way.
- KEEP CALLING TO COUNT, GIIRLS!
Adelina yells at the girls from the terrace, and the war cry of the Count of Malibrán continued to be heard louder and louder, because each time it was heard further away, chained by more people who joined the call, neighbors, tourists and locals that remained locked in their cars, the marines and policemen, who tried to approach the mansion, making the call louder and louder, until a scream even louder than all was heard, echoing as if it came from all sides, silencing the all who screamed.
- VENGEANCE, VENGEANCE, LET THE COUNTESS OF MALIBRÀN DIE, LET INFIDELITY DIE!
For a few seconds all was silent as the Countess and her slave turned to all sides.
- Hello Countess! Don't you know who asked me about you?
Érika asks mockingly from the top of the fence, and the disco music in the background was heard again at full volume.
From the Caribe auto stereo with the tune of Billy Jean by Michael Jackson, making the perfect musical background for that stage, where the girls were celebrating the ghostly apparition, which this time did not arrive from either side of the boardwalk, suddenly and frightening everyone present, the sinister horseman jumped from the same gate of the mansion, where Soledad had drawn him, in the middle of a wooded landscape with a path between the trees in the center, the path from which the fatal horseman had jumped, who with sword in hand screamed, as he would have passed with sword strokes, undoing the barrier of the now more frightened than ferocious lizards, who were scattered trying to escape of the swordsman who ravaged them.
- VENGEANCE, VENGEANCE, LET THE COUNTESS OF MALIBRÀN DIE, LET nemesis to INFIDELITY!
The Count shouted once more, already jumping the crocodile barrier.
The Countess had already returned to her carriage, undertaking the graceful escape towards the center of Veracruz, repeatedly asking for forgiveness as she drove away and disappeared, the witnesses celebrated with shouts of victory, and joy among the lizards that, some disappeared under the cars, and others went to the beach, while the sinister horseman, galloping after his prey, also vanished along with the carriage.
The lights of the city came on, the cars started up and, by nightfall, that entire area of the boardwalk.
Had become an emergency site, first of all, because the hungry crocodiles had managed to bite some of the policemen and marines who confronted them, between the occasional unsuspecting passerby, and later, festivities on the level of a real carnival, which lasted for hours with people of all kinds who came to that area, shocked by what happened and waiting to meet the brave young ladies, most of them students from Villa Rica, tenants of Adelina Román widow of Villalobos, the owner of the Román mansion, who had managed to confront the Countess of Malibrán, turning the Veracruz-Boca del Rio conurbation into a carnival zone.