An 18-year-old man was sitting on his bed, he would have his birthday in a few days, his name was Hernán Il Rosso, with northern Italian ancestry, although he did not know where from, since his great-grandparents had come when they had just married at the age of 17, he had passed 102 years, so the only Italian he had was his last name.
It was the beginning of the 2020s, and a pandemic had just begun to spread that put all the governments of the world on alert, forcing everyone to distance themselves for the sake of health, virtuality became the modus operandi of education and work, many young people had been frustrated, due to the stress produced by this abrupt change in society, Hernán was one of them, his parents Juan and Laura reproached him for having dropped out and not even having finished high school.
His days were really boring, he was sunk in monotony, he got up at any time, ate and sat down to surf the internet until night, where he fell asleep and repeated the process, his parents challenged him every day, they told him that I couldn't continue like this and that I had to change, and if I didn't study, I should at least look for a job; Hernán tried to turn a deaf ear, until one day everything changed.
02/18/2020 Tuesday 1:23 PM
-Hernán, I'm fed up with you living like this and not doing anything, that I have to break my back to give what the family needs and you are like a worm! - Juan shouted, giving off the smell of alcohol, he had finished returning from his job as a bricklayer where he was told after learning his salary would be cut in half.
-¡Enough dear, that's not the way to say things!- Laura said, trying to get her husband away from their son.
-Shut up, you don't do anything, also all day at home- saying this Juan threw Laura to the ground, and approached Hernán.
-Stop a bit, please don't come near me- Hernán yelled scared, covered his head in his arms, surrendering to the monster in front of him.
It was only 14 PM. when Juan kicked Hernán out of his house after punching and kicking him; Luckily for Hernán, who had a great physique, measuring 1 meter 88 centimeters, he endured the beating from his father, which in terms of physique was not a big deal, but since he was little, Hernán suffered beatings and insults from his father. , generating terror and impotence towards his father, so when he heard his father scream or saw him approaching he would freeze with fear, it was also partly because of this that he ended up being a lazy person locked up in his house.
Hernán was huddled on the sidewalk in front of his house, all bruised with several bleeding wounds, the streets were empty as a result of the pandemic, so Hernán only had to get up and, as he walked away from his house, wander aimlessly around streets.
It was night when Hernán went for a walk in the Bosque de La Plata.
-(I feel like they are watching me, the forest at night looks and feels very gloomy, I didn't even see a soul in the streets of the city, it looks like the apocalypse) - Hernán thought as he sat on a bench next to the lake, in the part that was near the waterfall.
Time passed quickly and Hernán fell asleep on the bench, some figures that were waiting in the shadows upon realizing that he had fallen asleep, approached, tied him with ropes and took him into the cave of the waterfall, there Hernán he opened his eyes.
-Who are you? What the hell are you doing? Damn sons of bitches. Hernán yelled and moved trying to free himself from the ropes.
-Shut up, we're going to do a little ritual, and since you were close we took the opportunity to get a better ingredient- said one of the two figures in an aged voice and with a feminine tone, she looked at the other person and said -Gag him, don't let him yell .-
The large person silently listened to the old witch, taping Hernán's mouth, then stayed in a corner using her cell phone, while this was happening, the old woman prepared things for the ritual, among them she put water to boil in a bathtub that they brought, Hernán could only watch while everything happened; once they finished preparing the ritual, they undressed Hernán, washed him with ice water that had a strange smell, while these 2 hooded people muttered strange songs, Hernán was very scared, and he was shivering with cold, even though it was February in Argentina, It was a cold night and after being bathed in ice cold water while naked took a toll on him.
At one point, the old woman painted him with a mixture of animal blood, drawing strange marks on him that in Hernán's eyes did not make sense, they gave him a liquid to drink that was not known to be, with a flavor, so disgusting that Hernán I vomit, messing everything up.
"NO! Shit, now we have to start again" the old woman screamed, while hitting Hernán in the stomach.
Hernán at this moment was very dizzy and did not understand anything, the voices of the hooded people were getting further and further away, until he realized that he was losing his senses, after losing his hearing, he lost his sense of touch, his The blows that were given to him were no longer felt, his vision clouded over, to the point that he could only see darkness, the strange odors that gathered in the cave he could no longer perceive; By this time, he didn't know if he lost his taste, but he guessed, he just felt as if he were floating, the only thing that worked on him were his thoughts, he didn't know what was happening, if he had died or was unconscious.
Fright, anger, were the feelings that Hernán had, I even wish that all this would end, even his life, after suffering everything that had happened and everything he could not live, besides that no one would miss him if he disappeared, his mother would be The only one who would have some feeling of loss, which would soon go away because after so many beatings from Juan, she had memory problems, in addition to becoming addicted to strange medications that did not allow him to be conscious for much of the day, Hernán was like dust in an abandoned house, or a piece of trash in a garbage can.