Hell Calling Read Online Free PDF Page B

file. I thought that one day, you would ask me for it, or want to go through it with me.”
    Marta opened the file, and searched amongst drawings and sheets of paper that were annotated in her own writing. When she finally found what she was looking for, she held it out to Carlos, saying:
    “I know it’s not possible, but it seems as if there was more of a link between yourself and your daughter than would have previously been thought.”
    With trembling hands, Carlos took the piece of paper the woman was holding out to him. It was a drawing of Laura, he recognised it instantly. And immediately, he froze, petrified. In a simplified drawing, in wax crayon, his daughter had depicted a horrific scene: a vehicle falling from a mountain, and into the abyss. In the front, the woman driving seemed to be screaming; in the back, a misshapen girl with red eyes was jolted from the car by what appeared to be black spectres.
    XVIII
    He decided to take a little trip. He went up to the North, to a little town by the sea. There he could walk; there he could clear his mind. Over the course of three days, he seemed to recover his reason.
    ‘It’s all a bad dream: I’ll be waking up at any moment.’
    He had not said anything about the most recent developments to his father. He didn’t want to worry him. In any case, this was not the time to be causing him any kind of upset. Although he was a strong man, he had still lost his wife... And now...
    During the morning, he would go out for a walk on the beach and, although the days were grey, the northern sea represented a beautiful and relaxing expanse. In a way, it reminded him of his childhood; it reminded him of mercury as it spilled out of a broken thermometer.
    XIX
    Bzzzzz... Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii... Bzzzz...
    ––––––––
    H e was awoken once more by that inconvenient sound from the radio. But on this occasion, he was willing to put up with it for a bit, not turn on the light, not check whether it was switched on or not. He simply wanted to reassure himself that it wasn’t just his anguished mind playing a dirty trick.
    Bzzzzz... Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii... Bzzzz...
    ––––––––
    S uddenly, the sound became more intense, and also more variable. It was like the sound made by someone turning the dial, trying to find the signal, but to no avail. And then there came a voice; a voice he knew all too well:
    “Daddy, Daddy... Help me... I’M IN HELL!”
    XX
    Marta began to feel uncomfortable in the house. It was like any other, but what Carlos had just told her was beginning to take its effect.
    “I think I have contributed to the worsening of your state. It’s possible that I’m not being the least bit of help to you. Quite the opposite, even.”
    “No, please. I really do need you. I want to know if I’m crazy, or at least going crazy.”
    “Look... Carlos, I don’t believe in any of this. But, at the same time, you have always seemed to me to be an upright and honest man. One thing I’m sure of is that you are not inventing anything, and that you really do mean what you say.”
    Carlos hugged himself, like someone who is cold, and has nothing to cover themselves with apart from their own body.
    “What you’re trying to put delicately is that, under your criteria, I’m losing my mind.”
    “No... and yes.”
    “Explain,” he said, almost imploringly.
    “It’s possible that, you are actually losing your hold on the notion of reality; that your mind is overloaded with traumatic shock caused by such a painful loss, and as such it is subjecting you to a complex psychological game that has nothing to do with what’s really going on. This can either be a transitory situation... or permanent,” she declared, in almost a whisper.
    Carlos noticed how his muscles relaxed, how the loss of control was not just limited to what his brain controlled, but instead progressed throughout his entire being.
    “To you, there’s not the slightest possibility that anything I’m