Maria covered her mouth to stifle a scream. The “dolls” had real hair, real teeth, and their eyes… their eyes were glass, but they had been placed with terrifying precision.
“Do you like them?” Don Alberto asked with chilling calm. “I made them myself. Each one represents a child who has stayed in this house.”
In the center of the room, two more elaborate dolls occupied a special place. They wore finer clothes and had golden nameplates: “Alberto Jr.” and “Elena.”
Maria realized with horror that she was seeing the remains of Don Alberto’s true children.
“The first family arrived three years ago,” he continued, stroking the head of one of the dolls. “Just like you. Desperate, penniless. I offered them a place to stay and… well, they never left.”
“He’s crazy,” Maria murmured, desperately searching for a way out.
“I’m not crazy,” Don Alberto replied. “I’m whole. Since my children died, this house needed to be filled again with children’s laughter. And it has been.”
Maria noticed something that momentarily reassured her: Don Alberto had no weapons. He was simply ill, deeply ill.
“My children are sleeping,” she told him, beginning to move slowly toward the door. “I must go back to them.”
“Your children will be perfect here,” he replied, blocking her path. “They will never go hungry again, they will never suffer again. They will be eternally happy.”
It was then that Maria heard something that gave her back her hope: sirens in the distance.
During the conversation with Don Alberto, he had managed to discreetly call the police from his cell phone. The call had been active the entire time.
The sirens were approaching rapidly.
The Ending That Changed Everything
Don Alberto also heard the sirens. His face transformed into a mask of panic and fury.
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