Fear quickly flooded the room. Several objects trembled with the relentless advance of whatever filled the entire tunnel, as if they too could feel it. Numbed by fear, the three adventurers stopped, but a supernatural lucidity emerged from among the dolls; one among many stood out.

Pale, cracked porcelain, fractured by time and sorrow. Soft gray and faint shadows danced upon it. Its lilac hair, with a black dress and purple skirt, contrasted with its complexion; its shiny black booties remained as if untouched by time. The doll's cloth hat obscured its face.

Like an inexplicable call, it caught their attention, and following it with their gaze, Mina and Íthil could see a large, flat lever switch. In a hurry, Mina used all her strength to activate the dilapidated mechanism, which engaged with a groan under her enormous force. As it activated, an old alarm blared throughout the tunnel. Ancient light turrets creaked, rotating on the ceiling, while an unknown language sounded on the loudspeakers that, more than sounding, coughed indistinguishable words.

"The room is closing! Back there! Behind the tool cabinet there's another exit," Íthil said while carrying Jacob on his shoulder. With a gentle tremor, a metal gate interposed itself between them and what was coming through the tunnel, revealing a previously invisible exit among the furniture at the back.

"We must take them all back!" Mina exclaimed as she overturned an enormous metal cart where she carefully wrapped each of the dolls in the room with its respective nightgown, taking all the wooden dolls, even those that seemed to have been in that place for a much longer time.

"Mina, leave that, let's go!" Íthil protested, checking the security of the newly discovered tunnel, looking nervously at the door that had just closed, the only thing between them and the implacable entity following them.

"NO! We won't leave them... We'll get them all out, even those that NO ONE IS LOOKING FOR!" Mina said as she pushed the metal cart, full of dolls, with all her might.

"Let's go, there's no time," Jacob said, picking up more nightgowns and throwing them into the cart Mina was pushing. After a few steps, it clicked when it reached a metal rail on the ground. Turning a bend, the cart began to gain momentum. Right in front of them, the tunnel inclined upwards as if the place itself wanted to prevent them from escaping.

"Come on, we have to get out, just a few more meters!" The three began to push the cart with all their might up the slope that extended into the darkness. Soon, exhaustion and fear began to weaken Jacob.

"Help Jacob, Íthil, I can go up alone, I'll take the cart!" Mina pushed with all her might, powered by fear. Still, Íthil looked at Jacob while looking back at the doll.

"I don't like that thing, but come on, PUSH HARD, GUYS, JUST A LITTLE MORE!" Íthil urged them on as he also pushed. Mina, sweating, glanced at the doll too.

"I don't remember putting her in the cart, but something tells me that even if we wanted to, we wouldn't have been able to leave her behind." The three pushed hard, a glimmer of hope finally appearing. That was until they heard a rumble of rock and metal at the end of the tunnel; it was making its way towards them.

This was followed by a galloping sound, then a metallic screech, like the scream of bending metal. At that moment, the fear was so great that Mina loosened her grip and the cart began to slide backward. Íthil couldn't stop it, and Jacob let go of the cart.

Muted by fear and blinded by blood in the semi-darkness, he fell into total panic. He called out to his companions at the top of his lungs, but suffocated by fear, the scream he hoped to make never came. Horrified and scared, he raised his hand, searching for his companions. Wandering with his hand raised, he only found cold. Just then, lost in the darkest part of that tunnel, he felt his hand being taken and reaching a metal handle that he immediately recognized as the cart's brake.

"Damn it, Mina almost crushed me with the cart! Push harder, dwarf, are you okay?" Jacob nodded with a gesture, his voice still not returning. With a shower of sparks and light in complete darkness, Mina took the cart, this time driven by fear and determination she held it, while Jacob pulled with all his might, but Íthil slipped and as he fell his hands frantically searched for something to hold onto.

His search led him to touch a chain with his hand; touching it, he looked up and saw, beneath the cart they were pushing, a gear.

"There, quick, use the chain!" Íthil's gaze was directed towards a lever; he put the chain in the gear and pulled it. Immediately after, a mechanical purr was heard at the upper tip of the tunnel. Suddenly, the cart began to ascend, assisted by the chain, but not quickly enough.

"Don't look back and push," Mina whispered tearfully to herself, while a hot, putrid exhalation, the smell of a thousand sorrows and hundreds of horrors, followed them closely, pulsating with an unhealthy heat. None of them turned around, they didn't have the courage.

"Keep pushing, I'll slow its movement." Containers and boxes slammed head-on into whatever was chasing them; they heard several containers sliding past them. The thing whinnied with frustration and resentment, each box hitting with supernatural weight as if each contained the burden of many old grudges. Still, it only slowed it enough for them to escape.

"Take this! Extend your hand," Jacob extended his hand and grabbed a control with a large button that he pressed without letting go of the cart, and still blind, he heard an elevator begin its movement.

At the same time, huge old and rusted engines roared, closing two enormous solid lead gates.

"Mina! Íthil! Push, we're almost there… I can feel the exit!" Jacob shouted while Mina's legs and Íthil's arms could no longer give anything. Terrified and trembling, they reached their goal.

Heavy lead doors held back the fury of that being while resentment and rage pounded from the other side with infernal impetus.

"It's unable to cross the lead, it'll have to go around, that'll buy us time... Recover as quickly as possible," Íthil vomited with strong spasms of fear and exhaustion while Mina trembled, clinging to the cart, heavy salty tears streaming down her face. Íthil wiped Jacob's eyes with water from his canteen as the elevator ascended in silence.

"We must know its name and form to harm it… we don't know its identity, that's why it's so strong," Jacob mumbled while taking gauze and applying it to his eyes.

"Yes, I understand, but I have no idea how to find out," Íthil took his wand and clung to it, as if his very life depended on it.

"It's very strong... I don't know if we can escape, I feel its hatred like heat beneath us," Mina replied, trembling, stunned. She felt the fear that her kind rarely let her feel. Only moments remained, the elevator was taking them back to the upper mine.

"When the door opens, the rail will lead us straight to the exit. Outside it will be weaker, we can see its form and maybe with the information of the place and some luck they will guess its name," Mina and Íthil nodded and clung to the cart. A few seconds later, the elevator hooked onto the transport rail and the cart resumed its journey.

Amidst creaks, the cart entered the upper mine again; the smell of terracotta and mud suddenly filled the lungs of the three adventurers. Little by little, the tunnel began to lose light. Whatever was behind them was catching up; they heard galloping one moment and then barefoot steps on wet ground the next, others dragging as if losing their limbs. None dared to look back; fear propelled them and they clung to the only light they saw in front of them. As they exited, they could see an enormous empty shell of the centipede that had fought them not long ago, almost destroying them.

"Hold on, we're about to get out! It might be weaker outside, but it will also be more aggressive!" Everyone gripped the cart tightly as it screeched as if propelled by an invisible force, and so the wagon reached the outside.

The cart reached the end of the rails and with a dry thud, it stopped at the very end. Illuminated by a lamp at the end of the rail, it remained there while the adventurers ran to prepare themselves.

"Whatever you do, you cannot look at it directly, if you do, you will die!" Mina took a belt and fabric, covering her eyes.

"Reductus Videntia!" Íthil cast a zodiac of blindness upon himself and Jacob secured his bandages.

A minute later, a stormy silence. Only fear resonated louder than the beating of their hearts, and at the end of a long, horrible few minutes, they heard it drag itself out of the mine, murmurs infested with madness and words tinged with the deepest hatred. Its voice resonated in their heads so strongly that every consonant struck them in the back of the neck, drilling to reach their most vulnerable feelings.

"Don't listen to it, every word will tear away your sanity!" but the adventurers were broken and helpless, and in that vital moment, they couldn't act.