CHAPTER 1: THE BOY WHO BEGGED TO CUT OFF HIS ARM
The first scream came at exactly 2:13 in the morning.
It was so loud that even the rain outside seemed to stop.
“Get them out! Please! They're eating me!”
Ten-year-old Diego Morales sat upright in his bed, clutching his cast-covered arm. His face was pale, his hair soaked with sweat, and his entire body trembled as if he had been thrown into icy water.
The large bedroom in the Del Valle neighborhood of Mexico City suddenly filled with chaos.
The door burst open.
Adrián Morales, one of the city's most successful real-estate developers, rushed inside wearing only his pajama pants.
“What happened?” he shouted.
Diego looked at him with wild, terrified eyes.
“They're moving again! Dad, I can feel them crawling! Please cut this thing off!”
He slammed his cast against the wall.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
The sound was sickening.
Adrián grabbed him by the shoulders.
“Stop it! You're going to break your arm again!”
“But they're biting me!”
Another violent hit.
Thud.
This time, blood appeared around the edge of the cast.
“Diego!”
The boy screamed even louder.
“I'd rather lose my arm than keep this thing on me!”
The words froze the room.
A child didn't say something like that unless he truly believed it.
Then another person appeared at the doorway.
Claudia.
Adrián's new wife.
She wore a silk robe and looked perfectly calm, almost annoyed.
She crossed her arms.
“Again?”
Her voice carried no concern.
Only irritation.
Adrián sighed.
“He says something is inside the cast.”
Claudia rolled her eyes.
“He's been saying that for days.”
“He's not lying!” Diego cried.
The woman looked at him coldly.
“You've done this before, Diego. First you said it burned. Then you said it itched. Then you said your fingers were numb. Now there are animals inside your arm?”
Tears rolled down the boy's cheeks.
“You know what you did!”
Silence.
For a fraction of a second, Claudia's smile disappeared.
Then it returned.
“See?” she said to Adrián. “This is exactly what I mean. He's becoming delusional.”
Adrián rubbed his temples.
For three years, he had been raising Diego alone after his first wife, Elena, died in a car accident.
He had been a broken man.
Then Claudia appeared.
Beautiful.
Kind.
Patient.
She made him laugh again.
She convinced him that both he and Diego deserved a second chance.
But ever since she moved into the house six months earlier, his son had changed.
The cheerful boy who loved soccer had become withdrawn.
Quiet.
Afraid.
And since breaking his arm three weeks ago, he had been having nightmares every night.
Suddenly another figure entered the room.
Doña Meche.
The nanny had worked for the Morales family for nearly twelve years.
She had been there the day Diego was born.
She had held him when his mother died.
And now, seeing him cry like this made her heart ache.
She approached slowly.
“Nana…” Diego whispered.
His lips trembled.
“Please help me.”
She touched his forehead.
Her hand jerked back.
“My God…”
“What?” Adrián asked.
“He's burning.”
Claudia sighed.
“He's warm because he's hysterical.”
“No,” the nanny said quietly.
“This is fever.”
She leaned closer to the cast.
Then she froze.
There was a smell.
A strange smell.
Sweet.
Rotten.
Like fruit left in the sun mixed with something dead.
Her stomach tightened.
“Sir… has the doctor checked his arm since the accident?”
“Three days ago,” Adrián answered.
“They said everything was healing normally.”
Doña Meche looked unconvinced.
Then something caught her eye.
A tiny red ant crawling across the bed.
She followed it.
The insect climbed onto Diego's blanket…
Then onto the cast…
And disappeared into a small crack near his wrist.
Her heart stopped.
An ant?
Inside the cast?
She stared.
Seconds later…
another ant came out.
Then another.
The room suddenly felt cold.
“Sir…”
“What now?”
“There are ants inside his cast.”
Claudia laughed.
“Impossible.”
“I just saw them.”
“Maybe they're in the room.”
“No.”
The nanny's voice trembled.
“They're coming from his arm.”
Diego started crying again.
“I told you! I told everyone!”
Adrián looked uncertain for the first time.
Then Claudia stepped forward.
“This is ridiculous.”
She placed a hand on his shoulder.
“You're exhausted, honey. He's exhausted. Everyone's imagining things.”
She turned to the nanny.
“Take him back to bed.”
But Diego suddenly grabbed Doña Meche's wrist.
His fingernails dug into her skin.
“Nana…”
He whispered so softly that only she could hear.
“She comes into my room at night.”
The nanny blinked.
“What?”
“She puts something in my cast.”
A chill ran through her.
“What are you talking about?”
Diego's eyes filled with tears.
“She says if I tell Daddy… she'll send you away forever.”
Doña Meche looked up.
Claudia was staring directly at her.
Smiling.
But there was something terrifying in her eyes.
The smile didn't reach them.
For the first time in six months…
the nanny felt afraid of the woman living in this house.
Then Diego whispered something else.
Something that made her blood turn to ice.
“I saw her take Mom's necklace.”
The room seemed to stop breathing.
Because Elena's necklace…
had disappeared the same night she died.
And nobody had ever found it.
Suddenly thunder exploded outside.
The lights flickered.
Then the entire house went dark.
For several seconds, no one moved.
Then came a sound.
A tiny sound.
Crack…
Crack…
Crack…
It was coming from Diego's cast.
Everyone froze.
The boy began screaming.
Something was moving inside.
And in the darkness…
Claudia slowly took one step backward.
Then another.
May you like
As if she already knew exactly what was hidden beneath that white shell.
TO BE CONTINUED…
Chapter 2: The Nanny Breaks the Cast Open… and Finds a Bloody Syringe That Exposes a Murder No One Suspected.
