... at Floor 3553.

-No... -Kaleb exhales. The giant doors open again. The boy takes a few steps back, waiting to see what could be found on the other side of the door.

The first thing he perceives is the smell of humidity. When the doors finish opening, a huge tunnel is revealed. It's so long that you can't see the end. The walls are made of what appears to be rusted metal, to the point where most of it looks red. On the sides there are hanging lamps, which emit a yellowish light, but they illuminate enough that the road and the ground, which were gravel, can be vaguely distinguished. Then he hears the sound of the possible origin of the musty smell. "Plop! Plop!". They were drops falling in different places. Some were heard nearby, others sounded far, far away, along the huge tunnel. They echoed in the grooves of the gigantic, reddish rusty metal structure, creating an acoustic illusion that made the tunnel seem endless.

Kaleb stares at you.

-Darn it -he says angrily-. Now how am I going to get out of here! -he exclaims, while he gets out of the elevator to see if he can activate it again with the key from the outside, to go back and place another bet.

But no, outside in the wall, where the elevator was embedded, there was nothing. He went back into the elevator, trying to find a way to make it work, but it was useless. There was nothing, not even when he looked at the ceiling to look for that classic movie hatch to get out of the elevator. The ceiling was just a big, shiny silver metal plate and the only thing he could find there was the reflection of his resigned and worried face.

-Now you'll have to help me find a way out of this filthy tunnel -Kaleb says-. Since you made me choose the wrong key -he continues, as he adjusts his backpack to start walking.

The boy begins to walk. From time to time his boots make a wet sound when stepping on some area with wet gravel. Kaleb constantly turns to where the elevator is, still wide open. He continues to check, not wanting it to suddenly close on him and work again. If this happens, his plan is to run back. Maybe then he could go back and bet the key again. But most of all, he turns because he doesn't want to see that beast come out of nowhere and chase after him, especially in a place like this, where there are no intersecting corridors in which he can make a sharp turn to lose it. He doesn't want to imagine what a chase would be like in a tunnel like the one he's in, where the only way is straight ahead.

After a while of walking, he turned less and less, especially when he began to notice that the lights that lit the way from the walls began to change. Some of these bulbs were partially broken, giving off much less light. Others even were beginning to flicker on and off. One thing was clear: the lighting was getting dimmer.

Kaleb turned again. The elevator was so far behind that he could no longer distinguish it. It seemed as if only the lights at the beginning of the tunnel were new, and as he advanced further into it, the lights were worn and useless. Then the boy took off his backpack and hung it in front of his chest, opened the zipper and took the flashlight that he had found in one of the drawers in the reception. He turned it on and continued on his way, shining the light forward and aiming it at the ground and walls in front of him.

-Let me know if you see anything that helps us, I can't see well anymore. It's getting very dark -the boy told you as he walked forward-. Remember that you still have to help me get out of here, especially after we ended up here because... Ahgh! -suddenly the boy let out a small cry, not of pain but of surprise mixed with alertness.

The boy gasped and pointed the flashlight in various directions, looking for something, but found nothing but the dim lights from the lamps on the walls, which now looked like fireflies as they were so small, thousands of fireflies stuck and motionless on the wall.

The dripping of the tunnel was heard as the boy remained motionless. His body was static, while his arm moved the flashlight.

-Something... -Kaleb said, almost whispering at first-. Something breathed down the back of my neck -he said-. I felt a kind of steam on my neck -he reaffirmed.