In a remote town near the Venezuelan Andes, in 1989, there was an old abandoned house known as "La Mansión de las Sombras" (The Mansion of Shadows). For decades, it had earned a terrifying reputation due to rumors of disappearances and strange lights emanating from its broken windows on the darkest nights. No one dared to approach, except Estela, a brave and curious young lover of mysteries.
Estela had heard stories since she was a child. It was said that the house belonged to the Montenegro family, who mysteriously disappeared one night of a full moon. Intrigued by the stories and determined to discover the truth, Estela organized an expedition to the place with her best friend, Julio, a skeptical science student who did not believe in ghost stories.
On the night they chose to go, a thick fog covered the town, and the air was freezing. With flashlights in hand, they entered the mansion, whose corridors were covered in dust and full of anti-rust furniture.
old ones covered with sheets. Everything was quiet, save for the occasional creak of the wooden floor beneath his feet.
While exploring, they found an old living room with a huge portrait of the Montenegro family. There was something unsettling about the gazes of the painted characters, as if they were watching them. Suddenly, they heard a faint murmur coming from the depths of the house.
They decided to follow the sound, which led them to a door hidden behind a bookshelf.
The door opened into a dark basement.
Against Julio's protests, Estela lowered her unwavering curiosity. When they turned on their flashlight, what they saw froze their blood: on the walls there were strange drawings and hand marks as if someone had tried to escape.
But the worst was yet to come. As they turned, they saw a dark figure at the top of the staircase, their eyes gleaming in the gloom. The figure began to slowly approach, and an extreme cold filled the basement.
Days later, Estela decided to investigate the drawings and marks she had seen. He found that the inscriptions matched old indigenous rituals related to the confinement of lost souls. The Montenegro family, apparently, had been the victim of an ancestral curse.
However, the real revelation came when she looked at the family portrait again. There, now, were two new faces in the painting: that of Estela and Julio, trapped in the work as a warning to anyone who dared to challenge "The Mansion of Shadows".
