After several minutes, the doorbell suddenly rang.
Ben rose from his chair and walked over to open the door, only to find a delivery man standing outside with all the meals he had ordered beforehand.
“Finally!”
Ben took the bags from him, thanked him, and closed the door before carrying them upstairs.
As night fell, the house settled into silence once more, and the rain began falling again outside, while the five friends headed upstairs after saying goodbye to Mario and Max.
Everyone settled in front of the large television on the massive sofa in the third room, with the bags of food piled up in front of them.
A comfortable silence settled over them, as though everything they had experienced that day had been nothing more than a strange dream that had faded far away from reality.
But outside, the rain was growing heavier by the minute.
Ben spoke at once, staring at the bags of food.
“I don’t think anyone’s hungry anymore after that plate of pasta.”
Everyone turned toward him, even Clark, who smiled and said,
“Let’s not lie to ourselves.
The portion of pasta was relatively small.
And you’re a muscular guy, so it’s only natural that you’d be hungrier than the rest of us.”
Clark then gestured toward the bags and added,
“Come on, bring us whatever’s inside.”
Light laughter broke out among them, while Ben let out a sigh and got to his feet, heading toward the bags.
“There’s honestly nothing more precious than you guys.
Clark, Guanda, White, Nerv…
You’re friends like no other, and you deserve nothing but the best.”
Then he excitedly raised the bags he was carrying and said,
“And I even brought some McDonald’s so we could enjoy it together.”
Everyone stared at him in surprise, while Guanda looked at him with a grateful smile before saying,
“Why did you go to all that trouble?
That’s way too much.”
Ben smiled and shrugged.
“It doesn’t matter.
Now come on, let’s eat before it gets cold.”
Clark stood up and said,
“I’ll grab some soft drinks from the fridge.”
Then he headed downstairs.
Downstairs, Mario was getting ready to leave, while Max stood near the bathroom.
Max called out in a slightly raised voice,
“Mario, there seems to be a problem.
The toilet is clogged, and no water is coming out of the faucet.”
Mario approached him and said,
“Don’t worry.
Just step outside and let me take a look.”
Max slowly stepped out, and Mario entered the bathroom to inspect the problem.
A few moments later, he came out wiping his hands and said,
“The faucet is fine.
There’s nothing wrong with it.
Looks like the blockage is somewhere in the main line…
probably in the drainage pipes themselves.”
Max furrowed his brows and asked,
“And what does that mean?”
Mario answered simply,
“Nothing serious.
I’ll go down to the drainage network beneath the city and take a look.
It’s not far from here.”
Max looked at him seriously.
“Come on, Mario, not tonight.
It’s almost midnight.
Go home and get some rest, so your wife won’t worry about you.”
Mario chuckled lightly.
“Don’t worry.
Like I told you, you forget things all the time.
I work nights anyway.
It won’t take more than an hour.”
Then he put on his coat and added,
“I’ll check the pipes and come back.
I’ll call you when I’m done and let you know whether the problem’s been fixed.”
Max smiled and nodded.
“All right…
but don’t be gone too long.”
Clark came downstairs and saw Uncle Mario about to leave.
He walked over and stood beside him before he could step outside.
Clark smiled and said,
“Take care, Uncle Mario.
Get home quickly before that rain pouring down like bullets kills you, haha.”
Mario laughed softly before saying,
“It’s not that bad, Clark.
I’m just going down to the drainage network beneath the city to deal with a problem, then I’ll head home.”
Clark paused for a moment, a sudden glint of surprise flashing in his eyes before he quickly concealed it.
Then he said,
“All right…
excuse me.”
…
Mario smiled, then extended his hand to shake Max’s.
Max shook it, but the two of them remained looking at each other for a few moments, as though something from the past had passed silently between them, needing no words.
Then, all of a sudden, the two embraced warmly.
They both laughed softly, and Max said,
“I don’t know why I suddenly did that…
but I love you, man.”
Mario pulled back slightly and said with genuine respect and a sincere smile,
“That means you’ve finally forgiven me, doesn’t it?”
Max smiled.
“Yeah.
Now go before I change my mind, haha.
May God watch over you.”
“Amen.”
Mario left, while Max remained standing at the door, watching him for a few moments until the darkness swallowed him and he disappeared from sight.
What Max did not know was that Mario was not heading toward some ordinary drainage problem.
He was heading toward something else entirely…
Clark opened the refrigerator door, then stopped in front of it for a few moments without reaching for anything.
He simply stared into it in silence before whispering to himself,
“It’ll be fine…
nothing strange is going to happen to him.”
As he stood staring into the refrigerator, Max noticed him from a distance.
He furrowed his brows and asked,
“Clark?
Is something wrong?
Why are you just standing there like that?”
Clark suddenly snapped back to reality, then quickly took a few bottles of soda from the refrigerator and said,
“Nothing…
I was just getting the drinks.”
Max continued looking at him for a few moments, as though the answer had not fully convinced him, but he did not press the matter.
As for Clark, he remained silent as he carried the drinks, that strange feeling still lingering deep inside him, refusing to go away.
A few moments later, Clark went upstairs with Max and helped him reach his room.
As soon as Max sat down on his bed, Clark turned on his breathing machine and adjusted the pillow behind his head.
Max said,
“If Mario calls, I want you to answer him, all right?”
Clark nodded.
“All right.
Good night, Max.”
Max smiled and closed his eyes, while Clark left the room.
A few moments later, he returned carrying several drinks, placed them in front of his friends, and sat down among them.
The following hours passed amid laughter, conversation, and lighthearted fun, as though nothing strange had happened that day.
But far away from them, beneath the city streets…
Mario reached the sewer system carrying his tools, while heavy rain poured over the city above.
He switched on his flashlight and glanced at the small map he was carrying.
“All right…
Drain B6 serves Max’s house.”
He began walking through the tunnels, the echo of his footsteps reverberating between the damp walls while insects and rats scurried among the pipes around him.
A few minutes later, he reached Drain B6.
He aimed his flashlight toward it, then stopped.
Several bolts that had been securing one of the pipes were lying on the ground.
He walked over and crouched down to inspect them.
“That’s strange…”
Mario picked up one of the bolts between his fingers.
“These bolts are incredibly strong…
How did they come loose?”
He pulled new bolts from his bag, then took out his screwdriver and began securing them one by one.
As he worked, the rain outside grew heavier, until its sound seemed to pierce through the layers of earth and reach him.
He muttered,
“It’s freezing down here.
I’ll finish quickly, then call Max and ask whether the problem’s been fixed.”
A few minutes later, he finished his work.
He set his tools aside, then heard a strange sound coming from somewhere farther down the tunnel.
He stopped.
Then a faint light appeared in the distance.
Mario raised his flashlight and called out,
“Is anyone there?”
No one answered.
He took several steps forward, then called again,
“Is that you, Parker?
Did you come to work tonight too?”
The place remained drowned in silence.
Then a strange smell reached his nose.
It wasn’t the smell of sewage.
It was something impossibly beautiful, as though it had seeped in from somewhere that did not belong to this world.
Mario followed the scent until he reached a passage he had never seen before.
And there…
He stopped completely.
A strange open door stood before him.
Mario stared at it for several seconds, then a broad smile spread across his face.
“I guess this is some kind of nightclub or something…”
He looked around.
“But I shouldn’t go in there.
I gave up that kind of thing a long time ago.”
He hesitated for a moment.
Then curiosity got the better of him.
He stepped inside.
There, he found himself in the same strange room—the large bed, the closed doors, the paintings whose details he could not make out clearly through the shadows.
Mario looked around in bewilderment.
“What is this place?”
Suddenly…
One of the doors opened on its own.
Mario froze.
“Is anyone here?”
There was no answer.
He approached cautiously, then whispered,
“This place looks huge…
and definitely illegal.”
He stepped through the doorway.
The next instant, his eyes widened.
There was no ordinary corridor beyond it.
Instead, an immense expanse stretched out without walls, extending so far that his eyes could not comprehend where it ended.
On the opposite side was another corridor, perfectly identical to the first, as though it were its reflection.
And in the middle…
There was a colossal black abyss.
So deep that even the light itself seemed to fade into it.
Mario looked to his right.
There were rows of adjacent apartments with no doors, each one possessing its own floor and ceiling, everything covered in white ceramic.
He reached out and touched one of the walls.
He pulled his hand back immediately.
“Strange…”
The ceramic did not conduct heat the way it should have.
Mario slowly surveyed the place, an unsettling feeling creeping over him that something here was not natural.
“Is this some kind of construction site?”
He suddenly sneezed.
“Achoo!”
The sound of his sneeze spread through the place, then returned from somewhere in the distance.
Once.
Then again.
Then countless times.
The echo seemed to have no end.
Mario swallowed hard.
“All right…
I think I should leave now.”
He turned around and stepped out of one of the apartments.
Then he raised his head.
And froze in place.
Something was standing before him.
At first, he thought it was a dragon.
But the word “dragon” did not even come close to describing it.
The entity was so enormous that Mario could not see where it ended.
Its body stretched through the darkness beyond the limits of his vision, without wings, while countless bizarre appendages spread along its vast form, accompanied by endless eyes that opened and closed in different places across its body.
As for its face…
It was something beyond his mind’s ability to classify.
It stood completely motionless, Mario’s eyes trembling as he stared at it.
Yet the entity paid no attention to him.
It did not look at him.
It did not move toward him.
To it, Mario’s existence was no more significant than a speck of dust caught in a place that meant nothing to it.
Then it moved.
Very slowly.
Its colossal body shifted between the two sides of the abyss, and the surrounding space trembled without any clear sound emerging from it.
It seemed as though something the size of an entire world was passing in front of Mario.
Mario took a step back.
Then another.
He tried to breathe silently, but his lungs no longer seemed to obey him.
He whispered to himself,
“Stay calm…
just stay calm…”
He backed away farther, trying to return to the passage he had come from.
Then one of his tools slipped from his bag.
The screwdriver struck the ceramic floor.
A small metallic sound rang out.
The entity stopped.
Mario froze.
He did not move.
He barely dared to breathe, his eyes fixed on the entity as one of its enormous heads—or massive appendages—slowly began to move.
Then it stopped.
Mario did not know whether it had heard him or not.
But suddenly…
He sneezed.
“Achoo!”
The sound spread through the place.
Then came back.
Once.
Then again.
Then dozens of times.
But something was wrong.
The echoes were not coming from a single direction.
They were reverberating from everywhere, as though the room itself were catching the sneeze and repeating it.
“Achoo…”
“…Achoo…”
“…Achoo…”
Mario slowly raised his eyes.
The countless eyes scattered across the entity’s body began to move.
One after another.
Then they stopped.
Every single one of them turned toward him.
The color drained from Mario’s face.
“No…”
He took a step back.
“No, no…”
For the first time, he felt that the place itself was no longer safe.
The silence could no longer protect him.
And there was nowhere left for him to hide.
Then one of the entity’s appendages moved.
It was not fast at first.
It stretched slowly across the abyss, so slowly that Mario thought he could still escape.
He turned and ran.
He ran as fast as he could, his footsteps pounding violently against the white ceramic floor.
But the appendage continued to advance.
Faster.
Then faster.
Mario did not dare look back.
He heard something enormous sweep behind him.
Then he felt a shadow engulf the entire place.
He stopped for a moment.
He looked up.
The appendage was above him.
His eyes widened.
“Oh my God…”
Mario lunged forward, but the appendage came down behind him, blocking the path.
He tried to turn back.
Another appendage was in front of him.
Then another at his side.
The entity was not chasing him.
It was merely moving its appendages through its own space…
And Mario was the one who had become trapped among them.
He began shouting,
“Wait!
I don’t want to hurt you!”
There was no answer.
One of the appendages slowly approached him.
Mario raised his hands in an attempt to protect himself, then backed away until he hit the edge.
He looked at the black abyss behind him.
Then at the entity before him.
And in that moment, he understood the truth.
This was not an abandoned facility.
And the entity was not some monster guarding it.
It was part of this place.
And Mario was merely something far too small that had wandered into a world that did not belong to him.
The appendage came closer.
Then wrapped itself around his body.
It did not crush him immediately.
Instead, it slowly lifted him from the ground.
Mario groaned and struggled to free himself, his hands beating against the appendage wrapped around him.
But nothing happened.
He screamed,
“Help me!”
His voice disappeared into the abyss, then returned from thousands of directions.
“Help me…”
“…Help me…”
“…Help me…”
Finally, the entity’s face drew closer.
Mario could see only a part of it.
A single enormous eye.
An eye that made him realize, for the first time, that its true size surpassed everything his mind could ever measure.
The eye stopped before him.
Mario stared at it, completely unable to move.
Then…
The entity opened its mouth.
No sound came from it.
But the darkness inside its mouth seemed deeper than the abyss itself.
The appendage slowly began to tighten around him.
Mario screamed, and his resistance gradually faded.
Then his body disappeared into the darkness.
Moments later…
The entity returned to its previous movement.
It slowly receded into the abyss, as though Mario had never existed at all.
The ceramic floor was white and spotless once more.
Nothing remained except his small screwdriver on the ground.
Then the place fell silent again.
As though nothing had ever happened.