The Shop of Wonders

She had recently gotten a job at the curiosity shop. The owner was a Chinese man with a very well-known tradition of selling the rarest objects and antiques from the whole area. Recently, a few days ago, he had managed to sell the cloud pet, a pet with a quite interesting feature: it was able to turn invisible. It was a yellow cloud that chose who was going to be its next owner.

The gentleman told his new assistant, named Ana, who had bought the recent pet: a quite particular man, who surely had his life changed by his new companion.

After giving her some instructions and talking to him about the items of greater care and importance, such as the amulet of good luck, the trinkets like the smiling cats and the different mobiles that were lights with golden symbols to attract good luck and feng shui, which were knick-knacks that many people bought and about the tourists, he made it clear to her that she should never enter the trunk and that it was forbidden for her. Of course, Ana immediately agreed not to do it.

The days passed and the work was going well, selling different objects and attending to tourists. Until on one occasion, during lunchtime, the attendant decided to go out and do some tasks in a nearby place, and Ana was left alone in the store.

Immediately she had the opportunity to close the door and satisfy her curiosity of going to see what was in the trunk, despite being told that she should not look there. Human curiosity is something that always characterizes our race, and being a woman who always liked to investigate things, she decided to open the door of the trunk.

When she opened the door, she realized that there was another kind of door inside this place. It was a dark place, it had no lighting, so she immediately took a candle, lit it and realized that inside the trunk, on the floor, there was another access, which was more like an attic, and she felt very attracted to that place. The owner of the store never told her that there was a basement or something similar, he only told her that there was a trunk and that she should not enter there.

But she felt very attracted, curiosity could more than anything, so without thinking twice, she opened this door and realized that there were some stairs. Immediately she began to advance through the passage, through these stairs. Suddenly, she found herself enveloped in a dark and murky passage with spiral stairs, stone stairs that were going down.

Ana did not think twice, and began to descend these stairs, without knowing where she was going to arrive.

The whole floor was covered in ashes, some of them had embers that looked like they were floating incandescently in the air on fire. Suddenly, the air was filled with a rotten egg smell, a very strong sulfur smell was noticeable and obviously she made a gesture of disgust because the smell was very unpleasant.

Immediately, as soon as she finished going down, she realized she was in a place full of lava with stone and flames everywhere. It didn't take long for her to realize she had arrived in hell. Her first reaction was immediately to turn around and go back up the stairs, but when she tried to do it, the stairs had already disappeared. She was in a place where she saw quite grotesque scenes.

On a mountain, she saw a demon with big horns whipping a group of humans. Further down the hill, on a kind of outcrop, you could see a kind of male goat, more like a faun, completely black and with red eyes sparkling with fire. He went through with a trident several people who begged for mercy.

The people were completely naked, bleeding but not dying. They were being tortured by this being. Through the air he managed to see several harpies throwing fire at all the people. One of them went directly towards where Ana was, so she immediately got even more scared than she was and started running away in terror looking for a way out of this impressive and so horrendous place.

Ana started running, realizing that the ground was on fire and that the footwear she was wearing, some sneakers, were starting to melt and she felt the deep pain in her flesh burning and the melted plastic melting with her skin. Despite the immense pain, she did not die. She began to see how the harpy tortured her by throwing a legion of fire on her.

The flames enveloped her and she felt the immense pain of her skin burning. The smell of burnt skin was completely desperate. Several days passed and Ana could not get out or escape from this place. She always tried to talk to the people who were being tortured and despite making several friends, she met Enrique, she met Georgina, she met Marcos, they could not find any possible solution to be able to leave or get out of this place.

It was not within their expectations to achieve it, she began to think that it was possible that the owner of the store realized her absence and, in a generous act, came to help her get out of the place. While she was thinking this, she could see how amazingly a hatch opened in the ground and the man, the Chinese man, was there, the owner of the business, and he tells Ana: "I told you not to get into this place, that the trunk was forbidden".

Ana, immediately crying, went to hug him and he made a gesture putting the palm of his hand like this, and she felt an energy that did not allow her to pass.

He tells her that this be a lesson for her, now she will be condemned to hell and to serve all these demons. "This is a dangerous place, let this serve you as a choice. Just like all these people who did not know how to control their curiosity and let themselves be corrupted by their greed and their curiosity. Some are here because they asked for a lot of money, some are here because they asked for wealth, some are here because they were very curious and let themselves be carried away by the pleasure of gluttony and sex, and you are here because you did not know how to control curiosity.

Now you will be at the service of these entities for the rest of eternity ". The Chinese man turned around and closed the door. The floor turned back into a blazing place of centipedes, and Ana crying, was condemned to cry blood and suffer all the tortures for not having been able to control her curiosity.

This story has been my story for today and it leaves us the moral that many times we must control our instincts and our desires so that they do not take over our will.

I hope you have enjoyed this terrifying adventure.