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Éramos un grupo de chicos del pueblo cuyas edades oscilaban entre los 7 a 15 años. Siempre estábamos pendiente de alguna travesura, de irnos a bañar al rio, cazar algún animal con nuestras hondas o andar por esos montes, curioseando lo que se nos atravesara, nuestros padres, siempre nos hacían ciertas advertencias, que hasta la fecha habíamos logrado cumplir, por que nuestra curiosidad era mucha.
En el pueblo, desde que cada uno de nosotros teníamos conciencia, se había comentado que muchas de las desgracias acaecidas, eran por obra y gracia de unas extrañas hermanas, que vivían en las afueras del pueblo, se decia que estas eran brujas, pero no se tenia la certeza de que así fuera, solo decían que en las noches o madrugadas se podía ver dos bolas o círculos como prendidos en llama, surcar los cielos de todo el poblado y de las afueras.
Muchas criaturas, bebes recién nacidos incluso de meses, habían muerto misteriosamente, sin razones aparentes simplemente sus familias se iban a dormir y cuando despertaban conseguían a sus bebes sin vida, en unas ocasiones solo conseguían las mantas de estos en sus cunas y mas nunca se sabían de estas pobres criaturas. En un inicio, pensaron podían ser animales salvajes, lobos tal vez, pero empezaron a notar ciertas coincidencias...
Todos esos bebes muertos o desaparecidos, no tenían el primer sacramento, es decir el bautizo, entonces empezaron a sospechar de estas extrañas mujeres, por que eran las únicas que no se ligaban, con las personas del pueblo, solo se sabia que vivían allí en esa casita en las afueras. Nuestros padres, nos tenían prohibido acercarnos siquiera a las inmediaciones de ese lugar.
Pero como todo lo prohibido es atrayente, decidimos el grupo que íbamos a hacer una "excursión" esa tarde para el hogar de las famosas hermanas. Sabíamos que ellas tenían sus rutinas, cuando iban al pueblo, que era la única vez que interactuaban algo a hacer sus compras y cuando iban al rio a lavar sus ropas. Siempre las veíamos a lo lejos, pero como nos decían nuestro padres, debíamos rehuirle las miradas y nos quitábamos rápido de sus vistas, saliendo corriendo a nuestras casas.
Habíamos quedado todos, que nos reuniríamos en la plaza del pueblo y de allí nos iríamos al lugar acordado, aprovechando de que sabíamos que era día de lavado, de estas mujeres y seguramente estarían en el rio, que quedaba algo retirado de su casa. Todos llegamos a la hora acordada y nos fuimos con mucho sigilo, adentrándonos a las afueras del pueblo, cuando estuvimos cerca de la casa, pudimos notar que todo parecía normal por lo menos enfrente y atrás de la casa.
Entramos por una ventana que estaba abierta y empezamos a curiosear por todo el lugar, todo se veía en orden, sin nada anormal ni misterioso, empezamos a pensar que habíamos perdido nuestro tiempo, en ir para allá, cuando en eso empezamos a oír los ladridos de algunos perros salvajes que habían por el lugar y supimos que estas seguramente estarían cerca, no nos daba tiempo a salir sin ser vistos, tuvimos que escondernos.
Pues sabíamos de la gran reprimenda que recibiríamos si estas mujeres daban cuenta de nosotros a nuestros padres. Asustados nos escondimos donde pudimos, en la alacena, que pronto vimos no tenían comida si no como unos grandes jarrones con sus tapas, como los que se usaba para guardar granos, nos dijimos, si les da por comer nos agarran a toditos, desde allí, pudimos observar su llegada, ya había anochecido y apenas en las penumbras del hogar y con unas velas que ellas encendieron.
Fuimos testigos de algo que nos helo la sangre, estas juntas se pusieron a decir una extraña oración y de pronto estas mujeres se fueron desmembrando frente a nuestros ojos, dejando como pedazos dé piel en el proceso y en lo que se convirtieron ante nuestros ojos, fueron en dos bolas como de fuego que salieron por la puerta principal a una velocidad enorme. Nos quedamos estáticos, paralizados.
Allí caímos en cuenta que nos habíamos metido en la boca no del lobo, si no de las brujas, empezamos a revisar mas minuciosamente el lugar, hasta que nos percatamos de los jarrones y empezamos a destapar, uno por uno, allí habían restos humanos, manos, piernitas, todo desmembrado como por partes, eran 4 jarrones y cada uno tenia diferentes partes del cuerpo de bebes, había uno con pura sangre. Ese era su "almacenamiento de comida", ya no nos quedaba duda y antes de salir despavoridos.
Le rompimos los jarrones como pudimos, con todo lo que tenían dentro, los pedazos de piel tratamos de quemarlos pero estos no se quemaban así que los enterramos, en el proceso los perros salvajes debe ser por el olor de la sangre, entraron y uno logro llevarse algo dentro de la boca como pudimos salimos huyendo de aquel lugar totalmente aterrorizados, ya era una hora y seguramente nuestros padres nos estarían esperando.
Llegamos al pueblo y al observarnos supieron que algo malo nos había sucedido, nuestro aspecto era desastroso, les confesamos nuestra atrevida travesía y les juramos que todo esto era cierto. Todos los pobladores empezaron a atar cabos y ya no les quedó dudas que en efecto ellas, si eran lo que siempre habían pensado unas malvadas y despreciables brujas. Se armaron con todo lo que pudieron y con ellos nuestros padres y nosotros y fuimos de nuevo a ese aterrador lugar.
Cuando llegamos ya ellas estaban allí y se habían dado cuenta por nuestros destrozos que habían sido descubiertas, pero no habían podido huir, pues no consiguieron sus feas pieles, sin eso no podían convertirse completas, así que estaban indefensas a nuestro merced. Los pobladores las tomaron así todas incompletas como estaban y les prendieron fuego a ellas y a todo ese horrible lugar. No sabia como sentirme, lo que si sabia era que fue lo correcto.
Pues la maldad había sido cortada de raíz. Hoy a mis 84 años todavía puedo sentir esos terribles escalofríos, recorriendo mi espalda cada vez que cuento esta historia de mi infancia, algunos de mis amigos que todavía viven, dicen no haber podido olvidar este horrible episodio de nuestras vidas. La maldad existe y a veces esta cerquita...
English
We were a group of boys from the village whose ages ranged from 7 to 15 years old. We were always waiting for some mischief, to go swimming in the river, to hunt some animal with our slingshots or to walk through the mountains, curious about whatever came our way. Our parents always gave us certain warnings, which to date we had managed to fulfill, because our curiosity was great.
In the village, since each one of us had conscience, it had been said that many of the misfortunes that had happened, were due to the work and grace of some strange sisters, who lived in the outskirts of the village, it was said that these were witches, but there was no certainty that it was so, they only said that at night or early morning you could see two balls or circles like lit in flame, furrow the skies of the entire village and the outskirts.
Many creatures, newborn babies even months old, had died mysteriously, for no apparent reason, their families simply went to sleep and when they woke up they found their babies lifeless, sometimes they only found their blankets in their cribs and never heard of these poor creatures. At the beginning, they thought they could be wild animals, wolves perhaps, but they began to notice certain coincidences...
All those dead or missing babies, did not have the first sacrament, that is to say the baptism, then they began to suspect these strange women, because they were the only ones who were not linked with the people of the town, it was only known that they lived there in that little house on the outskirts. Our parents had forbidden us to even approach the vicinity of that place.
But as everything forbidden is attractive, the group decided that we were going to make an "excursion" that afternoon to the home of the famous sisters. We knew that they had their routines, when they went to town, which was the only time they interacted at all to do their shopping and when they went to the river to wash their clothes. We always saw them in the distance, but as our parents told us, we had to avoid their glances and we would quickly get out of their sight, running to our homes.
We had all agreed to meet in the town square and from there we would go to the agreed place, taking advantage of the fact that we knew that it was washing day for these women and that they would probably be at the river, which was a bit far from their house. We all arrived at the agreed time and we went very quietly, entering the outskirts of the village, when we were near the house, we could notice that everything seemed normal at least in front and behind the house.
We entered through a window that was open and began to look around the place, everything looked in order, with nothing abnormal or mysterious, we began to think that we had wasted our time in going there, when we began to hear the barking of some wild dogs that were around the place and we knew that these would surely be nearby, we did not have time to leave without being seen, we had to hide.
We knew of the great reprimand we would receive if these women told our parents about us. Frightened, we hid where we could, in the cupboard, which we soon saw did not have food but rather some large vases with their lids, like those used to store grains, we said to ourselves, if they eat they will grab us all, from there, we could observe their arrival, it was already dark and barely in the shadows of the home and with some candles that they lit.
We witnessed something that froze our blood, these women together began to say a strange prayer and suddenly these women were dismembered in front of our eyes, leaving pieces of skin in the process and what they became before our eyes, were two balls like fire that came out the front door at an enormous speed. We stood still, paralyzed.
There we realized that we had gotten into the mouth not of the wolf, but of the witches, we began to review the place more thoroughly, until we noticed the vases and began to uncover, one by one, there were human remains, hands, legs, all dismembered as if by parts, there were 4 vases and each one had different parts of the body of babies, there was one with pure blood. That was his "food storage", we had no doubt and before leaving in terror.
We broke the vases as we could, with everything they had inside, the pieces of skin we tried to burn them but they did not burn so we buried them, in the process the wild dogs must be by the smell of blood, entered and one managed to take something inside the mouth as we could we fled from that place totally terrified, it was already an hour and surely our parents would be waiting for us.
We arrived at the town and when they saw us they knew that something bad had happened to us, our appearance was disastrous, we confessed our daring journey and we swore to them that all this was true. All the villagers began to connect the dots and there was no longer any doubt that they were indeed what they had always thought, evil and despicable witches. They armed themselves with everything they could and with them our parents and us and we went back to that terrifying place.
When we arrived they were already there and they had realized by our destruction that they had been discovered, but they had not been able to flee, because they did not get their ugly skins, without that they could not become complete, so they were helpless at our mercy. The villagers took them all incomplete as they were and set fire to them and the whole horrible place. I didn't know how to feel, what I did know was that it was the right thing to do.
For the evil had been nipped in the bud. Today at 84 years old I can still feel those terrible shivers, running down my back every time I tell this story of my childhood, some of my friends who are still alive, say they have not been able to forget this horrible episode of our lives. Evil exists and sometimes it's close...
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
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