The story
Night was casting its warm, heavy blanket over the outskirts of Neiva, out where the road winds around, looking for the cool relief of the natural swimming holes that dot the region. Far from the city noise, a group of young people had set up camp under the starry Huila sky, looking for the murmur of nature and a breather from a night out. Amidst laughter muted by the respect demanded by the dark wilderness, they decided the campfire needed more fuel.
Armed with flashlights and with the high spirits of those who feel like masters of the adventure, several of them headed into the surrounding thicket to look for dry firewood. The brush crunched under their boots and the smell of damp earth and toasted leaves filled the air. The atmosphere was calm, barely broken by the chirping of night insects and the beam of light cutting through the shadows cast by the trees.
It was right in the middle of that gloom that reality took an unexpected turn. When they shone their light toward a bend in the path, near the muddy bank, the flashlight beam caught something that defied all logic. They stopped dead in their tracks, holding their breath.
A few meters away from them, perched on the vegetation, rested a silhouette of absolute blackness. At first glance it brought to mind the proportions of a giant moth, but the details made their blood run cold: the creature possessed perfectly formed lower limbs, human feet that were delicately grasping the foliage. It was a grotesque and fascinating contrast, an enigma of shadows that seemed to have come from another world.
The impact of the sight left them paralyzed. None of them dared make a sound, fearing that any movement would break the spell of that impossible sighting. The creature was resting there, wrapped in its total blackness, oblivious to the astonishment it was sowing in the youths' hearts.
In the middle of the trance, shaken by a mix of disbelief and an urge to record the unbelievable, one of the cousins pulled out his device and managed to capture the scene on video, immortalizing those seconds of pure astonishment. The screen's light flickered over their pale faces, reflecting the weight of a secret that, starting that night, would forever change the way they looked at the darkness of the hills.
