"Since time immemorial, mankind has been concerned with a question." "The answer to that question is not yet known." "What lies beyond death?" "Long ago, in this place now turned into ruins, lived a strange man of science who could have known the chilling answer." "This is a true story and if these stones could talk, they would be witnesses to what occurred." "Everything started one night when, behind this door, someone said in the ear of a dying man:" "Dr. Jacinto Aldama, you are dying." "This is Dr. Masali." "Can you hear me?" "Do you remember what we swore a year ago?" "You have to do it, you are dying before me." "You will not have eternal rest until you fulfill that agreement." "Remember that well, Dr. Jacinto Aldama." "You die leaving a sacred promise standing." "Leave him, Doctor, I beg you." "He just died." "I don't understand." "What agreement was that?" "One among doctors and totally scientific." "The one who dies first must find the way so the other one could go and come back from the other world without dying." "Without dying?" "You are asking for something impossible." "For science, the impossible is always within the realm of the possible." "In my condition as a mortal, I want to know for myself what is beyond death." "And I will, Dr. González." "I will." "A man who just died would be eternally condemned if the experiment fails." "Hail, Mary, full of grace!" "The Lord is with thee:" "Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus." "Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death." "Amen." "Hail Mary, full of grace!" "The Lord is with thee:" "Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus." "Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners..." "Spirit of Dr. Jacinto Aldama, show yourself." "Doctor Jacinto Aldama, we are invoking your presence." "Attend." "The spirit of the invoked is present." "It will manifest itself soon." "I am Jacinto Aldama." "Here I am, Dr. Masali." "Good." "Is there a way for me to take my spirit to the afterlife and return it again to live in the flesh?" "Yes." "There is." " But there is a horrible price to pay." " Price?" "Call it punishment." "It is incredibly horrific." "I am not afraid of it." "Will you do it?" "Yes..." "When?" "Neex November 15 at nine o'clock in the evening." "In three months." "Yes, precisely." "Exactly at that time, a door will close in front of you, opening the doors of the beyond." "I don't understand." "A door will close." "I can not explain further." "You can not even give me a clue?" "I might be able to decipher it." "Starting tonight, a series of events will inexorably take place around your life with the only object of taking your destiny to where you want it." "That is all." "Dr. Masali, do not invoke me again." "It would be useless." "The contact between us has been severed." "May God have mercy on your soul." "Doctor, take care of the medium." "I will see you tomorrow." "Doctor, I am eexremely cold." "This had never happened to me before." "What happened during my sleep?" "Nothing." "Something as ancient as mankind." "Science's senseless struggle to break the barriers that separate us from God." "Dr. González, is that you?" "Dr. González?" "Dr. González!" "Yes, Doctor?" "Were you walking through the halls a moment ago?" "Me?" "No, Doctor." "Why?" "For no reason." "Never mind." "I thought I saw someone's shadow walking by and I thought it might have been you." "There is no one, I was mistaken." "It must have been the moonlight." "Good night." "Yes, it is the same, undoubtedly." "I have been dreaming about her for many nights, but I never thought she existed." "It is strange." "Patricia!" "Patricia!" "One moment." "Come in." "Patricia, what is happening?" "Are you leaving?" "Yes, Don Anselmo, and this time it is for good." "But how can that be?" "Now that people are beginning to like you?" "I am sorry, it is something stronger than me." "Since my mother died, I have had a fright that I can not get over." "I understand, but..." "It's very hard to explain what is happening to me." "I have something, I don't know what it is." "I have the feeling that a shadow follows me," "I dream about people I have never met, and that suddenly..." "I feel scared, I am going to go crazy." "I am afraid, I want to go far away from here, I don't know where." "Thanks for everything." "Good-bye." "Come in." "Good evening." "Miss Patricia, please?" "She doesn't work here anymore." "Do you know where she lives?" "I don't, but I imagine it is not in any palace." "The poor girl is in love with hunger." "Good evening, miss." "Who are you?" "What do you want?" "I have a message for you, miss." "Do not be afraid." "I am a man of peace." "A message, from whom?" "From Dr. Jacinto Aldama." "Your father, miss." "You are lying!" "I assure you I am not lying." "Get out or I'll scream." "Are you Patricia Aldama?" "Is that why I lie?" "Because you did not know your father." "He abandoned you when you were a little girl and your mother made you believe he had died." "Who are you?" "Does a name matter?" "I want to do a good deed and remain incognito." "May I?" "A good deed?" "Yes." "Wouldn't taking a long trip to bring a daughter her father's last will be called a good deed?" "Dr. Jacinto Aldama did not die twenty years ago, as you think, but fifteen days ago tomorrow." "He worked at the Asilo de las Mercedes." "And what was my father's message?" "Do you have the locket your mother wore when she passed away?" "Yes." "Take it out and open it." "Open it?" "It is only one piece." "No, it has a secret lock." "Try it." "Press the center of the cover, turn it and it will open." "It is true!" "Here is a little key." "What do I do with it?" "Your father begs you to take it as soon as possible to the Asilo de las Mercedes and deliver it personally to Dr. Masali." "Only deliver it?" "Was that all of the message for me?" "Yes." "That key will serve as your identification." "Claim a small patrimony he left you, regretting at a late date having abandoned you all of your life." "Go there." "You will find money and, perhaps, something else." "There is no use, Doctor." "We have to inject her." "She's been without treatment for five days." "Open!" "Open!" "Easy." "Easy." "Easy." "Release her." "Go to the door." "Be careful, Doctor, do not trust her." "She could jump on you any minute and kill you." "While this music is on, there is no danger." "With five minutes of quiet, her fit will be over." "No one should speak or move." "Any noise could distract her." "Dr. Masali?" "Please come in." "The Doctor is busy at the sanatorium, miss." "But you can come in and wait for him in his quarters." "It's the first door to your left." "Thank you." "I am looking for Dr. Masali." "Please come in." "Dr. Masali will arrive for supper shortly." "Sit down." "Thank you." "Excuse me." "Elmer..." "Yes, Doctor." "Open the door, I will go with her to the treatment ward." "She could escape, Doctor." "That damned woman could be pretending." "Do as I say." "Elmer is right, Dr. Masali." "What is the purpose of such temerity?" "I want to train her to always associate music with the moment of her recovery." "This melody is the only thing that interests her from her outside world." "But take her out?" "Wouldn't it be better to inject her here?" "No, Doctor, the idea of the injection in this cell brings her memories that torment her." "Then be careful, any accident that would stop the music from this little box could mean your death, Doctor." "You are before a sleeping beast." "The lamp, please." "Yes, Doctor." "Watch out!" "Excuse me, Dr. Masali?" "Yes, sir?" "I am looking for Dr. Masali." "I am the new intern, here are my documents." "Very well." "Please come in." "Sit down, the Doctor is at the sanatorium, he should be here soon." "The lady is waiting for him as well." "Excuse me." "Are you a friend of Dr. Masali?" "No, I am waiting for him for a special matter." "Pardon me, your name is Patricia, is it not?" "Yes." "How do you know?" "I saw you performing at the Concert Café." "You did?" "Yes." "You know?" "I came to work here." "I am a medical doctor," "I just graduated." "I will specialize in mental illnesses." "That night I was celebrating that with some friends when..." "Yes, when you saw me, you already told me so." "Do you believe in coincidences?" "Yes, why not?" "They happen often." "And in many coincidences at once, as if they were all chained to one same purpose?" "For instance..." "For instance, constantly dreaming about a person that we had never seen before, and then..." "And then?" "Finding her just like that, on a night like any other." "Stay with him until he wakes up, Doctor." "Prepare a sedative, his nerves must be on edge." "I am going home, the operation was very difficult and I want to rest." "So you do not think that anything out of the ordinary is taking place." "Out of the ordinary?" "Why?" "Everything is natural, logical." "Each one of us came for different reasons, you will stay here for a year and I will go back this afternoon." "One leaves and the other one stays." "That is natural." "And if it were not that way?" "If something would hold you back?" "Something?" "Another coincidence?" "Good evening, Doctor." "Good evening." "They are waiting for you." "Dr. Masali." "At your service." "I am Dr. Eduardo Jiménez." "Professor Gamez sent me." "Here are my documents." "Good." "Go to the intendance at the end of the corridor." "I'll see you later." "The lady is waiting for you as well." "I hope to see you again, miss." "Excuse me." "How can I help you, miss?" "I am Jacinto Aldama's daughter and I brought something for you." "This." "A little key?" "Who sends it?" "Well... my father." "How can that be?" "Dr. Aldama died here and didn't go out in many years." "I know, but the gentleman that went to my house told me that was my father's last will, that I gave you that little key." "Gentleman?" "What gentleman?" "I don't know, he didn't want to tell me is name." "He didn't give you any more details, such as what I should do with it?" "No, but I imagine it must open something, don't you think?" "Upstairs, in the room where Dr. Aldama was, there must be something that can be opened with it." "Let's go!" "Follow us, miss." "Precisely." "The explanation must be in here." "Your birth certificate." "I suppose these jewels must be for you." "But, wasn't that knife in the library a moment ago?" "No, it must be a different one." "Is there a portrait, by any chance?" "A portrait?" "Did you expect to find one?" "No, but I'd like to see a portrait of my father, I have never seen one." "Never?" "My mother burnt the ones we had when he left." "I was very young, so I do not remember." "You never met him?" "Tell me, the man who went to deliver your father's posthumous message could it have been him?" "Precisely." "Why?" "This is Jacinto Aldama's portrait." "He is your father, miss." "Watch out!" "She just fainted, she will come to momentarily." "We must let her rest." "Even she noticed." "This letter opener is yours, Doctor." "How was it in there?" "Who brought it?" "Jacinto Aldama." "The clue?" "Yes, but I am afraid we will never be able to decipher it." "There is something engraved:" ""May the fire of hell consume the one who uses me for evil."" "Strange warning." "And very clear, by the way." "The punishment announced is hell." "What Dr. Aldama stated more clearly is what I am less interested in." "But the other thing?" "What is really important is the way he will employ to take me to the other world and return me to the flesh again." "He disguises it and hides it in an enigma formed by a woman, a key... and a knife." "And there is a time limit to give up the adventure, before a door opens and closes inexorably." "On the fifteenth of this month at nine o'clock sharp." "Doctor." "Please don't speak, miss." "Everything can have a logical explanation." "You must rest." "Stay with us one more day." "One more day?" "Shall we go, miss?" "Do you feel all right?" "Yes, better." "Thank you." "Yesterday I gave you a hard time, didn't I?" "Not at all." "I behaved like a fool." "First I fainted and then the sedative." "Let's not talk about it." "Shall we go?" "Are you in a rush to go back home?" "Me?" "No." "I don't even have a place to go, but I must leave." "Why?" "I have to redo my life, start over." "My mother's illness left me in a bad situation." "Dr. Aldama left you some money." "Stay a few days, at least enough to put your thoughts in order." "Impossible." "I arrived yesterday and I will leave today." "What could an artist do in a sanatorium?" "Very much." "Continue with her vocation." "Singing?" "No, vocation for vocation, it's all the same." "Science and art are equal." "Caring for an ill person is the same as giving yourself to the public." "I don't understand." "Would you like to be a nurse?" "A nurse?" "Me?" "Let's say you think about it for a couple of weeks, but here with us, without leaving." "Believe me, I would like to do something for you." "Study." "Get away from that life you want to pursue." "You would suffer a great deal." "But here, you would study and graduate in one year." "One year?" "Yes." "Will you think about it?" "Two weeks..." "Done." "A little church!" "Shall we go?" "No." "I cannot go." "You go ahead." "But..." "I must go back to the sanatorium." "It's my watch." "Can you go back alone?" "Of course." "I'll wait for you there." "Why did the glass fall exactly on the little pendant?" "Otherwise, I would have never seen it." "I didn't want to give it to you yesterday because I knew you'd stay, and you did." "Only for two weeks." "Yesterday was one day, now it's fifteen." "Tomorrow might be forever." "Someone told me that here there would be a way to find money and something else." "Do you see?" "What are you thinking about?" "I am scared." "Scared?" "Scared of what?" "I don't know, of everything." "And this peacefulness and things going my way all of a sudden." "I fear a storm might be approaching." "You know something?" "Tell me." "I had dreamed about you too, before I saw you." "That is why the other night my surprise was as great as yours." "And that makes you feel afraid?" "Better, that shortens distances." "We are not strangers, we've thought of one another for a long time." "Don't you think?" "Let's go." "It is time to go." "We are alone, but a have a feeling we aren't." "It will not hurt, Elmer." "The wounds already scarred." "Ready." "That's all, Elmer." "Elmer, control yourself!" "Control myself?" "Why?" "What for?" "Who am I now?" "A beast." "What do I care about anything?" "It would be better to die than to have this ugly face!" "Control yourself." "Good evening, Patricia." "Come in, Doctor." "I am going to take a walk." "Excuse me." "I was leaving, I thought you would never come." "The Doctor was in the living room." "You are going to have to tell him, I don't dare." "He offered me his house and..." "There are twenty five minutes left." "Yes." "He has until nine o'clock to stop the experiment." "It would stop with only wishing it would." "Past that hour, it will be too late." "Do you doubt?" "Doctor, being almost at the last step, something is occurring that I never thought could happen." "I am in love with Patricia." "Hopelessly in love." "It has been a strange sensation." "It all began that time at the cemetery, when she prayed before her father's tomb, and it has continued to grow until..." "Then stop the experiment, for her sake." "Leave everything for a love that I don't know can be reciprocated?" "And if it were?" "If it were..." "If it were, I would leave everything for her." "Talk to her, but do it now." "Who knows what will happen afterwards." "Leave me alone, Doctor." "I need to think it over." "I want to decide." "Everything depends on her." "Leave me alone, please." "Thank you." "Doctor, I have to talk to you about something important." "Very important." "May I?" "Sure, I was going..." "Is the proposal to stay here and study still standing?" "Of course, but what made you change your mind so suddenly?" "Well, something that..." "That what?" "I'll tell you some other time." "You have company." "No, no, wait." "Wait!" "What's happening?" "The gypsy has escaped." "How?" "Yes, they found the cell's door off of its hinges." "She is free." "She'll kill somebody." "Authorize a general alarm before it is too late." "No, that would alert her." "Get the nurses to look in all the hallways." "I will go to the intendance, quick." "Dr. González!" "I heard a woman's scream there, in the office!" "Open!" "Open!" "Open!" "Knock the door down!" "Come on!" "She died in my arms." "Someone killed her in here." "I see there is no use in explaining it." "We will let justice talk." "Yes, Doctor." "Is it the pardon?" "No." "It is a permissión from the attorney general to see you for the last time and spend the last few hours by your side." "Then they denied it." "Yes." "The execution will take place tonight at eight o'clock, as the sentence states." "Everything was done." "There were three appeals and a long trial, but everything was against you, Doctor." "Yes, the door closed and me inside with a woman who was about to die." "For the judges, it could not have closed by itself." "When we ran toward it, we saw it slam shut." "Then we had to destroy it in order to go in and we saw you." "She was dead in your arms." "That door condemned you to death, Doctor." "No." "I am not going to die." "They are not going to hang me, Dr. González." "Don't worry." "But the sentence was corroborated, Doctor, and the gallows are ready outside." "Everything follows the plan that Jacinto Aldama has built to keep his promise." "He proved it when that door closed exactly when he said it would three months earlier." "The agreement was clear and that was the precise condition, to take me there and return me to the flesh again." "And flesh is life, Doctor." "No, I am not going to die." "Something will occur at the last minute and I will be saved from the gallows." "Wait and see." "What?" "There will be no coffin?" "As a representative of the authorities," "I am only interested in you signing the death certificate." "If he wanted to be buried that way, that's his problem." "Nothing." "Absolutely nothing." "What do you expect will occur?" "If I knew how to pray..." "Dr. Aldama must have done all this just to kill me!" "Hurry!" "Hurry, Dr. Aldama, there are only minutes left!" "Get me out of here!" "Get me out of here!" "Dr. Aldama, get me out of here..." "Is it time?" "Yes." "There are 10 minutes left." "Precisely the time it will take for us to get there." "There are still 10 minutes left, Doctor." "Let's go." "I will not wait any longer, you damn traitor!" "I am innocent, I am innocent!" "Let me go!" "I am innocent." "Innocent!" "Let me go, I tell you." "I am innocent." "Let me at least take my honor with me and kill me later if you want, you damn traitor!" "I want the murderer, do you hear me?" "I want the murderer!" "It is the last will of a man who is about to die." "I want the murderer!" "The murderer!" "The murderer!" "Hail Mary, full of grace!" "The Lord is with thee:" "Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus." "Holy Mary, Mother of God..." "Hail Mary, full of grace..." "The Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus." "Hail Mary, full of grace!" "The Lord is with thee:" "Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus." "Holy Mary, Mother of God..." "Holy Mary, Mother of God..." "That music!" "It seems to be in the library." "Eduardo?" "Who could it be?" "Dr. Masali's soul." "Only he played that music." "No!" "Don't move from here." "Let's go." "Stay here, child." "No!" "No!" "Stop it!" "Stop it!" "Do you understand now, Dr. González?" "Jacinto Aldama kept his promise." "I came back to life in a different body." "Flesh for flesh." "It doesn't matter." "Here I am, among the living again." "Elmer, explain what happened to you." "Not Elmer." "Elmer's body, and my spirit inside of it." "I am Dr. Masali." "What could have happened?" "The violin can't be heard anymore." "Let's go with them." "Yes." "What was that?" "The photograph fell." "A letter!" "Stay here, I will be right back." "You came to in the tomb and are about to lose your mind." "It's nothing else." "Dr. González, you explain it to him." "Explain what, Doctor?" "You would never understand it." "Only Dr. Masali used to play that violin and that music that you just heard." "Elmer didn't know how to do it, he never played any instrument." "He didn't know how." "But you just saw him, you just heard him." "This is Elmer!" "Open, open, Dr. González." "Come, come, we will hide in his office." "Hide?" "Why?" "Those clothes and that mud, that appearance." "Please understand." "Doctor." "Where is Dr. González?" "He went to see if there were any nurses here." "This letter just appeared on the floor, inexplicably, in Dr. Masali's room." "So what is there beyond death, Dr. Masali?" "I still can not control this brain." "The ideas are very slow, it is sluggish in the thinking process." "That is what happened with the body." "In the beginning the movements were rigid, now I have more freedom of motion." "But I know it, Doctor, I know it, my spirit knows it." "It would be impossible to explain what I am telling you." "The brain can not interpret it with words yet, but it will." "The truth is in me." "I know it." "Little by little it will become more clear and I will finally transmit it." "Do you remember...?" "It was like closing my eyes in one room and opening them in another." "I remember the time of death." "I made a promise I intend to keep." "Which one?" "It was a request made one step away from death and, therefore, sacred." "All my impulses guide me toward it with a dominant, uncontrollable obsessión." "A request?" "What is it?" "To find the murderer of the woman who died here and bring him to justice." "I will not live in peace until I do it." "I swore I would, and I will!" "Doctor, what is it?" "It is the statement of a murderer." "Do you still feel for Patricia what you felt before?" "More, much more." "To the eexent of a wild, violent, uncontainable passión." "Is that what you wanted to know?" "But... and... and..." "Are you referring to my face?" "Surgery has done miracles," "I don't see why it couldn't do them with me." "This is the business of knowing how to wait, wait for my absolute control over this brain." "Wait until this new life takes a normal path!" "I want to live!" "I am anxious to live!" "I have the horror of death inside of this flesh." "I want to live fully, for a woman and with a woman!" "Dr. González!" "Open, Doctor, it is me, Eduardo." "Turn off that light, fool!" "Leave it, Doctor." "Let him see clearly what I am about to do." "This is a death certificate I issued four hours ago." "Now you are legally alive again, Elmer." "Eduardo..." "Eduardo, you haven't understood yet." "What?" "What?" "After he miraculously escaped death, he invented that horrible story of reincarnation." "Eduardo, you haven't understood a thing." "Be quiet!" "Elmer, I accuse you of the murder of the woman you killed in this very room." "Here is the proof, written by yourself." "What have you done, Doctor?" "Do not try to follow me, it would be as useless as wanting to hold a ghost prisoner between your fingers." "Wherever you go, you will find the same ending." "Understand it, Doctor, you are being punished." "I don't understand." "I don't want to understand anything!" "All I know is that I want to live, and I shall live!" "But please understand..." "Stop!" "No!" "Come, it is me, do not pay attention to my face." "True beauty is in the soul." "Come, I love you." "I have always loved you." "Come, I am Dr. Masali." "I love you." "Come." "Ring the alarm!" "He could have escaped." "You will not belong to anyone but me." "Now you will know why I say that beauty is in the soul." "No one will love you..." "other than me." "Is there anyone who knows how to pray?" "Hail Mary, full of grace!" "The Lord is with thee:" "Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus." "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death." "Amen." "What is there, then, beyond death?" "Saint Luke warns in his Gospels that there is nothing covered that should not be uncovered, nor anything hidden that should not be known." "Why, then, tear up the mystical enigma, if you, me and everyone, sooner or later, will inexorably know it?"