A few hours later, the young woman awoke with a start when she heard an abrupt and insistent knocking on the door. Frightened, she preferred to remain motionless without making a sound. The room was dark and for this reason she could see, through the gap between the door and the wooden floor, the reflection of a light in the hallway and the shadow of a person on the other side.

"Had that man managed to find her?" "No!" "It was impossible, it couldn't be true," she thought. And she tried to convince herself of that. Then, another round of knocking was heard again. The young woman very slowly opened the bedside table next to her. She reached into the half-open drawer and when she withdrew her hand, she was holding a small, low-caliber gun. Clutching it in both hands, she hesitantly pointed it in the direction of the door, praying wouldn't have to use it. She had always used other skills to keep an attacker at bay, but she was willing to use it anyway if she had no other choice.

“Dear, that's the wrong room!” said a woman's voice approaching from the hallway.

“Opss! I hope I didn't wake anyone!” exclaimed the man. And then the couple's footsteps could be heard walking away towards another of the neighboring rooms.

The young woman sighed in relief as she put the gun back where she had taken it from. Much calmer than before, she relaxed back into the comfort of her bed, and gradually fell asleep again. With her eyes half closed, she looked out the side window that overlooked the street, and she thought she could make out a strange shadow that might correspond to the distorted silhouette of a person. At first she did not want to give it too much importance and attributed it to a phenomenon originated by her imagination. But after a few moments, the initial shadows were followed by sounds that resembled knocking. As if someone was pressing on the window from the outside, trying to force the lock that kept it closed. For this reason she began to get restless again. And, although there were only a few strange creaking sounds on the wooden floor, she decided to stay alert just in case.

A few minutes passed and the idea that someone was watching her settled in her mind; she tried to calm down but this presumption grew more and more in her head until it became a certainty. The young girl; driven by a growing fear, decided to turn on the night lamp beside her and the yellowish light from the lamp spread dimly throughout the room, as did the smell of kerosene which became much more intense than before. She glanced in the window and around, but noticed nothing out of the ordinary. The latch lock was in place and everything seemed to her just as she had left it. Through the window saw only the desolate street, illuminated by a few streetlights that lingered despite the heavy rain. On the outside of the building, she noticed that there was a narrow cornice that continued below the window, which extended around the entire hotel. While it was too narrow for a man to move along, for a thief of her type it would have been the best way to get inside the building.

After checking the bathroom; which was the only place connected to the room, she concluded that she was losing her mind. She didn't like to lose control, so she forced herself to keep her composure. Soon with the coming of morning she would be able to finish her work and perhaps take some time off:

"Maybe it was time to get away from this damn city once and for all," she thought.

She lay back down on her bed with the intention of falling asleep again, but this time; as a precaution, she left the lamp on to feel safer. The same way she did when was a child and was terrified of stormy nights.

This time she slept for a little over an hour and when she awoke, she opened her eyes sleepily. Then, to her surprise, she found the figure of that man dressed in black. He was standing in front of her; only a few meters away, staring at her expressionlessly with his strange glasses on. The young woman, startled by his presence, began to cry out in desperation, asking for help:

“Help! Please, somebody help me!”

The stranger, faced with the outrageous reaction of the young woman, tried to shut her up by covering her mouth with his hand.

“Let me go, you bastard!” shouted the young woman. She bit his hand hard and in this way managed to free herself from him.

“Ah, stupid girl! I don’t want to hurt you!”

“Help! Please!” The young woman continued to scream as she ran half-naked towards the entrance with the intention of escaping. The girl struggled at the door trying to open the lock, but due to her nerves she was unable to do it in time. He grabbed her forcefully from behind, wrapped his arms around her and covered her mouth again to shut her up. Noticing that it was impossible to calm her down, he pulled out a razor and held it over her throat in a threatening manner:

“I swear, I don't want to hurt you, but if you don't calm down at once..., I'll cut your throat right here,” said the stranger with a stern tone. “Do you understand?”

The young woman nodded her head, indicating that she understood. Then the man closed the blade of his knife and put it back in his coat.

How was it possible that the hunter could have found it? the young woman wondered, unable to comprehend what had happened. She had taken all the necessary precautions and, despite this, something had escaped her control.

She tried to calm herself. She took a deep breath and her thoughts cleared a little. Then an idea suddenly came to her. She had to win his confidence any way she could, so that an advantage would appear before her that she could use to her advantage. The intuition told her that this young man, strange as he was, was not entirely immune to her charms, and perhaps she could use this against him.

These thoughts comforted her, allowing her to convince herself that, in spite of everything, she could get out of this dangerous situation alive...

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