Meanwhile, the morning light did little to ease the suffocating darkness inside the abandoned apartment building where Catalina, Mateo, and Pep had spent the night.
After hours of fitful, terrified sleep on the cold, damp floor, they had woken up to the same miserable reality. The three of them were still crammed inside the tiny storage backroom at the rear of one of the rooms. The space was so small that when Mateo shifted after waking, he could barely move without bumping into the rusted shelves lining the walls.
The room smelled horrible. Mold. Rotten wood. Dirty water.
Catalina stood pressed against the wall, her joints aching from the rigid, sleepless night, looking visibly disgusted. Her expensive coat brushed against the stained concrete, and every few seconds she glanced downward nervously as scratching noises echoed from somewhere nearby.
Rats. She could hear them moving inside the walls.
She clenched her jaw tightly to stop herself from screaming.
