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TORMENTA

water. They didn't come to check on us until morning, but when they did come, we knew about it.

I was awoken by a heavy blow to the chest. The storm had almost completely died out, but I hadn't even heard them come in.

'Get up!'

A guard struck me again with a wooden baton. I put my arms up instinctively to protect my face and the stick cracked loudly across my forearms.

'Get up. Against the wall! Now!'

I did exactly as I was told as fast as I could. There were two guards, and one of them sounded familiar, but I hadn't had time to look at their faces.

'Face the wall!'

I clasped my hands behind my head and pressed my forehead against the bricks. That way, if they struck me from behind, my nose wouldn't break.

'Now, don't move.'

I heard one of the guards leave, while the other one began sifting through my possessions, turning my clothes inside out and then throwing them across the room. It was obvious that they had discovered that the seventh cell had been broken into. In the corridor, I could hear the other inmates being searched and then herded out of their cells and into the exercise yard.

'Out. Get out! Outside! Now!'

The guard in my cell stopped his search and stood to attention when a man wearing heavy boots came to the door. 'Nothing on this one, major,' he reported.

'Are you sure?' The voice belonged to a different major from the previous day, the one they called the 'Devil Major'. He was the cruellest of the officers at San Pedro. He had cold green eyes and he never smiled. Whenever he walked past, prisoners became nervous, even if they weren't doing anything wrong.

'Nothing. I searched everything twice.'

The Devil Major stepped slowly into the room. I could feel him right behind me and hear his breathing. I braced myself for another blow, but it didn't come.

'Inglés, tell me what happened here last night.'

'I don't know, major. I promise.'