The Copiapo Mining Incident

The following story is an English translation from a Chilean teenager's statement on 4chan's messageboard /x/. The teen claimed to be a relative of one of the 33 Chilean miners who were trapped 2,300 feet below the surface in a collapsed mine for 69 days. This event shocked everyone and was broadcast live around the world until the safe return of every miner. The disaster seemed ordinary enough, every miner seemed to be unaffected from the two months of being underground. However, none of them mentioned what really happened down there. This translation was not tampered in any way, shape, or form.

See this house right, this house is my grandma's house in Chile. It is also a late-night bar. Right here is where my cousin and I drank and shared various things of our lives. My cousin is one of the miners involved in the Copiapo Mining Incident, and what he told me that day shocked me down to my core and juxtaposed my suspicions and beliefs into one plane. A month after the incident, I decided to visit my grandmother the same night my cousin did. We ended up buying a 12-pack of beer and reminisced about the good times when we were young, immature boys trying to make enjoyment out of anything. The more beer we drank, the more serious our conversations became. After both finishing our last beer, I felt a strong buzz settling in, but my cousin's face started getting more and more pale. I had no idea what was up with him, then assumed that he was getting flashbacks of the two excruciatingly difficult months spent with no sun. I then proceeded to cheer him up. I wish I have never said what I said.

"Hey man, glad you're back."

"I'm not, I honestly wish I ended up dying in that hellhole."

My cousin never exhibited suicidal elements or thoughts before, so this was a big astonishment for me. I assumed it was just his drunk self talking nonsense.

"C'mon relax, you got food and clothing dropped down to you and the other men, I bet it wasn't even that bad."

I tried to give him a smile. He didn't smile back.

"Nah man, it not because of the conditions, it's because of what we saw there. We weren't alone down there."

A barrage of chills spread through my body.

"W-what do you mean?"

"Duendes."

Horror started filling up my esophagus, I cleared my throats and tried to make sense of what was just said to me. I've only heard of gnomes from local legends at the time. These creatures terrified the most imaginative part of my brain when I was a child, my mother would use them in bedtime stories in order for me to behave. My stunned face and long pause was then interrupted by my cousin.

"You may think I'm crazy for telling you that, hell I even think I'm crazy. I wish it was just delusions from being in the dark too long, but no. Me and the 32 others all confirmed it. We decided to never speak about what went down there those two months, but I need to tell someone before I go insane."

"Well what happened down there?"

"Umm... where do I start... well okay when the mine barely collapsed all of us were frightened for our lives and the chance to see our families again... help immediately came but needed time to get us out... the first night wasn't really anything.... I did hear one of the guys yell out that he saw something while taking a piss at a spot away from the others. I passed it off as nothing until the day I saw him five days later."

"Saw who?"

"Jopplixin."

I had no idea who or what that was, yet I kept listening even though I was quite frightened.

"I went to look for any tools that were left in the mine in order to speed the effort of setting us free, when I saw a small shadow squatted behind a boulder, I got closer and closer to make sure it wasn't my mind fucking with me. I was about 7 feet from the boulder when the shadow left from the protection of the boulder and hurriedly walked further down into the mine. It walked weirdly, like sideways but with a limp. It had a small came, and was about two feet tall."

This seemed to surreal for me to believe.

"Are you fucking with me to try to scare me? Because it's working...."

My cousin didn't reply, he just glared at me for interrupting his story.

"Every single one of the miners claimed to see the gnome, my friend Julio even claimed it would lurk near our sleeping area while we were in slumber, giggling the most unsettling chuckle ever heard by man. Most of the men shrugged it off as being an illusion or figment of their imagination due to lack of various vitamins. Then one night the youngest miner, woke up screaming and sweating like never before."

"Jopplixin is his name, he likes watching us while we're sleeping."

"The fact that Jopplixin didn't do anything to us like local lore would state is beyond me. I'm glad he didn't though. The sheer horror which was inflicted upon me by knowing a mythical creature would watch us as we slept was enough to not mention his name for the remainder of the time I was stuck under there."

I just listened to him, curious.

"Then a week before we were saved, one of the guys, Ricardo, walked off into the mine, almost like if something was calling him. He did not come back until the next day. After that Ricardo wasn't Ricardo anymore."

"What do you mean?"

"When he returned, he didn't mutter one word to us, no matter how much times we tried to talk to him. His face was pale and expressionless the whole time, and his eyes now possessed a glint that I've never seen before. One day we were talking about what we were going to do once we got out, and Ricardo spoke for the first time in days."

"Jopplixin does not want us to leave. He likes us. He likes watching us."

"That's when I knew I had to get the fuck out of there. The day we were finally rescued I could've sworn I heard a maniacal chuckle below me, but when I looked down, I saw Ricardo. Every one of us came out physically fine, but I can not say the same thing about our minds. Especially Ricardo. Apparently he's been missing ever since we were rescued. I'm so glad I got out of there, but what I experienced there would've turned anyone into a lunatic."

As my cousin finished up his story, a man walked into the bar. He was expressionless, his face was pale, and there was something odd about his eyes.

My cousin turned around and looked at the man, who was also looking at him.

The last thing I remember was my cousin turning back around to me to mutter one word.

"Run."