Inside that passage were bottles, rags, food scraps. Footprints. Clear evidence that someone had been living there. Someone who only came out at night.

Police later discovered that a homeless man was being searched for in the city — someone who used to “settle” inside old or abandoned houses, hiding in maintenance shafts and ventilation spaces.

He was the one they had been hearing every night.

The family moved out of the house that very day. And for the first time in months, Lilia slept peacefully.