The Forgotten...? ••• 𝐂.𝐌𝐚𝐝𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐚𝐥

(1) 𝐋ies of the past

Mirabel's POV:

"Mamá, we need you to make something for Luisa, she was trying to help Papá again and they both got stung by bees. Again." I sighed, walking to the kitchen. After some time of Papá being stung or injured, someway or somehow, It gets old, pretty fast. And since Luisa is always helping people, she manages to help papá and gets injured as well.

"Mamá-?"

"Shh! Someone might hear, Julieta." Someone cut off, someone in the kitchen. I came to the doorway and peeked my head in and saw Mamá and Tia Pepa whispering to each other. Well more like quietly yelling, not exactly whispering.

"We have to Pepa. What are we going to do, we should tell Mamá, she'll know what to do." Mamá said, as she got closer to Tia Pepa and grabbed both of her hands, as Mamá noticed the clouds forming over her head.
"NO! We can't tell, Mamá! No one should know. No one, Julieta." She almost yelled, her hands shaking as she inhaled slowly but jumped when the lightning started to appear. She looked around anxiously and tried to breathe again.
"Clear skies, clear skies, clear skies..." She hummed to herself, before peering over to Mamá and voicing her opinion. Well, it was more of an aggressive order, as Tia Pepa got closer to Mamá, face to face and hurridly spoke her words.

"We shouldn't be talking about this. Let's just keep our mouths closed and, not. Tell. ANYONE!" Pepa yelled, bringing her hands to her hair again and combing her braid. She had one of her angry, nervous smiles and was starting to pace the floor.
"We need to talk about this. We need to tell someone." Mamá hummed, she was trying to convince her and it wasn't going well.
"No, we shouldn't be talking about this, Julieta. What if Bruno or one of the children hear. Or God forbid, Mamá." Tia Pepa mumbled, running her fingers along her braid and fiddling with the hair tie. She looked so worried but what about? What were they talking about?

"Y'know, you shouldn't spy on people right, Mirabel?"

"AH! Adiós Mio- Camilo!" I turned to look at him and his mischievous grin and I could feel the scowl on my face already.
"Camilo, you shouldn't scare people like that," I whispered, peering around the corner again to see if Mamá and Pepa were disturbed by us. But they were still talking. So all good, heh.

"Yeah and you, shouldn't be listening in on a private conversation should you?" He smiled, he knew he was right and he wouldn't let it go. That's just what Camilo is like, an insufferable winner and an unbearable loser.

"For your information, Camilo... It-uh, it isn't that secret if they're are just talking in the kitchen. Where anyone could hear them." I stated facts right there, they should have found a more suitable place to discuss secrets and even if they did Dolores would have heard-
"Dolores!"

"What? Where are you going? I thought you were listening to Tia Julieta and Mamá's conversation" Camilo said, really really loudly. Gosh Camilo, talk more quietly!

"Shh! No one can know we heard that, we might be in trouble. And, I'm going to go find your sister." I finalized. That would be the best plan, she must have heard of something. Something about this Lucia lady, she has to. It's almost impossible for her not to know anything.

"Heh, um... Why?" Camilo continued, somewhat chuckling at me as if I said something ridiculous. I just stared at him for a good second before I told him, there was no point in trying to hide it. The last time I wanted to find answers about a secret runaway member of the family from Dolores, it turned out to be Camilo trying to get seconds. His stomach knows no bounds, yet he doesn't gain a pound. What a luxury.

"Uh... To go and ask her about Lucia-" Camilo slapped his hand over my mouth and dragged me away from the stairs and behind one of the casita's pillars. I was flailing a lot and trying to get his hand off of my face, he had his hand over both my mouth and nose. This boy just asked me why I wanted to go and see his sister, I told him and I get kidnapped to the other side of Casita and almost suffocated. Yeah, that's fair.

"You can't say that name!" He whisper- yelled, until he looked at me and took his hand off of my face when he saw I couldn't exactly breathe. I coughed quietly, trying to regain my breath before I realized. How does he know about Lucia?
"You... know something, don't you? About Luc-" I paused when I saw him shake his head, side to side, rapidly but then ended up hitting his head on a pillar because of the momentum and ended up stopping. He groaned and cursed, really quietly and I just shook my head.

Oh, that's gotta hurt. I grimaced and looked away for a second, trying to give him time to himself after almost knocking himself out.
"Sorry, sorry, I meant her. What do you know about her?" Staring at him, encouraging him to tell me something. Something that will, hopefully, help me or give me some clues.

"Her who? I don't know who you're talking about." He stated, looking around us and then back to me and giving me a nervous smile. He was lying and wow, was he bad at it.
"Camilo." I inched closer to him until we were face to face and I saw him take a large gulp and look away.
"U-uh. I shouldn't tell you. I know we shouldn't know, well I shouldn't. It's all Dolores' fault, she told me." He pouted, crossing his arms and falling on his butt like a little child would do when not getting what they want.

"What did she tell you?" I whispered, maintaining eye contact, without blinking. He cleared his throat and cringed back, trying to look away yet maintain intense eye contact with me.
"Um... Well, you know the person who has been causing havoc in the town recently." He started, looking down and then looking up a bit. I turned to follow where he was looking but before I could, he grabbed both of my shoulders and kept me facing him as he continued.
"And, um... Yeah, she's bad and no one talks about her, so maybe we shouldn't and just forget about this conversation. Ok? Yep, Okie-Dokie." As he tried to get up and I dragged him back down by the cloth of his ruana. When he fell to the floor, I shook my head and sighed.
"Camilo, this is serious and I need your help to find out who she is. Maybe-"

"Why?" He interrupted, glaring at me. He lifted himself further from the ground but kept his palms on the floor to hold himself up. Was he angry? At me? Or the topic of conversation?

"We've never met her, she was a bad person anyway. What do you want? To go and meet her and hope that she doesn't want to kill you or something?" He chuckled, but there was nothing funny or humourous in his laugh. His sarcasm was always a sign of unease with him and it only got worse as he's matured.

"I know, Camilo," I sighed, but he wasn't understanding what I was trying to say, what I could do.
"But maybe, she needs help, just like Tío Bruno did. Maybe we can help her, Cami. And she may be... isn't evil? She might be misunderstood, she might be hurt. And we can help with that." I stated hopefully, nodding my head enthusiastically, trying to persuade him but that isn't going as well as I thought It would.

"How?" He was getting on my nerves with these short answers, that were kind of difficult to answer on the spot.
"Well- I-um, I don't know... yet! But maybe if you and I come up with a plan-" I stuttered, gulping anxiously. I smiled awkwardly trying to get him to understand.
"Then what, she'll come back all happy and stop her evily-ness." Camilo mocked, lifting his hands and wiggling his fingers, teasingly.
"I doubt that will ever happen, Mirabel." He finished, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms again.
"But it could. It's not impossible. It'll just be difficult. And we're saving the town as well. It's a win-win." I argued, smirking at thinking ahead and being right as well. If we did talk to our mysterious runaway family member that is, maybe, terrorising our home and town, maybe we could get everything sorted out between us.

"Please, Camilo. I just need you to tell me what you know about her." I pleaded, bringing my hands together and begging him. Camilo groaned, before coming closer and whispering.
"Lucia... She's Bruno's kid or something. She used to live here and-"

"You shouldn't be talking about that." Someone interrupted, standing beside the two.

-----------------------------------------
Word count: 1525