"change" - [c.madrigal]

ten

I know Bruno was supposed to be able to see the future, but just then, inside his room, I was pulled into the past...

"No mamá," ten-year-old me cried. "I don't want to wear my skirt! I wanna wear Leo's clothes!"

My mother frowned down at me. "Y/N, you are a girl. You can't wear boys' clothing. Now out this skirt on now."

My younger self still had tears on my cheeks, but I knew I had to obey my mother. I slowly pulled on my skirt, feeling extremely disagreeable.

Even at ten, I didn't like the way I was always expected to wear girls clothing. I was a girl, but why should that mean I had to wear only girls dresses and skirts?

All I wanted was to be allowed to wear girls clothes sometimes, for when I was playing or running around with my brother Leo. But my family hated that. I wasn't allowed to be like that. In their eyes, it was unnatural.

"Y/N?"

I blinked, and immediately stumbled forwards. Luckily, Camilo was there to catch me.

"Whoa, there," he said, steadying me. He eyes me carefully. "Are you okay?"

I met his eyes, trying to focus. What had just happened? I blinked a few times, my vision a little blurry from the flashback.

"Uh, yeah... yeah I'm fine," I assured him.

"If you say so..." Camilo let me go, but he still had a frown on his face, like he didn't quite believe me. I didn't believe myself, either. I felt nauseous, and my stomach hurt. I had a pounding in my head, and my mouth was dry.

Nevertheless, I forced a smile, glancing at Mirabel. "I'm okay. Let's get going. We don't want to be out all night long."

Mirabel looked slightly concerned, but she nodded, gripping the strap of her satchel tightly. "Yup, let's go."

She peered cautiously over the edge of the cliff. "How do we...?"

I glanced around. "We could use the rope from the stairs and make a sort of swing?" I suggested. "It might work."

Mirabel's eyes lit up. "Ooh, good idea! Camilo, grab some rope."

"Awww, why do I have to do it?" the boy whined, but did what he was told after Mirabel glared at him.

After we'd managed to secure the rope to a rock on the other side of the void, the three of us all grabbed a tight hold of it.

"Ready?" Mirabel asked.

"No," Camilo answered.

"Come on!" I yelled, and we jumped.

Somehow, all three of us reached the other side alive and with all of our bits.

"Phew..." Camilo gasped, sitting on the ground and holding onto the wall. He looked shaky. "We didn't die..."

I crouched beside him. "Not a fan of heights, huh?"

Camilo's dark eyes met mine. "How'd you guess?" he asked defensively.

I shrugged. "It wasn't really that hard." I held my hand out to help him up, and he took it. As I pulled him to his feet, I managed to get a good look at his face. The bruises on his cheeks and under his eyes were getting more deeply coloured.

"Are you okay?" I almost whispered, reaching out to touch the purple patches of his face.

Camilo immediately glared at me, stepping away and turning aside. He covered his cheeks with his hands. "Why would anything be wrong?" he asked. "It's all completely fine."

I raised my hands in surrender. "Okay... whatever you say, Camilo." My expression softened and I lowered my arms. "If you don't want to talk, fine. But... I couldn't help but overhear last night, so..." I shook my head sadly, not sure what to say to the boy.

"Just know I'm always here, okay?"

Mirabel took this as an opportunity to interrupt. "Okay... you two coming?" She walked over to a stone circle doorway cut into the wall about ten meters away. Peeping through, Mirabel glanced back at us.

"All good," she grinned.

Camilo and I glanced at each other before following her inside.

Sand covered the floor beneath our feet, spread all over the floors, from wall to wall. It was thinner around the edges of the walls, though. Right in the middle of the cavern ('room' sounded wrong, it was definitely a cavern),  there was a huge circle of sand, piled high in a mound.

The three of us had only taken a few steps into the room before the already dim light from behind the circular stone doorway seemed to disappear, leaving us in total darkness. Wait, no, not total darkness. Beneath the mound of sand, glowing green somethings were slowly becoming more obvious.

"What's that?" I asked, pointing. Glancing behind me, I could just make out the faces of the other two.

Camilo shrugged. "Don't know, but I suggest we get out of here pretty quick. This place is giving me the creeps."

I nodded in agreement. "Let's see what those glowing green things are."

We all knelt down, scooping through the sand, collecting little pieces of green glasslike bits. after we'd found a few of them, Mirabel sat back on her hells, trying to figure out how they fit together, like a puzzle.

"There!" she finally said, fitting three of the pieces together. then, her expression turned into a frown. "It's me..." she muttered slowly.

"What?!" Camilo and I both cried in confusion. We leant over Mirabel's shoulders, peering at the remains of one of Bruno's visions.

It showed Mirabel.

"Why?" Mirabel asked into the silence. "Why am I in one of Bruno's visions?"

Before either Camilo or I could answer, the door behind us slammed shut. I gasped, and I heard both Camilo and Mirabel yelp.

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