The Forgotten...? ••• 𝐂.𝐌𝐚𝐝𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐚𝐥

(6) 𝐈mmemorable photographs

Narrator's POV:

"This is, so, so, not fair..." Camilo whined, his continuous complaints getting in the nervous of an anxious Mirabel as Dolores kept searching the room hearing the now slow and faint noise of paper. She looked around the room carefully, until her eyes landed on a book, far off from the door and to the centre of the room.

"Look. I think that's the book I heard earlier." Dolores whispered, not even making sure the others heard her as she made her way over to an old book in the distance.

The book was open with pale white, golden pages on show. Dolores couldn't see the cover but she could see the colour of it was an oak brown colour, from the angle she was at. She took notice of the thin and twisty stand it was on and how it dug into the tan sand.

As Dolores got closer she saw a couple of pages turning, some quickly, some leisurely, either way, it didn't stop her speedy pace. When she was standing over the book staring at its contents, she saw pictures, accompanied by paragraphs of words here and there. Some of the images were photographs and others looked like they were drawn in, but they were almost perfect. Dolores stopped on the last page with writing on it and saw a drawing of a young girl, hair soaking wet draping over her face, clothes muddy and she looked dishevelled as she turned back to look at a house... The Madri-

"What'ya looking at, Hermana?" Dolores yelped, jumping away from the book, slightly nudging the stand it was perched on, almost knocking it over.
"Cami, you scared me. Don't do that." The bow wearing girl criticized, sending him a small glare as she looked back at the book. Before she was nudged a little and her place before the open book was taken.

"Don't do what?" He asked, looking over the book, flipping through a few pages as he snuck glances at his sister, grinning.
"You know what I mean, Cami." She stated, folding her arms and pouting.
"Do I though?" He chuckled, skimming over the pages and words, taking notice of the drawn in images.

"Your getting on my nerves-"

"What's that?" Mirabel interrupted, wiping her hand, trying to dry it on her colourful skirt. As she brought their bickering to a stop, she looked over Camilo's shoulder, placing her hand on it so she could stabilize her tip-toeing.
Camilo had grown a lot since he was fifteen, he was a good couple inches taller than Mirabel, but just coming shortly when it came to some of the other family members. He was still considered short, but taller than he was two years ago.

"I think it's the-"

"Where've you been then, Mirabel~?" Camilo joked, dragging out her name as he peered over to her which was met with an unimpressed glare from his cousin. She sighed as she explained her whereabouts,
"For your information, Camilo, I was at the waterfall-"

"Doing what?" Camilo interrupted, yet again, quizzing her as if she had done something wrong or suspicious. The only response from his cousin was a very, very harsh glare that almost immediately shut him up.

"Carry on, Dolores." Mirabel smiled, though it seemed to lack the once happy curiosity it once had.
"Uh-I think it's the book that was making all the noise earlier when we were in the hallway." Dolores clarified, now standing behind the book and in front of the others.
"Oh? What's it about?" Mirabel questioned looking to her female cousin expecting her to answer before a voice intervened.
"It's like pages and pages about some girl, before it just stops, like halfway." The male spoke, going back to the middle of the book, hurriedly flipping through pages, to where the words and images just suddenly stop. Something caught her eye and it took her a second to register what it was before she tapped Camilo's shoulder and rushed out her words.
"Wait! Go back!" Mirabel yelled, startling both siblings.

"What-?"

"Go back! Go back!" The giftless Madrigal urged, waving her hands urgently and Camilo hurriedly applied. He huffed under his breath when Mirabel pushed him to the side-similar to what he did to his sister-and watched as his cousin flipped back through pages until she stopped. She began mumbling to herself as she read bits and pieces of writing until she flipped back one more page and saw a photograph. If she wasn't shocked when she saw Alma and Lucia posed together, Mirabel was stunned when she saw a photo of Lucia and he-
"Let me see that." Camilo interrupted, as he couldn't take the suspense of his cousin's flabbergasted expression. His eyes zeroed in on a specific photo, that Mirabel couldn't take her eyes off and when he saw it, neither could he.

There lay before them was a small image, glued to the page messily but was unnoticed by the two as they stared at the people within the image, disregarding the other photographs on the page.
Both Lucia and Tió Bruno sat side by side staring at, what the 17-year-olds think is a camera, smiling and looking ecstatic. It wasn't the duo of Bruno and Lucia that shocked them, entirely, It was the fact that Bruno looked a little different. That he looked generally happy and joyous with the supposed "evil" Madrigal.
They looked like they were father and daughter...

"...Bruno?" Camilo asked as if making sure his eyes weren't playing tricks on him as he turned to take a peek at Dolores, who was looking at the two and trying to look at the photo and then to Mirabel, who just looked at him and nodded.
"Bruno." She confirmed, turning back to the photo, giving it a once over before Dolores straying talking and Mirabel gave her half an ear to go listen whilst she focused on the paper before her.

"What's wrong with Bruno being in Lucia's book?" Dolores piped up, sticking her head over the book, trying to turn it in a way so that she could see what the others were looking at, in the right direction. She tried but inevitably failed so she moved around the stand to get a look and smiled to herself.
"They look really happy, don't they?" She whispered, placing her hands in the pages as she leaned in further.

"They do... I don't think I've ever seen Bruno that happy." Mirabel hummed, her eyes cloudy as she stared at the photo and put the current Bruno to this Bruno's image. She grimaced at the thought that Bruno 12 years ago and Bruno today... looked like they were 2 completely different people.

"Well, besides the family reunion 2 years ago," Camilo added, bringing up memories as they thought back to the family's reunification.
"...Yeah, but... I'm still confused." Mirabel clarified, looking over the two, the other mirrored her confusion as she continued.
"When did they take this photo?" She questioned, more to herself than the others, awaiting their response.

"What does that have to do with anything, Mirabel-?"

"Look-look, in the background, you see that?" She asked, pointing her index finger behind the two huddled in the front of the photo and to a vibrant pink figure in the background.
"What... is that?" Camilo asked, moving the book at different angles to try and see it better, rather than move himself.

"I think you mean," the glasses-wearing girl hummed, ready to correct her cousin as she bit her lip in frustration, contemplating her next words and what they would entail if they were true.
"Who's that...?" Mirabel corrected, glaring at the unknown figure, her slightly damp finger grazing over it.

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Word count: 1374
The damp part isn't supposed to be dirty-minded it's just important to the stories and the next chapters. So she went to the waterfall and idk swished her hand around in the river or streams and then came back and tried to dry her hand but there was still some remnants of water on her hand. That's it I'll do a little chapter to explain it if y'all don't understand It