Encanto: Mirabel's Nightmare

Chapter 4

Camilo helped Mirabel up to her room before finally telling his family about everything. He knows she wouldn't have wanted that, but what choice did he have? He told them about the dream, voices and the hallucination. "Camilo, you should have told us as soon as you found out." Julieta said, softly. "I know..I'm so sorry tía. I wanted to, I did, but I promised to keep her secret." He replied. "Well, sometimes the truth is more important. Although, you told us eventually and that's all that matters. Thank you Camilo." She smiled. "Of course."

The next day, everyone treated Mirabel like a baby. They all acted like she wasn't able to do anything on her own without breaking down. Well, everyone but Abuela. She still hadn't said a word to Mirabel. Especially not even after last nights performance. But as Camilo said, it wasn't such a bad thing. Now she didn't have to listen to Abuela criticising her 24/7. Instead, she had to put up with her family actually being nice to her for once and honestly, it was kind of disturbing. At breakfast, Mirabel went to go and get a glass of juice when her father stopped her. "You just sit there Mirabel, I'll get it!" He said, jumping up to grab it. "Dad, I'm perfectly capable of getting juice-" She replied. "No, no, I insist!" Mirabel looked over at Camilo with angry eyes and he just gave a guilty smile back. He knows he shouldn't have told his family what was going on but for Mirabel's sake, he had to.

When it was time for everyone to go out and do their chores, Camilo stayed behind with Mirabel and Antonio, as if she was now incapable of watching him alone. "You don't have to stay here you know" Mirabel said to Camilo. "It's fine, I don't need to babysit anyone today so I'll just stay behind and babysit you two." He replied. Mirabel stared straight into his eyes. "Okay, okay, help you babysit Antonio." He said. "That's what I thought." They all ran up to Antonio's room to play Expedition Adventure as that was routine for Antonio and Mirabel when everyone else was out. "So, how do we play this Adventure..jungle..man..game..thing.." Camilo asked. "EXPEDITION ADVENTURE." Antonio spat. "Yeah, yeah, that." He said, completely unfazed by his brothers lame attempt at yelling. Antonio spent the next 30 minutes explaining the game in high detail for no reason what so ever. "And that's how you win. Got it?" Antonio finally concluded. "....I...uh...yeah! Totally!" Camilo replied, nervously. "Good! Now let's- damn it! I left the dice downstairs. One minute." And Antonio left the room. "So..the voices still bothering you? Or have you been having anymore hallucinations? Or...both?" Camilo interrogated. "They're just quiet for now.." Mirabel claimed, though that wasn't 100% true. "Good. And you still don't know what's causing them or how to stop them?" He asked. "Nope." She responded. "Well we're gonna have to figure it out soon or else it will keep getting worse and worse and it'll just continue forever and-" - "Camilo! It's okay. We'll figure it out." She interrupted. "Okay I'm back!" Antonio said, bursting in the room. "Let's play!"

It usually takes them about an hour to get through a full game but this time it took close to 4 because they had to stop every 5 seconds to explain to Camilo what was happening. "So I have to roll an odd number then?" He asked. "Oh my god Camilo do you even have ears?! EVEN NUMBER. EVEN." Antonio vociferated. "Okay....2." Camilo said, unenthusiastically. "There, you've won. Thank god for that." Antonio replied. Usually he would get annoyed when he didn't win but he just wanted the game to be over so bad that he couldn't care less who won at this point. "Yay...cool.." Camilo answered, he was clearly exhausted.

Usually they would go out in the garden after but it took them that long to finish that it was already time to eat. "Kids! Dinner!" Julieta called. Antonio and Camilo sprung to their feet, getting ready to rush out the room they've been trapped in for 4, painful hours but Mirabel didn't move. "Mira? You coming?" Camilo asked. Mirabel didn't answer either. "Camilo, what's wrong with her?" Antonio was clearly scared. "Why don't you go downstairs bud, we'll be down in a minute." He told him. And with that, Antonio left the room. Camilo took Mirabel's hand and knelt down beside her. "Mira? Can you hear me?" He asked, softly, so he didn't scare her. The thing is, she could hear him. But she wasn't able to reply. It was as if she was trapped in her own mind. "Damn it!" He said, angrily. There was nothing he could do to snap her out of it. He just had to..wait. "CAMILO! MIRABEL!" Pepa called. "COMING MOM." Camilo shouted down. "Mira, you've got to snap out of it. please." He was getting desperate. It wouldn't be long before somebody got suspicious. "PLEASE!" He yelled. Thankfully, he yelled just loud enough that she regained consciousness. "Camilo?" She said. "Oh thank god." He responded, relieved. "What happened? Are you okay?" He asked. "I...I don't know.." she replied. "KIDS IF YOU DON'T COME DOWN HERE RIGHT NOW YOU'LL JUST HAVE TO STARVE!" Pepa yelled. "GOSH WE'RE COMING!" Camilo shouted and then turned back to Mirabel. "You okay to come down? I won't tell anyone anything. I promise." He said. "Yeah..thanks Camilo." She replied, before heading downstairs. "What took you two so long?!" Pepa demanded. "Sorry mom, we made a mess in Antonio's room and had to clean it." He lied. "Uh no we-" Antonio tried to say, but Camilo kicked him from under the table and gave him THAT look. "OW- Uh..oh yeah, sorry about that mom." And then he smiled, suspiciously. "Okay...well thanks for cleaning up but you really should've waiting until after dinner." She said. "Yeah, sorry."

After dinner everyone just hung around for a bit until it was time for bed. Mirabel laid wide awake because she was terrified to go to sleep. She thought the dreams had stopped but after last night's stunt, she wasn't so sure. 1 hour passed, still awake. 2 hours, still awake. 3 hours, awake. But on the 4th, things took a turn for the worst once again. Mirabel heard the same noise she had heard the previous night. The sound of bricks falling from the roof and walls, the screeching shadows, and though she couldn't hear it, she guessed the candle was burning out too. She was probably just imagining it. There was no point going out to check. She tried so hard to ignore it and go to sleep but then, the voices returned. And this time, they were screaming.

YOU HAVE TO GO OUT INTO THE MAIN HALL MIRABEL

YOU HAVE TO GO OUT INTO THE MAIN HALL MIRABEL

YOU HAVE TO GO OUT INTO THE MAIN HALL MIRABEL

GO

GO

GO

They were so loud it was unbearable so she quickly gave in and rushed out into the main hall to see the exact same scene she had the night before. "THIS ISN'T REAL!" She screamed. "NONE OF THIS IS REAL! IT'S ALL IN MY HEAD!" This angered the voices, and they got louder. Mirabel's head started pounding, her vision went fuzzy, and everything started to go black. Then, she fell to the ground, slipping into a state of unconsciousness.

Though she wasn't able to hear the screaming once again, Dolores heard the thud and rushed out into the main hall to see her cousin laying on the floor. Without hesitation, she ran to Camilo's room. "CAMILO WAKE UP!" She yelled. "Huh? Dolores it's like 3am-" he said, tiredly. "It's Mirabel." She told him. "..what?"

The last part should hopefully be out tomorrow as always! :)