Outside World

Part 7

A.N. Written alongside PanFluidMe

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Dolores walked out of her room. It was pretty late at night, but she couldn't sleep. She didn't know what it was, but something felt off. She felt like something was wrong. Something just felt off. Immediately, she went to go talk to her brother and cousins.

As she approached Camilo's room, she noticed something really concerning. Camilo's door was no longer glowing. That freaked her out for a minute. Then she had to make sure the door wasn't sealed shut. Abuela had said that when a gifted person died, their door sealed shut forever.

She reached for the doorknob and turned it, successfully getting into the room. She breathed a sigh of relief before closing the door again. Camilo was still alive.

That at least gave her some reassurance. But it still led the question of where her brother was. Had he left to go see if Mirabel left Encanto?

Dolores shook her head and started to panic, talking to herself, "no, no, no, no, no. He couldn't have left the Encanto. Right?"

Out of everyone, he had been the most scared to leave Encanto.

Dolores didn't know what to do. She did the only logical thing she could think of. She ran to her parents' room and knocked on the door, panicked.

Félix was the one to answer, his shirt off. "¿Hola?"

"Papá, Camilo's gone!" Dolores said, close to tears from the panicking.

"Camilo's gone?!"

"Sí, and his door isn't glowing anymore!"

"Pepa! Wake up!" He shouted, clearly panicking.

Pepa awoke, hearing her husband's frantic shouting. "Félix? What's going on?"

"Camilo's missing!"

"What?!" Pepa jumped out of bed, approaching her husband and daughter.

"Dolores said that his door isn't glowing anymore."

Pepa looked at Dolores, who nodded. Pepa gently pushed passed her husband and daughter to go look at her son's door, which was, in fact, no longer glowing. A cloud had formed above her head, starting to rain.

She stood there, simply staring at the door for a while. It felt like, for a moment, when Bruno had first disappeared. Fear and sadness mixed together.

Pepa didn't know what to say or do. Now her son and niece were both missing. She had to open his door just to be safe. She wanted to make sure he was still alive, even if he wasn't here.

She grabbed the doorknob and turned it, just like Dolores had, successfully accessing the room. She sighed of relief and closed the door again.

"¿Mamá?" Dolores paused. "Do you think he's okay?"

Pepa took a second to answer, "I- I don't know. At least we know he's not..."

That's when it occurred to her that since Mirabel didn't have a magical door like everyone else in the family, they wouldn't know if Mirabel wasn't alive.

Félix bit his lip. "We need to keep looking."

"Sí." Pepa said. "Where could he possibly be...? The only time something like this has ever happened before now was when Bruno left."

"Maybe we should talk to Bruno?"

"Maybe." Pepa said.

"Why do you think he left?"

"I don't know." Pepa said.

Dolores spoke up, "I might have an idea..."

Félix and Pepa looked at her, nodding encouragingly.

"It's possible that he... left the Encanto to look for Mirabel." Dolores said.

Pepa gasped softly. "What?! He wouldn't!"

"He's been so insistent on checking the mountains and outside the Encanto ever since Mirabel went missing." Dolores mentioned.

"But why would he?"

"Sí." Pepa nodded. She hoped her son was okay, wherever he was. She prayed he wasn't hurt at all.

Now she had to worry about her son and her niece, which made the cloud above her head grow slightly. She needed to start looking for them.

"Okay, come on. We can't waste anymore time. We have to go look for Camilo. And Mirabel." Pepa said.

Félix nodded and grabbed her hand. "Let's look."

Pepa then realized it was the middle of the night and told her husband and daughter, "I'm gonna leave a note for everyone else telling them where we went in case they wake up before we get back."

Félix nodded. "That sounds good."

Pepa grabbed a pen and a piece of paper and wrote a note to the rest of the family and put it on her door where they would easily be able to find it.

"Okay, let's go." She said, walking down the stairs and out the house, her daughter and husband following closely behind.

They left casita, all extremely nervous and worried about Mirabel and Camilo. They hoped the two were both okay, and they hoped that Camilo and Mirabel were at least together at this point. If Camilo had gone out to find Mirabel, they hoped he had found her at this point.

Of course, they didn't know about the fact that he had fallen pretty badly. And he still hadn't found Mirabel. He was alone, injured, and scared. And it was getting dark.

Pepa, Dolores, and Félix went around, calling Mirabel and Camilo's names frantically. Each time, they got no response. Dolores tried to see if she could hear Mirabel or Camilo. She heard faint sobs from Camilo, but nothing from Mirabel.

She figured she had to tell her parents about that, so she spoke up, "guys, I hear something."

"What do you hear?"

Dolores listened again closely, "sounds like... crying?" She paused. "That's Camilo." She heard a sharp intake of breathing in pain then quiet swearing.

"Camilo's crying?"

"Sounds like he's hurt too." Dolores said, concern for her little brother growing.

"He's hurt?!"

Dolores nodded. "And as for Mirabel, I don't hear anything from her. She's either too far away or..." Dolores didn't want to finish her sentence, but her parents knew what she meant.

"Let's just think that she's too far..."

"Sí..." Pepa agreed, Dolores nodding along. None of them wanted to think of the possibility of Mirabel being...

They couldn't think about it. "We'll find her."

Dolores tried to hear her way towards where Camilo might be. "This way." She said, leading her parents in the direction she heard Camilo's distant crying coming from.

They followed her. "I hope he's okay..."

She lead them to the mountains. She listened closely again. "There's no doubt about it, he's on the other side of this mountain."

"He's outside of the Encanto. But he's always stayed in."

Dolores tried to hear if anything else was happening on the other side of the mountain with her brother.

"What do we do?" Pepa questioned.

"We go get him."

"Owowow," Camilo swore to himself.

"Yeah, he sounds like he's in a lot of pain." Dolores said.

Pepa took a first step onto the mountain. "Well, we can't waste anymore time. Let's go."

Félix nodded and they trekked.