Worth The Shot

Ruthless

Today's fanart is of y/n!  It's by pancake_phantom, who is on instagram with that username! She looks so pretty, and the butterflies swirling around her hair were a magical touch. Thank you so much!

BACK TO THE STORY

Left. Right. Straight. Right. Left.

Like a horde of mice, your small band scuttled through the dizzying twists of tunnels. You and Dolores shifted through the musty darkness, listening and guiding. Mariano's hand awkwardly rested on your shoulder, following Augustin's clever idea to avoid accidental separation in the pitch-blackness. 

You abruptly stiffened, halting. With a sharp jerk of your head, you indicated the glowing hole that had greedily swallowed Camilo's misstep. The cavern. With the kidnapped Madrigals. 

"One guard is inside," Dolores murmured against your ear, barely disturbing the air. 

Your eyes flashed around the cavern like fireballs, counting the living Madrigals. Frantic breaths swirled choking, harsh dust into your lungs. You promised we'd both be okay. Please, be alive. 

Luisa. 

Isabela. 

Pepa. 

Luisa, Isabela, and Pepa. That was it. Fear thumped your heart, clenching the blood out with an iron claw. Augustin maneuvered his slender frame to anxiously search for his wife, obstructing your view. 

Are they dead? A cold, unwanted thought screeched into your ear. Time split into a new dimension, and you inhaled ice. Camilo's auburn curls and soft freckles burned into the blank pages of your mind. 

But the parallel dimension trapped you. Suddenly, all you could picture was his bruised face, the night after he'd taken a beating for you. His dark, defensive eyes. 

"Don't look at me like that." Camilo's angry, embarrassed command from that night echoed through your head. "I can take care of myself."

But how am I supposed to look at you? You weakly thought back in an irrational jumble of emotions. You couldn't take care of yourself. You've never been invincible, Camilo. And now you're...

"Julieta's here. She's here," Augustin unexpectedly announced, gratefully sinking against Dolores' shoulder. "They all are," he breathily added. "Camilo, too." Relief heavily swelled in your chest. Felix exhaled thankfully. 

"Hold this over the fire," A guard grunted from inside the cavern, roughly thrusting a splintery, wooden stake at Julieta. Still shaken, you squinted over Augustin's head. Julieta had been moved from the cavern wall to the floor, where chains had pinned you and Camilo. 

You couldn't see everything from behind the soft silhouette of Augustin's hair. You felt an intense ache to see Camilo's floppy, yellow ruana. His dark, thoughtful eyebrows. His starry freckles. 

"Alright," Julieta peacefully dipped her head, accepting the stick from the guard with her free hand. She suspended the sizzling chunk of meat above the fire.

They've been forcing her to cook? Who are they using her to heal?

With a throb of sympathy, you realized that Julieta, with her gratuitous kindness, would heal even her own enemies.

"Here, eat this," she gently instructed, extending the stick. You couldn't see over Dolores' high, curly bun. Who was she healing?

A mutilated sob. Chewing. Silence.

"Camilo, sweetie, It's going to be okay."

The sharp, painful realization slammed into you like a dying sky. Camilo. Had they abused him until he barely held onto life? Until even your father had admitted that he vitally needed healing?

"Alright, Tia Julieta," Camilo's shaky voice wrapped bleeding thorns into your heart. He sounded broken, haunted, and defeated.

Dolores clamped her fingers over her mouth, horrified tears glistening in her eyes. Her anguish for her brother cracked frown lines into her silky forehead.

"I'm starving. Maybe I should groan really loud so they'll give me seconds," Camilo weakly suggested. Underneath his husky, fake laugh, there was an red current of desperation.

To cling to normalcy. To black out his terror. To pretend he was okay. But how could he feign smiles for his family after his screams had rattled off the callous cavern walls? They'd seen everything. He couldn't hide.

A tight, fabric gag smothered Pepa's mouth, but her green eyes helplessly cried, flooded with agitation. Strung high on the wall, what could she do but watch? For her sake, you were glad it was over.

"I'm okay, everybody! I'm okay!" Camilo bravely declared up to the Madrigals. "Ready for round five."

Stop it, you silently pleaded. Please just stop, Camilo. His untimely efforts to lighten the situation only unsettled it. In the cruel chains and dull firelight, his jokes seemed violently wrong. 

"Round five?" Felix breathed, his eyes glazed with dread. Camilo's words snapped together like horrifying puzzle pieces. Why Pepa cried. Why Julieta had permanently moved by the fire. 

They'd used Julieta's cooking as an excuse to inflict whatever life-threatening pain they'd wanted. They could be merciless and cruel, and he wouldn't even die. It wasn't over. They'd locked Camilo in a ruthless cycle with the magical revivals.