Obsession

9.

Julieta stood silently by the kitchen counter. For the last couple of years, she never feared anything, even if the memory of her father's sacrifice and her mother's grief haunted her she kept on being positive. For her mother, brothers, and mostly family. She didn't wish that the burden of the past to be dangling heavenly on her children s shoulders.

Luisa was a perfect example of that fear, her daughter felt like trash if she couldn't carry all the burden of that family on her back. And the stress was killing her. The poor child had nothing to prove, but she felt that being the big sister made her accountable to all burdens. The villagers, the city, the family, abuela. She even felt responsible to go on a carnage hunt to look after the man/ woman it a group of people who committed atrocities in Encanto.

She was a child! Regardless of her gift, Alma shouldn't seen her away! She will never forgive her mother if anything happens with Luisa, Mirabel, or Isabella. She couldn't lose another one, not after Pedro, not after Bruno...

" Are you ok, tia?" Camilo's voice slices innocently through the stillness of the room, his face cracking in the weak light of a candle.

" My hijo," she muttered giving him a big hug dragging him to her chest.

" What's wrong, tia? " he asks his baby brow eyes round and broad like pearls on the deep ocean floor. He had that puppy-like look that made him look like a juvenile, pure, innocent, and naive. Julieta shed a tear.

" Oh, I am just worried mi hijo. Isabella didn't return from lady Guzman's house. Her letter said that she will meet her soon at the flower patch of the city, but she hadn't returned yet.  Your grandma is still buzzy with the villagers and I don't wish to disturb her or worry her. But where could Isa be? "

" Don't worry, tia. I cherish you, and I will always be here for you" Camilo hugged her tightly, " don't worry about Isabella,  you will see her soon." his voice hushed at the end of the sentence luring her into enough sense of security to not notice the candle in his hand, and in the last minute she covers her face gasping before she turned to stone completely.

Camilo snickered his calm gaze meeting her frozen one.

" So good that I had a vision with you being all alone in the kitchen. " he huffed exhaling a small breath of air from his lungs. " Casita take her to the tower, please." he requests, and a secret passage opens in the kitchen wall allowing the floor to move the crouched statue in the tower of Bruno.

Camilo followed shortly after with his hands warped behind his back, looking at the three statues with sand dripping on them endlessly. Isabella, Bruno, and now his favorite tia.

" See, I told you that I will help you see her soon. " he poked the statue who still had tears dropping from her eyes. Camilo wiped the small droplet with the tip of his finger looking as it slowly slips down it. He delicately dries it on his ruana and looks at them again." Now you are reunited with both your brother and daughter. And soon the rest will follow in. I didn't want to do this to you tia, but I know you wouldn't understand my reasoning. "

He sighs thinking of the precious reward awaiting in his room. All cupped on his bed with flowers in her hair. Oh, their first night sleeping together, he was so troubled. What if he gives in his urges and harms her delicate petals? No, he needed to be patient,  there still was abuela, his mami,  and Dolores to go. Sure, there were still his father and uncle but they had no gift, they were no threat.

He placed his palm one last time on his tia's cheek, stroking the rock piece lovingly.  " I promise you that all the family will be reunited tia, you will soon all be here and gaze over mi amor y el de Lola, verás a nuestros niños jugando a tu alrededor y ella embarazada, con una gran barriga.
Seremos una familia tan feliz solo todos nosotros en la casa. Isn't that wonderful, tia? "