The Forgotten...? ••• 𝐂.𝐌𝐚𝐝𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐚𝐥

(19) 𝐋eisurely scheming

Narrator's POV:

"Mirabel!?" A sudden, yet distant voice shook her awake.

"Uh—what-what! What's going on?!" The young girl shouted, darting up and out of bed, her crinkled skirt flowing behind her. She tangled her foot in the quilt, resulting in her swiftly falling—face-first— to the ground. 
"U-ugh... Why...?" She boredly questioned, as she placed her chin on the ground and turned to the mystery perpetrator that startled the daylights out of her.
"O-oh, sorry Mira. Heh?" Someone chuckled, crouching to the ground and grinning from ear to ear. Camilo... surprise, surprise.

"Are you alright, Mirabel?" Another voice asked, a more gentle one and the exact one she wanted to share her previous discovery with.
"Dolores? Ah—I have so much to tell you about Isabella and Lucia. Well, not so much but it's something and, well, it's not exactly helpful to us. But—"

"I've already told her, Mira." Camilo interrupted his tone not his usual bubbly self. He sounded deflated, like all of his charisma is on a temporary vacation.
"Yeah, he already told me. And your right, it's not the most helpful information we could've gotten." Dolores added, moving her skirt as she came to sit on the ground next to Camilo, in front of her cousin. And when she sat down Mirabel could finally feel the drowsiness begin to dissipate, she moved so she was propped up on my elbows as she wiped the sleep from the corners of my eyes.

"What can we do then? We're right back where we started." Mirabel asked, glancing between the two siblings before her, waiting for a suggestion or at the very least something new that they found out. Even if it wasn't exactly related to Lucia, Mayen about Pepa's off mood earlier or Isabella's skittishness.

"I-uh, well, I was out doing my chores and I heard some of the townsfolk whispering to each other." Dolores seemed to pique the interest in both Mirabel and Camilo as he turned to her, about to speak but Mirabel hurridly butted in before him.
"About what?" Mirabel's full focus was on her cousin, disregarding her other cousin's light glare as she made a gesture for Dolores to continue. Dolores sighed, looking between the two as she spoke again, moving closer and voice becoming quieter as if she didn't want anyone to hear what she was about to say. This action made Mirabel tense as if she wasn't supposed to know Thai information, that neither of them was supposed to know.
"They were talking about someone in town... someone bad." She murmured, she lowered her head and fiddled with her fingers in her lap and rushed her next words out before I could convince her to tell us more.
"That this person was here to take the miracle candle, out for the town. For us, Madrigal's..." She grimaced, letting out one of her common squeaks whilst Camilo and Mirabel processed the news. Someone's out for their candle, their Encanto, for them. Someone dangerous...?

"Did you hear anything else? Maybe what they look like or their first sighting? How long they've been here?" The questions tumbled out of Mirabel's mouth before she could even filter them out in a delicate manner for her older family member. Dolores didn't say any more, only shaking her head as she looked to the window at the slightly grey sky that has been settled over Encanto for the last couple of hours. Or that's what Mirabel thought at least, her nap put her out for a couple of hours and the sky wasn't exactly clear and sunny when she went to bed.

Pushing her luck, Mirabel grumbled out another set of unushered questions, earning a bored look from Camilo and a slightly nervous one from Dolores. As Dolores continued her rambles, searching the deepest crevices of her reminder to distribute what she knew about this new "visitor" to Mirabel, Camilo dazed and out of focus mind drifted away from their conversation. For some odd reason—a reason even his conscious brain could muster up—he kept replaying the events from early this morning. In Lucia's bedroom, with her doors and book and water. The stuff they collected, which were currently being hidden under Camilo's bed, behind some boxes of random trinkets and a little food stash.