One Hundred Broken Mirrors| Camilo Angst | Encanto

It isn't a lie....

Camilo ran his fingers over the cracks, stunned by what he saw.

"What the hell is this?" He said.

"I'm not sure, but it's nothing good," Mirabel examined the black lines next to him. "I think it might be-"

Crack, another set of broken tiles appeared behind them. Pieces of the fainted red roof began to fall as well, rattling and shaking.

Mirabel, becoming concerned, knelt to the concrete and ran her hand over the floor.

"Casita?" She asked.

Camilo heard a slight flicker, and turned around to look up at the candle, and tensed. The candle was much more dim than usual.

"M-Mirabel...?"

His cousin picked herself up off the ground and turned around to look, and stepped back when she saw the candle.

"What's wrong with it? It's never been this low before.." She said, concerned.

Suddenly, another heap of cracks bursted through the house, quickly spreading through the doors, once glowing brightly, now fading into a dark gold.

"What's happening?!" Camilo gasped at all the commotion.

Mirabel raced towards the staircase and Camilo followed closely behind, looking back and forth between the fading candle and the cracks growing faster within each minute.

The duo followed along the black mass and tried desperately to keep up with it. Soon it began to reach up higher towards..

"The candle!"

Indeed, it had spread so far that it began crawling it's way up to the glow that lit up the large house. Camilo and Mirabel stared up at the candle, unable to prevent the destruction coming it's way. Soon enough, the cracks crawled it's way through to the candle that sat atop on the windowsill, looming over the rest of the house. As soon as the cracks reached the top, the candle began flickering even lower.

Mirabel and Camilo grew worried, and looked around the doors, also loosing their glowing light. Whatever was going on, they knew it wasn't good at all.

"We have to talk to Abuela,"

The two rushed back into Antonio's room, still loud and lively, and rushed towards the stairs. They both spotted the rest of their family dancing to beautiful music in the background, Antonio happily talked and played with the newly born animals he had found. Or rather, they had found him.

Despite all the loud noise and smiles, it wasn't enough to melt away any sort of trouble. Mirabel frantically searched the area for Abuela, but couldn't see a red dress or grey bun, and couldn't hear her 'soothing' voice. Camilo suggested asking Dolores, but with all the commotion, Mirabel knew it would be too hard for her to hear anything specific. Mirabel then considered the idea of Camilo shape shifting into someone taller like Luisa to see better, but everyone would find it peculiar that there were two of the same person.

After a few more minutes of desperate searching, they soon came to a halt. Abuela stood in front of them, talking to a shorter elderly, with the same grey bun, and a blue material wrapped around her shoulders.

Camilo wasted no time and never once hesitated as soon as he saw Abuela, and dashed towards her.

"The house! Somethings wrong with the house!" He yelled.

All music stopped, all distant socialisation quieted.

"What are you talking about?" Abuela said sternly.

"He's right! There were tiles falling-" Mirabel confirmed.

"Cracks started to appear everywhere!" Camilo continued. "And the... candle,"

"It almost went completely out!" Mirabel showed a numerous amount of unnecessary hand gestures, clearly implementing that something was indeed wrong.

Abuela still didn't look fully convinced. "Show me,"

A large crowd once again made their way and appeared outside in the main area of the Casita, and looked around for any sort of damage the two cousins had described. Camilo and Mirabel also looked around in despair and disappointment.

".....What...?" Camilo stared, walking down the stairs. "No, that's...... that's impossible! The cracks they were... everywhere!"

"Abuela, I promise you, everything was-"

"That's enough." Abuela said to him. "You need to stop ruining Antonio's night, he's only five, stop trying to scare him Camilo,"

Mirabel noticed that Antonio clung tightly onto Pepa dress, a confused expression stuck on his face.

"But I'm not-" Camilo started.

"No need to worry, there is nothing wrong with La Casa Madrigal! The magic is strong," Abuela interrupted.

Camilo slightly glared at her from behind, not understanding why she wasn't listening.

"She isn't listening because she doesn't care," A voice from behind said ominously.

Camilo sharply turned to find the owner of the voice, but couldn't see anyone else. He then realised the owner of the voice belonged to-

No, no. I can't think about him again, not now.

He scratched his head as everyone went back inside the room, continuing the festivities as if nothing happened.

"But... they were here," Mirabel said in frustration. "We would never try to ruin anything for Antonio,"

"She'll believe us, it'll just take some time," Camilo said.

Mirabel heard the edge in his voice. "Are you really okay? You've been doing this all day,"

"Doing.. what?" He gave her an awkward smile.

Mirabels face sunk. "Don't try and play dumb with me, I've lived in the same room as you for five years, don't think I can't tell if you're upset or not because trust me, if anyone knows you best, it's me,"

Camilo tried not to look at her and stared at the floor.

He couldn't tell her. No matter how much he wanted her to know, he knew it would only complicate everything.

"Mirabel I'm sorry..."

"About what? You've done absolutely nothing wrong,"

"I can't tell you, but I need you to trust me please. Whatever happens, I'll be okay I promise."

"You're acting so weird Cam,"

"Just please don't worry about anything, please," he begged, and rushed off up the stairs again.

Mirabel didn't bother calling out for him.

Camilo sat on his bed, doing his absolute best to ignore the broken mirror still shattered on the floor. He knew that even thinking about it would make him feel upset and overwhelmed.

He just wished that someone. Anyone, would at least try and recognise the problem without him telling them directly what the dilemma was.

Just please, it's only been one day. Why it all of this happening now-

Camilo lifted his head up.

The sound of someone knocking filled his ears whilst looking up at the hard wood.

Hello! This is a lazy chapter, I promise the next one will be better, but I'm really tired rn, please go drink some water and eat some food if you haven't alr.