For Shits and Giggles [2024]

Chapter 25

"Hi my love," Gracie said.

Camilo's shaggy hair was messier than usual. He looked disheveled, wearing an old T-Shirt from a concert he and Gracie had attended long ago, and the same basketball shorts he'd owned since high school. She could tell he'd just woken up, the way it took his eyes several seconds to fully focus on her. She was covered in dust, in the same clothes from two days ago. He noticed the scratches on her neck.

"Where have you been," he walked toward her and grabbed her by the shoulders, pulling her into a tight, suffocating hug. "I've been calling and texting and even sent you emails."

"I was with Paola," she said, squirming slightly to loosen his grip. It was the truth, just not the whole truth. Camilo didn't budge, he squeezed her tighter.

"Hello? Gigi, are you there? What's going on?"

Santiago's voice echoed through the phone in her hand, which had been behind her back until now.

"Who's..." Camilo started before he realized. It was like something had broken, snapped, deep behind his eyes.

Slowly, almost gently, Camilo wrapped his slender fingers around Gracie's wrist. He brought her hand up to her face, the phone now centimeters away from her lips.

"Tell him it's late. Tell him you're going to bed."

It was the calmness in his voice that petrified Gracie, he spoke slowly, barely above a whisper. His eyes bore into her. She did as she was told.

"Y-Yes... I'm here, Santiago. It's getting late, I'm going to sleep now."

"Oh, okay... are you s—"

Camilo hung up the phone with his thumb, cutting Santiago off mid-sentence.

"Why," he said. Gracie took a cautionary step back, the back of her thighs pressing against the kitchen table behind her.

"Why do you insist on making me so fucking angry," with one swift movement, Camilo snatched her phone and flung it across the room. It slammed first into the microwave and then skid across the kitchen floor, the screen shattering into a hundred sparkling pieces.

Gracie flinched, her thoughts racing back to the photos she had taken of Dr. Sny's journal. Those were crucial. If her eyes failed to break the deal, if her letter fell on deaf ears, those notes—surely they held something vital for their situation. That was why she had risked being caught at the facility; she knew Dr. Sny's brilliance was unparalleled. There had to be something in his notes that could aid them, and now they were lost. Dr. Sny would never willingly share his findings, especially not if it meant breaking the curse, not after everything that had transpired.

She was furious. She tried moving around the table, away from him.

"What's this," he said, snatching the letter that was now visible on the kitchen table behind her.

"That's... that's not," she tried to say but he ignored her. His eyes began to scan the paper, unfolding it carelessly. Gracie wanted to snatch the letter from him, it was hers. Only hers. That was her heart, her thoughts in that letter. He had no right to it, or to her. But she didn't dare say anything to him, even if she could. Right now, she didn't know what he would do.

"My boyfriend's love for me has become an obsession," he read out loud, in that same, low voice. "That's what you think of me?"

Slowly, as if to draw out the moment on purpose, Camilo ripped her letter in half, then in half again. He ripped it in half a third time and let all of the small pieces flutter to the ground at Gracie's feet. It was like he was tearing her own heart in two. Gracie choked back red hot tears.

"Do you know how much I worry about you? How much I care? I told you I got us a cabin, right? It was just supposed to be a little vacation, so that we could fall in love all over again..." he continued taking steps towards her, cornering her back against the stove. He placed the back of his fingers against cheek, stroking her skin gently. "But you... you ruined it. I came to pick you up at the Café, I looked for you at home. You abandoned me for two days, isn't that cruel? I waited for you. I was patient."

"I was with Paola," she tried to reiterate, turning her face to get away from his touch. She couldn't back up any further. "Felix told us the secret to breaking the curse... Dr. Sny kidnapped—"

"Felix?" It was all he heard, "Dr. Sny too, from college? Santiago... every man except me," he gripped her face roughly, digging his nails into her cheeks. "I must not be as possessive as you think, my love, if you can run around like the town slut."

He let go of her face, Gracie held her cheek.

"We're going. Right now. We're staying at the Cabin."

He snatched her arm, dragging Gracie out of the kitchen and up the stairs. The pieces of her letter scattered around the floor and danced with the shattered pieces of her phone. In her bedroom, Camilo threw a couple of her clothes into a bag. "Don't move," he hissed at her when she tried to turn around. She tried to ignore him, to move anyway and make a run for it.

But all she said was, "Okay, I won't."

Camilo moved from one side of her bedroom to the other, stuffing her belongings into a bag.

"I need to give Felix my eyes... it's the only way to break the curse," she pleaded, desperately trying to get his attention, to buy herself more time. "He's coming tomorrow. I promised we'd break the curse. Please," she begged. "Don't you want to end this?"

He stopped abruptly, fixing her with a cold, unwavering stare.

"No," he said, his voice eerily calm. "I've realized this curse is the only thing keeping us together. If that's how it has to be, so be it. I can't lose you. Not to him."

The notes. The letter. Even her eyes. She had nothing left. In the span of fifteen minutes, it had all slipped away.

"We're going to the cabin, and we're staying there for good," he added. "You're mine, whether you want to be or not."