Chapter Text
Camilo ran up the stairs the moment they all noticed their home start to fall apart, the moment his mother had shouted and pointed at the candle that held their miracle in it. Okay, that was a lie. He ran up as soon as he noticed Mirabel running to it. The roof was slowly falling apart but Camilo didn't have time to worry about that, he had to get to make sure that his cousin would be okay. That was the only thing that mattered. As he ran he had to duck under a bunched of falling rubble while changing into a child- before quickly turning into one of the adult villagers and jumping over some of the previously fallen pieces of roof and wall.
He could hear his mother shouting after him, which caused him to look right where he saw two of his cousins attempting to get the candle as well. Mirabel was climbing on the roof to get there while Isabela was swinging on a vine full of flowers. Camilo jumped forward to grab onto the edge of the roof just as he heard Isabela shout in fear and drop toward the ground, Julieta cried out in worry just as Casita extended a few support beams to catch the falling girl. Julietta, Agustin and Luisa all rushed to her.
That's when Camilo realized that something wasn't right- he could practically feel his gift slowly evaporate from within him before it completely disappeared in a single moment-
That's when Camilo realized another thing, he was falling, from the roof. He quickly begun to kick his legs and threw his arms around in an attempt to turn himself around so he would not land on his stomach- Casita tried to catch him like it had caught Isabela, but he couldn't catch onto the extended railings on time. His body felt weird, his life was flashing in his eyes and he heard both his mother and father scream his name as he fell, their voices sounded weird, disoriented. He heard the gasps of shock and shouts of fear of his entire family, but it was too late to do anything.
It was a human reflex to always try to use your arms to catch yourself when falling, Camilo was a human even if he was a gifted one. The moment he realized he was going to hit the ground he brought his hands forward and-
"AAAAGHHH-"
Not a single Madrigal missed the loud crack, or the scream, or the cries that followed. Camilo's head hit the ground next and his legs followed soon after- he wished he could've just fell unconscious the moment he had made contact with the stone tiles- but no. He was wide awake, screaming his lungs out as more and more tears poured into his eyes and rolled down his cheeks. His screams were breathless and had little to no sound in them- all air in his lungs had been knocked out immediately on impact.
The rest of the family was moved out of the house, but Casita didn't dare to move Camilo. It wouldn't risk causing more injury onto him.
Pepa could feel her blood run cold and her heart skip a beat as she watched her son's hand barely miss the edge of the roof. She watched helplessly as Camilo fell down and tried to grab onto something- anything! Casita tried to use the last of it's energy to extend something for her son- but to no avail. Camilo couldn't grab onto anything. He was falling way too fast for his reflexes to be able to follow.
Camilo hit the ground- and screamed, it quickly turned soundless as his lungs ran out of air. His chin was bleeding, his arms were broken or dislocated, he couldn't breathe- her son couldn't breathe. He was gasping, gasping for air, none would enter his lungs. He was screaming but it didn't have any sound to it- Pepa took a hurried step toward her son and-
The ground moved
The family was thrown out of the house by Casita, everyone but Camilo and Mirabel that is. But the latter was "safely" retrieving the candle from the roof- while the former was desperately gasping for air that had been forced out of his lungs, letting out breathless sobs in between soundless gasps. "Camilo!" Luisa's voice cracked as she shouted, Isabela called out to her cousin as well. Both of them glanced at Mirabel who had noticed the situation as well and was currently running away from the candle.
The boy had managed to get onto his knees, arms hanging limply by his sides. He gasped, rasped and coughed and yet little to no air would enter his lungs. Tears stained his face and got mixed with the blood on his chin, sobs made his body shake. He was in pain, and Pepa couldn't do anything but stare from afar. None of them could do anything else.
Pepa tried to run forward but was stopped by Abuela- "No. You musn't, Casita might collapse completely." She stated with a calm look on her face and Pepa saw red- and so did the other members of her family. "Camilo and Mirabel are still in there!" Dolores shouted, unshed tears shining in her brown eyes. "Do you not see him? He can't breathe! And surely not move!" Pepa screamed, not taking here eyes off of her son. Abuela opened her mouth to say something when a dangerously loud crack from the building forced all of them to look at it again.
Mirabel had landed onto the floor and was currently rushing towards her cousin- Camilo looked up to stare at his family, fear in his eyes, "Help." He gasped, out of breath. No one heard him, but everyone understood him. His brown eyes were wide with fear as he stared into his mothers eyes that were shining with tears that were threatening to spill out of her eyes. Then, he quickly looked up in alarm and his body began to shake even more- if that was even possible- his mouth opened in a soundless scream while his arm shot upward in an attempt to shield his head from something big that fell towards him from the second floor and-
The doorway collapsed, blocking their sight of the 15-year old. The only other sounds being Pepa's shrieks and cries that were accompanied by the screams of her husband, daughter and youngest son. Isabela let out a sob while grabbing onto her mother in a desperate attempt to get comfort- her sister and father soon joined in. Their own sobs and cries melting into her own. Dolores pulled Antonio close to her and the child clung to her dress, crying out for his older brother.
Abuela stared at the collapsed doorway, what would she find behind it? The corpse of her grandson? Maybe even the corpse of her granddaughter. The thought caused her to shake and tear up, and yet still she couldn't pull her eyes away from the collapsing building.
What had she done?
Mirabel gasped when she saw her cousin hit the ground and cry out in pain, she saw Casita escort everyone else but her and Camilo out. Mirabel looked between the form of her gasping cousin and the burning out candle- realizing she could only save one. She looked left, she looked right, left, right, left right-
Fuck the candle.
"CAMILO!" Mirabel cried out before jumping down to the ground and running towards her cousin. She dropped down to her knees and slid toward the older teen- blocking half of his body with her own and pushing half of their bodies away from the falling rubble. She grabbed on tight to the gasping Camilo and prepared herself for the inevitable... that never came. As the girl looked up she saw a bunch of rubble and broken furniture shaped like a tent on top of them. Casita had protected them.
"M-Mirabel." A gasp. "O-Off. N-Now." Another gasp. And a sob.
Mirabel practically jumped away from on top of Camilo, he was still sobbing, but he was alive. They were both alive. The fortress around them crumbled away, the miracle had burned out. Casita was no more. It was quiet, aside from her cousins gasps and cries that is. Then the silence got filled by the sound of running. Of multiple people running toward the two.
"Camilo my sweet boy!" Pepa dropped onto her knees and took her son into her arms as carefully as she possibly could and sobbed into his shoulder. Felix dropped down as well and wrapped his arms around his wife and son carefully. "Thank god, thank god." He breathed. Dolores took in a deep breath and turned to Mirabel who had just managed to get up from the ground- "I-" she started, but Dolores' crushing hug stopped her from whatever she had tried to say. "Thank you. Thank you so much."
"We need to get out of here. Camilo needs medical attention." Julieta layed a hand on top of her sisters shoulder. Her gift might be gone, but she had some medical knowledge. If she could just get her hands on a medical kit of some kind she could work with that. "Let's just hope that someone in the town has some kind of medical supplies or we're in a lot of trouble." She added, gently brushing Camilo's hair with her fingers.
This was going to be a long day.