Chapter Text
Camilo was awakened by the unfortunately familiar sound of his abuela’s shouting from outside his room. He at first thought it was for him, until he heard Mirabel’s name and realized it was coming from the courtyard.
He quickly jumped up and sped to go see what was going on, not bothering to slip on his sandals. When he reached the railing outside his room looking over the yard below, where much of his family was standing watching the growing argument between Mirabel and Abuela Alma.
“The cracks started with you, Bruno left because of you!”
Camilo noticed a crack suddenly appear beside him and he gasped.
Mirabel had been right all along —- of course, he never doubted his prima, he was just in some sort of state of denial over him clearly losing control of his gift. He didn’t like the idea that he’d lose his powers, the very thing that made him feel complete, or that he’d lose his home. He didn’t want to believe it before, but now, he wasn’t given a choice. The miracle was dying.
“Luisa’s losing her powers,” Abuela continued, waving her hands dramatically. “Isabela’s out of control, because of you! I don’t know why you weren’t given a gift, but it is not an excuse for you to hurt this family.”
The teenager’s heart went out sincerely to his cousin, the girl of which had shrunken back at her grandmother’s words. Camilo was irritated that someone he loved so much could say such harsh things, even for someone who was normally strict! He loved his abuela with much of his heart, he did, but he didn’t want to just stand by while she bullied down his prima favorita.
But he did, not that he regretted it.
For, a few moments later, Mirabel managed to stand up for herself, and get the words everyone needed to hear out in the air. Get the words she needed to say out.
“I will never be good enough for you, will I?”
Camilo barely heard it, and shivered when he did.
“No matter how hard I try. No matter how hard any of us tries! Luisa will never be strong enough, Isabela won’t be perfect enough. Bruno left our family because you only saw the worst in him.”
“Bruno didn’t care about this family!”
“He loves this family! I love this family, we all love this family; you’re the one that doesn’t care!”
With every heartbreaking word, cracks aplenty started splitting up the household. People from outside the casita could be heard screaming and gasping, but that didn’t pause Mirabel for a single second. She stepped forward, now full of pure rage and fire that terrified Camilo to the bone. He’d never seen her so…angry, so hurt and fired up to the point of boiling above the surface.
He couldn’t believe he’d never seen her pain before, and the guilt settling inside him would probably never leave.
A crack appeared next to his foot, making him jump back in surprise. He could feel his powers fading, his door flashing fervently along with the others around him.
“You’re the one breaking our home.”
“Don’t you ever-”
“The miracle is dying because of you!”
The casita went shock-still silent. Camilo’s eyes went rigid round.
Then another crack formed between abuela and Mirabel, and that’s when everything started falling apart.
“No, no, no!” Mama cried, and Camilo watched in horror as cracks started racing up for the miracle candle. The casita was filled with chaos and screams, terror seizing everyone’s chest, Camilo’s included. As everyone started running around, Camilo spotted his prima heading for the miracle, yelling at the casita to help her.
He quickly started chasing her from above, not to help get the candle, but to stop her from killing herself.
Isabela seemed to have the same idea, conjuring a group of vines and swinging after her hermana. Unfortunately, they only took her so far before her door lost its glow and her vines disappeared. She fell a good few feet, Casita catching her before she could procure any major injuries.
After checking that she was okay, Camilo shifted into multiple forms as he dodged falling pieces of the casita to get to Mirabel. He was readying to leap up for the roof above, to shift into a taller villager and swing himself up, before he suddenly heard a low rumbling behind him.
Distracted, he spun around just in time to see his hermanito’s door knocked down by a stampede of animals, leopards and birds alike screeching and whining, scurrying to escape. But Camilo wasn’t concerned about them.
Antonio was nowhere to be seen below, and last time he checked his brother was going to his room for some unknown reason.
A terrible feeling twisted his gut.
Antonio was still in his room, and Casita’s magic didn’t stretch that far.
He was in trouble.
Making a drastic split second decision, trusting that his prima would be okay on her own, Camilo turned and raced for Antonio’s room. He heard his mama and papa calling him from below.
“Camilo! Cami, get out!”
“Where’s Antonio?” he called back, double checking that he wasn’t going to be heroic for nothing. His mother’s face going snow-white confirmed his fears.
“Cami, Cami, don’t-”
“Get out of here, mama, I’ve got him!”
“No!”
But Casita pushed both of his parents out before they could do anything, clearing the way as best as it could for him to get to his brother.
He attempted to shift into a smaller form to duck below a piece of falling wood, but found it for naught. He barely managed to keep from getting decapitated as he slid across the balcony floor, feeling his eyes once again grow into wide circles.
His powers…they were gone!
He looked over to his door and saw the light, like Isabela’s, was faded black. He no longer could feel the magic flowing through his body, through his blood. He no longer felt the special feeling his gift usually gave him.
“No…no, no…” he breathed hoarsely. He stared at his trembling hands, which he tried to urge to change, but simply remained their usual dirtied size.
He didn’t have time to deal with this now, he had to focus.
So, shaking away to pain of what he’d just lost, Camilo leapt back up and sprinted to Antonio’s door (or doorframe, the door being knocked completely off its hinges) and spotted his brother in seconds.
The boy was visibly shaking from where he held on to a branch of his tree, hanging freely. The tree was crumbling with the casita, branches, twigs, leaves, and bushes collapsing and disappearing into a dark abyss below. Camilo didn’t want to know where that abyss led to, and most certainly did not want to lose his hermanito to it.
“Antonio!” he shouted. The collapsing of the house and room, however, was too loud and the boy didn’t hear him. He tried again, but once again failed.
A look of stern resolve took over Camilo’s face, and it grew stiffer when he heard Antonio screaming.
His feet unconsciously started pulling him forward down the platform leading to his newly-gifted hermano. He ignored the trembling urge to shift, knowing it wouldn’t work. He used all that he could without his gift to run, dodge, and jump, to get to the great looming tree.
He got there without getting crushed, somehow.
“Antonio!”
This time, being right below him, the boy heard and looked down. Tears shimmered in his terrified face, and Camilo’s heart shattered at the sight.
“I’m here, hermanito, I’m here!”
“I’m scared, C-Camilo…I’m scared.”
“I know, it’ll be okay! Just…just let go, okay?”
If Antonio wasn’t scared before, he was in pure horror now by that idea. He shook his head.
“No!”
“I’ll catch you, lo prometo!”
Antonio was quiet for a moment, hesitantly gazing from the shaking branch holding him far from the ground to his hermano below. The boy was holding his arms out as a sign, a beckoning for him to just trust him and let go. To not die.
“¡Por favor, Antonio! Let go!”
“Are…are you sure?”
“Lo prometo, lo prometo. Let go, or the tree’s going to crush us both!”
Camilo jumped when he heard a thundering screech from somewhere off to the side, but ignored the sound. For a moment he was scared Antonio wouldn’t listen, and that they’d both be killed under the falling house. His heart skipped a beat at the thought of never seeing Pepa or Felix, or any of his familia again.
Of never seeing himself again.
He pleaded quietly for him and his brother to have a quick, painless demise. He didn’t want to hear his hermanito in pain.
Then, miraculously, Antonio called down to him: “O-Okay, I trust you.”
Gracias a Dios!
“Alright, just count to three. I’ll catch you.”
“One…”
“Two…” Camilo followed.
Antonio paused.
“Three!”
Even though he was prepared, the sight of his falling, screaming brother made Camilo freeze for half a second. He grew queasy at the thought of breaking his promise and dropping Antonio, or not even catching him at all. However, in the few moments that the boy was being pushed down by the heavy weight of gravity, he somehow managed to land safely in Camilo’s stretched out arms, which were quick to wrap around the boy and secure him to Camilo’s chest.
“Are you okay, mi hermanito?”
The boy, crying, nodded into his ruana. Camilo would worry about any injuries later; they had to get out.
The teenager turned to bring him and his arms stuffed with shaking Antonio out to safety, but felt his body suddenly forced forward when the tree suddenly started to break. The tree roots ripped out of the invisible earth below, in the dark abyss. It tipped back and forward, teasingly, torturously, and Camilo screamed as he scrambled to get to the doorway.
He really wished Casita could help right about now…
“Hang on, Antonio, I’ll get us out.”
Antonio didn’t say anything and kept his face buried, sniffling while he was shaken by his hermano’s running steps. Camilo had to duck and jump to avoid multiple attempts at decapitation and impaling.
He wasn’t far from the doorway now, the tree would fall any second but he’d be out before it would collapse. They would make it. Antonio would be oka-
He was abruptly stopped, ruana pulled violently back by a sharp branch sticking out of the path. Camilo shouted out in surprise as he fell backward, landing painfully on the dirt floor while Antonio screamed right in his ear.
“Camilo! Are you-“
“I’m alright, hermanito, just stuck.”
Camilo reached beside him and tried to rip the branch away, but it wouldn’t release him. His ruana was tied securely around its slightly angled tip.
“Antonio…you gotta get out of here.”
Antonio sobbed brokenly, fearfully. It scratched at his hermano’s heart.
“No! I’m not leaving you.”
“If you don’t, you’ll-“
That’s when the tree found the right time to finally rip forward. It’s roots came undone, the trunk cracked up its base, and the large plant started falling forward with a squelching groan. Camilo had to make a split second decision.
He grabbed onto his brother, pulling him to him as he rolled over.
The stick that had ripped through his ruana was a part of a large, hollow log. The log was ripped in half like a rounded, capsized wooden boat. It was a question whether it would fair the force of the tree’s collision, but Camilo had to risk it to save Antonio.
Rolling over led the stick into stabbing right into his left side. He cried out, but forced himself to roll further until the two boys were both buried under the security of the log. The stick in return lodged itself deeper inside of him.
“Mantente cerca, por favor.” Camilo whispered, holding his hermano tight. He made sure to hold him more underneath him, so that way he didn’t have to take the brunt force of the impact. Camilo would die any day if it meant keeping Antonio breathing. Even if it meant traumatizing the poor child for life.
Antonio sobbed into Camilo’s shoulder. Camilo pulled him closer.
The tree landed.