The Labeller

Chapter Twelve

TW⚠️Physical and verbal abuse throughout

Camila flinched as the cup smashed beside her head. The pieces scattering across the hardwood floor as the young Latina curled up in a ball to protect herself. Normally, her parents would never break something just to hurt her; they did that good enough with their hands. This time however, Camila had apparently drawn that rage from her father because she threw up at school which made her teacher call Alejandro out of work.

One of the many rules placed upon her was to never interfere with her father or mother's work and she had broken that.

"Look what you made me do! Not only did I have to come collect you but my cup is now broken because you don't know how to behave! You stupid little bitch!" The insults kept flying as he squatted down to her height and grabbed his nine year old daughters hair, forcing her to look at him. Camila was trembling with fear at what was to come so much so that urine seeped through her trousers and onto the floor, making Alejandro throw her back into the wall. "Just adding to the fucking mess, you know what, you made it so you clean it!" As Camila stood to go get the supplies needed to clean the floor she was stopped by a swift slap which made her instantly cease all movements. The small brunette cried freely as Alejandro shoved her face down into the puddle, not letting her move an inch until she had sucked up every drop.

"Camila? Are you listening to me?" Lauren shook Camila from her thoughts. The two were currently making a long trip back to the Cabello family home, it was to Theo's belief that the copycats had definitely invaded the abandoned house and that their DNA could be littered all across the place. Camila hadn't stepped foot inside since she was a child, the place hadn't been home to her for the entire time they'd lived there. Even before her parents fell off the deep end because she had next to no loving memories in that house.

"Sorry, I spaced out."

"Well I said are you sure you wanna do this? I know that the house isn't exactly your favourite." Camila wasn't okay with it but there was things in that house she needed to face. Demons that needed conquering. "I'll be fine." Lauren knew deep down she was lying but didn't press the matter further since she knew Camila would just shut it down. "The house we're going to isn't the one I mainly grew up in anyway, so I don't remember too much about it." That fact surprised Lauren since she was under the impression that she wasn't adopted at all. "You're adopted?" Camila just shrugged slightly as she looked toward the detective.

"How much did I tell you about my family?"

"That they weren't exactly the best. That your mom was a drug addict and your dad was extremely paranoid, you mentioned recently that he was also a powerful CEO and your mom was a real estate agent."

"I see. I mixed them up accidentally."

"What do you mean?"

"My real parents were the CEO and real estate agent, my foster family was the other one with Adriana and Sofia." Camila smiles slightly at the memory of her adoptive sisters; she missed them. Lauren couldn't help but wonder about her real parents since she knew nothing about them, not even who they were. "So you're real parents? What were they like?" The detective asked the killer curiously which made Camila chuckle darkly. "Let's just say that my foster family was better than them by ten fold."

Camila twiddled her fork nervously between her fingers. They were currently eating dinner with her fathers boss, Peter and his family and before leaving Alejandro had warned her that if she did anything unsavoury she'd spend the night in the cellar, the thought made Camila want to die. "So tell me Karla, how are you adjusting to the new school?" Her mother Lisbon had moved her to a private school after her teacher had started to notice Camila's bruises and especially how jumpy she was. The teacher had described it as her consistently looking over her shoulder for danger when there was none.

"I-It's okay, I love the library." Camila spoke with a shy tone which made Peter smile warmly. "It does have a nice selection. Ruth loved it when she was your age." Ruth's head peaked up from her phone at the mention of her name, the teen gave Camila a once over before humming in acknowledgement. Peters wife Sonja snatched the phone from her hand and hissed at her to be polite. Which made Ruth slam her hand in the table, the sudden noise made Camila duck down and instantly squeak out a string of apologies.

When she looked up, the table was silent and Ruth was at her side looking hesitant to touch her. Her parents however well the hid it were angry beyond belief. As they excused Camila for her shyness and shrugged off her episode as mere anxiety and fright to loud noises, Ruth guided the younger girl away from the table and into her room.

Ruth asked many questions whilst she cuddled with Camila. Which she didn't answer in fear of the consequences but Ruth made her feel safe so she shared that she was scared of her parents and only that. It was enough for Ruth to know, and for the rest of the dinner the two spent cuddled in her room, avoiding the end to the night where Camila would leave and return to the house of horrors. "One more night, I promise you after tonight you will not spend another second in that place with them."

Ruth had lied. It wasn't one more night, it was three days of nothing but the cellar and it's cold concrete floor. The next time she say daylight was when the police raided the house which had been abandoned, her parents gone and Camila locked under the house.

A little insight into Camila's real family.