Through Her Eyes (Camren)

Chapter 26: Sparkles in the Shadows

“Michael?”

The name formed on Lauren’s lips without thought. It was a name that had been lingering there for too long, poking at her curiosities and aggravating her worries.

The question hung in the air and the man’s eyes snapped to Lauren. It wasn’t a look of recognition on his face.

“Michael,” Lauren repeated uncertainly. “Your name. Is your name Michael?”

A muscle in the guy’s jaw jumped, his hands stiff at his sides. He looked to Camila, gaze too intense, and Lauren shifted over so she was shielding Camila again, even though the man in front of them was bigger and probably stronger than Lauren.

Camila was strangely silent. Lauren could hear her breathing against her neck, Camila’s hand fluttering in Lauren’s. Camila was usually so animated, always finding something to say. Now she was quiet and still. It wasn’t an encouraging sign.

Camila could talk about a discarded tin can for hours, but when she saw her brother – nothing.

“I’m not involved,” Camila’s brother finally said. His voice sounded harsh, rasping and odd, and Lauren held her ground in front of Camila. “I don’t know what is going on, but if you’ve come here for money, or—”

“We didn’t,” Lauren interrupted immediately. “We’re here for… for…”

“Answers,” Camila spoke up, moving so she was at Lauren’s side instead of protected behind her. Lauren didn’t like the change. She felt safer with Camila behind her. “For Lauren.”

Answers for Lauren. Lauren winced at the soft words.

They stood in a house where Camila may have once lived, in front of a member of her family. Not because Camila wanted to, not because Camila was ready, but because Lauren wanted it.

To satisfy Lauren’s curiosity, all of this.

Camila’s brother shook his head stiffly. “I won’t have anything to do with that. Don’t bring that here.”

“So you’re not…” Lauren trailed off. “Michael. You’re not him.”

This got Lauren a hard frown. “Ben Cabello. I had no relation to Michael. Whoever told you that, is mistaken.”

“The dead guy Ben?” Lauren asked stupidly. Ben, who was clearly not dead, looked confused.

“Ben,” Camila repeated, her tone distant and thoughtful. Lauren’s attention was immediately drawn to her. Camila looked warm and familiar in the foreign situation and Lauren squeezed her hand tighter. “I talk to Ben in the grass. He tells me about all the stars…” Camila shook his head, blinking hard. “You. You tell me about the stars.”

Ben swallowed thickly, taking a step back into the door frame. “This is unbelievable,” he breathed out.

Lauren had to agree.

“How are you here?” Ben asked, shaking his head. “How are you possibly… I thought you were gone. You were gone, Camila.”

Ben’s voice trailed off and the room was silent. Lauren expected Camila to say something insightful, even if it only made sense to her. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Instead, Camila said nothing.

Camila looked small. As lively as Camila usually was, her presence electrifying the air around her, she looked tiny and fragile here, like something Lauren should take very careful care of or it might shatter in her awkward hands, in Ben’s hands.

Camila didn’t look particularly comfortable with this man. Her brother.

Ben, who was not a body beneath the earth, not a gravestone, not the grass and the moss Camila talked to. Ben, who lived in a house not far from Lauren’s, with pictures of Camila on the wall.