The Heart of Camilo (A Camilo Madrigal x Reader Fem Y/N Story)

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*Y/N*

I put the pillow down. It was streaked with tears and blood from my arm. I had screamed until I had nothing left. I took a deep breath, went to the bathroom and began to clean my arm. The blood had started to cake to my skin and it took some rubbing with the cloth to get it off. The cut was deep, but I didn't think I would have to stitch it up - I shuddered to think of the pain. But then I remembered - Julieta's cooking could heal me. I paused. I didn't dare leave the house, didn't dare wake my father to ask for permission. I stood there, frozen, before wrapping my arm up and securing it. There was nothing to be done tonight. I just had to pray it didn't get infected before morning.

My brain started to spin again just thinking about the morning. Here, in the dark, with the moonlight spilling through the window, my father asleep and unable to hurt me - I breathed. Camilo ... my eyes suddenly spilled over. What if I had let him come with me, and my father had hurt him, too? What would his family think of me? I looked down at the blue dress I had been wearing all day, previously soaked with water, now stained with blood. I took it off and changed into my nightclothes. I threw the dress into some saved water to soak and climbed into my bed. It had all happened so fast, it almost felt like I had dreamed it. My father, throwing things at me, throwing me down on the ground, screaming like I've never heard him scream before. My mother... thinking about her taking me to the rivers near where I was born, suddenly knowing one positive thing about her after 15 years of knowing nothing, it was like a small light had been lit inside me. The one thing we had shared together before my father had injured her so badly that she didn't survive. The thought - one that I hardly dared entertain it scared me so badly - that he killed her during a rage like this. Who was to stop him from doing it to me? I was empty, powerless, weak ... always weak.

Suddenly, I heard a tap-tap on my window. My heart leaped. "Camilo?" I whispered in the dark, crawling out of bed and peering through the window, trying to see what was making the noise.

Suddenly, a lantern illuminated itself, but the face it unveiled in its light was Mirabel, not Camilo. My heart flattened in disappointment, but my curiosity piqued itself. What on earth was she doing here? She was gesturing to open the window. I went to try, and remember with a jolt the nails. I didn't have a hammer or any tool to pull them out. 

"I can't open it!" I mouthed to her through the window, pointing down.

Mirabel's brow furrowed as she looked where I was pointing. She gestured again, probably asking me to come outside. My heart sank. I wanted to know what was so important that she was here at 2:00 in the morning, but did I dare even step foot outside of my house?

I held up a single finger to tell Mirabel to wait, and opened the door to my bedroom. My father's snores were loud and echoed through the house. He was definitely asleep. I gathered my courage, threw on a cloak to cover myself, and went to the front door. Mirabel was there waiting for me, having guessed where I was going.

"Mirabel!" I whispered. "What are you doing here?? It's late, your Abuela will kill you and my father will kill me!" I winced at the truth behind my side of those words. My arm gave out a large stab of pain that took my breath away.

"I'm sorry, Y/N, I just had to talk to you and it had to be just between us. I figured you would still be awake since you only left to go home half an hour ago," she explained, whispering quickly and gestured to me to follow her around the back of the house, where our lantern light would not be as obvious.

"Okay ... but ... it really couldn't have waited?" I asked, following her slowly, closing the door softly behind me.

"Here, sit down, let me explain, I - oh, my god, what happened to your arm??" she suddenly exclaimed, louder than I was comfortable with.