Beautiful Bruises ~ Camilo Madrigal x Reader

Bones

She regretted her decision from the moment she made it. The world came back into focus, the darkness fading from the sky, and a sadly empty feeling replacing the sadness in her chest.

"What just happened? What's going on? Why is there blood?"

Mirabel looked at the speaker, hot tears in her eyes.

"You were killed, stabbed by your papa. So was your little sister. So was (Y/N). And I couldn't save her." She sat on the rock, sobbing and trying to regain her composure.

You can save her next year, she thought to herself.

But that didn't change the fact that her friend was dead. And she had killed her, in a way. But she had felt the need to save Jude, since he had rescued her. He had risked his life for her. But that only made the decision harder.

"My sister?" Jude breathed, sitting up. Isabella had her hands clamped over her mouth, a smile growing as she gazed at her living, breathing lover. "Where is she? Where's (Y/N)?!" He scrambled to his feet, and his eyes fell on the limp, bloodied body crumpled on the rocks. "(Y/N)?" he breathed. "(Y/N)!" 

He sprinted over to her, falling to his knees at her side. His hands gripped her sides, trying to get her to sit up as sobs racked his body.

"What the hell, (Y/N)! Wake up! You can't be dead, I...! I promised myself I'd protect you..." he didn't try to stop the tears streaming down his face as he held her head, swiping tendrils of hair out of her face. "I didn't tell you I loved you."

The last sentence came as a whisper, something so shameful he wanted to keep it a secret but knew he couldn't.

"I love you, hermanita. I love you more than anyone else on earth." He sniffled, pulling her closer to his chest protectively, as though he could somehow still save her from his papa. "It should have been me."

When Mirabel softly admitted that she had to pick between him, he was fuming. He let out a furious shout that almost everyone in the village heard, storming up to her but not touching her.

"Why the fuck would you save me?! That's my little sister! That's..." Before he could continue, Isabela had pulled him away, gently taking his damp face in her hands and whispering to him, trying not to look at the dead girl lying in the rubble.

When Camilo returned later, heading straight for his dead friend, Jude stormed over to him.

"I heard what happened. She saved you, huh? Why did your idiot cousin save me instead of her? Come on, Camilo!" He looked and sounded insane, but Camilo was more terrified by the fact that he had seemingly come to life. When Isabela explained everything to him in a hushed tone, he grew scarily quiet.

"Why didn't you save her?" he asked Mirabel quietly, hiding the emotion in his voice beneath a layer of calm. "Why didn't you save (Y/N)? It was the right thing to do, and you know it."

"I can save her next year!" Mirabel cried desperately, reaching for him, but he pulled away, tears trailing down his face and betraying how he truly felt.

"Next year she'll be a pile of bones. Do you even know if you can do that, Mirabel? I doubt you can. And you know what? I doubt I'll be around anymore either."