𝔸 𝔽𝕒𝕕𝕖𝕕 𝕄𝕚𝕣𝕒𝕔𝕝𝕖

Chapter 10

Camilo raced into Casita, worry for his brother pushing him on. Peppa was walking around, a massive storm cloud hanging over her head and filling the entire room. 

She ran over to Camilo when she saw him barrel threw the open doors. "Thank goodness! We thought we'd lost you! Dolores told us what you'd found out and we were worried that you had - had... "

Camilo smiled and held his mothers hand. "It's okay Mama. Take deep breaths..."

Slowly, the cloud started to shrink, until it was just hanging over her head. 

"Take deep breaths... now, where's Antonio?"

Peppa looked up at him, her eyes full of grief and moved to the side, no longer blocking Camilo's view of the room. Everyone was huddling in the middle of the room, talking in quiet whispers. From the middle of the crowd, Camilo heard whimpers, as if someone were being tortured. 

"Antonio!" Camilo ran for his family, somehow knowing that in the middle of their crowd would be his timid little brother, but nothing prepared him for what he saw.

 As Camilo pushed his way through Isabella and Bruno he looked down and felt a cold sensation rising in him. Antonio was on the ground, shocks convulsing through his body every few seconds. He lay curled in a ball, letting out cry's of pain. His eyes were screwed closed and tears ran down his cheeks, making the tiles under him wet. "What's happening to him?" Camilo demanded, but no one answered. They were just looking at Antonio in shock, not able to move a single inch of their gaping mouths, of their startled eyes. 

Camilo knew this had to do with Ravana, what else could it be? Slowly, he walked backwards, away from Antonio and looked around his little brothers door. That's when he saw it. A gray butterfly was flitting away from the direction of Antonio's door. Camilo turned his attention back to the door and yelled to the others, pointing at the golden door with Antonio's name lit up on it. That same door that had a black mark spreading through it, only small now but slowly getting bigger, blocking out the golden picture. 

Camilo raced up the stairs, where was Dolores? He'd seen everyone at the house but her. Reaching her door her door, he yanked it open and sighed with relief. Dolores was inside, her eyes wide with terror as she seemed to be listening into the distance. The soundproof walls couldn't even block out the sounds to Dolores's ears, nothing really could at that. 

"She's coming," Dolores whispered, her eyes landing on her brother. 

Camilo took a deep breath. It wasn't that hard to think you were safe in Dolores's room. It was quiet except for the faint noise of birds tweeting. It had a long grass meadow that ended in a little creek that trickled with water. A small forest lay beyond that, green leaves shining in the sunlight. Instruments were set out among the grass, there for Dolores to play when she felt like it. Her room was built to be like an escape from all the sounds, a quieter place where she could be peacefully. But no, not even here were they safe. No one was safe for what was about to happen. 

"How far away?" Camilo asked. 

Dolores's eyes looked far away again, before focusing on her brother again. "She's already in town."

Thats all the information Camilo needed to know they were not at all prepared enough. He raced down and saw Isabella and Luisa at the doors to Casita, they faces set in determination. 

"What's the plan?" He asked, hoping someone at least was ready. 

"I'm going to make her go back to wherever she came from," Luisa responded, her hands clenching into fists. 

"And I'm going to show how much roses can hurt!" Isabella snarled next to her sister. 

Camilo winced, he'd already felt one of those thorns before when he'd teased her about Walter... "Okay! Good luck!" He said and went to find everyone else, he had to warn them that Ranvana was already here, only seconds away from destroying them. Yippy! What a happy day. 

Camilo told his mother, Peppa first what was about to happen. He didn't even have to warn the others because a hurricane sweeped through the room and Peppa growled. "She's coming." That's all the others needed to set them off in a flurry of trying to get infront of Antonio and protecting him from what ever fight would come their way. 

Just as Camilo turned to face the entrance behind Isabella and Luisa, a shriek from his mother cut him short. He turned back on his heals to see her drop to her knee and curl up on the ground, just the same way that Antonio had fell. Her body convulsing ever few seconds just like Antonio. As Camilo tried to process what was happening Bruno's voice raised above the noises in the clearing. 

"What's happening to Antonio and Peppa will happen to everyone! I had a vision last night, the butterfly is taking the power out them, it's trying to take the miracle starting with the gifts it produced!"

Camilo felt the answers sinking in, but not very good ones at that. The blood on his hand after the butterfly had touched it, Abuela's uneasiness, seeing it outside the window at night, Antonio's painful shrieks, the black mark spreading on his door and now on Peppa's too. It was all because of Ravana, because of her miracle. The faded miracle. 

"We can't let this distract us! She's coming!" Luisa commanded, looking back at them as her rough voice rang through the house. 

Dolores ran out of her room, her eyes even wider than before. "No-" she began but was cut off. 

"No," a new voice said from behind them. "I like to think of it more as if, I am here."