Camilo x Reader -Broken Reflection

Chapter 37 (Death by fire)

Y/N's POV

I felt empty

Abuela's POV

It was all wrong. Everything. Somehow, I managed to get it wrong.

Again.

Why must everything be so difficult? Why is having a family so hard?

Smoke filled my lungs. It seeped into the air. It clouded my vision.

Still, I could see him. I could see Pedro even though he was not alive. I could see him in the paintings on the walls, and within the candle. Most of all, I could see him in Bruno, just as I saw Pepa in Camilo and Julieta in Mirabel.

"Bruno..." I mumbled. I couldn't breathe. I needed air. My lungs ached. Tears streamed from my eyes, but not because of what had happened. It was the smoke.

"Mamá!"

"Mamá!"

"Abuela!"

I could hear them calling. My children. My family. They were searching for me. But I couldn't see. My throat ached. I couldn't force out any words and the only sounds that left my lips were strained gasps and gurgles.

I coughed and tried to drag myself out of the room. I needed air but I couldn't see anything.

Orange.

Fire.

The door handle was burning hot and I pull back my hand with a hiss. My head spun and I had no idea what has going on. Was I dreaming? Was I even alive? But my heart raced and adrenaline rushed through my body. It felt too real for me to be dead.

I coughed again and shoved the cloth of my shawl against my nose. It smelled like smoke but I breathed into it anyway because I knew it was better than breathing the air around me.

They called to me again, but that time they interchanged my name with the Empath's.

"Here," I tried to say, but my voice came out raspy. My eyes burned and I could no longer keep them open. "Over here," I tried again. But the smoke was too much. My arms were weak and I could not bear to drag myself any further.

+++

Camilo's POV

Smoke had begun to fill the kitchen and I didn't even notice. It took me a while to smell the burning stove, but by the time I got to it, the pot was too hot to touch and a fire burst from the burners. I could not turn off the stove and was forced to flee the kitchen and leave Abuela there.

I ran through the house to find someone. Mirabel had left and only Orchid and I remained. But she had passed out on the floor too.

"Mirabel!" I shouted, but she was nowhere in sight. I could smell the smoke coming from the kitchen and I was halfway through the house.

"Mamá! Papá!" But my parents didn't answer either. Where were they?

I shoved Dolore's door open, releasing that she wouldn't be able to hear me from her room. The door in her bedroom was closed and I had to throw it open. In her bed laid Dolores and her boyfriend, but I didn't have the time to tease her. Not a single joke crossed my mind when I saw the two tangled in each other's arms as they slept.

"Dolores!" I shouted, but my voice sounded off in the sound-proof room. Still, she heard me and sprung up in her bed, gasping my name.

With one look at my distraught face, she was out of bed and shaking Mariano.

"What happened?" She demanded, and I breathlessly grabbed onto her hand.

"Fire," I said. "There's a fire and I can't move Abuela!"