Camilo x Reader -Broken Reflection

Chapter 38 (It Was Like A Chain Reaction)

Camilo's POV

I collapsed into the grass while the house gave one last groan and began to cave. Beside me, Mirabel was on her knees and sobbing as she watched the house. My parents and relatives stood together, holding each other and looking at the remains of our family home. I could hear villagers approaching us. They gasped but we ignored them because all we wanted was to grieve.

I laid back in the grass. I still held Orchid in my arms and refused to let her go. It had gotten too close. If I had found her any later, she could have been burnt alive, even killed. I shuttered at the thought because it brought an uneasy ache to my chest.

And Abuela...

She was cruel but I still loved her. I couldn't imagine a life without her.

My family around me cried to each other and alone. Antonio was sitting on the grass and leaning into his Jaguar which wrapped itself around him as if to protect him from other natural forces. He cried while he held onto its fur. Because everyone allowed themself to show their weakness, I did too.

I felt salty liquid leak from my eyes. It ran down the sides of my face and dropped to the grass below me. My breath came in uneven gasps and I held Orchid to my body tighter. It felt like she was slipping away.

What were we going to do? We lost our home again and it wasn't like we could simply rebuild it again from the remains.

I tried to save the Casita. I did my best but it wasn't enough. I ran over all of the possible scenarios I could have done instead of doing what I did in my head. I could have tried to extinguish the fire with water. I could have gone into the kitchen as soon as everyone left after the fight and turned off the unattended stove. I could have called my mother as soon as I saw the flames and asked her to extinguish them.

It seemed like every other option was better than what I ended up doing. My chest heaved as I cried and for the first time, I realized that there was nothing we could do to save our family. The Madrigals were cursed. We rebuilt our home and it still fell apart. And it was all of our faults, not just Abuela's. The only difference this time was that our house was swallowed by fire.

I felt Orchid shift in my arms, but I couldn't find the strength to sit up. She shifted again, and then I realized that she was awake. My body moved before I could tell it to and I was sitting and staring at her with wide eyes. Mine was probably red and bloodshot but I didn't care. I whispered her name.

"Milo?" She asked. She rubbed her eyes. Tear tracks clung to her cheeks and she coughed. "What happened?" she asked me. And then she turned. Her gaze traveled to the remains of the Casita in front of us.

All that was left were beams and pillars and the faint memory of the Madrigal family. Unlike when it fell apart at first, everything was burnt and nothing was left. We'd officially hit rock bottom.

She let out a choked sob and her hand wrapped around my forearm. She was too weak to move from my lap and stand.

"Casita!" She gasped. She called to it as if it would respond. I could have sworn I saw a brick shift as a limb would do after death.

"No," she said. She turned to look at me. "What happened? What did I do?"

"Nothing," I said to her. "You didn't do anything. There was a fire. It burned everything..."

She glanced at the rest of my family who had stopped weeping. Sorrowful expressions still tugged at their faces. Her gaze shifted from my family to Abuela who was still resting on the grass.

"Is she-?" she began and I shook my head.

"No," I replied. "She's okay."

Abuela still lay unmoving with her eyes closed. Her figure looked particularly unsettling in the grass. Her hair which was usually tied in a loose bun had come undone. It tangled within the grass. I could hear her take shuttering breaths but they didn't sound right.

From a distance, I could hear the sound of shouts. I warily turned to see a group of townspeople frantically waving at us.

"Abuela!" They were shouting. They called to the rest of my family.

"It's the village!" another villager said. "It's on fire!"

"What?" Luisa demanded and she pushed to the front of the crowd that my family had made. Even her face had tear tracts. "Saints," she whispered. I could see a flicker in her eyes and scrambled to look at the village below us.

There, everything was alight. It was like Casita's fire had started a chain reaction. I watched as windows burst from the heat. Roofs tumbled and bright orange fires spread from building to building.

"Help us!" One of the villagers pleaded. But there was nothing we could do. I watched as some people screamed and ran from their houses. Some had to roll on the ground to extinguish themselves.

It was madness. Orchid scrambled off to me to see the village with her own eyes. I watched her sway. Was she going to pass out again? I stood and placed my hands on her shoulders to steady her.

"They're all panicking," she said. She glanced worriedly at the Madrigals. "We have to do something!" She said. But I felt something brush past me. It was Mirabel. She had a familiar stance in the way she strode. Determination radiated from her body as she ran down the hill that lead to the village.

"Wait!" I heard Julieta call. But I could tell that nothing would stop her. Without much thought, I broke out into a dash to follow her. We couldn't save the Casita, but I'd learned from that. I wasn't going to allow us to lose the village too.