I'm alive!! Thank you all for being so patient for this chapter. I appreciate all the support and encouragement <3 I always post if I won't be updating for a while on my message board, so check that out if you're ever confused. Good luck to anyone else working on final exams, I know you'll all do your best!

Today's fanart is by @ewok_asmr ! It's the scene where they're in the cave and Camilo holds y/n's hand to calm her down. Ahhh it's cute!!! I love how the hands are drawn, they look so realistic and the cave background is perfect!

BACK TO THE STORY

Feathery strands of grass grazed the back of your hands. The overgrown field stretched for miles, pure, uninterrupted green. You couldn't even see your feet as you waded through. Overhead, swollen clouds twisted in grey smears across a grayer sky.

Camilo didn't speak, treading heavily beside you. A nervous hush stifled everything but the reedy rush of stalks as they fidgeted in the wind, scraping against each other.

"So we're alone." The suggestive comment slipped out. Mortified, you clamped your mouth shut. Why did I say that?

Camilo raised his eyebrows, his hazel eyes dancing across your face with amusement. You liked when Camilo looked at you. It washed over your skin like a strawberry bubble bath: fizzy, tingly, warm.

Even if his glance was nonchalant and sideways. Even if a darker emotion ringed his irises. Contempt? Regret? Annoyance?

After that awkward, brief interaction, neither of you spoke. Camilo's gaze intensely clung to the horizon, as if he expected to find Mirabel silhouetted in the distance or miraculous fireworks. With a prick of annoyance, you realized that he was completely ignoring you.

"Do you think we'll find Mirabel?" you attempted, gritting your teeth in a smile. Camilo's shoulders scrunched in a shrug, barely acknowledging your question.

I know he doesn't like me now, but this is getting ridiculous.

"You could ask me a question now," you blithely suggested, ripping up a stiff strand of grass as you brushed past.

"Fine." Camilo kept the word clipped. "What do you think about the scenery?"

"What am I supposed to say to that? It's all grass."

"You could comment on the clouds. The shade of green," Camilo shrugged. "Why, you want a better question?"

"Oh, yes, please," you said with sarcastic politeness. "Try to say it like you don't find me disgusting this time."

Maybe that was too harsh, you argued with yourself. But he's being awful!

"Do you like green?" Camilo sighed and fixed you with a pointed, patronizing smile as if to say, Look. I'm trying.

"Yeah, I do. What's your favorite color?"

"What are you, five?" Camilo snickered, but his smile wasn't mean.

"Answer the question," you grinned, satisfied that you'd cracked through his detached bravado.

"Maybe yellow?" Camilo hesitated, odd frustration clouding his features. "How do people pick their favorite color, anyway? Blindly chose one and pretend to like it the best?"

"I think your favorite color should be the one that feels the most like you," you mused, threading your fingers together. "The one that captures your essence. You always wear yellow, but which color feels like you?"

Camilo rested in a thoughtful silence for a long time. "I don't know," he finally whispered into the wind. The way his chin drooped low, close to his chest, seemed hopeless and beaten.

"Tell me when you figure it out," you gently offered, bewildered by his sudden flare of sadness. "I know you will."

Camilo sunk into a touchy silence again, unreceptive to your conversational attempts. No sign of Mirabel. No sign that Camilo remembered you. No sign as to why he seemed to hate you.

"Do you think they'll fix the candle?" You asked, cutting through the uncomfortable quiet yet again.

"Why'd you bring that up?" Camilo demanded, fiery suspicion glinting in his frown.

"Forget it, I was trying to make conversation," you muttered, surprised and slightly hurt by his accusing glare.

Restlessness fueled Camilo's strides, and your feet struggled through the thicket, fighting to keep up. What's with him?

"Camilo!" You complained, your breaths hurried as you jogged after him. "Slow down!"

"I know what you did," Camilo snapped, whirling around like a whip. He halted so suddenly that you almost collided into his chest. His gaze flickered back and forth between each of your eyes as if searching for fear.

The toes of your shoes knocked against his deep inside the wild grass. Your shallow breaths swirled together with Camilo's as if you were locked in an eerie slow dance without touching. You could barely have fit your fist in the crackling, electric space between. Too close, too close, too close...

"Nobody's been telling me anything. It's like they're hiding a secret about you," Camilo rumbled, barely needing to raise his voice for it to drift across the gap.  "All I know is suddenly, magically, you've become close to my family. I passed out in the wreckage, but when I woke up, I remembered something. Something about you."

"He messed up your memories," you quietly protested. "Whatever you believe about me, it's not true."

"Who messed up my memories, (y/n)?" Camilo softly demanded, staring at you with a resigned verdict in his eyes. He already knew.

"My father," you reluctantly admitted. "I know it looks bad, but you have to-"

"I saw you. Trying to steal the miracle candle."

"Camilo-"

"No, no, don't say anything," Camilo cut you off, stepping back to hold his palms up like warnings. "Yes or no. Did you try to steal it?"

"I..."

"Yes or no."

"Yes."

"So why does my family love you?" Camilo demanded. "I've been trying to figure it out. And I think you're still working with your father, changing their memories."

"No. No!" You spluttered, offended and hurt. "How could you accuse me of that? After all Ive been through for them? That's not true!"

"I don't believe you," Camilo breathed menacingly. "I can't let you go back and get to my family."

And suddenly you felt very vulnerable and very alone under the wide grey sky. Nobody here would hear you scream but the field mice.

I don't even know who this is. Your mind spiraled like a top as you stumbled back, tensing your muscles to run. This Camilo doesn't know me. He thinks i'm a traitor.

You darted away, but Camilo's fingers gripped into your wrist. He's gonna kill me. Flashes of memories froze blue over your skin, locking your limbs in terror. Your eyes crushed shut, and your arms contracted toward your body as if shivering violently.

When they warily fluttered open, Camilo was watching you with absurd bewilderment.

"I'm mad, but I'm not going to hurt you," Camilo frowned, confused by your reaction. "Bruno's play was wrong. I would never, ever do that to somebody."

You flinched but nodded for his sake. You have no idea what you're capable of.

"I need to explain why I took the candle. Right away," you exhaled, your wrist's pulse slamming in his restricting grasp. "My father said he'd kill somebody if I didn't. I warned Dolores. Ask her."

Camilo's skeptical expression shot through your heart like a steel-tipped arrow. He didn't believe you.

Boom.

As your jaw hinged open to offer desperate explanations, a violent hole tore through the heavens, unleashing shrieking buckets of rain and white-hot lightning.

"We should head back!" You hollered, your hair whipping against your face in the wild wind. "It's not safe to stand in a field with lightning!"

We're the highest things for miles. We're dead if we can't get back.

Camilo's lips moved urgently, but you couldn't hear him over the bullets of water. Crash. Jagged lightning splintered across the sky like contorted veins over a butterfly wing.

"What?" You howled, matching the wind. Camilo nodded as if you'd understood, then released your wrist, sprinting away.

The rain bled down in grey sheets, blurring everything. You half-heartedly turned in a circle, futilely searching for any landmark as angry thunder roared, deafening you. You couldn't even see Camilo through the aggressive falling ocean.

He'd abandoned you, the traitor, in the middle of the storm.