Love in Encanto

The Basket

Isabela grabbed Dolores's arm to prevent her from falling, "Lets bring you to your room."

"What about the door?" Dolores asked.

"We can deal with it later." I said as I grabbed Dolores's other arm, both Isabela and I leading her to her bed.

Just as I had tucked her in, Camilo brought Mariano in.

"Oh my love, what has happened?" Mariano asked, his face immediately changing as he knelt down to the bed.

"Let's give them some privacy." Luisa advised as all of us started to head out of the room, quietly shutting the door.

"Well, what do we do now?" Mirabel sighed.

"I honestly have no idea." I sighed, it's like I had given up hope. There was no way I could've found a necklace that I had no idea where it was, or get half a bowl of Viola's blood.

"Hey, don't give up hope y/n. We'll get through this together." Camilo said supportively as he gave out his hand on my shoulder.

Carlos glared at Camilo in jealousy but decided not to say anything. The tension however, was definitely noticeable between the two by everyone; it was quite hard to ignore.

"Guys, just because Dolores isn't feeling great, doesn't mean we need to stop helping y/n, or stop trying. We can do this." Isabela encouraged.

Carlos scoffed, "Was that supposed to be a pep talk? Because no offense, but that was a shit pep talk."

Isabela gave him a look, "Well you didn't need to listen."

Carlos groaned annoyedly, "You know what I think we all need?"

"What?" Luisa asked.

"I don't want to hear it." Isabela shot back.

"I think we all need a break with all this drama. Like tell me, when was the last time y/n even got a single break?" Carlos pointed out as everyone looked at me. I stood there awkwardly, looking back at everyone; returning the same eye contact everyone else shared.

"No- no I'm okay. I can continue." I said, trying to sound convincing. In my head, even Carlos's question stumped me. When was the last time I truly had a break? I mean, not that I even cared, it wasn't normal for me to just randomly give up. I only get a break after the job is done.

"Well then y/n? What do you have in mind?" Camilo asked.

"I was kind of hoping someone else had an idea." I laughed nervously, kind of expecting some disappointment.

"Okay, um, maybe we can keep searching for the necklace?" Isabela suggested.

"Where would it even be though?" Mirabel asked.

"Yeah, do you have another place you love y/n?" Luisa asked.

As my mind filled with different places in Encanto that I had spent my best moments, I remembered one specific room that was hidden in Casita. Only a few members of the Madrigal family knew about it.

If you thought about the room where Bruno stayed inside the walls for 10 years, you were right. I remembered where that was the exact place where Camilo and I would hangout whenever we wanted to stay inside Casita but wanted privacy, somewhere where we couldn't even be disturbed because the only other people that knew about the spot was Dolores, of course, Bruno, obviously, Julieta, and Antonio and Mirabel.

I looked at Camilo, trying to communicate through eye contact to make sure it was okay. But even if he said no, I don't think we would have had a choice. The spot was supposed to be a secret location, a place where we could just relax even if it was just for 5 minutes. Most of the time, when we wanted to go there in night we hesitated because Dolores could've always heard the floorboards creak when grabbing some water from the kitchen, making her freak a little.

"Well..there is this one place." I started as Camilo nodded, giving me the permission to expose it.

"Where is it?" Mirabel asked curiously.

"It's..um..where Bruno used to stay." I said, facing Mirabel and removing my glance from Camilo.

"Like..inside the walls?" Mirabel raised a brow.

I nodded.

"Wait- why would the place Tio used to hide..be special to you?" Isabela asked confused.

"Camilo and I..used to just hangout in there." I explained.

"Well then? What are we waiting for?" Luisa said as we all rushed to the painting.

One by one, we all followed each other around the walls and into Bruno's room. Instead of Bruno!s messy set up with all the rats and one dirty green couch, there was a long red cushioned couch, a small table with 3 chairs, a nightstand with some junk and two tall lamps on each side of the room.

Carlos looked around the room, "Okay, so all we need is to find a necklace?"

"Yup." Mirabel responded as she started to check through baskets and behind corners.

"Do we remember what it looked like?" Camilo asked as he looked behind the cushions.

"I remember seeing the picture Dolores showed is in the library," I started, "It's a small chain necklace with a purple jewel."

"Like this?" Carlos asked as he held up a chained necklace with a purple crystal that hung from it.

Camilo tilted his head, "Huh, I guess I expected it to be more.."

"Shinier? Yeah me too." Carlos admired it from his grasp.

"Where did you find that Carlos?" I raised an eyebrow as I walked closer to him.

"In the basket." Carlos replied.

"What basket?" Camilo and I asked in unison.

"Uh, this one." Carlos said as he pointed at a basket next to the couch,

Me and Camilo exchanged glances at each other as we both checked to the side of the couch to find a basket of flowers, snacks and pebbles.

"What?" I muttered confused.

"What?" Isabela asked.

"I don't..I don't understand." I said as I turned to face everyone, "Camilo and I are the only people that spend time in this room now, I don't think anyone of us put that there."

"I didn't do it, trust me. I'd put the flowers in y/n's hair, not in a basket." Camilo added.

"The necklace was in the basket Carlos?" Mirabel asked.

Carlos nodded.

"Whoever out the basket in here, must've known we were looking for the necklace." I said.

"Well.." Carlos cleared his throat, "Isn't that just..."

"Creepy?" Isabela commented.

"Weird?" Mirabel added.

"Scary." Luisa said, making a face.

"Interesting.." Carlos finished.

"Well, at least we have the necklace now." I said as I took the necklace from Carlos.

"Kind of wondering who out the basket in here though..that's like..creepy." Mirabel said.

As everyone started to walk out of the room, Mirabel couldn't seem to let go of a uneasy feeling about the basket. Something just- wasn't right.

Any conclusions on who this mysterious person is? It could also be an OC :) or not. I guess we only find out soon! Have a good night and enjoy this chapter.

(chapter was not carefully edited, it was skimmed through)