38. Campaign 5- Gift Watching

Alma was NOT lurking.

This was her home. Her casita. She had created it with the Miracle. It was as familiar to her now as one of her own limbs. It was a part of her.

One did not lurk in their own home.

'Is it still?' a voice whispered in mind. It was soft yet filled with dark power. Like a phantom clinging to her shoulder, trying to force cruel thoughts into her ear. 'When is the last time you gave casita a command? A while... a very long while.'

She opened her mouth to do just that... only to snap her jaw shut. No... doing that would only validate those dark thoughts. If you were afraid of something but wanted to prove you were not... you faced it head on. But doing so also revealed to the world your fear.

'Or is it because you know that it won't?'

Alma gripped the banister, looking down as her family moved about the first floor. Julieta was calling out directions while Pepa and Bruno looked over some papers, chatting quietly to each other. Camilo and... MIrabel... were off to the side looking over flower arrangements while Luisa was sitting with Antonio, speaking softly to the boy.

"Tia Julieta, I need your help with this!" Dolores called out. "I can't find the vanilla!"

"Coming!" Julieta called out.

It was... all wrong. Everything had been turned upside down.

It had started when the triplets, flanked by Agustin and Felix, had caught her before breakfast two days back. She had been ready to get everything assigned their tasks (and ensure that Mirabel's... friends... didn't cause any problems) when the five had all but dragged her to the storage room, not letting her even turn back despite how much she protested.

And her protests had only grown when the five had informed her that for the next week, until the end of Antonio's gift ceremony, she was to step back and let them take charge.

No matter how much she'd tried to get them to see reason they'd refused to budge. In fact her attempts to explain why this was such a horrid idea had only made them fight back against her all the fiercer. They'd grown angry with her when she'd told them how important the ceremony was and how they couldn't afford any mistakes by having them attempting something they simply weren't ready to do. Julieta had declared that they were twice the age Alma had been when she had begun running the town; her point that age had nothing to do with wisdom had been met with dark stares. Bruno had pointed out that he had experience throwing parties but Alma had huffed at that and pointed out that those were parties for foreign devils. Pepa had stated that Antonio was her child and she had already managed to raise one to adulthood and the other was nearing that point.

"Yes, and Camilo can not focus and Dolores has stopped doing her chores because she's become entranced by Mirabel's devil magic."

They hadn't yelled at her. They hadn't raised their voices. Instead all five had merely risen from the table and informed Alma that her help was no longer required.

She had tried to continue on, thinking that this was all merely some youthful rebellion. They all thought themselves so old and mature but there were children when compared to her and sometimes that meant stepping in and making sure they handled things properly. But when she'd gone down to the village to check on things she'd been informed that orders were already in place! And the orders she'd already had put in had either been canceled or altered! She'd tried to get them to see reason but each of the shopkeeps had merely stated that they could not help her; it didn't matter what she said they refused to say even a word about the matter any further.

Except for the last. Senor Ricardo had informed him that he could not help her... for 'the dragon woman had come in and made clear how unhappy she'd be' if he did the sensible thing and went along with Alma's requests.

Mirabel's party.

She should have suspected they were the cause of all this!

Alma looked down once more and saw that in her distraction she'd missed the freaks that had corrupted Mirabel and her Brunito moving about. The owl was discussing something with Julieta. The goat demon was pouring lotion into his hands that he then rubbed on Agustin's bee stung arms. The green monster was standing in a corner, watching everything with her disgusting squinty eyes. Ernesto... oh, she should have banished him from the village decades ago! This was all his fault-

She heard movement and turned to see Isabella quickly hurrying out of her room. The poor girl... she was getting lost in all of this madness and it made Alma's heart break that her granddaughter wasn't getting the respect she deserved.

"Isabella," she said in a firm voice, causing the eldest of her grandchildren to jump. "Come here."

The young woman walked over, it clear that she was unsettled by all of this. "Yes?" she asked in a hoarse voice.

"Oh... such tears," she said, running her thumb just under Isabella's eye. "I am sorry you have had to deal with all of this, my beautiful flower. I swear that your wedding will not be the disaster Antonio's party will be." She smiled kindly. "We will need to finalize things quickly now that your mama has made a mess of the ceremony. The villagers deserve a wonderful wedding."

"The... villagers... deserve this wedding?"

"But of course!" Alma said. "It has been far too long since we've given them a wedding. We will need to ensure that the ceremony is soon... then I will need to get Dolores and Luisa settled. Hopefully by that point you will be with child... a strong new addition to the Madrigal family-"

"Ex...excuse me," Isabella said quickly, Alma barely having a moment to take in her granddaughter's pale features as she turned and ran off, little heaving sounds filling the air.

Alma stared at her, not understand what the problem was.