Please Don't Leave Me Ch.3

"Leave Jauregui, you are not wanted here."

Lauren sits on Camila's bed trying to figure out who exactly sent the note and how they know it's her, the last Jauregui of the family. She decided to think about suspects to see where they would lead her.

The first suspect is Camila's parents, but they haven't seen Lauren or heard her last name. They could probably have heard some noises, but even if they did, they must think it's Camila's friend that she is keeping; unless they have some unknown superpowers, it would be impossible to know it's Lauren Jauregui that's staying here.

The second suspect is the guy that Lauren almost killed. Well, all he ever got was her punches; she didn't even say anything about her first or last name? The tall guy that came to help him after seemed like he was too busy with his master having a broken bone to even care about Lauren.

That leaves Lauren with the last suspect: Camila. Maybe it's harsh to think about her that way but she can't leave her out. It would be impossible for Camila to do such a thing as she could have done it earlier. She also didn't seem to know anything about Lauren or the past of the Jauregui family at all.

Since the suspects lead Lauren to nothing, she lies down in bed and starts thinking about her next move. Obviously, she can't just sit here doing nothing and keep getting notes until something dangerous happens, but she also can't do anything about it since she doesn't know who sent the first one. Also, what if Camila sees this note and possibly future notes if they ever got sent? She would totally freak out and might kick Lauren out for good.

You know you must tell her someday.

"Yes. I know, but not right now. She might really think I'm dangerous and have to leave." Lauren says, talking to herself.

Well, you cannot expect that hiding is going to make it better. What if she got hurt because of this? You know you promised to protect her after all. And I really admire this heroic crazy act, but have you ever thought about who is going to protect you??

"What? I don't need anyone to protect me. I have my powers."

You cannot just rely on those all the time. You will be powerless one day, just like you were in those nightmares where you were so weak.

"Not when it comes to Camila," Lauren says with a sad tone.

How very heroic, how very stupid, how very weak. You don't even know who sent this note. How would you be able to protect her from unknown danger at all? Lauren, you just got lucky yesterday. You were there while she was in trouble to protect her. Don't you see how powerless and weak you are right now?

"I'm not weak!! I will find out who did this and protect her! Now shut up." Lauren says while getting up from the bed.

Lauren hates the voices in her head. They keep reminding her of the nightmares and how weak she is in them. So she decides to go hunt. Maybe if she keeps herself busy the voices will stop.

---

When the bell rings for lunch break Camila goes to sit with her friends at their usual spot until a strange face shows up to sit down at their table too. The girls are confused as to why Lucy Vives is sitting with them since she never had before. Well sure, they did talk once or twice but they wouldn't consider her as a friend. She was just a classmate they never really cared about.

"Well, what brings you here Lucy?" Camila asks.

"What? Can't I hang out with my friends for once?"

"Classmates, not friends." Dinah corrects.

"Whatever, same thing. So haven't you guys felt the change in the atmosphere that has been going on here lately?? Everyone is trying to figure out who broke Austin like that. It's very harsh to look at."

Camila never really cared about what other people were saying until Lucy mentioned it. She heard other students whisper and mumble about theories of what had happened that night. Camila was happy that Austin didn't say anything about it. He was probably too scared to even talk because he didn't want Lauren to break his other half-

Camila's thoughts were cut short when she heard Lucy talking again.

"It is very inhuman. Like, for something like that to happen. I wonder what he did to deserve such a thing happening to him?"

"You don't wanna know." Camila mumbles.

"Oh well, at least Shawn got to spend a lot of time with him since he is taking care of him so much. You know, I saw them last week on a date together. They looked so cute."

"Wow, so much for a guy who hits on a lot of girls. I guess everyone has their own little dirty secrets to keep." Dinah says.

The other three girls agree and then Dinah speaks again.

"Speaking of dating, I actually went on a date with a girl too."

"Ohhh do tell." The three girls say in sync.

Dinah told them about the beautiful dark-skinned girl she went out with and how they had such a great time. Camila was really happy for her and so proud of her courage to tell them all about her date with the girl. She wished she could be brave enough to come out to the whole world and tell them all about Lauren too. She did not realize that she zoned off about the whole thing until she heard Lucy talking about something entirely different.

"I guess you guys haven't heard the story about the forbidden child yet, right?"

"No? What are you talking about?" Ally asked.

"Heh, just an ancient story that may or may not has happened long ago. So, once upon a time, there were two powers controlling everything. One was for werewolves and the other for vampires, these two worlds were always fighting over everything and couldn't get along at all. Even just talking to or being a friend to the other kind would be considered an act of betrayal.

But something strange happened and a vampire fell in love with a werewolf, and so they got married secretly. Sadly everyone found out and tried to kill them both, but they got away and built a kingdom on their own and had a forbidden child. So, little by little they had the power to control everything.

Surprisingly, they did not build their kingdom on fairness, honesty, and love. Instead, they wanted to get revenge on the people that made it impossible for them to reach where they are now, and so they harmed, tortured, and killed people for what they made them go through for years. That resulted in both worlds having enough of their oppression and so they wanted to kill them.

On one blue moon night, the people burned the family's mansion and even killed the parents in front of the child, but the child got away and disappeared into the night. The people got scared that one day the forbidden child might come back with ruthlessness, build a kingdom and take revenge again. Now they are always trying to look out so they can kill the child."

"That is an interesting story, but what does this have to do with everything that's going on?" Dinah asks.

"Well, some people here are afraid this story could be true and the child, who obviously is grown now, looking for revenge and might attack any day."

"Don't be stupid, Lucy. These stories will never be real."

"You could be right, but I just think it is a very interesting one to keep in mind. What do you think Camila?"

Lucy looks intensely at Camila, waiting for her answer, but her face looks pale for some reason. Lucy almost smirks as she touches her hand.

"Oh my, your face is so pale. Have you seen a ghost or something?.. Or did the story ring some bells?"

"What? No, shut up it's nothing. I think this story is very stupid to believe in anyways. I'm done eating, see you guys later." Camila says while getting up and leaving.

"What is up with her?" Dinah asks, looking at Ally.

Ally shrugs and they go on with their day.

—

TW: VIOLENCE / GORE

After a long day of hearing people whisper about Austin and the mysterious person that broke him everywhere she goes, the bell finally rings to dismiss the students from the last period.

Camila gets her stuff and leaves the class. She is very tired and all she can think about is going back home to sleep on her bed. Also, maybe ask Lauren about Lucy's story and hope nothing bad comes out of it. When she reaches the gates of the school, she can almost see a known figure walking towards her...

Lauren??!!

What is she doing here?

"Laur—" before she can finish, Camila trips and falls on the ground, scratching her knee. The pain makes her groan a little. Before she can get up again, she hears giggling coming from a group of girls behind her, at this moment she realizes this wasn't an accident. Camila wants to get up and give them a piece of her mind, but while she is trying to, she hears one of the girls in that group screaming her lungs out. Her arm is bleeding from her shoulder to her elbow with a big gash across it.

Fuck! Lauren...

Camila tries to endure the pain coming from her knee and gets up. She goes to Lauren, she hopes it's not too late yet. When she reaches her, Lauren's hanging her head down. She tries with shaking hands to at least touch her, but Lauren takes a hold of her wrist and her whole body starts shaking again just like the last time. Camila is terrified to the point where she doesn't know if she is actually terrified of Lauren turning into a monster or the fact that she will have the power of turning this whole place into a blood ceremony, but this time Lauren gets down on the ground and let go of Camila's wrist. Instead, she holds onto herself with both hands and looks up at Camila with eyes full of tears.

"Camz...please...h..help me..."

Camila feels hurt, broken, and scared to see Lauren in this state. Lauren is fighting her demons because she doesn't want to hurt other people like she once told Camila. She is staying true to her words, but Camila feels useless because she doesn't know what to do. She hates it; she wants to stop Lauren from turning into a monster, but she doesn't know-how. She holds Lauren's cheeks and keeps on telling her that she is there for her, maybe assuring her might help.

The whole school is seeing this, and everyone is either shocked or excited to see what is going to happen next until someone comes from the crowd yelling:

"See, I told you! She is the beast that needs to be killed in order to keep us all safe! She cannot be trusted, and she is probably the one who broke Austin's bones! What a disgusting scary creature!!!"

Camila is too busy with Lauren to turn her head and see who is the bitch that said this and before she could do another thing, Lauren takes both of her hands and gets up, pulling Camila with her. She looks at her with such angry eyes and sharp teeth. She pushes her away roughly to the ground without being able to hear a word from anyone around her.

Camila groans and screams Lauren's name multiple times, but she doesn't listen and doesn't stop walking toward the group of girls. She has to act fast, or her friends and Lauren will be in a worse situation. Camila tries to get up as fast as she can and runs up to the girl who tripped her before Lauren can reach her. She places herself in front of the girl to shield her from Lauren.

"Lauren, stop it's me, Camila! Stop Lauren please STOP!!!!"

Lauren runs even faster towards the girl, and Camila feels like she is shitting herself.

Is Lauren really going to hurt me?? She can't hear me at all?? But I must save her. I can't let her do this.

Camila puts her crossed arms up in an effort to shield her face, forearms facing Lauren. As they were no more than a second apart Camila closed her eyes and braced for impact. She knew it was Lauren's nails- no, her claws, that had hit her as soon as she felt the sharp stings in her wrists. She managed to hold her arms in place as they were both just still for a second. If this was all, maybe it wouldn't be too bad.

Then in an instant, Lauren had moved her hands almost all the way to her elbows. The claws only sunk deeper the further they went and Camila could feel her flesh being torn up in uneven paths. The force was enough to pull her arms down with Lauren's movement.

The shock hit her before the pain did. For just one second she didn't even feel it that bad. Then it started to burn.

It was as if her skin had caught on fire, but she knew that was impossible with how wet they were.

Until she instinctively opened her eyes she didn't even realize that Lauren's claws had already dislodged. Her arms were shaking as she slowly raised them to look at the damage.

She couldn't see anything clearly through her tears, so all she saw was red. Her arms were covered in the color that's already started to stain the ground between her and Lauren.

"I TOLD YOU TO STOP!!!" Camila screams at Lauren with tears in her eyes.

When Lauren smells the blood, the realization hits her that it's Camila's and not the girl who bullied her. Lauren starts shaking with fear because this wasn't supposed to happen, she wasn't supposed to hurt Camila, she wasn't supposed to cut the only person who helped her. When she finally could see straight, she saw Camila with the deep cuts she caused. Shaking and tears falling, Lauren falls in front of her. She opens her mouth to say something, but Camila beats her to it.

"GET AWAY FROM ME YOU MONSTER!!" She's still holding her damaged arms in front of her, looking down at Lauren through them. Neither of them cares about the drops of blood dripping down over her.

"Cami—"

"NO, LAUREN I SAID GET AWAY FROM ME"

When Camila finally parts her arms to look at Lauren clearly, she sees the same girl who was once crying in her attic with the same striking fear. Camila probably rushed because she thought Lauren was still in her Monster state, with her eyes still being red and yellow. Those eyes were once her worst nightmare and now they fear her to no end.

Camila tries to reach out and touch Lauren, but she flinches away from her like she is seeing a monster.

"No, Lauren come here I...I didn't mean that I'm sorry please come here."

"Y...y...you just—" Lauren doesn't continue before she falls against Camila and passes out because of the scent.

---

"Wake up Jauregui, it has been hours!!"

"Camila is that you?!"

"Yes, now wake up because I have a gift for you!!!" Camila says cheerfully.

"That's good, but I need to talk to you about something..." Lauren says hesitantly.

"That can wait for later. Now, come with me."

Camila takes Lauren's hand and goes to the attic.

"Since when do you keep gifts in the attic Camz?"

"Since now, babe go to the window and close your eyes. Wait until I tell you to open them" Camila says and kisses Lauren's lips.

"Okay..."

Lauren closes her eyes and waits for Camila, but she is still worried about what she is going to tell her when they finally talk about what happened earlier.

"Open your eyes babe."

When Lauren opens her eyes, she sees Camila handing her a gun.

"Surprise!!!"

"It's a gun??? Why would you...?"

"You do look surprised so I guess it's a good gift, and I thought - you know - so you can end your life," Camila says with a smile.

"Are you fucking kidding me?"

Camila takes the gun from Lauren's hands and hits her with it.

"Watch your tongue, Jauregui."

Lauren's head hits the window, she slides against it slowly while holding her now bleeding nose. She feels a wave of sudden anger that takes over her. She just wants this to stop, she wants Camila to stop hitting her every time, she wants her to stop saying those harsh words repeatedly. This time Lauren doesn't feel powerless, but anger rises with each passing breath that seems to be out of her control.

"Stop this," Lauren says while she wipes the blood away and closes her eyes because this time it seems different, this time she can stop her. She is turning into what she cannot control.

"Stop what? Giving you what you deserve?" Camila chuckles.

When Lauren opens her eyes, the different colors in each eye, sharp teeth, and fangs have appeared. She walks to Camila and takes a hold of her hand to grab the gun. She throws it away, but of course, Camila gives her a slap in the face for doing such a thing. Lauren pushes her away; she opens her mouth to say something, but Camila beats her to it.

"Are you gonna kill me Jauregui, or make new marks on me? Are you finally ready to show your true colors and accept yourself as the disgusting beast that you are?" Camila says while smirking.

"I just did this so you would stop, you know that I never planned on hurting you."

"Oh really? and you think I will believe you after what you did? Do I really need to show you the claw marks again Lauren?"

Camila gets up while looking at Lauren with cold eyes, full of hate. She takes the bandages off of her forearms to show Lauren the deep cuts that she made. Lauren turns around, not wanting to see it at all with eyes full of tears again. She doesn't want to believe that she actually did this to Camila, the only person who listens to her.

"You know Jauregui, you shouldn't turn your back on your loved ones. Especially after you hurt them." Camila says with a dark tone.

Camila goes and takes a handful of Lauren's hair and shoves her head to the window and with her other free hand she twists Lauren's right arm behind her back, so she won't be able to move.

"Oh, did that hurt you? I'm sorry." Camila says sarcastically.

Lauren groans. She tries to move her left arm, but Camila warns if she does anything, she will break her right arm. Lauren feels powerless again and although it feels like her powers are back, but also aren't. And yet again she feels weak and helpless. She looks through the window just to see two figures that look familiar, as well as a lot of people around them. The more she focuses the more she sees that these figures are her and Camila. The same scene repeats where she runs towards her and Camila yelling at her to stop, but she doesn't and cuts her deep.

"Take a closer look, Lauren. Isn't it beautiful to see how much of a monster you truly are - to see yourself with your true colors? Acting like the beast that you are supposed to be? You should've just left, not this town but this whole earth. You are not wanted here." Camila whispers in Lauren's ears like it's a dirty secret. This one hurts more and Lauren cries harder. She wants this scene to stop but she can't, she wants to get out of Camila's hold because it hurts and she can't, she wants to leave but she can't.

"Please just stop this...I don't want to see it anymore." Lauren says while crying.

This time Camila listens "Your wish is my command, but this time you will do it on your own." Camila lets go of Lauren's hair and takes another gun and hands it to Lauren.

Lauren points the gun at her head with so many tears in her eyes and mumbles how sorry she is to Camila. She pulls the trigger and wakes up. When she does her eyes fill with tears that start running down her face and sweat is all over her body. She sees the wood cell of an attic again...

Is this nightmare not going to end?

She looks behind her and flinches when she sees Camila with bandages all over her forearms. She crawls away, back from Camila until her back hits the hardwood of the attic. Camila sees this and she remembers how she had the same reaction after their first 'date'. Lauren's eyes didn't even turn back to green yet, it's still the different colors in each eye. She looks so fragile and so scared like Camila is the monster this time. So, when Camila tries to get closer to Lauren, she hears her say...

"Don't!!! Get away from me! I don't want to hurt you again." Lauren tries to sound stern but her voice breaks.

"Why are you saying this?? What is going on?" Camila asks with a hurt tone and so much confusion.

Ignoring her question, Lauren looks at her and then at the bandages and she feels guilty...

"I should've left long ago...I shouldn't have stayed...I shouldn't have made that stupid fucking deal or that shitty promise. I shouldn't have hurt you like this. It's all my fault..."

"Laur—"

"No, don't. Camila, you should just stay away from me. I cannot be trusted. I can't even control my powers for fuck sake why am I even here?" Lauren curls up in a ball and starts crying.

Camila looks at her with sad eyes, not knowing what to say or do. She knows that no matter what Lauren is gonna do, she will stay with her because she wants to, not because of the deal that was probably long forgotten by both of them. Camila goes and sits beside Lauren, just like she did the first night she saw Lauren crying on that moonless night. She sits quietly beside her just listening to her crying while feeling her heartbreaking more than ever. She waits for her until she can't cry anymore. With tears in Camila's eyes and trembling lips, she wants to ask Lauren the question that has been going on in her mind since Lauren woke up, but she can't bring herself to ask cause she knows that she won't like the answer that will come from her mouth.

Camila hesitates before asking because even though the answer is obvious at this point and she probably should be happy like any normal person. Now knowing that finally the "Monster" that threatened to kill her parents and everyone she loves is weak, crumbling down, and will most likely leave her for good without any violence, but she is not. It's completely the opposite for her, cause she feels pain like her heart is made of cracking glass and when Lauren leaves she is scared it will shatter into a million pieces. Not to mention that this "Monster" everyone is afraid of is her hero who saved her from such a terrible and disgusting thing that was gonna happen to her if Lauren wasn't there.

Also, Camila was seen helping Lauren at the school and being so close to her which would obviously bring up rumors about her helping the beast. So in a way Camila is in trouble too and if Lauren left she would have to deal with the consequence alone which wouldn't be fair at all. So, taking a deep breath Camila finally asks Lauren the question.

"Lauren, are you going to leave me?"

Lauren pulls her head up and looks at Camila.

"I...I...have to Camila. I can't stay here anymore. I will just bring you more troubles and hurt you—"

"No, you are not leaving Lauren!! You can't leave me, not anymore. Do you think you can just come here and fuck everything up and just leave me??!!! Because you are afraid of hurting me??!! Well, you've already done the damage so at least stay here and fix it. Besides, if you didn't know as you passed out: I had to get myself out there to help you get here. People saw me!! So they are probably thinking I'm helping you out in killing them now. Therefore, you cannot leave and let me deal with this shit on my own Lauren. "

"Camila don't you get it??! I can't fix things, I only break it because I'm a monster and you can't fix things when you are a broken monster that can't even control yourself. I'm sorry, but I can't." Lauren says with a broken voice and gets up to leave.

Camila gets up too and stands in Lauren's way to block her from jumping out the window and running away.

"That is all you can say about it?? You are broken?! Well, guess what Lauren? I'm broken too and people hate me for it: my parents, the school, this whole shitty town. I still didn't leave, but I guess it's different from me because I have no choice but you? You can just leave and hide or even live in the forest where no one will bother you anymore and that's not fair!!!" Camila pauses for a second to chuckle before continuing.

"I can't believe the mighty beast that everyone is scared of is just gonna run away like a fucking coward without any fight!!!" Camila says with so much anger in her voice that every word she says stings Lauren's heart.

Lauren starts to get angry too, she already heard those words and she didn't need another person to remind her of it, least of all Camila.

"So, what do you want me to do??!!! Kill them??!! Camila, I promised you I won't do it again. I promised you to stop so just let me go. You won't need to worry about me doing it again!!!"

She still doesn't get it?!! How can she be so selfish?!! Camila thinks.

"Don't you see how fucking selfish you are right now??!! I just told you that I don't have the easy choice of leaving like you and you still wanna go??" Camila walks up to Lauren and puts her hands on her shoulders and speaks quietly.

"I get it, Lauren. You are too scared to stay and maybe that promise was too much for you to keep. I'm glad you are still trying. It means everything and if it's too hard then you can leave, but don't you think it's selfish for you to start all of this, the deal and everything and just run away when it gets too hurtful for you? You wanted to stop running away and hurting everyone right? Well, then here is your chance to show it." Camila pulls Lauren to hug her before continuing.

"Lauren, you have fixed my life...you stopped people from bullying me and you stopped Austin from doing that horrible thing to me. I wasn't lonely anymore with you, so would you please stop being a coward just because things didn't turn out the way you wanted. You and I both knew that what happened in school wasn't supposed to happen, but I chose to stand in front of you and stop you. That was my choice Lauren, not yours. So you didn't break this one. I did."

"I'm not saying that what you did was right Lauren, even if I didn't stand in front of you, but I just need you to know that this was my choice. If I didn't stand there you could have just easily gone on and made everyone pay for what they did to me even more, but you would have died...and I couldn't let that happen Lauren. I care about you and if stopping you at that moment meant me getting these cuts from you then so fucking be it. "

Lauren thought all this time that she went to Camila and cut her while she lost control. She has always thought that she was the monster that destroys things and while that may be true in some sense, in some others she wasn't and for the very first time in her life Lauren thought:

These voices and those nightmares were finally wrong.

Camila pulls Lauren back a bit and stares at her in a way that makes Lauren feel like she is staring at her soul.

"Lauren, you are not a monster. I know you. I have seen you; you are just scared." Camila smiles softly and kisses her lips so carefully. When she pulls back, she stares at her like she is her whole world.

"See Lauren? You didn't hurt me even though you said you might, but here you are looking at me with those beautiful eyes that once scared me. Now it's the ones that I find charming. You are not a monster, Lauren."

Lauren should push her away and run like she always does from everything. She should leave without looking back. She should listen to the voices in her head that are screaming to just run like she always does, but they are wrong this time and Camila's words remind her of why she wanted to stay, why she made those promises, why she reached and made that deal with Normani. She wanted to change and she knew it would cost a lot. Leaving right now would mean that it was all for nothing and with her finally being in Camila's hold right now and taking her kisses makes everything worth staying here for.

"Can you kiss me one more time to make it better?" Lauren looks at Camila with a soft smile and teary eyes.

"I can do it a hundred times more if you want." Camila pulls Lauren to kiss her one more time and...

"CAMILA!!! Come downstairs."

Camila wants to keep kissing and holding Lauren close, but she knows if she doesn't stop this one of her parents will get up there and catch them. Obviously, she doesn't want that to happen for many reasons so with that she pushes Lauren away gently and answers her mom.

"Yes, mom. Right away!!!"

Camila gets up to leave, but Lauren takes a hold of her hand and whispers

"Please be careful and if you need any help at all, I will be here." Lauren pulls Camila to her and hugs her tightly. As they pull out of the hug Lauren gently puts her hand on Camila's cheek, looking deeply into her eyes. Camila could see something shift in her green eyes, they seemed to get lost in her own, filling up with admiration. Lauren gently guides Camila's face closer to her own - and Camila closes the last bit of space between their lips eagerly. As her soft lips meet her own she can feel her heart race, beating loud enough that she thought Lauren might hear it too. Lauren tightens her grip around Camila's waist. Camila could feel how Lauren started breathing heavier, almost shaking as if she's holding herself back.

They both got lost in this moment, feeling as if nothing else mattered but right now. All they wanted was each other. All they needed was each other. Camila let her lips separate just a bit: an invitation that Lauren didn't hesitate to take. While they let their tongues slowly get more used to each other they both could feel themselves getting more lost in the moment.

Lauren's hand moved slowly back from Camila's cheek and reached around her head to get a firmer grip on her thick hair. As they started moving with more intensity they both could feel themselves burning, not as two, but as one. It felt as if their hearts were beating at the same pace as if they were standing in the same fire, lost in a different world where only the two of them existed.

Camila let her hand slowly move in under Laurens shirt. She could feel herself shaking as she reached further up, feeling Lauren's soft skin against her fingertips. As she reached her destination Lauren let out a soft moan. The sound made Camila's head spin with desire. She wanted more. She let her other hand in under Lauren's shirt as well, this time leading it around Lauren's back and lightly letting it rest there. Camila could feel Lauren's lips shape into a smile against hers, she tightened her grip around Camila's hair.

Lauren pulled away from Camila ever so gently, giving them both a second to breathe. To Camila's surprise Lauren didn't lean back into the kiss, instead she moved her face down towards Camila's neck. Her breath was against Camila's skin for just a few seconds before Lauren kissed it, Camila couldn't hold back a soft groan and once again she could feel Lauren smile against her skin as she pushed Camila up against the wall behind them. Camila dug her nails into Lauren's back. Her kiss was so passionate but gentle, Lauren made sure to leave no mark; something Camila couldn't consider at this moment. She couldn't help but dig deeper into Lauren's back and softly moan, her head was spinning and she let out several shaky breaths.

Camila started getting just a little too loud, so Lauren moved back to her lips, giving them even better treatment than her neck. They both started panting heavily, and as they pulled away for a second time Camila remembered her parents. They were waiting for her downstairs.

Before Camila gets down she goes to the bathroom to fix her looks and when she reaches the downstairs, she sees her parents waiting and gesturing for her to sit in front of them. She gets a bad feeling about this.

"Yes, mom. Do you need anything?"

"Yeah Mija, your father and I need to talk to you about something. Sit down."

I hate this, something is going to happen...

"Sure," Camila says with a fake smile and feels her anxiety start to build up. They take a moment of silence before saying anything and it's slowly killing her. She feels like she is going to throw up because of this dead silence and starts to get worried about Lauren and thinks:

What if they know?? What am I gonna do? It's still impossible, right?

Camila's thoughts are cut when they finally ask her the unwanted question.

"We heard what happened today at school and also heard some rumors going around about you that...you might be.. well.. gay?"

At times like these I wish sexuality was the least of people's problems...

Camila starts to wonder where they heard these rumors from. She gets bullied and they never heard the rumors of that or were they just ignoring it? How did it start? Was it because of what happened today with Lauren? Camila gets lost in her thoughts and questions which makes her anxiety rise to the point where she feels the bad kind of butterflies in her chest. The number of worst-case scenarios are almost too hard for her to handle, but she needs to answer them. Camila opens her mouth, but nothing comes out of it. She slowly looks down on the ground because there is nothing to say. It's too terrifying to say 'yes' because of what might happen or 'no' because she doesn't want to lie or deny herself, but why?

How can it be so scary to just say one word? Why is she so afraid of this conversation?? Why is she having anxiety over this at all??? Thinking back of her life, Camila's parents weren't doing much, or even doing what they thought were best for her as they always say, just what is best for them. All they ever did was control and pressure her into being perfect. Not to mention the always high expectations that she always met because she was just too scared of their harsh comments and disappointments, but what did these things help her with up until now?? The answer is nothing.

Nothing, except being self-conscious about her sexuality to the point where she didn't come out or being able to stand up for herself. Hell, these harsh comments and disappointing looks are nothing right now compared to what she faced the last few months. Camila looks at her parents after the realization hits her and says confidently

"Yes, I am."

"Perhaps the rumors are true and that girl might have been right all along." Her mom says with a frown on her face.

"What girl?"

"Camila, does a girl named Lauren Jauregui live here somewhere?"

How did they know??

What did that girl tell them??

Who is she anyway???

"A Jauregui? What an odd name. I don't think I heard anyone with that name living here near us, no."

"Don't play dumb Camila. You know exactly what I mean. I heard the noises and I saw the scratch marks. Tell me the truth!" Her father demands.

Somebody told him about Lauren. God, I am so gonna kill that fucking bitch once I find her. And there is no point in fighting if he is talking like this...

"Okay fine. Yes, she does, but don't hurt her. She is a good person, her intentions aren't bad at all. Trust me, she is not like her parents."

"How disgusting. You are liking someone like her? She is a Jauregui; she is probably deceiving you into this to get what she wants!!"

"What?! What are you talking about? Lauren would never do that. She never did anything to hurt me!"

"So, I guess those scars on your forearms are from falling then?"

"That's different, she didn't mean to..." Camila says while looking away.

"How long has she stayed here for?"

"Months."

"You let a Jauregui that hurt my daughter stay here for months?!!!!" Camila's dad says while standing up.

"Don't act like you are worried about your perfect daughter now."

"What are you talking about?? I've always cared about you and your wellbeing. I've always wanted what's best for you."

"This is exactly what I'm talking about; always choosing and making me do whatever you want, but you never ask about what I want. You think it's disgusting for me to love Lauren and to let her stay here, but you have no idea what she has done to help me. Just because she is a Jauregui it doesn't mean she will do the same things as her parents."

"Yeah right, what exactly did she do differently than me? At least I feed you, buy you clothes and give you a roof over your head!!! I always look out for you and instead of thanking me or making me happy, you turn gay and love a Jauregui."

"Do you hear yourself?? That's your job dad, you can't compare your job to what Lauren did for me?!!" Camila was getting angrier by the second.

TW: MENTION OF SA

"And to put your mind at rest let me tell you what Lauren the bad Jauregui did for me. She LISTENS to me and that's something neither you nor mom has ever done!!! And she also stopped everyone from bullying me in school. I didn't tell you about this because I knew that you would never have listened nor believed me!! and lastly, she saved me from that fucking asshole Austin who tried to rape me!!!" Camila realized her face was hot and tears were streaming down from her eyes. There is a moment of silence and her parents look at each other with sad eyes. She looks at them and keeps thinking maybe they will finally realize, but when she hears her father speak again that's when she knows it's over.

"Well, I would rather have my daughter raped than being a dyke who is in love with a Jauregui." Her father says with so much hate and resentment in his voice.

Camila is shocked, but mostly just disappointed in her parents for being narcissistic fucks who can't think about anyone but themselves. She is also disappointed in herself because she let herself think they could ever change to understand one day. She really was fooling no one but herself. She wanted to laugh at her stupidity and cry because of what her dad said, but she should've known this was coming. She should've known better. Camila's thoughts are cut short when she hears a gunshot coming from upstairs.

She runs to the attic as fast as she can. When she reaches there, she sees her father pointing the gun to an open window while panting. Camila feels relieved Lauren ran before it's too late, she is also happy Lauren decided to run instead of attack. She looks at her father with so much anger and starts to walk towards him.

"What is wrong with you??!! How do you have the fucking heart to tell your daughter such a disgusting thing and then proceed to kill her girlfriend?!!! How do you sleep at night dad?? And you think Lauren is the monster, well take a good look at yourself and you will know who the real monster is."

"You don't get to tell me what is wrong with me young lady, you have already done enough things to shame this family and especially me in front of people."

"That's what you care about?!! What do strangers think of this family? Of you??!!! Hah, you are going to regret this dad. You have already destroyed something precious by caring what other people think of you."

"We are going to talk about this later, I have a Jauregui to kill now!!"

"I'm going to kill you if you touch her," Camila warns him with a stern tone.

Her dad slaps her across the face

"You don't get to talk to your dad like this!!!" Camila holds her burning cheek and looks at him

"So, you get to choose to have your daughter raped, but I don't get to warn you about hurting my girlfriend?? Real fair dad."

Her dad walks out of the attic silently. Camila stands still in the attic to give herself a moment to make sure that everything up until now is real and let it sink in. Now the more Camila thinks about everything that happened the prouder of herself she feels. She still can't believe she stood up for herself for the first time against her parents and came out. Even though she got told some harsh things and got slapped in the face for it she is still prouder than ever. Camila took a deep breath to clear her head and started thinking about her next move. Obviously she'd need to find Lauren before her dad does, but where would she be??

Camila looks at the scratched marks on the attic's wood wall and goes to touch them, letting the memories of her and Lauren wash over her with every touch. Camila notices the scratch marks weren't on a straight line, but instead it seems like it was forming letters, she steps back to see what it says...

I'm sorry

I love you

Lauren couldn't have done this in ten seconds. I remember that I saw some of these before, but I guess it wasn't completed...

That day...

Why did she want to stay so much if she was gonna leave???

I need to find her...

Camila runs out of the attic to downstairs, but she hears her mothers words which stop her

"I forbid you to go looking for that monster."

"You didn't seem to forbid dad from wishing such a horrible thing on me, so just stop trying to act like you are worried about me when you are not!!"

And with that Camila leaves her house to look for Lauren. While she is running to look for the green-eyed girl, she sees people coming out of their homes with weapons: guns, knives, and everything in between.

This is all for Lauren?!!!

She is just one person; I really hope I can find her first.

Camila keeps thinking where Lauren would go, she could go anywhere, but where would she go? A place where people might get lost and have trouble finding her??? The woods.

She runs towards it to look for her, but she is nowhere to be found. Suddenly she hears a gunshot coming from a certain direction and her heart drops. With tears in her eyes and not wanting to believe that Lauren is hurt she runs in the direction of the sound, but finds nothing there. She hears another gunshot and then many more. She again runs in the direction of it, but Camila stops dead in her tracks when she finds blood all over the place.

No.

No...it's impossible to be hers...

She slides down slowly against a tree and tries to hold a sob, but she can't and cries because she failed; she failed to find Lauren, she failed to stop her dad, she failed to tell her how much she loves her and she failed to see her smile or the last of her ever again. She keeps telling herself that it's not her blood. It must be someone else's, but how can it not be hers when the proof is all over the place.

"Hey stranger, do you have a nasty injury in your back that I can cure??" Lauren says while smirking.

When Camila hears that soothing voice again, she moves her head up so fast not believing it's Lauren. She didn't fail. Lauren is still alive. She thanks the God from above if they ever existed that they still gave her time to be with Lauren. She jumps into Lauren's arms and cries happily in her neck. Lauren stands still, startled about what could have happened to Camila to make her cry like this, but she holds onto her tightly regardless.

"I thought that they killed you. I heard gunshots and saw blood everywhere." Camila says between sobs.

Lauren chuckles."Camz you should give me more credit than that. Do you really think their toys are gonna kill me?? They call me a monster for a reason you know."

"This is no time for jokes, Lauren. I'm serious, also my dad was coming to kill you too." Camila says while holding her more tightly.

"Oh, I met him." Lauren says and pulls Camila to face her.

"He...he didn't hurt you, did he?!"

"Of course not, Camz. I didn't let him, I broke his gun and told him to leave because he was wasting his time while he should've cared about his family more rather than chasing me. Obviously, he was stubborn at first, and I wish it was because he was worried, but I guess it was mostly pride so just in case anyone saw us he would have to act like the hero or the victim." Lauren pauses for a few seconds then continues.

"Anyhow, I told him that I cared about you and that I didn't want you to live through the same thing I have because I know how it feels like to lose a parent and I don't want you to live through it at all. Also told him that it was your choice among other things and I don't know I guess something in him changed or so I hope." Lauren says while purposely leaving out the part where she scared him to death and almost threatened to kill him.

There is a moment of silence where Camila looks at Lauren suspiciously because she knows her dad wouldn't leave unless Lauren did something to scare him. However, Camila dismisses the thought and decides to ask her about it later.

"Lauren, I think we should go before people come here and things get messy."

"Okay le—" Lauren doesn't continue before the sound of another gunshot is heard. A bullet goes into the back of her thigh and unable to move, she looks down to see blood. She looks at Camila and the thoughts of her getting shot because she is with Lauren are too much for her to bear. She can't handle another person dying because of her. Lauren hands Camila a small piece of paper and pushes her away.

"You have to run now!!! There is no time to stay or explain just run, go to Normani she will know what to do, she always does. Now RUN!!!" Lauren says while getting down, the pain of the bullet hurt too much to even stand.

"But—"

"I SAID RUN!!!" Lauren changes the color of both of her eyes and her nails get sharper like she is almost turning, and so Camila sees this runs away as far as she can.

What kind of bullet is this?? I can almost not feel my thigh. It's paralyzing me...

"Hello Lauren, did you miss me?"

That's the last thing Lauren hears before she passes out.

---

When Camila finally reaches a place that's deep in the woods after stumbling and wiping her tears along the way. She reaches for her pocket to take the paper of Normani's number that Lauren gave her. She hesitates at first considering their first interaction wasn't really good, but there is no time to overthink this because Lauren needs to be saved and so she calls the number and someone picks it up right away.

"Normani...I need your help."

"Right away."

After waiting for a few minutes and Camila trying to hold herself from crying anymore. Tears won't do anything to save Lauren and while trying to not go crazy about how Lauren got shot in her left thigh, she tries to get her shit together. Finally, someone comes towards her, but this time it's...

Dinah??!!

Camila gets up nevertheless and runs to hug her best friend, she holds tight onto her. She tries so hard to hold in a sob that wants to escape and when her best friend tells her

"It's okay let it go, Mila, I know what happened." She does let go and cries hard on her best friend's shoulder

"Dinah...she...she got shot and I just ran...I was useless, I was weak, I couldn't do anything."

"Listen, you don't have to go on about hating yourself because you couldn't save the love of your life, you are just a human. You couldn't control anything so stop blaming yourself for this. It was out of your control and I'm pretty sure Lauren would agree with me otherwise she wouldn't have told you to run right?"

Camila pulls away from Dinah and wipes her tears. How did she know???

"How did you know that??? And where did you exactly come from? Isn't this place a bit too far away from the village?"

"Yeah...well, don't be shocked because I didn't tell you but.. that's where my girlfriend lives..."

"WHAT? YOU HAVE A GIRLFRIEND?!"

"Yeah, well, I will fill you in on the details on our way to her so let's go. There is no time to waste. Lauren needs us, she needs you, right?"

"Right."

On their way to Normani, Dinah tells Camila everything that has been going on in her life that she had been missing because she was so focused on Lauren. She told her everything from when they met until their lives now. Camila is happy for her best friend and all, but she is impressed at how Dinah didn't really care if she was dating a witch or someone who is 'normal'

"I have to say I'm impressed at how you weren't taken aback about the fact that she was a witch."

"Well, I was at first but then she was just really kind and genuine about everything, so I gave her a chance and she really made it worth it. So, it didn't really matter then what she was, as long as she tried her best to make me happy."

"Awwww, that's so sweet Dinah."

"Besides, when someone can make you cum seven times in a row you wouldn't really care what they are," Dinah says with a smirk.

Camila looks at her with wide eyes "I really didn't need to know about this..."

"Don't worry you will get your fair share of it. Anyways, we are here."

Camila can see a house that is almost covered with trees and leaves all over. It's hard to see it since it's nighttime and it blends in well with everything around it. Camila looks around the woods and sees a lake that looks illuminated by the moonlight and she thinks this will be one of her favorite sights if she could live here someday.

When they reach the door, Dinah opens it and invites Camila in. Dinah is greeted with her girlfriend kissing her lips and Camila just stands there watching

"Okay lovebirds, my girlfriend is about to die so could you hurry up??"

When they finally finish their 'I love you's and kisses, Normani tells both of them to go and sit in the living room. They do as she says and Camila is amazed at how relaxed Normani is knowing that her best friend might die at any second.

"I'm amazed, girlfriend already?? Because last time I checked you, idiots, only went on one date and it was.. how do I put it polity? Her trying to eat you alive."

"Isn't that the purpose of all dates?" Dinah asks, confused about what is so wrong with this.

"Dinah, not that type of eating alive sweetie..." Normani says chuckling and Camila put her head down blushing.

"There are other types?? We should totally try them out next time babe!!"

"Sure," Normani says looking at her lovingly.

"Guys, focus! Lauren is in trouble!!!" Camila says frustrated.

"Sorry." The couple says in sync.

"So, First of all: I'm sorry for hitting you. I guess our first-time meeting wasn't the best so forgive me. Now I know you wanna save Lauren and all, but this process might be too much of a danger for just a human so that's why I'm gonna need you to agree about everything that I will do and might happen to you in the process." Normani says.

"Okay, sure I agree on whatever."

"You are a little eager, aren't you? Anyway, I will give you the power of a beast, but you must be careful."

"Really? Have you ever done this before?"

"Of course I did, yes the people might have died after, but hopefully you will be different."

"Hopefully?? My life is gonna be on the line and that's all you have to say?" Camila looks at her suspiciously.

"Don't give me that look, I'm very confident in my powers to turn them, but they just didn't listen to me and pushed themselves to the edge. Besides, you gave me your agreement."

"Right..."

"Look Cabello, we don't really have much time to talk about this, but I can guarantee you that you will be safe if you listen and do as I say. You understand?"

"Since I don't have much of a choice, I guess I will have to trust you again..."

"I'm gonna pretend not to be offended at this, given our history. But don't worry I will make this quick and painful." The girls look at Normani with frowns on their faces.

"I'm kidding jeez. Although I wasn't lying, the spell is gonna have some side effects. It's a forbidden spell after all. Also, it will take all my energy to do. So, just for you not to be worried, you might change internally 'physically' so your chest is going to hurt a lot probably because your rib cage is going to change a little bit and you will be coughing and probably vomiting some blood here and there. Please do it outside. I have just cleaned the house." The girls give Normani another weird look.

"What?? I'm serious! Ugh, whatever, moving on. Now listen carefully, Cabello. If you don't want to end up like those who died, don't ever push yourself, understand?"

"What do you mean?"

"I will try to make this quick and easy for you to understand. So, since you will get to be so powerful don't ever forget that you will have limits, your limits will be your ribs. If you break three you have a high chance of dying so don't ever push yourself to that extent. No matter what the situation is, don't ever push yourself to the edge Camila."

"Okay."

"Great, now get up and stand inside the red circle and close your eyes." Camila does as she is told and waits for Normani. She hears her whispering stuff and snaps her fingers.

"Okay that's it, now open your eyes and slowly move out of the circle and tell me how you feel?" Camila does everything Normani tells her, but just when she is about to talk she feels a pain in her chest like someone is stabbing it with a knife. She starts coughing aggressively and holds her chest with both hands, but the pain doesn't stop, instead, it grows more and more to the point where she is vomiting blood multiple times.

Dinah looks so worried and tries to get close to her but Normani stops her.

"Don't worry as I said before these are side effects. She will be fine."

The pain combined with the coughing fit makes her crumble to her knees. She's barely able to stay aware enough to not land in her own puddle of vomit and blood. Still holding onto her chest tightly it almost felt like it was expanding as if something was trying to break out, but the only thing escaping her was more blood leaking from her mouth.

"You must drink this" Normani is holding out a glass to her. Camila hadn't even noticed she'd left to get it. She forces her shaking hands to grab it and downs it as quickly as she can so another wave of blood won't wash it back out again.

She can instantly tell how nothing more will come out. The pain had also slowly started to subside. She lets out what she wishes to be the last coughing fit.

"Ugh, disgusting. I told you not to puke inside the house, now get up drama queen there are still some things you need to know before you have to go."

After a few more minutes the pain in her chest had almost disappeared and the coughing slowly stopped. Once she can get up, she wipes the tears and looks at Normani.

"What is it now?"

"Okay so unfortunately Lauren is on the other side of the village so it may take some time to get to her. Which we gotta do before they burn her alive and turn her into chicken wings as they did to witches in the 1700s and since tonight is a blue moon they think it will make all the 'evil' go away, which is funny because I'm still here." Normani says laughing at her own joke, Camila rolls her eyes and Dinah looks at her while shaking her head.

"Come on guys, this one was funny, never mind. Anyways, so Lauren will be chained, her chains will be sealed with a spell and it may be hard to break it, so if you got tired of fighting someone or whatever, don't go on like a hero breaking the chains with no energy. You have to sit down a bit because these chains have the power to steal energy which means you will push yourself and might break a rib so be careful at all times."

"Why are they doing this?" Camila asks with a frown on her face

"It's her, she made them do this by manipulating their minds."

"You know her?"

"Yes, I do and so do you. It's one of your classmates. What was her name again? Uhhh.. Lucy Vives."

"Oh, that bitch!" Camila says with a shocked tone. "Now it makes sense why she would know Lauren's story."

"Yes, they were friends long ago, but something happened and it turned into hatred, at least from Lucy's side. She came to me one day to buy some stuff and I never really knew her until it was too late. Go now, Cabello. There is no time to waste, but remember to never push yourself over the edge."

"Okay, I won't."

And with that Camila left the house running through the door to save Lauren.

---

Lauren opens her eyes slowly to see the woods are illuminated by torches and lanterns everywhere, she looks up to see the moon; it's bright and full.

It's a bright moon? How come I have that nightmare then??

Lauren looks back at the torches again and she has a bad feeling about it. She remembers some people were holding the same things when they burned her parents' house to the ground. She tries to move, but her hands and legs are chained to a log that is shaped like a cross.

What the? Why are these so hard to break???

"It is about time you wake up, Jauregui." Lucy chuckles from behind while touching Lauren's chains.

"If you were wondering why these chains are different it's because these chains are sealed with special spells that sucks the power out of you. So, if you ever think about going all beast mode on me, you will just drain yourself."

Lauren's head shot up in the direction of the voice to see who it belonged to. And no matter how much she tries to deny it she knows who that voice belongs to, she knows that girl, she knows why she is looking at her with an evil grin and soulless eyes, but she sees something else there like she is nervous or scared of something? She really can't tell.

"I hope that you liked the note that I sent to you. It was full of love, you know."

The note!!! It was her?!

"I know you might be asking yourself how and why? Well, you already know why, but I guess I will remind you of it later. As for the other question: well it's easy, you just have to remind people of the monster that has been lurking around and they will believe that you are the hero to save them." Lucy pauses for a moment before she continues "Aren't you happy for me? I'm the hero of this story Lauren, not the monster this time. As for you, I guess you love to be the bad guy every time."

"I am not a monster," Lauren says sternly.

Lucy stares at Lauren with hatred and rage this time

"You really think so?! Even after what you did to me?!" Lucy says with a stern tone and looking intensely at Lauren.

Hearing Lauren deny this after what she did to Lucy, raises her anger even more. So, she wants to hurt Lauren to be able to see that monster again. She wants to see her madness and those burning tears of hatred and monstrosity so she would feel and know the pain she caused Lucy. It hurts her to realize that maybe what she did to her meant nothing to Lauren. If Lauren is still calm like she said nothing it makes Lucy enraged to see Lauren like that; instead of screaming or wanting to kill her, at least seeing her trying to fight the chains would make her feel better, but nothing.

She sees nothing except Lauren closing her eyes and taking deep breaths to calm herself down. It hits Lucy that Lauren might have grown a little without her, but how? In such a short time? Although it's been almost years, the burning anger in Lucy because of what Lauren did to her is still fresh, yet to Lauren, it looks like she just moved on.

"I am not a monster," Lauren repeats calmly.

Lauren would always let people's words get to her, but after what Camila told her and finally making those voices go silent and being wrong for once, this made her see a lot of things differently. She could try new approaches and new ways to react to things and people.

"You know Lauren, long ago before you came, I was such a lonely person. Nobody was ever there to stay with me until you came along and changed that. I tried so hard with all my power to keep you with me. I did everything, even things I wouldn't normally do because I believed that you were my only exception." Lucy pauses for a moment then continues.

"And yet just like everyone else, even worse than everyone, you just left!!! You LEFT me like I was nothing to you! Like I didn't do anything at all. After everything I gave and fought for!! Why would you just leave Lauren???!! Was I really such a worthless person to you??"

Lauren looks at Lucy with a soft smile and calm eyes.

"Is that really what you think, Lucy??? That you tried so hard to keep me and I just left you because I thought you were worthless? If you didn't realize it yet, back in those days when I came to you I was a different person. I was scared of everything and everyone and yes I am gonna admit that you have welcomed me with open arms and I really appreciate it." Lauren looks away and chuckles a little before she continues.

"But I don't think that you have ever seen or realized how fucking controlling and possessive and annoying you were. Although you may say that it was coming from a place of protection it was suffocating me. Look at you now, you came all the way from that long-gone village or whatever just to do what?? Convince me to come with you and live happily ever after? Well I don't want to. I've changed so let me just go already."

"And yet you still deny me, if that's so then why did you tell me that I was doing the right thing?? You could've just spoken up about it!!"

"You are still not listening just like the old days...as I said before I was a different person back then. I didn't want to hurt you, besides you weren't going to accept hearing me telling you what you did was wrong."

"SO YOU DECIDE TO LEAVE?!!! Did you really think that was gonna make it better somehow??? Just leaving me alone again without a word or a note or anything at all." Lucy says while shaking with anger.

"I don't know how the likes of you can sleep at night knowing that you broke someone to pieces Lauren, but I will make sure that you follow your parent's footsteps."

Lucy turns around and starts walking towards a torch to take it, she pulls it swiftly from its place and walks towards Lauren again.

"I don't sleep that well at night, Lucy."

"Well, you won't have to worry about that any longer." Lucy moves the torch slowly towards Lauren.

"Tell your pare—"

"LEAVE HER ALONE."

Lucy looks back and subconsciously pulls the torch away to look back before she feels like something sharp has slashed her arm to bits, she stumbles back, and the torch falls from her hand, rolling away and starting a small fire. Lucy holds her bleeding arm and steps backwards away from them. She looks around and sees the small fire and an evil grin starts to form on her face.

Lauren lets out a big breath; she is thankful Camila came rushing before it was too late, but the more she looks at Camila the more she realizes and feels that something is different about her.

Normani performed a forbidden spell on her?!!

Fuck I hope she won't push herself too far...

"I was expecting you to show up, Cabello. Now it will just be easier to hurt both of you."

"Are you really sure about that Vives?"

Lucy pulls her gun points it at Camila and just when Camila tries to think of ways to trick Lucy to be able to hit her again, she hears Lauren whispers breathlessly

"Camila, the fire..." Camila turns her head to look around and that's when she hears a gunshot and feels a sharp pain in her leg before it starts to go numb. She groans a little and feels the adrenaline start to rush through her veins and all she hears is her heart pounding, unable to hear Lauren's screams and cries telling her not to push herself because she knows the feeling of those bullets.

Camila only hears the voices in her head telling her not to push herself, but if she doesn't someone she loves will die. She is seeing Lucy move her gun to point it at Lauren and everything starts moving in slow motion

TW: VIOLENCE // GORE

"Obviously I'm not going to kill you right away."

Camila stumbles while trying to push herself back on her feet. Her shot leg just won't cooperate like the other one, but she's desperately seeing the gun being aimed at Lauren. She just has to push herself through it.

She leans forward while putting all of her weight on her functional leg. If she doesn't move fast she knows that she'll just collapse again so she uses all of the strength in her to launch herself forward. It's nothing more than a few steps, but each of them feels like it'd be her last. A jolt shoots through her whole body from her gun wound with every step. It feels as if the electricity is cracking every bone in her body and she can only hope they won't crumble just yet.

She leaps at Lucy as soon as she's sure she can make the distance. She didn't realize how fast she'd been moving until the world sped up again as they collided. Even if Lucy had been prepared for her she wouldn't have been able to stop her momentum. As they hit the ground Camila feels as if something shatters inside her. They both cry out in pain but quickly have to react to each other. Lucy takes advantage of Camila's harsher pain and tries to aim her gun towards her chest. Camila removes one arm she's holding herself up with to grab onto Lucy's wrist, forcing her to aim the gun away from their bodies. Her other hand remained around Lucy's shoulder and she started digging her claws into it deeply.

Lucy cried out and attempted to free her hand holding the gun. Camila didn't have a hand free to take it from her so instead she reassured her grip around her forearm and tried to pull on the whole arm. With one strong motion, she pulled her arm outwards. At first, it went easy, but as Lucy's arm was extended to its full range it went harder, but only for a moment. Then, with the most disgusting crack she'd ever heard, it went easy again.

There was a moment of silence between all of them as they both looked at her shoulder and how there now was nothing more there, but you almost couldn't see anything but the blood that'd only started gushing out. Camila only watched as the puddle steadily grew around them. Then Lucy let out the most bloodcurdling scream she'd ever heard, and knowing she was the cause of it, Camila could only stare.

She didn't even realize she was still holding on to it until she heard the gun hit the ground from Lucy's now loosened grip. She let the arm follow the gun to the ground and slowly managed to make it back to her feet as Lucy's screams stopped.

Lucy spends her last conscious seconds turning her head towards Lauren. The last thing she sees is Camila limping towards Lauren and thinking with tears in her eyes:

It should be me who saves you...

After the adrenaline wears out of Camila, she starts to see the smoke and feels the pain everywhere, especially her right leg. When she pulls herself to her feet and takes a step towards Lauren she feels one of her ribs shatter in her chest and that's when she falls to the ground and starts coughing blood violently again. She feels indescribable pain and after a few minutes, she forces herself to get up and goes to try and break Lauren's chains. She tries to keep on ignoring Lauren's words of not pushing herself and does the same to the voices in her head. She knows she is pushing too far. She knows there will be consequences, but Lauren's safety comes first so it doesn't matter and so she pushes herself even more to try and break the chains of Lauren. It's getting dangerous to stay here with fire and smoke around and after pushing too hard and having another rib break, the chains are finally broken.

After Lauren is free the first thing Camila receives from her is a hard slap in the face

"I told you to stop. Why didn't you?? I don't want to lose you and you are pushing yourself too hard!!"

"Lauren there is no time for this, let's go." Camila grabs Lauren's hand and starts to walk but Lauren pulls her hand away.

"I can't leave Lucy here. I already broke her once and I'm not gonna do it twice."

Camila looks down at her and the fire around them

"Do whatever you please. Let's just get out of here, we don't have much time."

And so, Lauren carries her body and they start to walk away from the fire and back towards Normani's place.

---

Silence; until they ran away from the fire that was all Lauren could think to describe their situation as; 'silence'. Other than Camila telling Lauren to stop and sit somewhere so she can catch her breath, one of them finally decides to break the silence.

"Lauren, are you still mad at me for what I did?"

"No, I wasn't even mad. I was just worried...I'm really sorry for slapping you instead of saying thanks, that wasn't rational of me to do."

"I was worried too, you know the fire was everywhere and it could have touched you."

"Yeah I understand, but I'm pretty sure Mani told you not to push yourself, whatever the reason."

"Yes, she did, but what was I supposed to do?? Wait until the fire burns you to act?"

"No, but I'm just saying I don't know, maybe there was a better way to do that rather than pushing yourself and breaking your own ribs??"

"And what was a better way to exactly handle that??"

"I don't know..."

"We make our own choices, we pay our own prices, Lauren. And that was my choice to make and that's the price I had to pay."

After a few minutes of walking, Camila told Lauren to stop again. Every time Lauren looks at Camila, she can see how weak she is getting. She can sense how tired she is, but she can't have her stopping or falling halfway through. She needs to take her mind off of the long way. Sadly, the only thing she can do is talk. She wishes she could do more than that.

"What is the first thing you are going to do when life is back to normal?"

"Life was never normal when you arrived, it changed in a lot of ways that I never knew could be possible." Camila paused for a bit.

"Well, I will take you on a proper date."

Lauren blushes and turns to look at Camila "Is that a promise, Cabello?"

"Yes, it is Jauregui. I will show you what a proper date looks like." Camila smirks and giggles weakly.

"Hey, mine wasn't that bad, besides you pushed me for it."

"If by 'wasn't bad' you were trying to kill me, then sure, but I didn't push you. You wanted to act like you know everything. You could've just said something else."

"But at least I kissed you at the end."

"Then you tried to kill me again." Camila laughs at how Lauren is pouting at her.

"Okay fine, maybe that part wasn't bad."

They kept walking and talking about everything. Both of them can feel how precious this moment is and they don't want it to ever stop. They want to keep talking about their silly moments, their past, their dreams, and everything in between, but when they finally reach close to Normani's home, Camila can't take another step. She keeps coughing aggressively and it burns inside her chest like she is suffocating. She looks at Lauren and says her last words.

"Don't give up." And everything goes black after that.

—

Camila still didn't wake up, her condition was too unstable. Lauren knows it's nearly impossible for her to open her eyes again because she pushed herself to the edge, but Lauren still believes that maybe Normani will find a way. She trusts her, she always knows what to do. Her comments may seem a little ruthless, but deep in her heart, she cares a lot about the people she comes to like. So, Lauren knows she will be able to do something and Lauren is willing to do anything to have the person she loves breathing again.

Normani told Lauren to leave after hours of her freaking out over Camila and distracting Normani from doing anything right to help the girl. She told her to come by every Friday just to see Camila, otherwise to leave. Lauren wanted to get mad at what Normani told her, but she knew that would only prove her point, She tells Normani before leaving to take care of Lucy and not kill her if she woke up.

One week later...

Lauren doesn't know what to do to distract herself from Camila, all she does is wander around the woods and cry every night blaming herself for what happened to Camila. She is still struggling with the nightmares and it keeps getting worse and worse every time she closes her eyes to sleep. She is hardly getting any sleep and Camila is not there anymore to hold her through the night to keep the demons away. This time she is on her own.

She is barely eating or taking care of herself to the point where she has moments where she gets out of control completely, running around the woods like a wild animal that destroys everything standing in front of it.

So, while Lauren is scratching some wood of a tree trying desperately to control herself and breaking her sharp nails in the process, she realizes she is getting weaker and if she lets her demons take over, she will hurt herself more. Suddenly she hears footsteps coming towards her, she looks at her hands seeing her nails broken and bleeding.

This won't help...

She looks around and sees a pointy piece of wood that could definitely hurt anyone that comes her way. She takes it and hides somewhere waiting for anyone that's coming to get closer. She is waiting for the right time to strike and when she jumps at them she grabs the person by the neck and pins them down the ground, but she sees it's a familiar face.

"Lucy??? Why are you here? Haven't you already done enough damage to me or do you still wanna continue because this time you'll lose more than an arm" Lauren says frustrated.

"No...I just came here to say how sorry I am for everything that happened...I never realized how out of line I was until you came back. Lauren I'm really sorry."

Lauren slowly gets up from her and looks at her suspiciously, avoiding to stare directly at her shoulder...

"How did you know I was here??"

"Normani told me. Look I'm really sorry about everything Lauren really."

"Yeah? Well, you can save that for later, when Camila wakes up. Besides, I didn't come to help you just for an apology."

"Then did you come to help me for something else?"

"Yes, for you to get the fuck away from me," Lauren says sarcastically.

"I didn't come here to fight with you, Lauren. I just wanted to apologize and make sure we won't be on bad terms, so you won't kill me in my sleep."

Lauren is surprised she didn't lose control to kill the girl yet, but she is starting to feel her blood boil.

"Bad terms?!! First, I don't know why you are speaking to me like you are my friend because you never were, not after the shit and the suffering you put me through. You wanna make sure we won't be on bad terms, yet you are the reason the person I love is on the line of dying or living, but don't worry Lucy that won't put us on bad terms." Lauren says sternly to make sure every word sunk in.

"I'm sorry, I guess it's not my place to say such a thing, yet I just wanted to start again but good this time. I really want to change, you know."

"Camila is dying!!! And you still care about yourself whether you want to start again or not, well fuck off!!! I don't want to do it, just leave me alone. You really are selfish." Lauren says before turning and walking away.

Three days later...

Lauren wakes up in another random place in the woods, hoping she didn't hurt anyone while getting there. She tries to remember what happened before blacking out, but nothing. Things are getting worse for her and she doesn't know what to do. She gets up with a pounding headache. She reaches to touch her head only to find it wet and when she looks at her hand again it's full of blood.

WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED??!!

Things are shit for Lauren and sooner or later she knows she might end up killing herself. She knows she needs to stop this way of living and start to take care of herself, but she doesn't know how or where to start. She hears a voice calling her name this time and things are too blurry for her to see and her headache is getting stronger. She tries to run away from the direction of the voice but she falls down and passes out before taking another step.

She wakes up, this time in a comfy bed with a bandage on her head and delicious food beside her put on a table. She gets up to look around, confused on how she got here.

Am I in heaven already??

Am I gonna meet Camila here??

No, don't think about this Lauren. She didn't die yet. She will wake up soon...

She reaches for the food beside her, feeling hungry since she wasn't eating very well back in the woods. She thanks whoever was kind enough to have brought it at least.

While Lauren is enjoying her meal, the one and only person who can ruin her mood comes barging in and sits down on a chair.

"Lucy?!! What are you doing here? Get out, that's my happy place now." Lauren says upset.

"Well, then your happy place is in my house, Lauren. I'm glad you like it."

There is a moment of silence where Lauren is remembering the one voice who called it must have been Lucy's...

"Why did you come again?? Why couldn't you just leave me alone and let whatever was happening to me happen."

"Because you came back Lauren...you could have just left me to die, but you didn't. Something in you just didn't want me to die and I don't care what it is and I don't care how it happened. I just wanted to return the favor..." Lucy says shifting uncomfortably.

"Okay, well that won't bring us on happy terms with each other."

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that too. I came off as demanding and I was wrong about a lot of things. You know, I think you were right about me being selfish and I was doing a lot of bad things and I want to change that."

"So, you came to me to change it?"

"Not really, you actually looked like someone who needs care. You really let yourself go."

Lauren looks at her, offended.

"Don't look at me like that, you should've seen yourself, it was sad. Also, I figured that the change is something I should focus on with myself, not with anyone else."

"Well, thanks for everything, now I'm gonna leave."

"NO...I mean.. No, don't leave...I mean you shouldn't leave. It won't be good for you to trash yourself out until you have to go and see Camila again."

"How do you know about that?!"

"I asked Normani and she told me."

"Yeah, of course, she did," Lauren says while rolling her eyes.

"Look, Lauren. Now you have a place to come to eat, sleep, and shower. I don't want anything from you anymore, just for you to take of yourself for when you meet Camila you know."

"I don't believe that. Lucy Vives who tried to kill me for so long is now being nice for once." Lauren says with a mocking tone.

"Well, I don't care about what you think about me anymore or believe, but what I care about is you taking care of yourself and not dying anymore. In the meantime, here you can learn to control your demons and powers so when you meet Camila you won't look like shit Lauren."

"Fine, whatever, but don't think that will make us friends."

"I won't, I don't even expect a thank you from you. I already don't deserve it after everything I have done."

After several days of Lauren trying to get used to the new place, but still having trouble sleeping because of the nightmares, she goes to see Camila and how she is. Normani tells her that her condition has gotten a bit better, but she still can't tell if she will be able to wake up or not, but Normani is trying her best to find a way. After Lauren gets back, she decides to walk around the woods, and while going there she sees the mess she made and the destruction and scratch marks. She feels bad about it.

Lauren goes back to the house she is staying in after her little trip of showing her how destructive she has been. She decides to call it a day and goes to bed trying hopelessly again to get a wink of sleep.

Lauren gets up again at night, scared from the nightmare she had. The clock beside her tells her it's midnight.

Lauren gets up and goes to the roof. She sees the night sky full of stars, but it's missing the moon. She keeps staring at the stars remembering the first time she met Camila and how everything has gone so fast to this point in her life. She remembers her smiles, laughs, and how they used to cuddle to keep Lauren's demons away, but she is gone now. She is not here anymore to hold Lauren through the night or to smile softly at her and hug her through her pain or to kiss her one last time and tell her she is not a monster and that she will always be there.

Lauren cries hard this time, but not to blame herself, just because she misses Camila. She misses her touch, her hugs, her smiles, her laugh and everything about her. She can't have that now and after such a long time Lauren feels lonely again.

When are you coming back?

You left so fast...

Please don't leave me...

After Lauren tries to wipe her tears away, she hears Lucy talking next to her

"Can't sleep, Jauregui?"

Lauren jumps a little, wondering how she got here without Lauren noticing.

"No, you can't sleep too?"

"You guessed it." Lauren doesn't know how to feel about Lucy at all. She knows she hates her for what she did. But she doesn't wanna kill or hurt her. She could have done it, but she didn't so what is the point now? It won't bring Camila back and she is tired, she already has a lot on her mind to worry about rather than Lucy now.

"Do you have nightmares too?" Lauren asks curiously.

"No...I just don't feel like sleeping."

"Oh, it must be good being able to sleep soundly then."

"It is, are your nightmares really bad?"

"Yes..."

"Have you tried to get to know the reason why it is so bad?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know like, umm.. it could be something you need to fix within yourself? Like a message, a call for help."

"How would I know if it was one of these?"

"Try to approach it in different ways, I don't know Lauren. You tried to deal with me in a different way and yes I hated it, but a really small part of me accepted that you have moved on at that time." Lauren looks at Lucy puzzled.

"Umm good luck maybe? I'm going to bed." Lucy gets up and leaves Lauren alone to think about what she said. Lauren goes to bed after thinking about what Lucy said but gets nothing. She really tries those 'different approaches' but nothing seems to work every time the nightmares get worse and scarier.

This goes on for weeks with Lauren not knowing what she is doing wrong. When she gets sick of trying, she goes up to the roof and stares at the sky again. It's starless and dark just like her nightmares and she hates it. This time, instead of missing Camila and crying about it she tries to think about her young-self and where did it go all wrong to make her reach this place. She starts to remember how much of a happy child she was, it was like a spark of cheerfulness that she had then. Everything started to go downhill when they got killed.

From that point forward she started to listen to people telling her how she was such a mistake that should die and how many other bad things she was. Then Normani took her in, but she wasn't like a mother figure. She just made sure that she didn't kill herself or get hurt besides other stuff and at one point from there she started to repeat the words of those people to herself.

Could it be that I was my own enemy this whole time?! Oh, fuck no wonder why I blame myself for everything...

Lauren goes to sleep, this time having mixed feelings about the realization. She wakes up in the woods, but it's dark and scary because it's the type of dark that could suck you in and you could lose yourself in there forever. Lauren gets up slowly, the ground is made of glass and somewhere a little bit further away the glass can be seen cracking and it's getting more cracks everywhere she turns her head to look.

She hears people shouting from far away, but she can't understand it, the more she focuses the more she understands it's bad. They are hating on her again and in this dark forest feeling lost not knowing where she can run away from them, she remembers how it's the same when she was just a child. She feels trapped. Then someone from behind shouts the word 'monster'. She looks back and sees them with a gun already pointing at her head. When she realizes who that person is, she mumbles 'the beast' before she could stop herself, then she believes how much of a bad person she was to herself.

Calling herself that because it's something she can't control. She really is a monster to herself. She opens her mouth to say something, but she gets shot in her left knee and falls down.

"You ignored...you pretended... you acted...you hated...you neglected...you hurt...you felt darkness...and I was the victim of your actions. Don't you think it would be fair if I took over just a little longer?"

"You did!! and look what happened, we almost died."

"No, Lauren...you almost died. I'm already dead."

Lauren looks sideways and all she sees is darkness. She feels guilty she cared about what people thought of her and kept hiding in the dark. She hated herself for being different, she hated her life and where did that lead her? To almost kill herself in the end. This time she realizes she needs to change, needs to put an end to this. Hating the only person that she can't live without won't do her any good. The only way to stop this, is to face herself, which is what she is the most scared of. During that time this girl in front of her was suffering and dying slowly, so it's time to bring her back to life and fix her mistakes. Lauren gets up despite the pain. She starts to walk towards the girl and takes the gun off of her hand and throws it away.

"You can kill me without this, there is no need for it." She pulls the girl and hugs her tightly before saying.

"I am, I really am a monster for the way I have been treating you, Lauren. I'm really sorry for neglecting you all these years and never seeing it until now. I'm sorry for listening to these assholes who were nothing and meant nothing to me instead of shutting them and their words out. I'm sorry for blaming us for everything that has been happening until now. I'm sorry for everything I have done to you and to us." Lauren says while tearing up.

She promises her that she will change and start to take care of herself and how sorry she is for the things she put herself through. This goes on for a long time and they both slowly fall down to the ground. The voices of people shouting nasty things disappear and the glass breaks turning everything into a colorful forest of green and yellow and red. The differently eye-colored girl mumbles 'thank you' before Lauren wakes up for the very first time in her life feeling good and not scared, not broken. Instead, she feels like she healed something she neglected for years, she feels calm, a warmth she never knew she needed.

A few weeks later...

Lauren goes to see Camila, but this time it's not a Friday which was odd. Normani told her it's urgent to come and as fast as she can she finally found a way for the girl to wake up. Lauren is excited and feels even happier that she is working her way and fixing her relationship with herself, she can even control herself fully when she turns herself to her full power and although Lauren didn't like it as much Lucy had helped her a little bit too.

When she reaches Normani's, she barges in excited about the one she loves finally getting up. She sees Camila looking like she is sleeping, she sees the rose Normani put between her hands and it's turning...BLACK??!! She knows this means she is dying!!!

"Normani?! She is going to die!!"

"Well, if it turns out fully, but we have a bit of time. Now let me get to the main point before we lose her. So, I finally found a spell that can get her to wake up, but it has consequences as always and since you have been crying every Friday I'm just going to assume that you are willing to do anything."

"Of course, I am."

"Good, now it says in order to wake her up her love and devotion will turn to hate to the person she loves the most an—"

"Wait, what?! She is gonna hate me?!"

"Yes, but that's because her memories also will change, she will see you as the bad person who destroyed her life, but you can fix her by staying by her side all the time"

"Also, forgot to mention that she will stay a beast forever so she will be like you, maybe stronger, but if you trained hard enough, she won't be."

"How am I supposed to stay by her side if she hates me? She will wanna kill me!"

"I don't know Lauren, find your way; I have never done this before. People always die because they are idiots."

"Or because you didn't work hard enough for them too."

"Yeah, that too."

"But what about her family? Won't they look for her?"

"Yes, they will, that might be a serious problem, but I will try to keep an eye on them, so things won't go wrong."

"What do you mean?"

"It means if someone stupidly told her about her past her current memories and her past memories will get mixed and that will fuck her life up and put her in danger, the only right way to do this is to do it slowly. Let her see through the manipulations and the gaps and little by little she will start to remember."

"But she is gonna attack me!!"

"And what? Hurt you? I mean she will kill you if you were a weak person which I know that you are not. Besides, I'm here to make sure that you are not gonna die just like the old days so don't worry."

"Fine, okay, as long as she wakes up, but what about you and her friends will she hate them too?"

"No, of course not. They haven't done the exchange like you will, the only person she will hate is you, but hey look at the bright side the more she hates the more you know that she loves you."

"Loves...if she got her memories back normally are her feelings for me going to come back too?"

"I don't know."

Fine...it's either this or she dies?...fuck

"Okay, I agree."

"Thank you for the consent. Now when the rose turns fully black put your hand on it." Lauren waits for the rose and does as she was told.

"Oh, I forgot, give me your shirt."

"Why?"

"So, when she wakes up, she will know your scent and track you down why else."

"You are making it so easy for her."

"I know, you will thank me later."

Normani puts her hand above Lauren's and mumbles certain things for this to work then snaps her fingers together.

"Now you better run before she wakes up; I will see you later. Good luck."

Lauren throws her shirt at Normani's face and goes to her closet picking a shirt that she used to wear that still fits, then runs away.

After 5 minutes Camila finally wakes up. Slowly and with a slight headache, she looks around not knowing where she is.

"Where am I?"

"In a safe place, sweetie."

Her headache gets worse and she closes her eyes trying to remember something.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes...but this person....l....Laur...Lauren Jauregui. I must kill..."

"..."

To be continued...