DISCLAIMER: If you recognize it, I don't own it.
The best and most frustrating thing about the Mondragon twins, even to those who tolerated them, was the way they took everything to heart.
"She's probably a witch who eats little girls and takes baths in their blood," Gabriela said, grinning at the morbid thought. "And she's coming for you next!"
Ofelia stared at her, alarmed, while Vicente rolled his eyes. "That's stupid."
"What? She looks tasty."
"I-I don't think it's that," Ofelia said quickly. "She looked at Papa that way, too. And…"
"And then what?" the twins asked, leaning closer.
She slipped down from her windowsill seat and quietly shut her bedroom door before continuing. "I could hear voices coming from her carriage."
"You mean the people with her?" Vicente said.
She shook her head. "Dead people."
Now the twins were interested. "But they should be in the Land of the Remembered, shouldn't they?"
"I don't think they could go there," she answered. "They were asking someone to let them out."
Vicente started towards the door. "I bet your papa would know what to do about this - "
"No!" Ofelia grabbed his arm and pulled him back. "We can't."
"Why not?"
She looked at the floor, crossing her arms. "…I haven't told them yet."
He gave her an odd look. "You said you were going to."
"I was…"
"What's the worst thing that could happen?"
She couldn't decide. Getting Valeria's attention? Giving people more reasons to continue their talk of demons? Hearing the word from her own parents' mouths?
There's nothing wrong with me, is there? And there's nothing wrong with you. As long as her father believed it, she could pretend it was true. "I…I'll do it later."
"But - "
"Leave her alone, Vin!" Gabriela said, pushing him to the side. "We don't need the grown-ups anyway. I have a better idea."
The other children exchanged an uneasy look. "What's that?"
She smirked. "We find out what's really in that carriage."
The churchyard was nearly empty that afternoon, except for a few stray visitors who cleared out as they heard the children coming up the hill. The carriage was still sitting in the shadow of the church, just as its owners had left it. The small door was hanging slightly ajar, and several boxes were stacked next to the stairs. Valeria's assistants were standing in a side doorway of the church, heads bowed as they whispered to each other.
The children slipped through the bars of the front gate and darted behind the nearest grave, slowly peering out over it. At the sight of the cloaked figures, Ofelia ducked out of view. "Maybe we should come back later…"
Gabriela pulled her back. "They're going inside now, see?"
Sure enough, the people were vanishing into the church and closing the door behind them.
Emerging from their hiding place, the children glanced around. It was only them now, and a straight run across the yard to the carriage. "On my signal," Gabriela whispered, adjusting her satchel.
"What do we do if they come back?"
She wasn't listening. "Uno…dos…tres!" She took off in a sprint before the last word had left her mouth, and her friends had no choice but to frantically follow.
Gabriela skidded to a stop beside the carriage, resting a hand on its side as she looked around. No trouble yet. "Inside, quick," she told Vicente and Ofelia when they caught up.
The wooden steps groaned beneath them as they hurried up as quietly as they could, and the door closed with a loud clank when they shut it behind them. In the blink of an eye, they were trapped in pitch darkness with the smell of wax and old books.
"I'd be weird if I was stuck in here, too," Vicente muttered, wrinkling his nose.
"Wait a minute." Gabriela dug through her satchel for a moment before pulling out a matchbox and a candle. Striking one of the matches and lighting the wick, she slowly held it up and moved it around. "Careful…"
The carriage couldn't have been more cramped. There was no proper furniture to speak of, only two rows of tall shelves that turned what little floor space there was into a narrow hallway. The only place to sit or lie down was a chest covered with a rug. A small iron lantern hung from a hook on the ceiling, the only source of light to be seen. Each shelf was packed from end to end with thick, yellowed, leather-bound books and glass containers of all shapes and sizes.
Vicente looked askance at their surroundings. "I wonder what happens when they need to go to the - "
"Put the candle out."
The twins both stared at Ofelia. "What?"
"Put the candle out!" she whispered again, more urgently. Grabbing it out of Gabriela's hand, she blew out the flame.
The darkness, however, did not reclaim them. Instead the single yellow light was replaced with several faint blue ones. Wispy, glowing strands of something unnameable were floating and flickering inside the jars.
Gabriela's jaw dropped. "Told you she's a witch."
Ofelia slowly walked up and down the stretch of floor as she ran her hands over the vials. "They're crying." She snatched one off a low shelf, a small cylinder made of green glass. "Hello?" she whispered, holding it up to her ear. "Está bien. We're here to help. What happened to you?"
The wisp began to glow and move, as though it would speak if it could. Ofelia listened to it, her eyes slowly growing wider.
"What's it saying?" Vicente asked.
Her gaze snapped back up. "We have to let them out," she commanded. "All of them."
"…the ones you requested, my lady…"
The children froze at the approaching voice and footsteps coming from outside. Gabriela's eyes darted around, finally landing on the chest. Running to it and lifting up the lid, she flung herself inside. Vicente and Ofelia followed her, the latter tucking the green vial inside a pocket on her dress. Moments after the lid clapped shut, the carriage door creaked open.
The chest, thankfully, was filled only with some wool blankets. The trio burrowed deep into them, holding their breaths as they heard the thud of leather boots on wood. A man was muttering to himself as he rummaged through the nearby shelves. Something was dragged out of place, a box opened and then shut once more. The footsteps began to move away.
Then they suddenly stopped, and then they came closer to the chest.
Vicente covered Gabriela's mouth and his own. Ofelia closed her eyes and hugged her knees. The vial began to glow brighter and vibrate.
The figure stood in front of the chest for moments that felt like hours. They tapped its lid, then lightly kicked its side. The children flinched, and Vicente let out a quiet whimper.
The footsteps returned - slowly at first, then quicker ones that quickly grew faint and were cut off by the slam of the door.
"Is he gone?" Ofelia whispered.
Gabriela pushed the lid up. "I think so…"
They clambered back into the open and crept towards the door, wincing each time a board squeaked beneath them. "We need to get home," Ofelia said.
"Don't worry," Gabriela said, swallowing her stutter as she found the door handle. "I think we can - "
In the blink of an eye, the door was ripped from her hands as it swung open. Blinding light struck their eyes, and a pair of gloved hands roughly grabbed their arms and dragged them outside.
"Well," Valeria's assistant said as he glared down at them. "I thought I heard some vermin."