𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗲𝘁 𝗥𝗮𝘁 | 𝗠. 𝗥𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮[UNDER EDITING]

➪𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗦𝗶𝘅

We're led to the side of a building. Miguel and I glance at each other suspiciously as Héctor takes off his left arm, and uses it as a sort of bow and arrow with his suspender. His arm lands next to a window and knocks on it to alert anyone inside.

A woman opens it and grabs the arm, making it point to the man. "You better have my dress, Héctor!"

"Hola, Ceci!" He shouts back to her, disregarding her words.

She rolls her eyes and throws down Héctor's arm, letting him catch it. She lets down the ladder and it lands with a thump. Miguel, Dante, and I start to climb up it, Héctor trailing behind. Miguel holds out his hand to help me climb in, I grab it and he pulls. 

"Hola." The two of us greet politely in unison. Ceci doesn't respond.

Hector climbs in and sheepishly claps his hands together. "Ceci, I lost the dress."

She whips her head around and starts to make a fuss at him. "Ya lo sabía--!" 

I look around, uninterested in their arguing. My eyes trail off to see Dante pushing his way through an open door. I follow him, trying to call him back as quietly as possible. Miguel follows behind, doing the same.

"Dante! Get your ass back over here!" I whisper-shout to the dog. The room is full of stage props, paintings, and workers. None of them seem to care all that much that we are here. Good for us, I guess.

As we follow the dog, we find a skeleton without clothes on, being painted. She notices us and raises her eyebrow. I take the boy's hand and pull him away, an apologetic look on my face. Then, Dante sniffles at a prop, a strange look on his face. Suddenly, the dog is slapped by an alebrijes that looks similar to a monkey. The creature takes off and Dante follows, barking madly.

"No, no, Dante! Ven acá!" Miguel calls out as the two of us pick up the pace. The alebrijes jump up and parkour on props and paintings. It finishes off by landing gracefully on a woman who has her back turned. I grab the dog and hold him back from tackling her. But unfortunately, he is still barking his head off. The woman turns her head around with a questioning look.

Her eyes go wide when she sees us. "You two! How did you get in here?!"

Holy shit it's Frida Khalo.

I let go of Dante slowly while Miguel stammers, "W-we just followed--" 

She cuts him off, gasping happily. "Oh! The nightly Xolo Dog! Guider of wandering spirits." Frida looks at the two of us, raising her eyebrow. "And whose spirit have you guided to me?"

"He's not necessarily a spirit guide--" I start awkwardly.

Frida waves her finger. "Ah, ah, ah. The alebrijes of this world can take many forms. They are as mysterious, as they are powerful." The creature on her shoulders starts to blow blue fire out of its mouth and coughs a bit of smoke afterward.

Then we all turn to Dante, who is choking on his foot.

I deadpan. "Yeah, real powerful."

"Or maybe he's just a dog. Come, I need your eyes!" She drags us away.

Frida sits us down on a bench, then backs up a bit. "You, are the audience." She claps her hands twice, cueing the lights to turn off. "Darkness" She lights a match, making us only be able to see her face.

"And from the darkness, a giant papaya." A spotlight proceeds to show, like she said, a giant papaya. Dancers crawl out of it as if they are seeds. "Dancers emerge from the papaya, and the dancers, are all me." In unison all of the dancers whip their heads around, revealing them as Frida clones. The Frida copies start to crawl, flip, and jump to a large cactus. "And they go to drink from the milk of their mother, who is a cactus." The stoplight makes its way to the top of the cactus, showing that it has Frida's face painted over it. "But who is also me!"