Don't worry, Hector isn't gonna be executed. Just transferred to a more advanced penitentiary system outside of town.
Hector paced around the small cell room. He was back to his normal attire, the guards had confiscated his satchel and his disguise.
All this time, the missing boy, his nephew, was beside him all along!
And now he's gone, missing once again.
Behind him, a few guards opened the cell door, one was holding a thick pair of handcuffs.
"Time to go," the captain said
"Where are we going?" Hector asked even though he already knew.
The guards didn't respond as two of them grabbed the mans arms while the third cuffed him. In complete silence, the guards led him out of the cell.
Back in the Tower, Ernesto had just finished washing off the paint from his sons' face.
"There, like it never happened,"
Miguel wished that was how it worked. How he could easily erase the pain from his heart like the paint.
"Now, how about I make your favorite for dinner?" De La Cruz began to leave the room but hesitated at the doorway and turned back to face Miguel, "I really tried to warn you, Miguel. The world is dark and cruel, here is the only place you can be safe from it all,"
Miguel remained silent as his Papa left the room. With a sad sigh, he pulled his knees to his chest and buried his face in his arms.
He always believed the worst pain was never knowing what it was like out there but now the worst pain was knowing exactly what it was like out there.
Just then the sound of whining caught his attention, looking up he saw Dante in front of him with his tongue flapping out.
"Dante?" The dog jumped onto the boys' lap and licked his face. With a small smile, Miguel pushed the dog down, "Hey boy, how did you get in here?"
Instead of answering, Dante jumped back under the bed and pulled out the boys' guitar.
Miguels' smiled fell at the sight of the instrument. Music reminded him of the man he had once considered his friend.
"No Dante, I don't feel like playing right now,"
The Xolo remained persistent and pushed the guitar closer to his owner before sitting on the ground with a smile.
Miguel sighed before picking up the instrument.
His hand seemed to have a mind of its own as they moved across the strings and played a soft tune.
(Youtube Audio: Lavender's Blue Easy Arrangement by Rob Lunn)
With a sudden gasp, a vision played in front of Miguel's eyes.
"Lavender's green, dilly dilly,"
He was lying in a cradle with the blurry figures of a man and woman looking down upon him.
"Lavender's blue,"
The man and woman came into view and became the couple in the picture of the Missing Boys' ofrenda.
"If you love me, dilly dilly,"
The baby's face faded away into his own, they were identical. They were the same person.
"I will love you,"
Miguel was breathing hard and his hands began to shake. The guitar fell from his grasp and landed on the floor with a loud crash.
"Miguel?" The boy was snapped from his trance by the voice, "Miguel, what's going on up there?" Ernesto started going up the stairs.
The boy stumbled to the doorway, his heart was still racing. Miguel leaned against the doorframe, his eyes wide with fear and realization, "I'm the missing boy," he muttered
From the stairway, Ernesto rolled his eyes in irritation, "Miguel, please speak up!"
"I am the Missing Boy!" Miguel yelled, with fire in his eyes, "Aren't I?" Ernesto stared at Miguel, wide-eyed, "Did you hear me, Papa? Or should I even call you that?"
Ernesto waved his hand dismissively, "Miguel, do you even hear yourself? Why would you ask such a thing?"
Miguel pushed Ernesto away when the man tried to hug him, "It was you! It was all you!"
Ernesto's face darkened, "Everything that I have done I have done to protect you!"
Miguel shook his head in disbelief before pushing past the man to go down the stairs.
"Miguel?"
"For my entire life, I believed that the world was a dark and cruel place," Miguel fumed as he went down the stairs, Ernesto on his heels
"Miguel!"
"But now I see the only thing dark and cruel about it is people like you! You're the one I should have been hiding from!"
"Where will you go? Hector won't be there for you,"
"What did you do to him?"
"That criminal, my old friend," Ernesto smirked "Will be taken away, far away from Santa Cecilia. You'll never see him again,"
Miguel gasped in horror, De La Cruz was the one who framed Hector?
"No," he whispered in fear, Ernesto walked over to calm him down.
"Now, now, it's alright. Look, all of this is as it should be," The man was about to pat the boys head but Miguel grabbed his wrist tightly.
"No! You were wrong about the world,' De La Cruz looked a little surprised and nervous as he tried to pull his arm back, "and you were wrong about me! And I will never let you use my power again!"
Ernesto growled then pulled back causing him to knock down the mirror that was behind him and the mirror the fell down and shattered on the ground.
Miguel turned towards the exit, ready to leave the tower and never come back again.
Ernesto however, had other plans.
"You want me to be the bad guy? Fine, now I'm the bad guy,"
Miguel was almost to the exit when Ernesto grabbed him by his hood.
"And I'm going to make sure no one finds you again!"
"Let go of me!" Miguel shrieked as he tried to free himself, Ernesto tugged harder and the boy fell to the ground, making it easier to drag him towards the exit.
Suddenly Dante came tearing down the stairs snarling, and he grabbed Miguel's pant leg to pull him away.
Ernesto growled and kicked the Xolo away.
Dante slid across the floor and slammed against the far wall, hard. The pain was too much for him to handle.
"DANTE!"
and he passed out.
Hector didn't fight as he was led outside. His hands were cuffed tightly behind him and guards were surrounding him from every angle.
Outside the building was a prison van, one that would take Hector far, far away from this town and his family.
Two guards opened the doors, and the Captain pushed Hector inside, "Don't try anything," he said with a cold smile as the doors were closed.
Hector sighed and sat onto the cold steel seats on the wall. With a bump and a heave, the van started up and began to drive away.
The van had only drove for a few minutes when suddenly they had to stop. In the middle of the road, a horse was blocking the path, Pepita.
When the van had stopped, Hector slid along the seat and hit the wall hard.
The driver growled impatiently and pressed down his horn, "Move It! Ya dumb animal!"
Just then, both the doors were pulled open from the outside and a pair of arms came in from each side and pulled the drivers out.
The two drivers landed hard on the ground. By the time they had pulled themselves up, their van was already miles down the road, and Pepita was running alongside it.
Inside the back of the van, Hector was sliding back and forth as they traveled at lightning speed down the road. What was going on?
SCREECH!
The van came to a sudden stop and once again, Hector slid across the seat and banged against the wall.
The doors opened up to reveal Julio and Victoria, "Hola!"
Hector smiled at them before running out of the van, "You saved my life!" he cried out excitedly before a question came to him, "But how?"
"We were on our way home from the lanterns when your horse came to us," As Julio explained, Oscar came over with a set of keys to unlock Hectors' handcuffs, "And after figuring out what she was saying, she told us everything,"
With wide eyes, Hector turned towards the horse who stood there with a smile.
"Pepita? You brought them here to save me?" the horse neighed what seemed like a yes, "Thank you, maybe all this time, we were..." Pepita shot him an are you serious?' kind of look, "You're right!" Hector said turning back towards the group, "We have to hurry, Miguel is the missing boy and he's in terrible danger!"
The group looked very worried all of a sudden, as something, someone, was starting to come up behind Hector.
"Not as much as you are right now," Victoria said pointing behind him frantically but Hector still didn't understand.
"What do you..." before he could finish, Oscar and Felipe turned the man around, and Hectors' blood ran cold, "I...Imelda?"
Sure enough, a woman with a purple dress on and black hair pulled back into a braided bun had stepped out of the van.
She had a certain expression on her face, one that Hector knew all too well, complete rage!
"Imelda!" Hector greeted with a nervous smile, "You look good!"
Imelda marched up to him and in one swift move, she removed her shoe and slapped Hectors face with it.
"OW!" Hector cried rubbing his jaw before a heel was shoved in front of his face
"That's for leaving!"
"Imelda please, I know that I have so much to explain and you deserve an explanation but I'm begging you, I need your help,"
"I know you would never murder but that doesn't change the fact that you left me to live some stupid musical fantasy!" Imelda yelled, years of anger and heartbreak finally coming out.
"You're right!" Hector cried desperately, "You're right! I was an idiota!"
"I couldn't sing or even listen to music anymore! Because of You!"
"I made an awful mistake and I wish more than life itself that I could fix it but this isn't about me. There's a little boy whose life could be in danger," Imelda's face softened as she heard this, "I have to help him but I can't do it alone. Please Imelda, he's my nephew,"
"I know," Imelda said, surprising Hector, "Who do you think convinced the twins to come along?"
With a happy squeal, Hector moved to hug Imelda but she stopped him, "AH AH AH! I haven't decided to forgive you yet!" she said putting her shoe back on
"We'll get back to this," Hector winked before grabbing her arm and leading her to Pepita. Both of them climbed onto the horses back, "To Miguel!"
With a whinny, Pepita tore down the path faster than she had ever gone before. Inelda had to hold tightly onto Hector to keep from falling off.
The Rodriguez's' followed behind them in the van.
It didn't take long before they came upon the cave, they had to leave the van outside so only Pepita and her passengers entered the cave.
Hector jumped off the horse while Imelda looked at the tower with fascination.
"Miguel!" Hector called out, "Miguel, let me up!"
There was no answer or any sign that anyone was in the tower.
"Hey, over here!"
Turning to the side, he saw Imelda holding open a door that was on the side of the tower.
"Gracias," Hector said before Imelda pushed him inside and following behind
"This would have been useful the first time I came here," Hector muttered to himself as he raced up the stairs.
It didn't take long until they reached the top, Hector quickly pushed open the door and pulled himself up into the room of the tower.
"Chamaco, I thought I'd never see you again," Hector cried with relief but it was short-lived.
In the room of the tower, a full-length mirror had fallen and the glass was shattered, a guitar laid broken on the ground, and Miguel was nowhere in sight.
A whimper caught the mans attention. In the far corner, Dante was slowly picking himself up off the ground.
"Dante?"
The dog shook his body before facing the man with his tongue hanging out.
"The dog is the missing boy?" Imelda asked in confusion as Hector kneeled in front of the Xolo
"Dante, where is Miguel?"
With a worried look, Dante grabbed Hectors' sleeve and pulled him over to the window. Hector was confused until Dante began barking at a calendar that was next to the window.
The date for today was highlighted extra big, something big was happening today.
"He's at the Sunrise Spectacular," Hector realized
"That's De La Cruz's biggest show," Imelda said behind him, "He'll be traveling the world afterward,"
"And he'll take Miguel with him," Hector finished sadly
Both the adults knew that once the sun was up, Miguel would be gone, forever.
"Not unless we stop him," Hector said with a face Imelda knew meant he was gonna do something crazy.
"I take it you have a plan?" Imelda said with a little bit of worry
"A crazy one but Si, I have a plan," Hector said with a smirk.
What? You didn't think this was where the story would end?
Did you?
Did you think I'd used the scene in Tangled where Gothel set a trap in the tower?
No, I have something a bit more... spectacular in mind.
Mwaaa-Haaa-Haaa!
