Shouting from the courtyard was one of two things that immediately caught his attention.

The other was that the floorboards were beginning to tremble and crack beneath his feet. Oh- mierda. For a moment he had to pause, watching as the cracks arced up the insides of the walls like lightning. Would they stop? Or would they continue? Some dust rained down from the ceiling, but the blood drained from his face when he recognized that one of the people shouting was Mirabel.

Double mierda.

Bruno rushed down the corridor, ruana flying behind him as he plucked rats from on top of the bamboo pipes. Panic filled him, even more so when walls behind him had started crumbling at the seams. At one point, he had paused to grab another rat in front of where Hernando last patched over the walls. The metal bucket Jorge used to mix spackle was hanging off of a nail next to the ladder. With a look behind him, Bruno shoved the bucket on his head and took a deep breath. Automatically, one hand's fingers crossed. He couldn't afford to freeze up now! Nonono. Absolutely couldn't freeze up!

The seer surged forward, bucket shielding his head as he crashed through the wall. He fell through it like tearing paper, stumbling as he literally rolled down a small hill. Automatically, he tilted the bucket over his head and looked up at the sky- deep brown eyes full of concern and fear met his own from on top of the rooftop for a split second. Automatically, the blood froze in his veins. It drained from his face, shivering down his back when he recognized the second person climbing up on the roof.

Camilo. Ay, Dios.

An ominous crack split through the air, even more so than the other crashing and falling doors and fences. It chilled through to his bones, skin tightening over the deep winter freeze that seemed to lock him up. A huge gash was tearing through the front of his tower, other pieces crackling like black lightning. Bruno literally couldn't look away- it seemed like the Earth was shattering around him. What did get him moving was the look of sheer terror on both of his children. However, in what seemed like the next moment, the tower completely crumbled over the top of them.

" NO! " the heavy shout that emitted from him was barely even recognizable, as he frantically scaled the jagged wall that separated the house from the jungle. Desperation sunk into him, heady and adrenaline-rushing that had him struggling to push large chunks of the wall out of the way. He had to get to them, make sure they were okay. Make sure they were-

" Camilo! " he sobbed out, fear bleeding into his voice as he dragged a broken fence away from the pile. " Mirabel! "

His hands clawed and scratched at the heavy, splintered doors and sharp plaster, struggling to make a purchase-

" ...Brunito? " the whisper was disbelieving, but regardless his head snapped around. Bruno wasn't entirely sure what on earth they were seeing on his face, but the sheer terror for his children was what was fueling him on his mission to dig them out. His mami was staring at him in utter shock and disbelief, although she seemed just as pained and regretful as he himself felt underneath the heightened emotions he was currently experiencing.

" Dios, somebody help me!" He shouted, pulling backward hard on a pillar and trying to push through the panicked fog that was taking over his mind. "Get them out, get my children out!"

His words seemed to punch through the group, especially as concerned strangers approached with worried looks. A swarm of people rushed over the rubble, pulling things out of the way. It seemed to take hours, the sky darkening around them as they frantically dug through to reach the Madrigal children trapped underneath.

Through this entire time, Bruno's terror was peaking through desperation and the wild hope that flickered through him that they were safe (if only petrified from being stuck).

"I FOUND THEM!" Somebody yelled out, and the relief that flooded through him was a delirious sort of weak-kneed feeling. Bruno rushed through the crowd of people, uncaring if he was shoving people or pushing them down as he focused on where the voice was heard. His breath caught as he saw a few people struggling to lift a section of wall from over them-

And his eyes landed on Camilo and Mirabel.

The sight of their tightly embraced bodies sent him lurching forward, collapsing on his knees before the pair with a heavy exhalation of breath. Everything around him blurred and went into background noise as he focused on the pair, his breathing heavy and erratic. Bruno could only see them, with the pieces torn through their abdomens as they clutched each other. Camilo seemed to be attempting to cover Mirabel, but it had been too late.

And now... Bruno's hands trembled as he reached out to touch Camilo's cheek, face angled down into his sister's. As his last vestige of hope fled at the feeling of cool skin, Bruno gently cradled Mirabel's jaw with the other hand. Absolute disbelief and a growing pool of emptiness were swamping his mind, weighing everything else down as it sank onto his shoulders. All around him, there had been people screaming at the sight of them. Tears came by in waves of weeping and strangled sobs, but he couldn't hear them.

The scream that tore from his throat was earth-shattering in his mind, never mind the mild tremor that caused a few pieces of rubble to come down from the piles around them. It ripped through the crowd and his family, garnering some attention. His vision blurred with the tears that rushed down his face, one hand clutched to Camilo's ruana and the other to Mirabel's shoulder. His children- his babies-

That he was having flashbacks to when they were newborns wasn't helping at all. It only made the flow of tears heavier, his breathing quick and shallow as he found himself curled over both of them. Bruno should have never left. Maybe if he hadn't left, they wouldn't be before him like this at all . Not in- not in this state. And now- and now- and now-

They were gone.

He only cried harder, clutching them to his chest even tighter.

"I'm s-sorry. I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry, " he sobbed, the world around him not even registering as his own crumbled to pieces around the seer. "Don't leave me, please, "

Bruno keened, the cry warbling through him as the grief fully set in.

There was a gentle touch to his shoulder, other hands coming around to gently tug at his wrists. They were going to take him away- no, he couldn't!

"No! No!" he cried out, curling around them further. " I should have stayed! Let me stay, please! " The words spilled from him, agonized and so- so- Somebody was pulling him up, gently separating his hands from the claw-like grasp he had on his children. "They need me," he moaned out hoarsely.

"Shhhhhh," the soft sound whispered in his ear, something heavy and cloth-like settling around his shoulders. Bruno could still only see Camilo and Mirabel, their embrace tight in death. "I'm here, Brunito. " His mother's voice was oh so gentle and full of thick emotion.

Arms wrapped around him firmly, from both the front and behind him. Bruno sagged, breath hitching at the contact. The seams that barely held him together at this point, were ripped up and slashed apart. He wailed into her chest, clutching at his mother's dress as he shook.

His already dull world was darkening and muting further, any color draining. What beauty was a world without color? Bruno was swimming through sludge, drowning in the peat that threatened to choke him even further. His children were the last of that color. What was a world without color?

Nothing would be beautiful ever again.