"Tio Bruno?" Mirabel whispered as she opened the door to her room and stepped through. The party ended about an hour ago, and she just finished helping clean up. It ended a little earlier than she thought it would, but after Bruno's announcement to everyone there, things got a little out of hand for a minute. It took Abuela a little while to calm everyone down, and no one really seemed to be in the party mood after that. All the Madrigals (except Bruno, of course) decided that they wouldn't tell Bruno it ended early since they suspected that would only upset him. Pepa and Julieta were already worried enough for their brother, and they didn't want anything else to stress him out right now. They knew he would only blame himself. Mirabel overheard the two sisters saying how they wanted to talk to Bruno, but Dolores (who also overheard them) told them he'd already fallen asleep. That was for the best though, they decided. Their brother could use some sleep. Talking about what happened (and what would happen) could wait till the morning.

Her eyes darted around the room before landing on her uncle. He looked to be fast asleep on his makeshift bed, a pillow over his head. He must have been terribly exhausted after all the day's events. She didn't know having an involuntary vision was so hard on him-or maybe it was only hard on him because he was trying to hold it back. He certainly looked like he was holding it back earlier in the evening, before he ran off into his tower. That was kinda scary to witness. Bruno seemed lost to the world when he was about to have that vision, not hearing anything Mirabel or Camilo or anyone else said to him. Seeing the pain on his face…And then seeing him collapse after he actually had the vision…She hoped he'd never have to go through that again. That was unlikely though since having visions was his gift and all.

His gift really only ever caused him pain, didn't it?

Anyway, Mirabel just hoped that her uncle would be able to get plenty of rest tonight; he definitely looked like he needed it. Even on the days he didn't have any visions, he always looked so tired.

"This is all your fault, Bruno! Just like last time!"

"We welcomed you back, and this is how you treat us?!"

"You don't really love your family, do you?"

"We're all better off with you going back to your walls! Go on, go!"

Faces of his family members appeared, glaring at him, taunting him. Pepa was there, Alma, even kind Julieta.

"You're a curse!"

"Bad luck!"

"A burden!"

"Embarrassment."

His mother walked up to him and grabbed his chin. "You have no place in this family!"

"No, no, please! Please, let me stay! I'll stay in my tower, I won't spread my bad luck to anyone, just please!"

But Alma was already pushing him away. Behind her, the villagers laughed. They laughed and laughed and laughed.

Bruno suddenly lurched up in his bed, eyes wide and covered in a cold sweat. His breathing was erratic. He hastily glanced around the room, and it took him a moment to realize where he was. Right, right…He was in the nursery, sleeping on the floor until he got a bed in his tower. It was dark in the room, but a decade of living in the walls allowed him to see in the darkness better than your average person. He didn't like the dark, but he was used to it.

"It was just a dream, it was just a dream," he whispered to himself, trying to stop his heart from beating out of his chest. "Not a vision. Just a dream. Just a regular dream." He should have known better than to try to sleep right after having another doom-ridden vision. He should have expected to have nightmares. But that's all it was, nightmares. Or at least, that's what he tried to convince himself. Sometimes it was hard to differentiate between a regular dream or nightmare and a vision (hence him avoiding sleep as much as possible), so he wasn't actually sure, and that's what scared him. He refused to believe what he just saw was another prophecy. He just refused.

Bruno turned his head to look over at the sleeping form of Mirabel. Good, he didn't wake her up then. Oh gosh, he hoped he didn't wake Dolores up-he knew she was a light sleeper.

He couldn't just lay back down and try to go back to sleep now though. His nerves were too rattled for sleep, and besides that, he didn't want to have any more nightmares. It didn't matter how exhausted he still was. He was kind of a master at staying up for long periods of time anyway, so…

As quietly as he could, Bruno got up and left the room, holding his breath as he passed through the doorway. Once he was out and the door was closed, he knocked on the wood of the doorframe four times and once on his head out of habit.

But where now? He didn't really like the idea of spending the rest of the night in his tower. It wasn't exactly the nicest room in the house… He wished that the interior of the walls he lived in came back as soon as the magic returned to the house. Well, maybe they had, but the entrance he always used was gone, at least. It was strange to say, but he missed those walls. The conditions of living in them really weren't that great, but it was kind of…Comforting in a way. He felt safe in those walls; it was a place that he'd hidden in for so long that it was hard having to be out of them. He felt less anxious there. If he told anyone this, they would think he was insane, but it was true. He knew it didn't really make sense, but it just…It made sense to him.

The months that it took the casita to be rebuilt were probably the most anxiety-ridden months he'd felt in a long, long time. He had nowhere to hide if he needed to, he had no "safe" place, and he found himself avoiding everyone, especially the villagers. A big part of that was him not wanting to be anywhere near crowds (he hadn't socialized for ten years and he was already kinda iffy on crowds before that), but he also just felt so…exposed…being away from the casita. So needless to be said, he was incredibly relieved once the house was finished. Even more so when the magic of it returned, though there was the downside of having his 'gift' back.

He was very, very glad to officially be home again and actually be with the rest of his family, but he just wished he had his little hideout in the walls to return to whenever he needed it. Being back in the casita today was already helping a lot, but that didn't change the fact that the literal walls had been his home for many years. His 'home within a home,' if you will. It hadn't even been 24 hours since the Madrigals returned home, but the loss of Bruno's walls was already affecting him.

He hated it, he really, really hated it. Why couldn't he just be normal? Why did he have to have so many problems? If his family knew his fear of socializing, that would be one thing. That at least was understandable, considering his past with the villagers and all. But if they found out about the whole 'being afraid (terrified) of leaving the house thing,' they'd just think he was crazy. They probably already thought he was crazy, so he didn't really want them to think he was more crazy. He was already the black sheep of the family, he didn't need to cause anymore embarrassment or trouble for the family.

Anyway, anyway, he was getting way too lost in his thoughts right now. He needed to decide what the plan was for the rest of the night. How late was it, anyway? It had to be sometime in the very early morning since it seemed he was the only one up right now. Not a sound was to be heard in the rest of the house.

Well, first things first, he needed to get more salt from the kitchen, enough to fill both of his pockets so he wouldn't run out so quickly. So he did just that; he went to the kitchen and stuffed his pockets full of salt. As soon as he did, he tossed some salt over his shoulder and almost automatically felt a little better. His compulsions helped to ground him sometimes, helped to keep him calm (even though, you know, they only stressed him out more when he wasn't able to do them).

Bruno walked back upstairs then came to a stop in front of the old painting that had previously covered the entrance to the inner walls. He placed a hand on it. "Please casita…Let me go back. Just for tonight," he whispered to the house. Of course, he wasn't actually expecting anything to happen. The casita had absolutely no reason to bring Bruno's little nook in the walls back. It had no reason to listen to him.

He turned away and started to walk to his room. He didn't want to spend the rest of the night in his tower, but it was better than staying awake in the small nursery and possibly waking his niece up. He'd only taken a few steps though, when he suddenly felt the tiles move beneath his feet. Bruno turned around and saw a small flash of light behind the painting. "Wha-Woah!" The casita's floors pushed him to stand in front of the painting. "What? What's this?"

The floor pushed his feet again, moving him a couple inches closer. Thoroughly confused right now, it took a minute before it dawned on Bruno that the casita just gave him his walls back. He found that he was right when he pulled back the old painting and saw the entrance.

He was surprised, shocked even. He really didn't think the casita would do anything like this, for him at least.

"Thanks casita," he said sincerely. Then he took a deep breath and entered the walls again.