"What are we going to do now?!" Camilo yelled in frustration. Dolores looked in the opposite direction hearing horses approaching.
"I hear someone coming, Maybe they can help." The three ran outside and set their sights on their incoming family.
Felix and Pepa dismounted and embraced their missing children. Julieta and Agustin did the same hugging Mirabel. But their children were not in the mood for a reunion. Camilo broke from his hug first and mounted one of the horses. "Camilo!" His mom shouted trying to stop him.
He put his hand out to her, "Come on, they're getting away." Pepa didn't understand but trusted her son and jumped on. Mirabel urged the others to go follow unable to explain because of the urgency. Felix and Agustin took the second horse, while Julieta stayed with her daughter and Dolores to check for injuries. Isabela and Luisa rode after them.
Not a minute later, the family discerned Bruno with a man on horse back ahead of them, moving quickly toward the mountains leading out of the encanto.
"Bruno!" Pepa yelled trying to catch her brother's attention. Bruno looked behind him to see his family riding toward him. He was filled with both relief and dread at the sight. His arms were around Andre's waist and his hands tied together making it impossible to get away. He could only watch helplessly as his family chased them.
Pepa had not yet grasped what the situation was. Camilo made it sound urgent, but it looked like he brother was holding on to the other rider and willingly running away. The sky grew dark with clouds in her anger at him for leaving again without saying goodbye.
Pepa and Camilo were lightweight so their horse could go faster than the others. They sprinted until reaching their target and rode side by side Andre. "Bruno! Jump on!" Camillo shouted to his mother's confusion.
"I can't!" Bruno yelled back. Pepa let out a shocked breath at seeing her brother's hands tied around the man.
"What's going on?!" She screamed. Andre made a sharp turn into the woods unexpectedly. Pepa's anxiety grew worse and the wind began to blow harshly. The rain stung their skin as they rode after them.
Behind them Felix and Agustin were barley catching up. Luisa and Isabela were even further back. Isabela decided to take the initiative once they entered the woods following the others. She grew vines from the trees quickly and swung from one to another gaining on the people ahead. She used the wind from Pepa's storm to blow her forward faster.
The overachiever swung further and further until she saw tio Bruno tied to a man riding furiously away from her tia and cousin. Although bewildered by the situation, she was able to swing a few meters ahead and grew a some large plants leaving no room for a horse to squeeze through, blocking them from escaping.
Upon seeing their path blocked, Andre had no choice but to stop. They halted to a stop and the crazed man pulled a knife from his boot cutting Bruno's binds. He dismounted the horse with his captive and held the knife to his throat. Pepa and Camilo arrived and the others caught up soon after.
"Don't come any closer or I will cut his fucking throat!" Andre shouted above the wind. "Turn off the storm!" He demanded. Pepa quickly closed her eyes and tried to calm herself. Clear skies, clear skies. She could only manage to make the wind stop blowing and the rain stop falling. But it was still dark, cloudy, and cold.
Bruno was worse for wear. He could barley stand due to his injured feet. His shoulder had dislocated itself again from the intense ride. Bruno used his left hand to hold his right arm to his chest to keep it from moving. Andre held him by the waist to keep him up right and the knife dug into his neck.
"Let him go!" Camilo demanded. Pepa and Felix had never seen their son angry.
"Why are you doing this?" Pepa asked. First her brother disappears, then her son, then they were chasing a stranger attempting to take her brother. It was all very confusing and made her terribly anxious. But not quite as anxious as Bruno.
"For love, but I supposed you people wouldn't understand such a concept," Andre accused. "Bruno is coming with me. You people made it crystal clear that you don't want him. So I am taking him."
Now, seeing his sister and brother-in-law in person, Bruno couldn't bare for them to know the truth. That he had sex in front of their children. It made the prophet sick to his stomach, and he began to hyperventilate. He could only wish that Andre would cut his throat so he didn't have the face the scorn of his sisters and brother-in-laws once they knew.
Suddenly the people in front of him disappeared and there was green light. His extreme emotions triggered a vision. Images flashed before his eyes: Bruno laying on the floor surrounded by his family; Casita in flames; Andre forcing a naked Bruno to sit on his lap; and then Bruno's rats crawling all around him trying to comfort him. The vision ended as soon as it began.
Luckily, only he could see it. His ritual made it so he could project his visions on the sand making it easier to focus. But sometimes the visions were brought on by emotion, much like Pepa's gift. Andre didn't seem to notice the sudden vision, bit his family saw the change in his irises.
"He doesn't want to be with you," Camilo exclaimed, "Let him go!"
"Shut up you little shit! Or I'll do worse to you than that punch you almost keeled over from," Andre snapped. Felix was stunned by this admission.
"What," Pepa snarled. Two strikes of lightning blasted from the sky and hit the ground to the right and left of Andre; missing him only because he held her brother hostage. "I'm going to make you suffer!" She bellowed as the wind picked up. Isabela was still in the trees watching the scene unfold and had to hold on for dear life as the branches whipped around from the wind.
"Mom! Stop!" Camilo yelled trying to keep everyone calm.
Andre put his lips to Bruno's ear while they were distracted with the weather woman. "Forgive me for this my darling, but I know your sister can heal you. I will come back for you. I promise." He then lifted the knife and jammed it straight into the older man's stomach.
Bruno screamed in agony and fell to the ground as Andre turned and made a run for it. Everyone was immediately at the injured man's side guaranteeing the evil man's get away. Isabela was tempted to go after him, but Agustin ordered her to get her mother right away and meet them at the house where they could heal him. She quickly took off on her vines.
Felix bent over Bruno to check his breathing. The small man was still alive, his eyes unfocused. He reached for the knife to pull it out, but Agustin stopped him. "Don't take that out just yet, he might bleed out."
Pepa quickly grabbed a horse and brought it over. "We need to get him to the house quickly, so Julieta can heal him." She was crying and shaking. The clouds were heavy and dark; rain drizzled and started soaking them. She couldn't stop it.
"Camilo, you're the smallest," Felix stated, "The horse will go faster with less weight. I want you to take your tio to Casita, okay?" Camilo nodded trying to wipe tears from his eyes, but they only mixed with the rain wetting his face more.
Felix helped Camilo up on a horse. Agustin carefully lifted Bruno trying not to jostle him too much. Walking over to the horse he explained to Camilo, "I'm going to sit him in front of you and you need to try to hold on to him so he doesn't fall off." Pepa watched on nervously, Camilo had horse riding lessons and was excellent at riding, but she couldn't help feeling like her son was too young and fragile to be dealing with something like this.
The boy wrapped his arm around his tio, with Bruno's head laying on his shoulder, and took off holding the reins one-handed. The rest of the family mounted the remaining horses and followed behind. Camilo pushed the horse hard, making it go as fast as he could trying to ignore the small moans of pain coming from Bruno. Pepa worried more as she lost sight of him in the distance, but tried to calm herself to make the rain stop.