Night came and Dante did as he was told. He brought a gang of 20 men. He had many more members, but it was short notice. Whatever his friend had planned, he assumed 20 should be enough. Andre let Dante and his wife come inside to fill them in before the gang. Bruno was out of sight.
Once the door was shut he spoke. "Have you told anyone about Bruno?"
"Of course not," Dante answered. "Who the hell would believe me? I saw it with my own eyes and I'm still not sure I believe it!"
"Believe it, because this only works if you do," Andre said seriously.
"Is there something I should know about?" Maria asked confused.
It didn't take long for Andre to explain the situation, from his point of view. He grew up in a secluded town in the mountains that was led by the Madrigal family. Each member of the family had an extraordinary power that they used to benefit the town. Bruno was the son of Alma ,the Matriarch of the family, and possessed the power to tell the future. They had fallen in love, but Alma didn't approve of the relationship. He whisked his beloved out of the encanto so that they could be together. Now, the family was after them. And unfortunately, Bruno was trying to go back home as he had been manipulated by his family into thinking he should abandon happiness and serve them.
Dante was slightly skeptical of this story. By definition Bruno was a hostage by any account, but he also acted more like a fearful hostage than a worried lover. It didn't matter though. If these powers were real, he was excited to just see it, and maybe gain something from it.
Andre went on to explain every family members power and what they were dealing with tonight. The gang leader was confident that they had enough men to get rid of the Madrigals in town. Surely 20 men could handle a super strong girl. The others sounded harmless. He assumed the worst the plant girl could do was throw a cactus at them.
"Maria, I need you to watch Bruno and keep him from leaving, so Dante and the gang can help me get rid of the Madrigals in town," Andre implored. The woman thought it sounded like a romantic fairy tale, so she readily agreed. He also asked her to mend Bruno's ruana which she agreed to as well, wanting to help as much as she could.
"So, where is he?" Maria asked.
Andre suddenly looked embarrassed. "He's in the bedroom. I had to knock him out. I couldn't risk him hearing our plan. He doesn't want any violence between his family and I. He's a little bit of a pacifist." Maria nodded sympathetically.
"Well, let get this party started!" Dante announced ready for action. Maria was sent into the bedroom to keep an eye on Bruno in case he woke up. She found him laying on the far side of the bed opposite the bloodstains on the mattress. His hands were tied behind his back and his ankles were tied together. Being the wife of a gang leader desensitized her to seeing things like this. She sat in the chair in the corner and watched over him.
The house as a bit cramped when the gang came in, but they made the best of it joking, laughing, and getting a bit rowdy.
Dante and Andre decided that unless they could prove Bruno's ability to see the future was real, the gang would never believe anything they said about this. Instead of making things complicated, Andre told the men that they were up against five very dangerous individuals. It was explained that despite their young ages, and the fact that four were female, they were killers on the hunt for him.
The plan was to sneak in to their camp and kill them while they slept. No one was bothered by this. They were loyal to Dante and would do anything he asked. Their leader took good care of them and often made them a lot of money; blood on their hands meant nothing.
.=.
Outside of town and among the trees, Isabela had used vines connected to the trees to make the outline of their shelter with large leaves to cover them from the elements and from sight. Inside she grew thick soft grass that everyone found comfortable enough to sleep on. Luminous flowers grew all around giving them light. Everyone would have taken the time to be impressed if they weren't feeling utterly defeated.
They had asked everyone they came across if they had seen Bruno. No one had seen anything, not even in passing. It was possible that Andre had not taken him through this town. Which meant the next step was to travel and search other towns. They were beginning to think that this search could take weeks and that was worrisome. The longer Bruno was missing the more worried they felt.
Suddenly Dolores looked up and around. "We're surrounded." Before anyone had time to react, a machete sliced through side of their shelter nearly cutting Mirabel's arm. They all got up darting in to the other direction only to be met by another cutting through. They screamed in surprise and fear.
Acting fast, Isabela forced the vines to fall ,uncovering the shelter, revealing many men coming toward them from all directions with machetes. Luisa pulled a tree up from its roots and swung it at the men hitting a few while others ducked and moved out of the way. One man came close and she kicked him in to the air, his screaming disappeared with the distance.
Isabela covered the opposite side of them. Thorn bushes grew covering the ground along with flowers. As the men tried to walk through the bushes their pants kept getting stuck and the flowers got in their faces puffing out colorful pollen making it hard to see.
Luisa threw the tree letting is barrel over people. "Follow me!" She yelled leading the way. A few men had been injured and many were temporarily stunned by the abilities they were witnessing. Dante led the way raising his machete and calling for them to follow. They ran following the five Madrigals.
Mirabel tripped and fell while the others ran ahead in a panic. Luisa stopped and yelled for them to keep running. She ran back to her younger sister as the men ran straight for them. She picked Mirabel up and held her high as a man swiped his weapon at them. Luisa managed to kick it out of his hand and picked him up throwing him at the next attacker. Other men ran past going for the others. Luisa ran in another direction with her sister over her shoulder
Camilo, Dolores, and Isabela ran until they left the woods and reached the edge of the lake. With nowhere left to run they were cornered by several men. Camilo quickly transformed in to one of the men and wielded a machete of his own. "Camilo don't!" Isabel shouted trying to growing large thorny vines to protect them, but the men hacked at the vines and she had to keep growing more.
Worried for her brother, Dolores moved away from Isabela following him. A man tried to slash at him with his weapon and Camilo was able to block it. However the man was stronger and hacked the machete down against Camilo's making him fall to the ground. The gang member kicked the machete out of the boy's hand. The pain of it caused him to yelp and change back to his regular form.
The man brought his blade up to hack it back down to kill the boy, but Dolores grabbed her brother by the shoulders of his clothes and pulled him away just in time. He got up quickly breathing hard and feeling scared for his life. Dolores forced him to stay behind her. Another man came up behind them. "Dolores!" Camilo yelled warning her.
She pushed her brother as far as she could and he fell to the ground a few feet away. Both men charged at her. She closed her eyes listening to their foot steps hitting the ground coming toward her and the sound of their blades slicing threw the wind. Just as they were about to hit, in one movement she ducked and stepped to the side causing the men to slice each others' arm.
"How did you-" She didn't give Camilo a chance to finish as she grabbed his hand pulling him with her. They ran toward the woods and away from the screams of their attackers.
As men still hacked at wall the thorns Isabela had grown. She made a vine grow at here feet lifting her up and over behind them. She caught a glimpse of her cousins running toward the woods. Upon her command before the men noticed her, she grew more thorny vines trapping them. The men yelled and screamed in panic as they were engulfed. She then followed the others into the woods.
Luisa thought she out ran the men so she placed her sister back on the ground. "We have to find the others," Mirabel said worriedly. The older sister panted and shook a little. She may have been strong, but she scared easily. And almost being sliced up by strange scary men was terrifying. She pulled herself together the best she could knowing they had to go back.
She uprooted another tree for a weapon. "Time to get bashing." She said trying to sound brave. Isabela, Camilo, and Dolores came running toward them from the darkness of the trees causing Luisa to almost have a heart attack thinking it was the bad guys. Seeing her family she lowered her weapon.
"Luisa!" Isabela screamed seeing someone behind her sister. No one had seen the man behind her in time. A machete stabbed into her running through her stomach, then pulled out. She shriek and fell to her knees.
Andre stepped away from her holding the bloody weapon and said, "One down, four to go." Dante came up behind with six other men.
"Hell ya!" Dante cheered as the Madrigals ran toward their injured family member.
"Luisa!" Mirabel screamed. Her sister fell to her side in shock as her clothes slowly soaked red. Isabela came to their side and started to growing Calendulas and used the flower to hold it to the wound trying to stop the bleeding.
"You people should have known better than to fuck with me!" Andre yelled ready to swing his machete to kill a distracted Isabela. Then a loud roar echoed through the trees giving everyone pause. One of the men cried out as a jaguar suddenly attacked out of nowhere sinking its teeth in him and making gashes in the man's throat and chest. It then prowled toward the next man, taking each out one by one.
"Shit!" Dante exclaimed. Andre took no time to run away, with Dante running after. The large cat continued to maul the other men that didn't run soon enough. Seeing Andre get away, Camilo followed despite Dolores yelling for him to come back and chasing after. Isabela and Mirabel were too distracted with their sister.
"She's bleeding too much," The oldest said, tears streaming down her face as blood and peddles covered her hands. Mirabel opened her bag and rummaged through it quickly pulling out one of her mom's Arepas.
"Look look," she said shakily. Luisa was still conscious but was becoming pale fast. She took a bite and swallowed with the last of her energy. The healing was instantaneous. Luisa immediately sat up sobbing and hugging her sisters to the point they could not breathe.
"You guys are the best!" She cried as they tried to comfort her. The jaguar interrupted the moment, walking up to them purring. It's face and paws were smeared with blood. Mirabel took notice of the rat on its back holding a rolled up piece of paper. She grabbed the note hesitantly avoiding bloody fur and read it out loud.
"Kids, you are in serious trouble for running off. We miss you and love you. The rat that came with this note belongs to Bruno. It knows where he is. Please be safe." Mirabel sighed in relief. Had it not been for Antonio's gift, they could have been done for. The rat was also a happy surprise, they would be able to find their tio sooner than later.
"Where's Dolores and Camilo?" Luisa asked looking around.
.=.
After running for about a mile on pure adrenaline, Andre and Dante had to stop and breathe. They heard steps running toward them and quickly hid thinking it could be the jaguar. But Camilo and Dolores revealed themselves instead.
"Which way did they go?" Camilo asked stopping to catch his breath. "We have to follow them, its the only way to find tio Bruno."
Dolores listened around her. She could hear breathing nearby but before she could say anything the men stepped out.
"Looking for me?" Andre said with an angry look on his face.
"Yeah," Camilo responded quickly and equally angry. "Where is he?"
"He's where you'll never find. Because I'm going to cut your fucking head off!" The mad man was pissed. He had only managed to get rid of one Madrigal and some of the gang had been mauled and were likely dead.
Camilo transformed to look like Andre holding a machete. "Not if I don't cut off yours first." Dolores wished her brother wasn't so head strong. She wanted to stop him but Dante grabbed her wrist.
Camilo charged at Andre who easily used his machete to twist the blades together and fling the boy's way. Simultaneously he pushed the kid's forehead with his hand forcing him to fall on his ass to the ground. "The Madrigals should add combat training to their education. Those powers of yours would serve you a lot better if you could fight properly."
Dolores yelped as Dante wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her close. He held his weapon to her neck. Andre wiped the sweat from his brow sighing. "You're dying for nothing. Bruno wants nothing to do with you people. He's happier with me than with a family that hates him."
"You're crazy!" Camilo yelled. "He loves his family! And we love and care about him!"
"Sounds like nothing but fucking lies!" Andre accused. "Was it not you who used to scare local kids with a terrifying likeness of you tio?" Camilo glared unable to defend himself. He was ashamed of it. "I wonder if he saw you do it?" The mad man asked rhetorically. "You and your family have shown him just how much you actually care. He will never come back to you."
Andre lifted his weapon to deal a murdering blow. "Wait," Dante interrupted. "Don't kill him." He flipped his weapon and used the handle to hit Dolores in the back of the head making her fall unconscious. Camilo tried to move to check on his sister but Andre held the machete up to his throat making him stay still.
"Why?" He asked his friend, wanting to have killed them already.
"Let me have them." Dante said. "Having people with these kinds of abilities could make me a whole lot of money. I could use them or sell them."
"I'd rather kill them," Andre said ready to strike.
"You owe me big time man. I lost guys today. If I don't have something to show for it, they are going to need someone to blame," Dante argued. It was a fair point. The men he commanded were loyal, but only to a certain point. It was better to appease them after a deadly fight.
Suddenly they heard a growl and running in the distance. "We don't have time for this," Andre said. He kicked Camilo in the face knocking him unconscious. They left him and his sister for the others to find as a distraction to get away.