Bruno stood in an endless desert. The sun shined brightly behind him casting his shadow ahead. Tears formed slipping slowly down his cheeks as he stood over a gruesome sight. His family's bloody dead bodies littered the sand around him. A second shadow joined his making him tense. "Why?" He whispered shakily.
"Because they were in the way," Andre responded putting an arm around the smaller man's waist bringing him closer. "You don't need them anyway. You have me."
"I have nothing," Bruno stated quietly. The taller man laid him down on the hard floor of a house, naked. The prophet didn't recall how they got there or when his clothes disappeared. He moved his head to look away from Andre and saw people he didn't recognize staring at them. It didn't surprise him, but he commented, "I don't want to do this anymore."
"It's never been up to you," Andre said back, concentrating on touching every part of his lover's body. Bruno cried and whimpered hoping it would be over soon.
Bruno felt a harsh pinch and woke. His eyes snapped open and he fell out of bed trying to scramble away from something that wasn't there. Landing hard on the floor startled Julieta awake in the adjacent bed. He was in the nursery with his sister watching over him for the night. He reminded himself that Andre is dead, but his heart still raced from fear.
"Bruno?" Julieta said getting up and helping him back on his bed. "Are you okay?"
"Yes, sorry,"He apologized wiping tears from his eyes. He lifted his shirt where he had felt the pinch. It looked like a bite mark from one of his rats. They had heard him whimpering and wanted to wake him from the nightmare he was having.
Seeing the mark, his sister acted immediately. "I'll get you something to heal that." She walked out of the room quickly. Bruno sighed and laid back down. He was so tired, but now he was too scared to go to sleep. It was at least comforting to know that his rats would wake him up so he wouldn't be stuck with Andre.
.=.
It was the morning after the town had been attacked, the Madrigals went to town to help rebuild what was destroyed. Maribel was left home to watch Antonio and Bruno. She cleaned up around the house from where so many people had come in the night before. Things had been moved and knocked over by people trying to escape the violence.
Antonio asked her all sorts of questions about what had happened when he was stuck in his room. The child was clueless about everything that had occurred. He only knew that bad men came and were scared way by his family, it's all his animals would tell him. He was simply too young to know exactly what happened and Mirabel didn't want to give him any details.
Not getting the answers he wanted from his cousin, he ran to his Tio hoping he would be more specific about the events of yesterday. The little boy ran into the nursery to find Bruno laying in bed facing the wall. He ran up to it and climbed on top causing the occupant to jerk in surprise and pull himself to the opposite end. "Are you okay Tio?" Antonio asked pausing on one end of the bed.
Bruno pulled his knees up and wrapped his arms around them. "Sorry," he apologized, "Yes, I'm fine." He felt bad for making such a sudden movement and pulling away from the kid. He hoped he didn't scare his nephew. Luckily the child merely looked curious.
"You say sorry a lot," Antonio stated tilting his head to the side. "You said it a lot last night."
"Oh," Bruno responded pulling some salt out and throwing it over his shoulder, then said "Sorry." Antonio laughed thinking his tio was making a joke.
"Antonio," Mirabel said walking in with a smile, "There you are." The little boy giggled, he hadn't been hiding but it was fun that his cousin had found him. "Let's go play, Tio Bruno needs rest." He nodded and ran out of the room forgetting why he was in there in the first place.
"How are you feeling?" She asked her tio. "Mama, said you didn't sleep much last night."
"I just had a bad dream," He answered shrugging. "I'll just take a nap, then I'll be fine," he reassured with a weak smile. She smiled back, although she wasn't convinced. Trying to give him time, she didn't push.
"At least you're eating," she said grabbing his nearly empty plate from the desk next to the bed and walking out to put it in the kitchen. He didn't want to face his family, feeling responsible for everything that had happened. So, during breakfast Julieta brought a plate to him. He had not touched it and let the rats eat it. The rats had left him some in the hopes he would eat too, but he didn't.
Bruno lay back down facing the wall. He felt like he'd be more comfortable in his own room or at least with the door to the nursery closed. But for fear that he would be taken or run away, his mother wanted eyes on him at all times. So he wasn't getting privacy anytime soon.
Casita was dubbed as a bad babysitter for failing to keep Bruno safe twice, so a family member had to keep an eye on him. Mirabel took it upon herself to check every five minutes or less. He could hear her foot steps walk by often and it was a little frustrating. He wasn't a child.
For nearly a week Bruno stayed in bed, although he barely slept. And when he did sleep Andre was waiting for him. He hardly ate or moved. He spent most of the time staring at the wall. Occasionally he would knock on wood at an intrusive thought and throw salt over his shoulder.
The Madrigals were spending a lot of time in town helping to fix things. In the evening, different family members would come in and try to talk to him. The conversations would never get far. Bruno often seemed to be staring off at nothing and would miss what was being said, then apologize profusely for ignoring them.
At night, his family took turns sleeping in the room with him. He secretly wished they would leave him alone. In some ways it felt like being with Andre, always being watched. Bruno pushed his face into his pillow and stopped breathing for a moment trying to rid his mind of thoughts of Andre.
It only took a week to bring the town back to mostly normal. The family started back on a regular schedule assisting where they were needed. Ever since the miracle was saved, the family members got a lot of time off. So they had more time at home and more time to worry about their withering relative.
At some point Pepa was fed up. Feeling that she had single-handedly saved the town, it wasn't right for her brother to wallow like things were still wrong. He was safe, those evil men were gone, and it was time to work on feeling better. She marched into the nursery, as Bruno was dozing off, and ripped the blanket off of him. He yelped and scrambled to the end of the bed pushing up against the wall and putting his arms up in defense.
"Time to get up Bruno," She practically yelled at him, "It's a beautiful day and you are wasting it." Bruno gave her an offended look and reached for the blanket. She snatched it way."Uh-uh, get up, take a bath, and go outside," she ordered taking the blanket with her.
He wasn't ready yet. This last week was the safest he'd felt since Andre. He hit his head against the wall at the thought of the mad man. He didn't want to leave the room, nothing happened in this room, and that was what made him feel safe. The times he actually did leave was to go to the bathroom, but he would wait until everyone was sleeping.
Camilo walked by feeling pity for his tio. Pepa could be a little harsh, though she would call it tough love. The teen walked in the room leaning on the desk. "She's kind of right, You can't stay in here forever. Eventually you'll have to at least clean up." Bruno greatly resented this and threw salt over his shoulder. The grains of salt hit the wall and fell into his hair.
"Come on," the teen said holding his hand out for his tio. "I'll go with you and keep you company." Bruno sighed, Pepa wasn't going to letup until he did something. A bath was at least manageable. He took his nephew's hand to help him out of bed.
At the door frame Bruno crossed his fingers, held his breath, and walked through backwards. Normally Camilo would have teased his tio for this, but he knew it wouldn't be right under the circumstances. Bruno walked next to his nephew, hunched over and nervous. He held his arm with his opposite hand tightly and did his best to just breath.
Abuela saw them making their way to the bathroom and went over to greet them. "Brunito, I'm so glad you're out of bed." She pulled him into a gentle hug then let go. "Pepa said you were going to go outside today. If you do, make sure someone goes with you." She placed a hand on his cheek and then walked away. It felt humiliating to be treated like a child at his age. He'd go alone if he felt like it.
They made it to the bathroom without another incident. Camilo followed him in. "Abuela says you're not allowed to be alone so I'll stay in here with you," The boy said proudly taking care of his tio. Bruno side eyed him; he had to draw the line somewhere. Seeing his tio's disapproval, Camilo smiled lamely. "Maybe I'll just go get you some fresh clothes instead," he said and left the bathroom.
Bruno filled the tub then grabbed his rauna ready to take it off. He could hear Andre's voice 'Take your clothes off'. Bruno hit his head against the wall, making it go away. He took a deep breath pulling his clothes off trying to bury the memory. He double checked the door to make sure it was locked and threw salt over his shoulder letting it land in the water.
He felt exposed being naked, causing an image of Andre staring at him to flash in his mind, then an image of Ramiro telling him to 'Move your hands'. He hit his head a few times with his knuckles and yanked at his hair using the pain to make the images go away.
Bruno moved forward and stepped into the tub and sat down. It was warm, he closed his eyes enjoying it, but when he opened them the water was pink from blood. He closed his eyes tightly while pulling at his hair and then opened them again to see the water was clear. He wasn't sure how much more he could take of this.
He heard steps outside the bathroom door. An image of Andre flashed in his mind again, coming toward him and leaning over the tub cooing, 'That's it little mouse, see how good I can make you feel'. Dread filled his mind and drove Bruno to start to tremble and grip the sides of the tub. He took in large gulps of air, but could not seem to breath. He could feel Andre touching him again, ghosting his hand down to Bruno's lower region. He screamed, "No! Please No!"
"Bruno?!" Camilo's voice yelled though the door. The teen tried the handle, but it was locked. "Bruno! Open the door!" His tio couldn't hear, he could only feel Andre on him, touching him, forcing him to feel good. "I can't! I can't!" He screamed and cried, "Please stop!"
Luisa broke the door open as the entire family hovered nearby with worry. Agustin was the first to enter seeing his brother-in-law with his eyes closed, tensed up holding onto the tub, and sobbing. "Bruno, it's okay," He said calmly slowly walking up to the traumatized man.
Bruno held his knees together chanting 'nononono' over and over again. He didn't seem to notice his family trying to help him. Agustin placed a hand on the smaller man's naked shoulder. He jerked away from the touch. "No! Please!" He begged, "I can't!" He slammed his head against the wall.
Agustin tried to grab him to stop him, but that made Bruno struggle more. Bruno began thrashing and splashing trying to get away. "Felix!" Agustin called needing help. The other man ran in quickly and grabbed Bruno's legs to get him to stop kicking at them. While Agustin gabbed him by the wrists trying to get him to stop flailing.
Bruno shrieked in terror as he felt someone trying to hold him down. He couldn't do this anymore. He didn't want to do this again. Andre would never stop hurting him and raping him. He sobbed trying to fight, trying to do anything. He knew he'd be punished, but he couldn't help trying to get away.
"Bruno! Calm down!" Felix tried to yell over his screams. The family members outside the room were horrified by the sound, unable to bare the pain they heard in Bruno's voice. Dolores held her hands over her ears trying to block out his screams. Many others were in tears. Camilo felt guilty, he shouldn't have left his tio alone.
Without warning Bruno smacked his head again the wall hard making him feel dazed. The prophet realized it was no use. No matter how much he struggled, or begged, Andre wouldn't stop. He couldn't stop anyone from using him or hurting him. It only made things worse when he fought. So he went limp. There was a terrible throbbing pain in his head and he could feel hands on him. But everything felt blurry now, like a dream. He hoped his rats would wake him up.
When Bruno hit his head and went limp it, Agustin and Felix immediately pulled him out of the tub and on to the floor. Camilo quickly passed them a towel for his tio. Agustin covered him while Felix checked his head. They noticed he was still awake, his eyes half lidded, staring at nothing.
"Bruno?" Felix said trying to get his attention. He snapped his fingers in front the his brother-in-law's face trying to get a reaction, but he got nothing. Julieta quickly entered and instructed her husband to take her brother back to the nursery.
Everyone watched as Bruno was carried out. They were in complete and utter shock. No one could look away, and everyone missed the light of the candle flicker for just a moment.
.=.
That night Pepa volunteered to watch over Bruno, but Abuela insisted that they would drown from the rain she was creating. So Felix stayed with him instead. Pepa lay in her bed wide awake feeling guilty for pushing her brother too hard. She thought she was helping, but she just made things worse.
She heard her bedroom door creak open and sat up, it was Camilo. He climbed on to her bed and laid under her blanket where his father normally slept. Pepa watched him some lay there a moment then place his hands over his face sniffling. "What wrong?" She asked pulling him close.
"I didn't mean to leave tio Bruno alone," he said cuddling close to her. He felt a little silly needing his mom like this. He often thought of himself as being too old to need his mom.
"It's not your fault Camilo," She responded running her fingers threw his hair. "Your tio has just been through a lot and he is having a hard time adjusting. It will be okay."
"Will it?" he cried a little harder, tears flowing freely. "So much has happened. I can barley get the images out of my head. Dolores, Mirabel and I saw what that man did to tio. Did he keep doing it to him?" His voice cracked at the question. "Did he keep hurting him?"
Pepa didn't know for sure, but it was likely that Bruno had suffered much while he was with Andre. She didn't want to speculate on it because it only made her emotional and made the weather go crazy. Her hope was that Bruno would find comfort in his family and heal overtime. But he hardly interacted or talked to anyone.
Camilo calmed after crying a little while. When he finally spoke he said, "I saw what the rats did." Pepa didn't know what he meant. "I saw the rats start eating him and heard the screaming. Tio covered my ears and made me look away but I can't get what I saw out of my head."
"What are you talking about?" She asked as softly and gently as she could holding him close.
"Tio Bruno's rats ate Andre and killed him." He sobbed more after saying it out loud and she rubbed his back. The news was disturbing. It was bad enough he witnessed her kill some men and watched Dante be crushed to death. Now she was finding out about this.
When he finally stopped crying he looked up at her. "Do you feel guilty for killing those men?" It was a genuine question that she knew someone would ask eventually.
Pepa wiped the tears from her son's face with her thumbs and looked him in the eyes. "Camilo, I love you with all my heart. And I love this family. I would do anything to protect you and them. It didn't want to do it, nor did I like it, but I do not feel guilty for what I did."
She hugged him close letting him snuggle for comfort. "I know you saw some very terrible things that no one should see. I can't imagine how hard it is for you. But I want you to know, it truly will be okay. Overtime the memories will fade and be distant. And one day you won't think of it at all."
At that moment the door opened again revealing Dolores and Antonio. Dolores had heard everything, but Antonio heard nothing. They were there for the same reason Camilo was. They needed someone to make things better.
Pepa allowed all of her children to curl up with her in bed. She spoke softly to them, letting them know that it would be okay. She promised that she would help Bruno and make things better, and assured that things would go back to normal. She didn't know if things would ever be the same again, but she had to do what she could.