Bruno waited 30 seconds to make sure his mother got far away enough for him to run and hide. Bruno shot up from his chair and ran out of the room while holding his breath and crossing his fingers. She couldn't make him leave the house if she couldn't find him. Pepa followed after but lost sight of him when he turned a corner. Bruno had mastered avoiding his family for ten years. He knew how to give them the slip.
Pepa ran calling his name passing a large potted plant he hid behind. He sighed in relief, but it wasn't over yet. He had to think of a place to go. The space between the walls no longer existed and Casita was not going to help him hide.
"What are you doing?" Mirabel asked. Bruno startled backing up against the wall. Seeing it was her, he calmed a little.
"Nothing," he answered.
"Tia Pepa is looking for you," she commented.
"Is that so?" He answered with a question, while looking around to make sure no one else was nearby.
"Is it because we're all going to town?" Mirabel asked. The family had been neglecting their duties in favor of staying home to constantly check on Bruno. They had a lot to do.
"No," he said quickly, but then changed his answer, "I mean yes. I shouldn't go. People in town don't like me." That was his best excuse. His biggest concern was being restrained again. Not interacting with anyone, and not doing anything, made it certain that nothing bad would happen. His mother couldn't get upset and do anything if he didn't do anything.
"It'll be fine," Mirabel assured. "The whole family will be there with you. No one in town is going to bother you. I promise."
"Promises aren't guarantees," He said back remembering his vision. His vision guaranteed not one, but two women were going bother him if he went to town.
"Tio Bruno, Mami is looking for you," Camilo announced behind him. Bruno jumped in surprise pushing himself against the wall. "Sorry," his nephew said seeing that he scared his tio.
"Tell her you didn't see me," Bruno begged. "I was never here!" At that moment Pepa came into view and locked eyes with him.
"Bruno!" She yelled in frustration walking quickly toward him. He made a break for it to the stairs and ran up. Unfortunately for him, Casita was on Pepa's side and slid him right back down. "I know you don't want to go," she said pulling him to his feet, and saw the pouting look on his face. She held back a giggle, it reminded her of when they were children. "Mama is set on you going. She thinks it will be good for you to get out of the house."
"I don't care," he said stubbornly. That was a lie. He cared a lot about his family and about getting better. He wanted to be able to go to town with them and have a great time. He liked watching them use their gifts and see their smiles when they accomplished something. But he was not up for the task. Surely his mother could wait until he felt ready.
"Please Bruno," Pepa implored. "I promise it won't be bad. As soon as I'm done I'll bring you back home." It would take three hours at least to water all the crops. Not to mention, the whole family would be in town nearly all day. Sometimes they stopped house to house to check in on people. Pepa could probably get away with just watering crops, but it would still take a while.
He crossed his arms and stared at the floor. Bruno wondered if he could make it to the nursery and shut the door before she could stop him. That thought struck him as childish. He sighed deeply and decided he would just go. But he was determined to not interact with anyone. He'd stick to himself. Pepa held out her hand for him to take and he took it resentfully. If he had a panic attack or breakdown in the middle of town, he hoped his mother would not hold it against him.
.=.
When Dante's men returned from the encanto, their numbers were much smaller. It was decided that the town in the mountains was too dangerous and they would avoid it. No one would believe they fought against people with powers anyway; it sounded insane. Although, Maria believed it because Dante did.
Maria came off as kind and innocent to most people. But Dante did not marry her for what most people saw. He fell in love with a feisty dangerous woman. She was a great wife and took care of the house and children well. But her opinion and suggestions in his schemes always made things more cautious and successful. He was reckless and she was disciplined. He was violent and she was cunning. They worked well together.
Maria felt lost and empty without Dante. She did her best to direct the gang to sell drugs and rob people. But Dante always had the big ideas. He could always pull off a good kidnapping or murder. People thought these things would bother her, but his skills and ideas attracted her.
She missed Andre too. He was very nice to her and never treated her like less than a man. She missed his helping hand around the house and in town. He would do her favors and she would do favors for him in return. He was a great friend. What she liked the most was his passion for love; his passion for Bruno. It was very romantic and she had been looking forward to meet the man.
When she finally got the chance to meet him it was under serious circumstances. Bruno's family was trying to separate them. Andre's lover had to be knocked unconscious just to keep him from trying to stop his family to protect Andre. It was sad, yet the romance of it made her cheeks burn. She wished she could have met Bruno properly.
When Dante and Andre had not returned, she took over her husband's duties as the gang leader temporarily. She was thinking he would come back home soon, but he didn't. The men said they last saw him alive when they were fleeing. He may have been captured or worse.
It took over a week to get someone to agree to take her to the encanto. Most men refused fearing the person they called the weather woman. With enough money and manipulation, one of the men agreed to take her. She left the highest ranking member in charge of the gang and traveled to the encanto with her twin teen sons. Her sons were as desperate to know what happened to their father as she was.
.=.
The invasion in town was regarded as a freak incident. It was assumed that marauders had found the entrance to the encanto and took advantage. The people in town applauded the Madrigals in their handling of the situation. Abuela and the rest of the family vowed to never tell what those men were really there for.
However, Andre's friends in town had their own theory. A love-struck Andre had left the encanto with Bruno, bringer of bad luck. Bruno had escaped and came back and led raiders into town with his awful luck, getting Andre killed in the process. One woman in particular was angry about what happened. She fell in love with Andre years ago, but he was too obsessed with Bruno to see that. Now Andre was dead, and she wanted revenge.
.=.
Bruno had not been in town for more then ten minutes before he started regretting coming. He planned to follow Pepa around hoping he could make puppy eyes enough to make her hurry up and bring him home. His mother had different ideas. She forced him to accompany her everywhere.
At the moment, Alma was talking to one of the elder leaders. Seeing the bustling town around him gave him some anxiety, but it wasn't too terrible. He was mostly annoyed to not be home. He was tired and wanted to feed his rats.
"You remember my son Bruno," Alma said to the elder man, forcing Bruno to have to pay attention.
"Yes, of course," He responded happily. "We hope you'll be willing to do a few visions," the man said directly to Bruno. "Some people have been asking."
"Oh, I-" Bruno began not sure how to say no. The thought of having another vision made his stomach churn.
"He's not having visions right now," Alma cut in. "We'll let you know if that changes." She steered the conversation away from that topic. Bruno had already had enough and decided to go find Pepa or Julieta. He could always convince Julieta to let him go home. As long as he got home with someone with him, his mother wouldn't be too upset.
When Abuela was looking away he quickly made his way into an unoccupied alley. He let out a sigh of relief for getting away. If the conversation was like that with one person, they would all be like that. He did not want to get a request for a vision. A terrible thought of his mother tying him down and forcing him to have visions slipped into his mind, he pulled at his hair and ignored it.
Bruno knocked on wood quickly, then made his way down the alley and on to a sparse street. It was mostly homes and a few people were walking one way or another. If he had to guess, Pepa was likely in the field furthest from casita and making her way toward home as she watered the crops. Throwing salt over his shoulder, he went in the direction opposite of home.
"Hey!" Someone yelled. Bruno didn't recognize the voice so he assumed it wasn't for him. He kept walking until he felt someone grab his shoulder and twist him around to face them. A flash of Andre entered his mind when they first met and he'd been grabbed. Bruno stumbled back in fear tripping and falling to the ground. The pain from landing on his ass helped him stay focused on the present.
"You don't answer when called?" A woman said harshly grabbing him by his ruana and pulling him to stand. He recognized her as the small woman from his vision. Anxiety flaring, he backed away until his back hit a nearby house. The woman was about two inches shorter than him, wore a blood red dress, and had her dark brown curly hair pulled up into two buns.
"I'm sorry," Bruno tried to apologize feeling very intimidated. A few other people accompanied her. Three men and another woman. The prophet wasn't sure where this was going, but he wished he would have taken his vision as a warning.
The woman stood close in front of him, crowding him against the wall. He didn't feel comfortable being so close to someone. "I wonder what Andre saw in you?" She said scrutinizing him with her sharp eyes.
"What?" He breathed out, it came out as a whisper. He could feel his heart going wild in his chest. His body felt numb and his hands started to sweat. He could hear the people with her laughing.
"You're so old," She continued scrunching her nose in disgust. She moved his hair from his face then gabbed a hand full, close to his scalp, pulling his head to the side. Tears filled his eyes. He grabbed her wrist trying to pull her away. "None of that," she said signaling one of her men with a nod.
The man was tall and strong. He stood to the side and easily grabbed Bruno's wrists with one hand pinning them above his head so the woman would have access to her victim. She hummed in thought. "Maybe Andre has a soft spot for those puppy dog eyes. Or-" She clamped her hand over his mouth and reached down gabbing his penis through his pants making him squeak. She squeezed him hard while muffling his screams.
Bruno's body trembled from pain and fear. "You're actually a pretty decent size," she whispered in his ear before bringing her tongue to his throat and slowly licking up to his ear. He shuddered feeling like he was about to be sick. The others laughed more. She switched her grip to his balls squeezing harshly making him scream into her hand again.
"You're probably wondering why I'm doing this," she said smiling. He stared at her with wide terrified eyes and she took that as a sign that he was listening. "I grew up with Andre. He was always a romantic at heart. He used to write the most beautiful poetry. I fell in love with him, but he never noticed me in that way."
She sighed sadly looking away in thought, then she looked back at him with anger. "Then he fell in love with you. He met you once and spent the next ten years ignoring me and focusing on you and your family. And now he's dead, because of you."
"I don't know what the hell you did to him, but I almost didn't recognize him when I found his body." He squeezed his balls hard making him pull at the man's grip on him. He shouted for her to stop and she kept squeezing harder and harder. Tears flooded his eyes and could barely breath.
When she finally released him, she grabbed his hair again pulling his head forward to push their foreheads together. "I'm going to torture and kill you for what you did to Andre." He could smell her warm breath as she spoke. "I'm going to start by ripping your dick off." He whimpered.
"What are you doing?!" Someone behind the strange woman yelled angrily. "Let him go!" Bruno felt them let go immediately. He slid against the wall and sat on the ground wrapping his arms around his legs and hiding his face in his knees.
"Luisa!" The stranger said with a smile. "I thought you were redirecting the river across town?"
"I'm about to redirect your face Valentina," Luisa responded harshly.
"Still holding a grudge for the bullying?" The woman laughed. "Get over it, we were kids. You're strong now. It wouldn't be a fair fight."
"What were you doing to my Tio?" Luisa was trying hard not to punch Valentina across town. Abuela never wanted them to use their gifts for violence, but it was hard not to this time. After the invasion, Luisa wondered if this could be considered another exception.
"We were just chatting," She responded. "My friends and I are going now. No worries." She backed away with her hands up and a smirk on her face before her and her friends took off running away.
"Tio Bruno, are you okay?" Luisa asked going to him letting them get away. She got on her knees to check on him. "Tio, can you hear me?" He wouldn't move or respond. She tried touching him but he flinched and held his legs tighter. Not wanting to hurt him, she got up to get help. "Can you stay with him? I'll be right back." Luisa ran off.
Maria had not expected to find Bruno like this. She had made it to the encanto by one of the gang members, who promptly left her and her sons outside the cracked entrance of the mountains. Gathering up enough courage, they made their way into the encanto.
The town within the mountains was a lot friendlier than expected. People offered them free food and drinks just because they looked like they needed it. Maria asked where the Madrigal family lived and she was told exactly where to go. These people were too trusting and would not last a day outside of the mountains. Her twins were suspicious of the motivations behind the people being so kind.
Walking toward the Madrigal house, Maria spotted a familiar face. Bruno was being confronted by a small group of people. Normally she could handle a fight, but she didn't want to risk it if one of these people had a power. Instead she managed to find Luisa, who appeared to have super strength. Maria stayed with Bruno until Luisa came back with a few other people.
"What happened?" Julieta asked getting down to Bruno's level. She tried touching him but he flinched the moment he felt anything.
"I don't know," Luisa answered. "This lady told me someone was bothering Tio Bruno. And when I went to check I saw Valentina holding him here." Julieta recognized the name of her daughter's old childhood bully. She didn't understand why that girl would bully her brother.
"Bruno, are you okay?" Julieta tried to gently pull his arms away from his legs but he refused to move when she coaxed him with a gentle touch.
"Bruno, we're going to take you back home," Agustin tried. "Can you get up?" Bruno didn't want to get up. He didn't think he could. Even when Andre wasn't here, he somehow was! Gone from life, gone from his dreams, but he remained in memory and through other people. Bruno would never be free. No matter what he does, he will be in hell forever.
"Help me get him up," Julieta said grasping one of his arms and pulling forcefully. Agustin grabbed the other trying to get Bruno to stand.
"Don't," Bruno begged weakly trying to pull away from them. "Let me go," his voice came out as a whisper, like he couldn't get enough air in to speak any louder. He felt dizzy then sick. Quickly leaning forward he evacuated the contents of his stomach on to the ground. Julieta and Agustin let him go while he vomited. Maria wasn't sure what to make of the situation.
Abuela quickly showed up looking for Julieta who was needed to heal a few people. Seeing Bruno being sick, she took charge. "Julieta and Agustin, go back and help the people." They did as they were told, Julieta didn't want to leave her brother, but she was needed and their mother would take care of him. "Luisa, I need you to carry your tio home."
Luisa was apprehensive because he wasn't reacting well to anyone touching him. But he wouldn't be able to get himself home in this state. "Tio Bruno, I'm gonna get you home." She picked him up bridal style. It was how Andre used to carry him.
He sobbed and tried to yell for her to leave him alone, but he couldn't get air in his lungs. He struggled to breath; it sounded labored and raspy. Strong arms held him tight with worry and care. Unable to get air in, he soon passed out from lack of oxygen.
"Will he be okay?" Maria asked. "He seems unwell." She wanted to stop them from taking him. It was obvious to her that he did not want to go with them.
"He will be fine," Abuela assured and then walked off with Luisa.
Maria judged that these people were holding Bruno against his will. She could only assume that meant that they were his family. That could also mean that Dante and Andre may be being held hostage as well. She and her sons followed slowly behind, they would rescue Bruno first and have him help them find the others.