Bruno lay in bed. He tried to sleep, but all the events of the day haunted his mind. Maria was going to come back for him and the woman from town was seeking revenge. Both worried him. He had not done anything to invoke their actions. It was all because of Andre. Why could he not escape a dead man?

A rat crawled in from the window passing the candle and climbing into bed. It curled up against Bruno's hair, tangling itself in his curls. Bruno abruptly sat up from the feeling of it, it made his skin crawl. He didn't want to be touched, not even by his rats. The rat sniffed at him in confusion.

The full length mirror across the room caught Bruno's eye and he stared at it watching himself; he looked thin and pathetic. He wondered if that was what everyone else saw when they looked at him, a pathetic weakling. A memory abruptly emerged. "I feel like I'm wearing an ornament with you on me like this," Andre had said. Nausea bubbled inside his stomach and he looked away from the mirror. "Don't look away or I will beat you till you beg me to do this to you again."

Bruno looked back at the mirror feeling a spike of fear strike through him. "It's not fair," he said to his image, but he saw Andre standing there instead. Tears dripped down his face as he stood and confronted it. "I don't deserve this," he glared. Andre only smiled at him. "You took everything from me. I feel like there's nothing left, but everyone still wants something from me."

"Everyone wants to protect me, love me, torture me, fuck me," Bruno sad angrily. "What about what I want?!" He screamed punching the mirror. It was bad luck to break a mirror, but at the moment it did not matter. He felt numb. It broke like glass and shattered making a mess all over the floor. He landed on his knees letting it cut into him. What did it matter if he got hurt or had bad luck? Things couldn't get any worse than this.

Abuela burst in hearing the noise and saw her son sitting on his knees in front of the broken mirror. He looked at her expressionless. Maybe it can get worse, he thought. Bruno grabbed some of the shards of mirror in his hands and squeezed letting it cut him and make him bleed. It hurt, but he couldn't make himself care.

"Stop!" His mother yelled rushing to him. She tried to grab his hands but he moved them away to keep her from getting hurt. He didn't want her to touch the sharp bits and get cut too. "Luisa! Felix!" Abuela tried calling anyone nearby to help.

Bruno stood, heart racing and eyes wide as his mind became a little clearer with the realization that his family would bring consequences to his actions. They were going to tie him up again. He backed into a corner as multiple family members came in responding the Abuela's calls for help. "Don't touch me!" He yelled at them. His blood was dripped everywhere to everyone's horror.

"Bruno," Felix tried putting his hands out to show he meant no harm. "We just want to help you."

"I don't need help," the small man insisted.

"You're bleeding," Julieta pointed out worriedly.

"I-It was an accident," Her brother responded miserably. "Andre was-" he let out a frustrated whine. Andre is dead. He'd throw salt right now if his hands weren't all cut up. He pushed himself into the corner as far away from them as he could get. He just wanted to be left alone.

"Bruno," Julieta said trying to sound calm and reassuring. "Why don't we go to the kitchen and get a snack to heal you?" She offered.

It took a moment to think about. He watched everyone look at him with concern and could tell they just wanted to help. Maybe they wouldn't tie him up if he cooperated, so he nodded his head yes. His sister gave him a reassuring smile as he walked toward her. When he walked past Felix, Abuela shouted an order, "Grab him!"

Felix seized his wrists from behind and crossed them over Bruno's chest as he kicked his legs out screaming, "No!" Isabela reluctantly grew plants to wrap around his body to keep him from moving and hurting himself more. "Stop! Stop!" He yelled at them in panic as he felt the plants encircle his body and pull his legs tight to keep him from moving. When the plants grew strong enough, Felix lifted Bruno on to Abuela's bed, laying his head on the pillow with care, and let go. "It was an accident I swear!" Bruno pleaded. "Please let me go! Please!" He begged over and over again.

Abuela ordered everyone out and for Julieta to go get something to heal her brother. No one could bare to see him like this so they left him with Abuela. He begged to be let go, but they wouldn't risk his well-being over it. "Brunito," his mother said sitting next to him and looking down at his crying face. "It's Andre isn't it?"

He cried and nodded his head trying to appease her. "I feel okay now. Can you please let me go?" he pleaded. She pet his hair and he shuddered from the touch, but did not pull away in the hopes that he could reason for her to untie him.

Alma suspected Bruno was still seeing Andre. It was getting worse, he was getting worse. They couldn't keep him from hurting himself. Something had to be done.

.=.

In the evening, Abuela gathered Julieta, Agustin, Felix, and Pepa to discuss what to do next about Bruno. Going to town was a failure, which Abuela slightly blamed herself for. She had not anticipated more threats, although Bruno would have been fine if he had not run off. Luckily, it had been decided that the crack in the encanto would be filled with boulders tomorrow to keep anymore strangers from coming in. Then she would only have to worry about town bullies like Valentina.

"Bruno can not help himself, so we need to do something." Thinking back to when he had told her a few things that had happened to him, she said, "He told me he sees Andre when he's awake and in his dreams. If this causes Bruno to keep hurting himself then we need to find a way to stop it." Abuela expressed.

"I don't think we should push him on anything Mama," Julieta said. "He just needs time to cope. He spoke to you about what had happened to him a little which means he's working it out. Going to town was just too much. And the the incident with the stranger must have just pushed him too far."

"I agree," Agustin added. "We should give him space. I feel like it was working when we first tried-"

"But then he smashed his head into the breakfast table," Pepa finished for him. "No, I think this is going to require action on all our parts."

"He's frightened of everything," Felix jumped in, "He doesn't want to get out of bed, bathe, eat, talk, or leave the house. We need to show him there is nothing to be scared of."

"How?" Julieta argued. "He keeps getting hurt. His first day in town resulted in harassment and a kidnapping."

"Maybe he needs to learn self defense?" Felix suggested lamely.

Abuela broke into the conversation. "This is getting off topic. We need to address the root of the problem. And that is what he experienced with Andre. Everything after that is just added problems."

"What can we do?" Pepa asked. "Andre is dead. That should be comforting enough to Bruno."

"In his mind, Andre is not dead," Abuela said. "Bruno sees Andre everywhere. He's scared, and he won't stop being scared until he faces his fears and gets some type of closure."

"How? He can't face a dead man," Julieta advised.

"With Camilo's help he can." Abuela did not want to involve her young grandson in something like this. But if they did not help Bruno he might never get better. There were always going to be problems for her son and he needed to learn to deal with them. This wasn't just about Andre. This was about Bruno's avoidant behavior. He avoided his family and lived in the walls for ten years. She was not going to let him avoid anything anymore, it was time to face things head on.

.=.

Bruno woke groggily from a dreamless sleep. He stretched, noticing he wasn't being restrained anymore, and sighed in relief. When he sat up and looked around, he wasn't in his mother's room anymore. He was in Andre's room, and the man himself was in the chair in the corner.

The last thing he remembered was the mirror, being restrained, healed, and Julieta giving him something to drink to help him sleep. Bruno's heart started to race as he stared unblinkingly at the man sitting there, staring back.

It couldn't be real, Andre is dead. It had to be another hallucination, so he did his best not to react too harshly this time. He couldn't risk upsetting his family and getting in trouble again. It was a little worrying that his mind was creating an entire mirage of Andre's room, but he was sure he was still in his mother's room.

Bruno was frustrated about seeing Andre. He thought he was done seeing Andre in this way, but perhaps Maria and Valentina triggered it to start again. He was already yearning for just having nightmares and flashbacks without the hallucinations.

Glaring at Andre, Bruno spoke, "What do you want?"

Not quite expecting the hostile greeting Andre raised a brow and said, "It's good to see you too little mouse."

"Don't call me that," the smaller man growled. He was done dealing with this psycho. He just wanted to rest and push it all from his mind.

"You're awfully grumpy," Andre pouted. "We're finally reunited and you're mad at me?" The man stood up walking to the bed. Bruno moved to the other side and stood. It may not be real but distance was still key.

"Why are you here?" Bruno asked expecting something cryptic, like in his dreams. Andre gave him a confused look.

"You mean, why am I in my own house?" Andre moved around the bed to get closer to his lover making Bruno slowly make his way toward the bedroom door.

He reached the doorknob but Andre quickly moved snatching his wrist. "You're not real," The smaller man said out loud to remind himself. Only, the feel of Andre's hand on him felt real. "You're dead!"

Andre looked almost hurt by his words. Bruno's heart began to race. The hand on him tightened. Bruno looked down at it, Was this real? "I'm very real little mouse." Andre confirmed using his other hand to push the smaller man's chin up to look at him.

Bruno's eyes widened in disbelief. "No," he breathed out. "It's not possible. I saw you die."

"And I used Julieta's food to save myself," Andre responded like it was that simple. "You probably should have double checked that I was dead."

"Mierda," Bruno squeaked out. He started breathing heavily, taking large amounts of air in and out. His chest heaved up and down as his expression morphed into horror. "Mierda!" He yelled loudly causing Andre to flinch and let go of him at the sudden curse.

Bruno opened the door trying to escape but his body started to get a paralyzing feeling, like it would be useless to try. He ran to the front door trying to open it. A million questions and thoughts ran through his mind. How did he get here? Why was this happening? Where was his family? Were they okay? Did he sleep through the kidnapping? Andre was going to hurt him. He was going to punish him. He was going to rape him again.

Tears spilled down Bruno's cheeks as he desperately tried to turn the doorknob, but it wouldn't give. He started to slam his fists erratically against the door and tried yelling for help. Would anyone hear him? "Calm down Bruno," Andre said behind him with concern.

Bruno spun around and squinted his eyes to look at his captor as the room kept spinning around them. He couldn't breathe and his vision was getting blurry. His body trembled but felt numb. "You can't be real," he gasped before falling to the floor unconscious.

Camilo transformed back into himself running to Bruno's side to check on him. He had a heavy sense of guilt over making his Tio so upset. He had not expected this. Pepa and Alma ran in to help. They confirmed that Bruno's breathing was returning to normal before checking on Camilo. "Are you okay?" Pepa asked worriedly to her son.

"Yeah," Camilo responded. "I'm just worried about Tio Bruno."

"If you can't handle this we can stop at any time," Pepa said hugging him. But Camilo wanted to keep going. Abuela said this could help.

"Is this going to work if he passes out?" The teen asked, beginning to feel like this might cause more harm than good.

"It's just the beginning," Abuela explained. "He will get used to you and become less afraid."

"And what happens when he finds out his family is doing this to him?" Mirabel asked walking in upset. "How does this end?"

"I will tell him myself when this is over," Abuela responded. "He needs to face his trauma and we need to figure out what he went though. If this does not help him, than at least we can get information to know what exactly happened with Andre. Then we can act on how to help him appropriately."

"Shouldn't we get his permission?" Mirabel pleaded. "Shouldn't we ask him to talk without manipulating him like this?"

"How?" Abuela asked. "He is too stubborn. He won't talk and he won't help himself. We have to do it." Mirabel did not agree that this was the right way, but she could not stop what the adults did.