Pepa and Felix made it to Andre's house quickly on horseback. They noticed another horse and assumed Camilo had likely taken it to get here. His note said "At Andre's, come quick." It left no details, but it put Pepa on edge. Camilo was in no shape to be going anywhere, especially not here.
She barged into the house with Felix following behind, who was equally as upset with Camilo for going to this house. Maria held her sons close seeing the angry looking couple come in. She stayed out of the way as Dolores and Camilo came out to hug their parents. Felix and Pepa were less upset with their son now that they finally understood why he had brought them here.
"Dolores! We have been searching for you everywhere!" Pepa exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"
"Tio Bruno and I were taken by Valentina and her friends," Dolores explained motioning toward the three people who were tied up. The fourth was laying in a puddle of blood, dead. A cloud started to form over Pepa's head as she became anxious from the sight.
"Are you okay?" Pepa inquired checking her daughter over, who seemed upset but not hurt. "What happened? Who are they?" She gestured toward Maria and her sons. Too many questions were buzzing around in her head and her cloud was only getting darker.
"Who did this?" Felix interrupted his wife's line of questioning when he saw the dark bruises on his son's neck. He grabbed his son's upper arms and held him close to get a better look. When Pepa laid eyes on the injury her cloud started to drizzle rain on her.
"That grumpy farmer, Daz," Camilo answered quietly as his father stared through his eyes into his soul. He appreciated his father's worry, but sometimes it came off as overly intense. The teen tried to appease them and explained, "He might be dead, so it's fine.".
"Dead?" Felix asked, leading both Dolores and Camilo into tying to explain everything. Dolores started where she followed Bruno into woods and had been kidnapped and taken here. She skipped the part where Maria and her sons helped Valentina. Their parents were suspicious, of how Maria got involved in the first place, but let their kids continue.
When Dolores got to the part where Bruno was taken to the bedroom; she found it hard to say what she had heard. Through tears she could only explain that her Tio had been tortured. When she could say no more, Camilo explained his rescue plan and how it failed.
He told them that he pretended to be Andre but Daz saw right through it. He explained what Bruno did to Daz to save them, as he had been conscious enough to see it. His parents felt horribly disturbed and disgusted by the news. And when he told them Bruno had killed the woman attacking them, Felix felt that they had heard enough. Pepa's cloud rained heavily and thundered.
"Where is Bruno?" Felix asked with great concern. They had gotten a lot of information at once, and he felt like they could wait till they got home in a more comfortable environment to really talk about it. He wanted to hurry this along for everyone's sake.
"He's in the bedroom," Maria finally spoke up. "You should know, what they put him through was nothing like I have ever seen or heard-" She paused unable to say more on it. "He's not himself. We couldn't get him to leave the room. He won't even speak or let anyone near him."
"It's true Mama, we can't get him to come home with us," Dolores explained bringing them into the bedroom. Bruno had moved back to the corner of the room away from everyone. They paused for a moment disturbed by the state of the room. The bed was covered in bloodstains and there were two corpses on the floor.
Felix and Pepa tried to ignore the bodies and stepped over them, moving around the bed to find Bruno. He was sitting in the corner head resting against his knees and arms wrapped around his legs. He cowered on the floor naked and covered nearly head to toe in blood.
Getting increasingly worried, Felix approached and crouched down in front of him. "Bruno are you okay? Are you hurt?" He tried to reach out and touch him, but Bruno shifted quickly away moving as close to the wall as possible. He did not want to be touched. He just wanted to be left alone.
"Bruno," Pepa said stumbling toward him in tears; the rain from her cloud kept falling, soaking her hair and clothes. Outside Lightning struck loudly around the house making thunder boom; Dolores had to cover her ears from the sound. Pepa couldn't handle seeing her brother in such a condition. "Come on, we need to take you home."
Bruno dug his forehead into his knees holding his legs closer to himself. Crouching down in front of him, she noticed bright red blood dripping from his hand. Pepa quickly snatched his wrist, "You're hurt." He pulled his arm back just as quickly and bit her hand making her yelp and let go. "Bruno!" She shouted in surprise as he angrily glared at her.
The way he looked at her made her heart sink. He had never looked at her with such fierce intensity. Even when he was actually angry, it was just a scowl mixed with a pout, almost childlike. But right now, she couldn't find that Bruno anywhere in those eyes. It just looked like rage.
Bruno was angry. Why were they bothering him?! They didn't even want him! What was the point of trying to take him home when they purposely scared him away in the first place? If it was a sense of guilt on their part, he didn't care. He wanted to be alone to bleed and rot with the dead in the room. He wanted his family to go away.
Pepa tried again "Bruno, I need you to get up and come home with me, okay?" She stayed crouched in front of him and put out her hand for him to take. "Please," she begged, tears mixing with her rain. He growled at her like an animal, and she couldn't bare it. He wasn't acting right, and it scared her. "Please," she said again touching his shoulder, but he quickly slapped her away with his uninjured hand.
"Mi Vida," Felix said softly. Pepa got up and hugged Felix with worry.
"What do we do?" She asked unsure.
"We're going to have to do this the hard way," He answered, then addressed his children. "Find me a blanket or a towel." They nodded worried, but determined, and searched.
Hearing his order, Maria and her sons searched as well. Rico was able to find a clean blanket in the closet and tossed it to Camilo, who quickly brought it to Felix. "Anyone who doesn't want to hear a whole lot of screaming may want to leave if this is going to go the way I expect."
Dolores left immediately; she'd be able to hear it all just fine outside, but being away from it made her feel better. Maria and her sons left the house as well, they had heard enough when he was being tortured.
Pepa wanted to stay in case she was needed, but she also didn't want to cause a storm and make things worse. "Mama," Camilo said seeing her worry and taking her hand. "I'll help, it'll be okay." She nodded reluctantly and left the house. She would get one of the horses ready to go.
Felix opened the blanket and stood a meter away from his brother-in-law, who glared at him furiously. Camilo remained by the doorway to block the exit. "Bruno, I really don't want to have to do this. Can you get up and come with me?" He got a low rumbling growl in response. "Okay," Felix said sadly before he launched himself toward the small man.
Bruno got up quickly moving toward the bed in the hopes of climbing over it and getting away. But Felix was able to grab him from behind wrapping the blanket around him only managing to trap one arm. They fell on to the bed in a struggle. Bruno twisted his body and bit harshly into Felix's forearm drawing blood making him yell out in pain.
Camilo quickly got involved grabbing his Tio's shoulders. Felix pulled himself up while Camilo pushed Bruno down onto the stained mattress getting him to release his jaw's hold. This only made Bruno thrash and scream wildly, like they were about to do something terrible to him.
Felix straddled his brother-in-law's hips, quickly grabbing both arms and folded them over his chest. Camilo grabbed the ends of blanket tucking and wrapping it around his upper body as tightly as he could. Bruno nearly bit him in the process.
"Tio stop," Camilo said, voice cracking. He was nearly in tears seeing him kick and scream, it was so unlike Bruno to be like this. Felix quickly ordered his son to hold him down. "What are you doing?" The teen yelled struggling to hold Bruno down, as his father quickly ripped cloth from the bottom of the blanket. Bruno nearly kicked him in the face during his efforts.
Felix then stuffed cloth into Bruno's mouth and tied another bit of cloth over his mouth and around his head. "He's going to keep biting," he explained to his son. Their relative seemed to struggle more after they gagged him. Bruno struggled as hard as he could against the blanket holding him tightly while kicking violently.
"I'll carry him, you get the door," Felix ordered pulling Bruno up and over his shoulder; holding his legs to keep him from kicking. The blanket held tightly against the struggling man's upper body and flowed around his legs, covering him. Camilo quickly went to the front door and opened it as Felix carried him out.
The blood from Bruno's chest and hand seeped through the blanket, going unnoticed as he was lifted over a horse to lay in front of Pepa. "Can you handle riding with him?" Bruno kicked his legs out unable to hit anything and yelled through the gag.
Before Pepa could answer, Camilo climbed up behind her. "I'll help." He was determined to do anything to help. Anything to help his Tio would make him feel better than doing nothing and feeling guilty over what he had done earlier in the day.
"What do we do about the people inside?" Dolores asked. Pepa glared at the house and let lightning strike causing a fire. It didn't matter that she did not know what they had done. They had been involved in Bruno's torture, so she would let them burn. She then quickly road off with her brother and son.
Felix mounted the second horse lifting his daughter up behind him. Then he pointed to the the remaining horse and spoke to Maria. "You and your sons can take that one and meet us at Casita. Abuela Alma will want to talk to you about what happened today." This made Maria nervous. The Madrigals might not take it well when they find out how she was involved.
Felix and Dolores left quickly following after Pepa. They all rode home through the woods to avoid onlookers. Bruno struggled the entire time, not letting up on the kicking and screaming even though it was doing him no good.
.=.
At home, the rest of the family had returned from unsuccessful searches. Assuming Pepa and Felix had not yet returned and Camilo was in his room, Julieta started making dinner while everyone moped around. Many of them planned on searching after dinner and through the night if needed.
Luisa and Isabela has already begun closing up the crack in the mountain earlier that day. While they were not finished, it would be very difficult for anyone to get in or out. So Bruno and Dolores had to be inside the encanto somewhere.
Suddenly, Casita opened it's doors drawing everyone's attention. Pepa, Camilo, and Dolores led the way trying to warn the family to stay back as Felix carried in a very irate Bruno. "What is the meaning of this?!" Abuela shouted seeing her son bound in a blanket and gagged.
"We couldn't get him to come with us. And he's injured, Mama," Pepa said prompting Julieta to run to the kitchen. Felix was having a hard time holding on as Bruno squirmed and twisted as much as possible, still screaming through the gag.
"Set him down," Julieta said coming back with a bit of bread, it was the first thing she just grabbed in her panic. Afraid he'd end up dropping his brother-in-law if he tried to put him on the floor, Felix made his way to the dining table and laid him on top.
Bruno screamed and tried to get up, kicking and slamming his feet against the table. Agustin and Camilo helped Felix hold him down. They could now see the part of the blanket covering his chest and arms was drenched in blood. "Oh Bruno," Julieta whispered with worry about to take the gag off.
"Careful," Felix said to Julieta, who reached to take off the gag. "He might bite your fingers off." It was a bad choice of words. Bruno's face went from a look of rage to nausea. He stopped moving feeling his stomach go queasy. Everyone paused in confusion before he convulsed and started to vomit into his mouth. Julieta quickly pulled the gag off and the guys let go, allowing Bruno to turn on his side and expel the contents of his stomach.
His sister rubbed his back making him shudder from the touch, but he couldn't stop her as he retched. When he was done, he laid back on the table for a moment breathing heavily. With the adrenaline pumping through his veins, Bruno could not really register the pain he was in. His thoughts were purely focused on getting away. Being surrounded by so many people, as they crowded around and held him down once more, made it that much worse.
From the blood loss, Bruno became delirious. The fight against Felix and horse ride home convinced him that he was in worse danger than before. These people weren't his family, they couldn't be with all that they were doing to him. He didn't know who they were. But if they were anything like the people who had sliced him up and raped him, he had to get away.
Being laid out on the table left him exposed to the people around him. They'd hurt him if he didn't get away. He could hear phantom laughter ringing in his ears as they spoke to each other. The hands holding him down felt like knives against his sensitive flesh. Food was placed on his lips, trying to coax him to eating it.
If he was healed, then they would just move on to another torture. So he refused to eat it keeping his mouth closed and turning his head. "Bruno, you're hurt. You need to eat this," Julieta pleaded. "You could die." She cried saying her worst fear out loud. He refused.
Felix pinched Bruno's nose closed to get him to open his mouth. Bruno tried to move his head back and forth to dislodge the hand keeping him from breathing, then Pepa held his head to keep him from moving. Finally he opened his mouth to breath and Julieta was able to get food in. Only for him to quickly spit it out.
Everyone was at the end of their rope. No one understood why this was happening or why Bruno refused their help. They had done wrong with the Andre situation, but they didn't think that warranted this behavior. Even Pepa and Felix, who knew he had been tortured, were frustrated that he was refusing the family. They were trying to help and it should be obvious to him.
Seeing everyone despair, Camilo made a bad decision. He recalled when he was went to Andre's house to rescue his sister and Tio. The look on Bruno's face when he looked at what he thought was Andre, was something the teen didn't want to believe. It looked like hope. Which meant, on some level, Bruno trusted Andre.
Camilo couldn't understand how his Tio could trust the person that made him suffer, but he would use it. Bruno obliviously didn't trust the family, so the teen felt this was the only other option. As Julieta tried to get Bruno to eat another piece of bread, Camilo morphed to look like Andre shocking everyone. "Eat the damn bread Bruno!" he boomed.
Bruno froze in fear and eyes wide staring at Andre. He was there before back at the house, and now he was here. It was confusing, perhaps a dream. But then, Bruno didn't really know what was real anymore. Andre was alive, but then he wasn't. Andre was here, but then not. His head felt dizzy and he couldn't comprehend it.
Real or not, Andre could be here. At least with his family, if Bruno gave them enough trouble, they would give up on him. But not Andre, that man would do anything to get Bruno to do what he was told. The risk outweighed the reward, so Bruno ate the bread.
Everyone was relieved, but it hurt that Bruno complied with a monster. Camilo morphed back and watched as his Tio began to cry. He cried unabashed in front of everyone. His chest heaved as loud sobs filled the room.
In Bruno's mind he was doomed. Andre had come for him, and it felt like the entire ordeal of what he experienced was coming around full circle. It would start again. Surely he was stuck in a loop of never ending hell. Only this time, his family proved they didn't want him and now Andre would have him for the rest of his life.
Bruno's only comfort in this was that it may be the path with the least amount of pain. Val and Daz promised pain. His family promised heartache. But with Andre, it was simple. Do what he was told and just maybe it would be okay. As he wept, he wondered if he could live with that. He'd have to, but he was so scared.
He felt himself being lifted off the table and held in someone's arms. It only made him cry harder. Andre was going to take him and Bruno knew nothing could stop him.
"We should clean him up," Pepa suggested as Bruno was still covered in blood and, unnoticeably, dried cum. Agustin held his brother-in-law ready to take him to the bathroom, but then Abuela stopped him.
"Put him in the nursery to calm down a little before that," Abuela said trying to maintain her emotions. But it was hard to even pretend to be okay. "We all need time to calm down." She needed to calm down, and she could tell no one else was dealing with this any better.
They nursery had been fix by Casita, with a few changes requested by Alma. There was no furniture besides the bed, and the window had bars on it to keep Bruno in and potential danger out. Felix and Agustin tied Bruno down to the bed for his and everyone else's safety. The small man only cried and pulled at his binds weakly making everyone feel regretful for the last 24 hours.
Leaving Bruno alone in the nursery. The rest of the family gathered in the courtyard. Pepa sent Antonio to his room; he had already been involved enough and seen too much as it was. Everyone talked amongst themselves until Alma was ready to address them.
"What happened?" Abuela asked Pepa and Felix while everyone went silent to listen. That is when Casita finally let Maria and her sons in. "What is she doing here? You aren't supposed to be in the encanto."
Then everything was explained. It took a few hours and nightfall came. Maria told the truth of her involvement. She wanted revenge for her husband's death and hoped Bruno would say who had killed him. Val had promised she could get the information, but the cost was too high.
It was hard to tell such a close family about the torture of one of their own. "From what I heard and saw. They beat him, cut him up, mutilated his-" she could only gesture to her nether region, feeling tears prick her eyes at everyone's horrified expressions. "He was raped and tortured by all of Val's friends. Then they healed him, so that Daz could have a turn."
Dolores was in tears remembering what she heard. "He screamed so much," she cried. Felix enclosed her in a hug and rubbed her back. Pepa was feeling particularly murderous now. Not only had her brother suffered the unimaginable, but her daughter heard it all.
Pepa was currently ready to kill Maria for having a part in it; it did not matter that she had switched sides to help them. But Dolores stepped in saying that she and Camilo would have been killed without Maria. It was the only thing that kept Maria and her sons safe.
Dolores and Camilo got the chance to tell their side of things and when they were done the whole family felt worse than before. Bruno had been brutally raped again and now tortured. He was worse off than before and there was little hope for him to ever be the same again. Everyone was in tears and anger, but all those to blame were dead. So they could do nothing but focus on the victim and try to help.
Alma allowed Maria and her sons to stay at Casita overnight, although she did not like them. They only just redeemed themselves by helping Bruno. And it became obvious that Maria had been misled by Andre and thought she was helping when she wasn't. And with Maria there, Alma was able to get more information about Bruno's time with Andre.
Under Abuela's line of questioning Maria felt she couldn't offer much. Only the little information she had, as she understood it now. Andre had been manipulating and forcing Bruno to act as a sexual partner, and Andre had every intention of killing the Madrigals in order to maintain his relationship.
Eventually, Isabela finally got up the nerve to ask her own question. "Did Tio Bruno say who killed Dante?"
Maria shook her head. "He must love you all very much. Anyone would have given up that information after all they had done to him. But he didn't, he insisted that it was him who killed Dante. I'd believe he had, if it still mattered."
"I did it," Isabela confessed, determined. "I regretted it for a while too. But, if I hadn't of done it, he would have come back to our home. And I couldn't risk him hurting, taking, or killing my family."
Maria was stunned to finally find her husband's killer, but it was in self defense, so she could not lay much blame. The Madrigals were truly caring people, and Dante was foolish for trying to capture them. If anyone should be blamed, perhaps if should be Andre, who misled them; or Dante for ignoring the red flags Andre showed. Her sons were of the same thought process. So she nodded and spoke to confirm it was true, "He would have done so, I'm so sorry."
Within the time it took to get all the information to figure out the situation they were in with Bruno; the candle had been flickering. There was unrest in the family. Negative feelings and thoughts went through all of them. Mirabel paced and fretted in the courtyard worriedly. Bruno was in terrible condition, and much of the family was not fairing well either. The candle was warning them. The family was not handling anything properly, especially not Bruno, and if it went on any longer it could break not only him, but the miracle itself.