When the rest of the family returned in the evening, Abuela went to the nursery to check on her son, only to find that he was not there. Panic built up in her chest and she swiftly called for Agustin and Felix. "Where is Bruno?!" She shouted running to the court yard.
From the balcony, Felix called down to her, "Sorry Abuela! He's in Isabela's room." They had meant to take Bruno back to the nursery before Alma returned, but he was refusing to go back.
Alma was not pleased to hear this. She had ensured to make the nursery the most secure place in Casita and she wanted him to stay there for his protection. She could not stand the thought of anything else bad happening to him. She wasn't ready for another catastrophe.
In a huff, Abuela rapidly made her way upstairs passing various family members as they watched curiously. No one else was alarmed by Bruno being out of the room; they assumed that was a good thing. It meant he was improving and feeling safe enough to be out of the nursery. Agustin and Felix stood by Isabel's door ready to explain, but the old woman did not want to listen. She barged into the room to find her son messing with his niece's cacti.
"Bruno!" Alma shouted upset. He startled, accidentally pricking his finger on a cactus. "You should be in the nursery where it's safe."
"Don't worry Abuela," Isabela said coming from another part of the room. "It's really safe in here."
"It's not safe enough," the old woman complained grabbing Bruno's wrist to check his hand for injuries. Seeing the prickle in his finger, she made easy work of pulling it out. He tried to pull away from her, still not liking to be touched especially when being forced. "He could harm himself on one of your plants if he had one of his outbursts."
Isabela supposed that was possible, although it was far reaching. She had been watching him the entire time and would have made sure that didn't happen. Alma pulled her son with her as she made her way out of the room. He pulled back but didn't want to fight her too hard, not wanting to hurt his mother.
She started dragging him down the stairs and he instantly knew then that they were going to the nursery. "Mama wait," He tired to stop her. Seeing what was happening, Felix and Agustin followed trying to intervene. Abuela had been under a lot of stress over Bruno's well being and would not budge on most things when it came to him, so there was little hope to stop her.
When they got closer to the open door of the nursery, Bruno could see the ghostly figures of his assailants and began pulling harder to get away. "Mama! Stop!" He shouted. Alma let go, unable to hold on as he pulled and jerked away.
"Casita!" she ordered and the house instantly made waves with the floor tiles moving a now panicking and yelling Bruno toward the room and pushed him inside, shutting the door.
"Abuela!" Felix yelled pleadingly. "He doesn't want to be in there. He's afraid of the room."
"What's there to be afraid of?" she questioned. "He has been fine and safe in there for the last week. Why is he suddenly unhappy with it?"
"He's been hallucinating the people who abused him," Agustin explained. "He's said they're in there. He said Andre is in there and he hurts him."
"All the more reason for him to be in a space where he can't actually be hurt," Abuela argued. "Hallucinations not real, so it can not hurt him. But there are real dangers outside of the nursery that can and I will not risk anymore harm to him."
"It's real to him!" Felix insisted.
"It does not compare to what is actually real!" Abuela yelled in frustration. "Did you forget?! He tried to kill himself! And it was more than once! He almost succeeded the last time. Would you rather he be dead?"
Everyone was rendered silent, as she continued, "Bruno cuts and scratches himself bloody. He hits his head on walls and tables until he passes out. How many more times must he hurt himself before you realize how serious this is? How many more times will he actively trying to kill himself before you decide it is enough? Because I have reached my limit."
"He's trying mama," Julieta said softly seeing how upset her mother was.
"I won't be fooled by a little effort on his part. It has only been a week. I see the pain and fear in his eyes everyday. He is not well. You all should know better than to let him wander this house after what happened last time. He is safe in the nursery and that is where he will stay."
Inside the room Bruno sat on the floor, backed up against the door surrounded by Daz, Valentina, and the four others. He didn't know who the four others were, he only remembered how they had viciously beaten and violated him. His chest heaved and his heart raced as they loomed over his cowering form. "Please," he begged with tears in his eyes.
Andre crouched down next to him, to get on his victim's level. The madman made an offer, "Tell me you love me and you hate your family." Bruno looked at him with wide terrified tearful eyes and shook his head. "You're mother just forced you into this room with us. Can't you see she doesn't care about you?"
"S-She's j-just worried," Bruno stuttered in terror. A few of his rats scurried around him and Andre looked down at them in disgust.
"I keep hearing excuses little mouse," Andre said glaring up at him. He placed his hand on the his lover's cheek.
"This isn't real. None of of you are real," Bruno told them, even as he felt the hand caressing his skin. Andre sighed looking at him sadly.
"Then why can you feel this?" He slapped the smaller man across the face and it stung.
"It's in my head," Bruno sobbed. "It's just a memory."
"Then let's see how good your memory is," Andre growled standing and letting the other's advance. "When you want me back, say you hate your family."
Back outside the room Abuela started to go to the stairs, ready to skip dinner and just retire to bed. Her nerves were shot and she couldn't take anymore arguing. But before she would make it to the first step she looked up to see the candle flicker and then suddenly cracks broke into the walls.
Everyone paused in silence knowing that the family was breaking more by Abuela's stubbornness. Even the woman herself knew it, but she didn't know what else to do. She just wanted her son to be safe and this was the only way she knew how.
"Mama," Julieta said softly taking the old woman's hand. "Let the family help him. It will be okay." Before Alma could respond or agree, a blood curdling shriek resounded from the nursery. Felix ran for the door as fast as he could throwing it open.
In the middle of the room, Bruno was laying face down on the floor with his eyes screwed shut. He convulsed feeling every bit of pain he had experienced when he was tortured. They were hitting and scratching at him. Their laughter rang in his ears and it was the only thing he could hear. Valentina's knife dug deep inside of him, fucking into him. The searing sharp slice of the blade made him cry out in agony. Daz reached underneath him tugging at his cock roughly, adding to his torment.
Everything burned, ached, and stung in unimaginably ways. It felt like he was reliving his torture all over again. His rats panicked and scurried around the room not understanding what was going on. When one touched him, he recoiled jerking his body away; making the other rats afraid to touch him again, for fear that they would accidentally hurt him.
Felix quickly grabbed Bruno, only for him to scream in agony from the contact. The small man trembled and jerked his limbs in different directions unable to control his movement as he desperately tried to endure the phantom pain. Every touch to his skin made it that much worse, mixing what was real and not, together.
Felix tried to get his brother-in-law into a sitting position, but Bruno would not stop moving and screaming. The larger man quickly got behind him and wrapped his arms around the smaller man's upper arms to minimize his movements.
"Stop! Stop!" Bruno screamed and sobbed kicking his feet out against the floor. Agustin joined to help, grabbing his legs. The struggling man kept his eyes tightly shut and ground his teeth as his suffering continued with no end in sight. The worst of it being the horrific pain of a knife sliding in and out of him. It felt like it would never stop.
Felix and Agustin lifted Bruno together and brought him out of the room, in the hopes that he would feel like he got away from the people hurting him. Abuela stood by, along with the rest of the family, distressed while watching the horrific scene. Their suffering family member screamed and cried as they brought him into the courtyard and placed him on the floor to hold him down until his outburst passed.
Unable to handle the agony any longer he heaved against his in-laws one last time and bellowed, "I hate you!". Suddenly the pain was gone and he went limp. Bruno breathed heavily, trying to catch his breath, as he listened to Andre's sinister laughing from nearby.
After a minute, Felix and Agustin let go of him thinking it was over for now. Bruno opened his eyes, to see his family watching him with disturbed expressions. "Tell them to their faces," Andre ordered. "Tell them how much you hate them and I promise no one will ever touch you again. I will protect you."
Bruno turned away from his family to look at Andre with tears in his eyes and shook his head. "I don't hate them!" He shouted into the silence of the courtyard, as everyone remained stunned. He pulled himself up on his hands and knees, feeling wobbly from his torment. His in-laws hovered in case he needed help getting up.
Feeling the overwhelming crushing horror of everything that had happened to him and seeing the person who started it all still there even after death. It was not fair. Bruno fisted his hair in his hands and yanked harshly. It was all too much. It wasn't right and it wasn't fair. Why did he have to go through this over and over again? Why did it never end?
He wailed, a loud guttural sound that hurt more than just Dolores' ears. He let all of his pain out in that one sound, screaming until his throat burned and he ran out of breath. It echoed against Casita's walls and the magic doors until there was silence once again.
His family were taken aback not knowing what to do. His voice came out raspy as he spoke to Andre in a sad, almost defeated, voice, "I don't hate them. I hate you." His family didn't understand what he was talking about or who he was addressing, but they didn't have to ponder long.
"Andre, why are you here?" Bruno asked. "I thought you had gone, but then you came back when they-"
"-raped and tortured you." Andre finished for him, taking the words from his victims mouth to save the poor man the trouble of saying out loud. "You needed saving and I was the only one available."
"My family saved me," Bruno said as his tears dripped on to the floor.
"Technically, you saved yourself. They just imprisoned you after," Andre commented in a practical manner.
"Please leave me alone," The small trembling man sobbed. "It doesn't matter that I'm trapped here in this prison. It's better than suffering alone." Abuela felt guilty hearing this. It was hard to learn that her son felt so terribly confined. She was only trying to help.
"I can't," the madman responded. "If I go then Daz and Val will get you." This only made Bruno cry harder. "Tell you're family you hate them and I promise you that no one will ever hurt you again."
"I don't need you!" Bruno argued pushing past his sorrow. He wiped at his tears and looked up at the other man. "My family is trying their best. It doesn't matter that their efforts don't always work, or that some of the things they do scare me. I can see how much they care. And that is something you will never understand!"
"They can't protect you like I can!" Andre argued. "They can't save you!"
"They already have saved me!" Bruno shouted. "They save me everyday that they don't give up on me." He sighed then, and glanced as his worried looking family for a moment before looking back at his true tormentor. "All I want is to be free from this mess. I want things to go back the way they were before I met you. I want to go back to reconnecting with my family. I just want to be happy. So, please. Please leave me alone so I can try."
"Leave him alone Andre," Mirabel said to the empty space in front of her Tio. She stood next to him and Bruno looked at her confused then back at Andre, who looked offended. Could she see him?
"Go away and never bother my Tio again!" Camilo shouted standing at Bruno's other side. The teen wasn't quite looking in the right direction, and looking closely at Mirabel, she wasn't either. But it didn't seem to matter because Andre was getting pissed.
"You'll never talk to my brother again as long as I'm around," Pepa said determined. The others began to yell and shout at what they could not see. They did it for Bruno, and he almost couldn't believe it. They were yelling at something that they didn't even believe was real. They were doing it for him.
The biggest shock was when his mother took his hand and stood her ground shouting at Andre. It was surreal. He could feel the love they were projecting he as they tried to protect him. And it was the first overwhelming emotion he felt that he was actually okay with.
"I hope you're happy with this decision little mouse," Andre said loudly shouting over the crowd before disappearing. Bruno let out a breath of relief and squeezed his mother's hand to let her know it was over. She quickly calmed everyone down.
"Are you okay Brunito?" Alma asked taking his face him her hands. He shook his head no, because he honestly wasn't. She pulled him into a gentle hug and he looked beyond his family to see his ghostly assailants as they angrily kept their distance. He was scared, but he knew that if his family could help him get rid of Andre, then Daz and Val would eventually disperse too.
That night, Alma let Bruno decide where he wanted to sleep. He chose to sleep among Isabela's flowers in her room, much to his mother's displeasure. But Abuela allowed it knowing that he needed more freedom, but made her granddaughter promise to keep him safe.
The scent of the flowers and the thought of his family kept him safe in his dreams. No matter how much Daz and Val tried to get him, they could not. Bruno's family interfered at every negative turn the dream took. And for the first time in along time, Bruno actually got some decent sleep.