Summary: How do they get themselves into these situations?
Oh wait that would be my fault.
Earlier that day
Bruno was laying on his hammock in his room mulling over the door in the tower that led to a church that was not the church in the Encanto. There were still several hours until the dreaded 'meeting' and since he didn't want to think about that he was lying here thinking about that door. Whatever was behind it spooked his mother, this of course only made him more curious as to what was there. He was waiting for the family to disperse so he could go and investigate it further. Over the years he'd had visions of things he could neither explain nor put words to, but Bruno assumed they were of things outside the Encanto. That being the case, he decided he had some knowledge of the outside, and therefor he was imminently qualified to check it out. He really was very interested in finding out if the some of the gadgets brought by the newcomers were as common as they said.
The thing he was most interested in getting his hands on was a transistor radio. Like the flashlight the doctor used it ran on batteries. Another thing he was fascinated by. Portable power…Félix was equally as interested and had insisted the Encanto needed electricity, but not from the city, it would be too difficult to run the wires needed through the mountains. Since there were no roads leading here, getting the necessary equipment was going to be the real challenge.
After making sure he wasn't carrying any rats, he poked his head out and noted Abuela and Dolores were heading to the kitchen, Camilo, Isa, Mira and Agustín were still in town. Juli, Pepa and Félix were going out into town, Luisa was probably still in her room and Antonio was playing a game with his animals and waved to him as Bruno left his room.
He waved back and waited for his sobrino to look away before he headed up to the tower. Every step up the spiral stairs, he knocked on the wooden rail until he reached the top. He'd had no more spontys with regard to these doors, but this red one had been featured prominently in all of the ones about this room. He stopped in front of it. He reached up and felt the wooden surface, but resisted the urge to knock on it. As he reached for the handle, Casita rattled the tiles above it and Bruno was surprised to realize that Casita was telling him to be cautious.
"I'll take care, Casita," he said as he slowly pushed open the door with one hand. Bruno could immediately smell the burning candle wax and incense. Definitely a church he thought as he stepped through and moved forward. He did not look back as the door quietly closed behind him.
After supper Félix and Agustín were walking with a group of the builders through the area where the children were rescued earlier in the day trying to determine the cause of the roof collapse. While it had been quite rainy the past few weeks, it was nothing Pepa had caused. Whatever the change, her ability to localize her weather was spot on so something else was to blame. Agustín's foot caught on something small, and he almost toppled over. The only reason he did not was that Félix grabbed the collar of his shirt before he went too far,
"Thanks," Agustín said adjusting his vest.
"You're welcome, brother," Félix said.
Agustín looked down to see what his foot caught on and picked up a small bag. He hefted it, and thought marbles? He pocketed the item and they continued on. They reached the house and went in. The dust had settled for the most part and with the roof missing it was clear to Félix what had happened. Someone had chiseled chunks of the stone near the joint, weakening it just enough that when it fell it would look like an accident. If it had been an adult in here when the ceiling first gave way, they probably would have pushed on it in an attempt to escape. This surely would have caused the rest to collapse. The kids were just too afraid to move or even scream so that did not happen. Other items collected were the errant shoe, some loose string and half of the trompo top it had been attached to. They inspected several other homes but did not see that sort of damage. The fact that it appeared to be intentional was more than a little disturbing. The light was starting to fail so they went back to the middle of town. Usually there would be several unattended kids playing near the great oak, but tonight, parents were being cautious. Those kids that were out were under the watchful eye of an older sibling or parent.
Pepa had asked them to keep an eye out for Bruno, but their cuñado was nowhere in town. While it was possible he was out in the fields, it seemed unlikely that he would not have come back by now. That is, if he wanted to. As they headed back toward Casita, Félix was telling Agustín about what they'd found in the tower. The locked door, the door to the cemetery chapel and the one Alma said went to a church. Pepi told him later that her mother was of the mind that it was not the church in the Encanto."
Agustín stopped before they reached Casita's steps and looked up at the tower and asked, "Félix, was Bruno interested in any of them in particular?"
"Not especially, but I was headed to the cemetery chapel when they were looking at the others," Félix responded.
Agustín and Bruno had been friends since they were kids. He'd spent so much time at Juli stall in town that it was inevitable that he would get to know Bruno. He always seemed to be on the outside of everything, looking in. Never quite finding his place, except with his sisters. Agustín could tell by the way Juli and Pepa talked about him that they adored their little brother, and worried about his increasing isolation. That is not to say Bruno did not have his faults. He could be downright exasperating when he chose to be and sometimes even when he didn't. You either loved him or hated him, there just didn't seem to be a middle ground with him.
By the time Agustín started fourth grade, the unkind attitudes of some adults had already started to filter down to their children. Agustín being a klutz of the highest order knew how that felt since his accidents did not win him any points with others either. While Agustín wondered what it would be like to not be swollen, sore and bruised every single day. Bruno started to wonder what it would be like to leave the Encanto and never come back. The only time that changed was when the kids were born. Each one gave him the thing he thought he'd lost. The unconditional love of his family. Things were less tense for a while as Bruno was really enjoying being the best Tío ever…until that glowing door appeared one morning a few weeks before Isa's fifth birthday.
When Alma saw it, she was very excited, but the triplets were not as overly thrilled. They knew what that door meant and what it could potentially mean for all the grandkids. The triplets had always been hard workers and found comfort in their, up until then, non-magical children. When Isa first got her Gift, there followed several months of uncontrolled plant growth…everywhere. That's when Alma's controlling tendencies started to take over. What started out as helping Isa be mindful and better control her emotions so she wouldn't hurt anyone, turned into Alma wanting her to make nothing but flowers. Not just any flowers, but perfect flowers. That morphed into her not just wanting but needing Isa to be perfect all the time. It did not help that his oldest was a people pleaser in general and wanted nothing more than to make her Abuela smile.
Félix turned back when he noticed Agustín was still looking up at the tower and said, "You don't think, Bruno…"
Agustín looked at Félix and then back up at the tower, "Not a doubt in my mind," he said and started toward the steps. Casita opened the door for them, and they went inside to find out if Bruno had returned.
All the Madrigal grandkids except Antonio were sitting in Isa's room talking about their upcoming adventure. Antonio was with Abuela downstairs reading a book. Mirabel explained the plan that was actually pretty simple. Once they found the people they were looking for, they would need to distract or scare off whoever was following and or chasing them. Tío Bruno was not sure which it was. He did, however, emphasize they needed to be extremely careful. The followers had weapons that could kill them from a distance, similar to the ones some of the newcomers had brought with them. Abuela didn't take the weapons, but she did take the ammunition as a condition for them to remain. That had been stored in the tower but since Casita's re-awakening it was nowhere to be found.
Isabela demonstrated her research into carnivorous plants by making a ridiculously large sundew, which snapped at her until she made it dissipate. Luisa was doing pushups with Mirabel sitting on her back while scribbling notes on a piece of paper she had setting on Tío Bruno's vision tablet. Getting winded today had rattled her a bit. Said she needed to build up her endurance again.
Camilo was sitting on the bed apparently thinking about how he could incorporate his shapeshifting into this scenario and was absently shifting from one form to another. Most were people they all knew. A few were just Camilo of various size. Dolores's part was very straight forward, she would be the one to lead them toward the people. She'd been focusing on that area on and off since Mira brought it up to her and so far, she'd not heard anything. Or at least not anything that would indicate people, which to her meant they were still too far off.
Mirabel read through her lists. They were probably going to need to bring food. She was going to need to talk to her mother before they left. She'd toyed with just taking what was needed but realized that would only make her parents worry unnecessarily. Tía Pepa had a lot more knowledge of the wooded parts of the Encanto, so she'd need to speak to her as well. She paused in her head when she realized Luisa was no longer moving. Looking down she saw her sister was asleep. Mira carefully got up and threw a flower at Isabela to get her attention.
Isa turned and came over. "Out cold," she said.
"Yeah, you think she'll be alright?" Mirabel asked.
"She'll be fine," Isa said. "She just needs to rest." Isabela waved a hand and a bed of roses formed and raised Luisa off the floor. Dolores came over and put a blanket over her. "Just like the good old days, huh Isa?"
Isabela smiled and tucked Luisa under the blanket. Her smile faltered when something else occurred to her and Mirabel shivered. She'd suddenly gotten a chill and Isa changed the subject by saying, "So what's next?"
That was weird, Mirabel thought but the feeling quickly passed, and she asked, "How about this?" and held up the vision tablet.
Isa made a large flat mushroom table with toadstools for everyone to sit on and Mira set the vision tablet in the center. Camilo leaned on the table and looked at it with obvious interest. He'd never seen one before and lifted a corner. The image moved slightly, and he pulled his hand back. Initial shock over, he lifted it again and turned it over. The image was still there but was duller.
"Wow, Tío's gift is…pretty amazing. I wonder if this is real emerald?" Camilo asked.
"No idea, does that actually matter?" Mira said.
"It might, I mean if it is real emerald then Luisa won't have to worry about getting money to go to school," Camilo said
"Wait what?" Isa asked.
"Yeah. If you think about it, we could sell them and use that to make improvements to the Encanto."
"That's not a bad idea, little brother," Dolores said.
"Maybe," Mirabel said and frowned. "My biggest problem with that, is knowing how much it takes out of Tío just to make these."
"Yeah, I see your point but-" Camilo stopped when Isa thwacked his arm.
"But nothing. we're not here to discuss that anyway," Isabela said. "Did Tío give you any kind of time frame for this?"
"No, he just said they were in danger but not imminent danger," Mirabel said crossing her arms.
"And?" Camilo asked.
"And nothing," Mira added, "He did not explain that either."
"That's the problem with prophecy, just not enough detail," Isa said and sat on one of the stools with a sigh, "Though it looks like there's are a lot more details in this one."
"What do you mean?"
Isabela picked up the tablet, tilting it and said, "I mean the pictures before the break were a lot less defined than this one. This one has a lot of depth to it. I mean they would have some movement to them, but nothing like this," she said as she tilted it again.
Dolores sat next to Isa and said, "I personally don't think we should head out until we can talk to Tío about this. Given what we do know about Tío's Gift," she said carefully, "Whatever this is depicting, will happen. That's the only part we can be sure of. It's the things we don't know that are potentially dangerous. Like, what or who is she looking at? How does it get to this point? Is she a good person or the one who took these children? Does she need helping or is she the one we need to be wary of?" No one responded to that, so Dolores continued, "Mira you mentioned Tío made some sketches, do you happen to have any of them?"
"Not here but I have some in my room," Mirabel said, "I'll go get them." She walked out and looked over the rail to see Abuela and Antonio were both asleep in the big, overstuffed chair. Either Antonio was getting bigger or Abuela was shrinking. Someone had come by and thrown a blanket over them. She arrived at her door and went in. She looked at the floor briefly, she'd decided to leave the floor depiction of the Encanto uncovered and was weirdly reluctant to cross over it to her desk. She took a step and heard what sounded like tiny screams. She looked over to the window. Casita was quickly wobbling the shutters making the hinge squeak. Mirabel shivered and said nervously, "Ya got me, Casita," she said as she suppressed a frown. Nervous now, she walked over the town and picked up the sheets. She rolled them up together and started back to the door. This time her steps were accompanied by the sound of breaking stone and Mira stopped dead and crouched down. Her hands were firmly over her ears but still that sound filled head, and when she closed her eyes, it was all she could see. Casita shattering in front of her.
"Please stop, Casita," Mirabel whispered, but the sounds and images still kept flooding her brain. Why won't it stop? Her heart was pounding and all she wanted to do was scream, but no sounds would come out. Someone make it stop!
A gentle hand touched her face and whispered; 'You are safe, Elegida, do not be afraid.' The voice pushed the sounds and images back long enough for Mirabel to cautiously open her eyes and uncover her ears. She looked up. There was no one there. Everything was normal and Mirabel took a few really deep breaths. Her eyes fell on the door to the hall, and she could see, the lower butterfly, like her was crouched down with legs covering its eyes. She heaved a last sigh and blinked. The butterfly was back to normal. She stood up, realizing she was crushing the sketches and said, "I love you Casita, but you have one warped sense of humor. Can we please, please, please never do that again?"
The answering clatter of tiles was gentle, also contrite and Mirabel smiled. "It's okay, I know you weren't trying to frighten me. Would've been a great prank if I hadn't freaked out on you. Not sure what happened there." But even as she said it, Mirabel knew what it was. She was, just for that moment, reliving that terrible moment.
Once her hands stopped shaking, she went back to Isa's room and Isabela asked, "You get lost on the long journey down the hall?"
"No, sorry, just got distracted looking at the Encanto on the floor in my room," Mirabel said hurriedly as she set the papers on the table. Dolores was leaning in and whispering to her sister, who looked at her. Isa was giving her that calculating look she used on her when they were with Abuela Valentina, and Mirabel had to work to keep that smile on her face.
After they spread the sketches on the table, everyone took a few and the only sound for a good while were the sounds of shuffling papers and murmurs. Mirabel had already looked at all of them so was sitting on the bed, staring at nothing with her hands in fists in her lap. Her left hand was forced open as the petals of a cactus flower bloomed there, and Mirabel looked over to where Isa was, and her sister lifted an eyebrow as she smiled and pointed from her eyes toward Mirabel.
Isa knew and that meant Mira really wasn't alone with her secret anymore.
Well, Isa did say she would haunt her. Mira returned the smile and placed the flower in her hair. The thing somehow attached itself to the strands and remained in place when she took her hand away. She came back over to the table when there was knock on the door and Casita opened it. Two sets of parents were there, but it was the look of concern on her Tío Felix's face that made her nervous. They all came in and her mother asked, "Have any of you seen Tío Bruno today?"
There were a chorus of 'No' and her mother frowned and nodded. Tía Pepa's cloud darkened to the point where thunder could be heard. Casita clattered a desk drawer and Mira and her mother both said, "He what?!"