Los Malvados Part Two:
Mirabel sat up with a gasp, that was the worst nightmare she had ever had, and she was no stranger to nightmares. Brina rolled over in the other bed and cracked open a single eye, "Is something wrong?" she asked sleepily.
"No, not really," Mirabel muttered, "I just, I don't know what to do," she admitted, "If I don't go, I won't be allowed to continue my training here, and if I can't continue my training, then I won't be able to continue staying here, but if I do go, it… I don't know if I'll be able to forgive them."
"The important thing is to try," Brina pointed out, "At least you have a home to go home to. If I suddenly got suspended from here, I'll have nowhere to go, same with Zeke, and Sara, and…"
"I get it this school might as well be an orphanage."
"It wasn't so bad until the war started," Brina whispered, her eyes growing round as if she was suddenly back in the city during an air raid.
"Hey, none of that," Mirabel older, nudging her with her toe, "Not only are you safe, but the war's over, everybody knows that."
"For now!" Brina snapped, "Haven't you heard about the Cold War that the United States and Soviet Union entered? It's the Great War all over again! One Shot and we'll be in another World War."
"They renamed the Great War as World War 1, this last war was World War 2."
"And if the Cold War turns into an actual war, it will probably be World War 3!"
Mirabel shook her head, "I just hope that I'll be old enough to actually be in the next war."
"What! They'll never let you join, you're female!"
"I'm a witch!" Mirabel snapped, her eyes flashing, "Besides, Princess Elizabeth joined."
"There's very little they'll let women do in the army, and you aren't a witch yet. You're a trainee, you aren't considered a full witch until you receive your crystal, which you won't be able to get unless you go home and make amends with your family. Think about it, Mirabel. You're the strongest in our year group. Heck, you almost beat your Grandfather's old record in Duel! You're the first one to tie with it in the fifty-four years since he set it! And you are six years younger than him when he set it. Your Grandfather saved hundreds of lives in his life. Imagine what you could do if you complete your training. You could prevent wars!"
Mirabel sighed, "You're right, I guess," she admitted, "I do want to help people just like Abuelo did."
"Then you know what you need to do?"
"Yeah," Mirabel let out a loud sigh, as she opened the wardrobe, "I have to go back to Encanto. How am I even going to get there? It's a magical sanctuary I can't book a flight or boat to get there."
"Don't you know a teleportation spell?" Brina asked, "We studied them a couple of weeks ago?"
"Yeah, it's simple enough," Mirabel muttered, picking up a book from her nightstand, "Let's see, we'll need the runes for Travel, Light, and Speed."
"Safe, don't forget safe! Something horrible might happen if you forget to add a safety rune to a spell, everybody knows that."
"That's just an old wife tale," Mirabel insisted, "But… just in case… I don't want to end up in the path of a gunshot or anything… All I need is a destination, hopefully, I remember what Casita looks like. The more accurate it is, the closer to it I'll get."
"You might want to pack some clothes," Brina pointed out, "And change unless you want to risk having to hike around in the Colombian Rainforest in your nightgown."
Mirabel rolled her eyes before quickly changing out of her nightgown and into a pair of khaki pants, high tops, and a beige button-down shirt.
"Ugg," Brina cried out behind her, "You haven't seen your family in over five years, and you're going dressed as if you just got out of the trenches?"
Mirabel glanced at her outfit in the full-size mirror, "You're right, I better wear blue, that's Mama's color anyway," she admitted before focusing on her clothes as her pants turned from Khaki to dark blue and her beige top turned into a baby blue, "There, hopefully, that will be enough for them to recognize me."
After changing her clothes, she stuck the rest of them into her small shoulder bag that she always carried with her, along with her spare sewing kit and several books, "Right, all I need to do is leave now."
"Don't you want to come down to breakfast first?" Brina asked.
"Nah, I'll eat when I get there," Mirabel said, picking up her sewing kit and a plain white handkerchief, "All I need now is the Teleportation spell."
"Don't forget the Safety Rune," Brina reminded her as she headed down to breakfast.
…
Mirabel double-checked that she had the correct combination of runes and that she made them all correctly, a single mistake could change the whole spell and shouldered her bag which looked empty even though she had stuffed all of her personal stuff in there. It was light too, she loved personal hidden dimension spells and couldn't wait until she would finally be able to do it herself, but it was a master-level spell so she couldn't yet.
"Okay," Mirabel said, adjusting her glasses nervously, "Here we go, For Mr. Vhinstone, for my crystal, and a little bit for me," she admitted before throwing the finished handkerchief up into the air and catching it.
The moment her hand curled around the handkerchief she was no longer inside her dorm room, she was outside, in the dark, with the moon hanging overhead staring at a house that tentatively waved a shutter at her.
"Hola Casita," Mirabel muttered, "Guess who's back and totally forgot about the time difference between The UK and Colombia. What time is it?"
Casita threw open the front door and pretty much shoved the teenager in, bouncing a clock over to her, "Three-Thirty?" she gasped, "Wow, I guess, I'll just hang out with you until…" she trailed off as up on the second-floor balcony doors swung open by themselves, "No, Casita don't wake…" Footsteps could be heard, "Everyone up," Mirabel sighed, glaring at the house.
A woman with graying black hair stepped out of one of the rooms, wrapped in a blue robe, "Yes, is there an emergency? What's wrong?"
"No, there's no emergency, nothing's wrong, go back to sleep, I don't know why Casita is acting like thi… whoa, Casita knock it off!"
Julieta frowned, not quite believing whoever it was that was down below, getting bounced around by Casita. Casita wouldn't have allowed someone inside the house this late at night unless it was an emergency. Unless, of course, it was a family member, but it didn't sound like one of the kids getting caught sneaking back in. She knew from first-hand experience that Casita would happily let you back into the house only to wake Mama up.
"What's going on Julieta?" a sharp voice called out as her Madre appeared from her room, wrapped in a black shawl.
"I don't know, I think it's Camilo disguised as someone else, trying to hide the fact that he snuck out, "Camilo I know it's you!"
"That's not Camilo," this voice was soft and quiet, Mirabel almost didn't hear it, but she knew who it was, Dolores.
"What do you mean it's not Camilo? Who is it?" Alma demanded.
"It's… It's Mirabel?"
"Mirabel? Why in the world would she show up now? After all these years? What are you doing here?" Isabela leaned against the railing to glare down at her younger sister that had disappeared five years earlier.
"At the moment, regretting my decision to come home," Mirabel insisted, "Sorry it's so late, I forgot to factor in the time difference, and Casita here wouldn't let me wait outside 'til morning."
"I would hope not," Julieta finally spoke again as she moved down the stairs, "Who knows what type of wild animals are lurking in those woods, At least inside Casita you're safe and the family is… almost back together again," Julieta let out a deep sigh, this should be a happy day, a day that she had been praying for since her daughter disappeared, she had come home safe and sound, now if only Bruno could do the same.
"Honestly Mama, I can handle Wild Animals, I lived in the woods on my own for two whole days before…" Mirabel trailed off, she was not going to finish that thought, leaving them guessing.
"Well," Abuela's sharp voice snapped out, "You certainly don't look like you lived in the woods, although I have to admit you don't look like a proper young lady either."
Mirabel knew that Abuela was looking at her pants, and shrugged, "I wasn't going to wear a dress and heels in the woods, besides, you certainly don't know what a proper lady looks like by today's standards. I'm the kind of person that parents point out to their little kids and say, 'Don't you want to be like her one day?'"
Okay so that totally only happened once, but Mirabel wasn't going to tell them that. She couldn't tell them about her magic, and that left very little for her to tell them, why not embellish the truth a little? It made life more interesting.
"Standards must be pretty low if you're considered a good role model," Isabela scoffed.
"Not low, different, everyone would see you as a shallow, self-absorbed selfish person that is no good and can never amount to anything but a pretty face."
Isabela gasped in disbelief, as Abuela sputtered, "I don't know where you've been for the past five years, but I will not stand and…"
"Then sit down," Mirabel interrupted.
"What?"
"If you won't stand… then you better sit down," Mirabel explained, "It's simple logic, but I guess you don't have that in Encanto."
"I won't stand and allow you to insult my Nieta in our home!"
"Oh, but Isabela is allowed to insult your Nieta in your home, or did you forget, in the five years that I've been gone that I'm your nieta, you know your daughter Julieta's daughter, hermanita to Isabela and Luisa? Not that you care about that."
"Why you…" Abuela never got the chance to finish her sentence as Julieta expertly stepped between the two of them.
"Okay let's calm down," she insisted, "It's late, and we have a big day ahead tomorrow. So why don't we all go back to bed for now, and we'll talk more in the morning when we've all gotten a bit of rest. Mirabel, we'll…." she trailed off awkwardly, she didn't have a room and they had moved all of her stuff into storage when Antonio moved into the nursery.
"I'm not that tired, I can sleep on one of the couches in the living room, for now, we'll deal with the room situation in the morning." Mirabel insisted, hiding an eye roll as if they would do anything about the room. The most they would do was put a bed for her in the nursery. Oh well, she'll deal with that in the morning.