Mirabel slammed the door to the nursery shut behind her. Why in the world did she have such a weakness against puppy eyes, especially when they are directed at her by her primito? She wished that she had just listened to Abuela and stayed out of the way! If she had just stayed in the nursery like she had been asked to then maybe her heart wouldn't have been shattered once more. Broken into a million pieces. Even Papa and Mama hadn't noticed that she wasn't there before they snapped the family picture. They hadn't even waited for her. Once again she was forgotten, left inside the nursery to take care of herself.

All she wanted was to make her family proud. Forgoing sleep and food at times just to get that extra something in, just to do something special to get their attention. And this was the reward she gets? Not just being excluded, but shunned, by her own family.

Well if they were going to cut her out of their life she'll do the same with them, starting with her clothes. Her skirt was covered in symbols that represented the family. That would have to go. Yanking her skirt off, she grabbed her scissors from next to her sewing machine and cut off first the candle representing her abuela, then each and every single symbol that represented a family member before shredding the skirt itself.

Once the skirt was shredded she pulled off her blouse and shredded it as well, it was an outfit, the whole thing had to go.

Finally once the pink butterfly that had been on her shoulder laid in two on the floor, Mirabel moved towards the wardrobe and yanked the door open as hard as she could, the hinges wiggled as she did so, they had obviously come loose over the years. She tugged harder, pulling on the door, watching in satisfaction as the hinges parted with the wood and the door came off into her hands.

She smiled slightly as it smashed into the far wall of the nursery.

Inside was crowded with clothes that were too big for the wardrobe's original design. A large, beautiful dress took up over half of the space. Mirabel yanked it out with a scowl and started to attack it with the scissors as well. It had to go. It was just another broken promise, just another reminder that her family didn't love her. Why she hadn't done this earlier was beyond her, this, this felt freeing.

With her unused Quinceneara dress now in ribbons on the floor, Mirabel returned her attention to the wardrobe. Casita flapped her shutters at her, but Mirabel ignored her. Everything blue had to go. Blue was Julieta's color. It was a reminder of who and what her mother was the lies she had told, and the broken promises she had made. Almost everything was pulled out of the wardrobe and shredded, the second door, more sturdy than the other one, wasn't pulled off, but one of the hinges was broken so that it would hang limply by the side.

Only two items of clothing had survived her wave of destruction, a white nightgown that she had simply pulled the blue decorative ribbon out of the collar, and a simple brown dress that she had made for a costume for a school play the year before. She pulled on the nightgown and flung the dress over her sewing machine, she was going to have to add something to it before she could wear it.

She scanned the room, looking for anything else that had a connection to any other member of the family.

Her eyes landed on her family picture that sat on the stand next to the door, in two swift moves she was across the room, the picture frame snapped in half, the broken glass slicing her hand, but she didn't care as she yanked the picture out and tore it in half flinging it into the pile of ruin that was steadily growing in the middle of the room.

She looked at the mess in front of her with a satisfied grin, until her eyes landed on some drawings pinned on the walls. Drawings she had drawn as a kid of her with various members of her family. Those had to go. She jumped up on her bed and tore them down, shredding them with ease before dropping them onto the pile of blue thread that had been her wardrobe.

Then she turned her anger towards her bed. It was meant for a small child, it was too short and the mattress left her aching all over each morning, the blanket spread across it was threadbare, and the pillow was flatter than an arepa. Any complaints about them were brushed aside. As if she didn't deserve better than what she had, but what if the bed was unusable? Would they listen to her then?

The blanket and pillow joined the pile in the middle of the floor, shredded by her handy pair of scissors, which opened wide to tear into the mattress allowing her to claw at it, pulling out several handfuls of foam and tossing them aside. Until her eyes fell on something that had not yet felt her wrath, the dresser.

She flew towards it, flinging open the drawers, and started to shred anything that looked anything like one of their colors, red, orange, yellow, blue, purple, maroon, green, all of them were shredded. Anything with animals or flowers was shredded, and once that was done. The whole drawer was flung across the room, making a nice thudding sound as it hit the far wall.

She then quickly did the same process with the second drawer. She was so focused on her task of getting rid of anything that she could associate with the family she didn't notice the soft knock on the door, or a certain member of her family entering the room, just as she sent the second drawer flying into the wall.

The woman squeaked, alarmed, before rushing out of the door.

There wasn't anything in the third drawer, so it was sent flying into the wall before the fourth drawer was opened. There were a couple of stuffed animals… animals were Antonio's gift, they had to go. The stuffed toys were destroyed she pulled out the drawer the rest of the way and sent it flying across the room, thudding into the wall with a satisfying thud.

…

Dolores winced as she heard another thud coming from the nursery. She was honestly surprised that she hadn't heard any of what happened in there before now, that was a testament to how loud the party was. She found her Tia and Tio working together to gather up all of the uneaten food in Antonio's room while Mami coaxed Antonio up to the bed hidden up in the treehouse.

"Tia, um… I need your help with something, it's Mirabel."

"What's wrong," Julieta asked, straightening up from where she was standing over a table.

"It's the nursery… I…" she trailed off, eyes widening as she heard yet another loud thud coming from the room, that was the fourth drawer, "You have to see it to believe it," she finally confessed.

"What's going on here?" Luisa asked, "Are you ready for me to move the table back where it came from?"

"We might need Luisa's help too," Dolores insisted, grabbing her tia and prima's elbows and leading them quickly to the nursery, which had become disturbingly quiet.

…

Mirabel stood in the middle of the room, her nostrils flaring as she tried to catch her breath. It was wonderful. She needed to do more. She looked around, looking for anything else that she could destroy. Nothing caught her eye until she glanced at the broken mirror hanging from the broken door of the wardrobe, she didn't remember breaking it, but it had obviously gotten smashed sometime during her destructive spree.

There standing in front of her was someone with her tio's hair, her father's eyes, and her mother's nose. She let out a scream as she grabbed her scissors and turned them on herself. First her hair, then her eyes, and then everything else. It had to go. She rose the scissors to her hair, zoned out on everything but the fact that the hair had to go.

Strong hands grabbed her hand, causing Mirabel to shout in surprise, swinging her other hand out, punching and kicking, and biting. Who was trying to stop her? Didn't they understand that she had to do this? She had to erase any connection to the Madrigal family!

People were shouting, but Mirabel couldn't make out what they were saying until suddenly something was clumped over her face, a handkerchief that had a strangely sweet smell to it. Mirabel tried to dislodge it, but couldn't, the hands holding her were too strong. She was so tired, her eyes started to droop. Then everything went dark.

…

Julieta sighed, looking at Dolores as Mirabel went limp in Luisa's arms. Her sobrina nodded, and Julieta allowed the handkerchief that she was holding up to her daughter's face to drop to the ground, "You can let go now, Luisa, she's out."

"What did you do?" Luisa asked as she shifted Mirabel so that she was carrying her bridal style.

"Lavender oil," Julieta explained, "A small drop on a blanket or on your pillow will help you relax and sleep better. And well," she gestured to the sleeping form in Luisa's arms, "Too much of it will knock you out."

"You knocked my sister out with Lavender Oil?" Luisa asked.

Julieta nodded, "It doesn't have any lasting side effects, just a good night's sleep and I couldn't have her hurting you or herself," she frowned at that, "Are you okay?"

Luisa nodded her head, "I think so, although I can't believe she bit me."

"I'm sorry about that, I should have done something sooner," Julieta sighed, examining the bitemark on her arm.

"It's fine Mama," Luisa insisted, "One arepa and the whole thing will be gone."

"Tia," Dolores finally spoke up, "What are we going to do now?"

"We'll put Mirabel down in my room," Julieta insisted, "and get the others. We'll figure something out," she placed a gentle hand on Dolores's shoulder, "Thank you for fetching me when you did," she insisted, "I don't want to know what she was going to do with those scissors next," she shuddered, "I just hope that we can fix whatever this is… before things get worse."

"Things can get worse than this?" Luisa asked, gesturing around her at the damage Mirabel had done to the nursery?"

"Your Tio Bruno did something similar… a little before he left," Julieta said softly, before gesturing for the two younger women to follow her out of the room. Somehow she'll find a way to fix this, she couldn't bare to lose her daughter like she did her brother.