Chapter Two
Miguel groaned as he put a hand to his forehead. He was having a lot of trouble realizing what was going on. He didn't know where he was and the place where he had been…he had been shot? Miguel placed a hand to where the gun wound would have been but he didn't see his own hand, he saw a bony hand that was shining as if it had just transformed that way. He lay down again and closed his eyes painfully. He would never see his family again, his wife, his children. They were all gone.
He finally felt a breeze as some leaves got carried up and into the air. So the land of the dead was just as he had remembered it. It hadn't been a dream. He had been happy that he had made sure everyone was included on the family ofrenza because hopefully that would mean that he would never be forgotten. He looked to the side, finally taking in what was around him. He saw one of those officers entering his information into a computer. He had seen this happen before when people had tried to prove who he was but that had been years ago when he was a small boy and even before he started playing music in the square.
Wait? Did that mean that his own face was like that now? Had all of the old Miguel Rivera worn or dissolved away and the face which he had was that of a mask like those he had seen that night so many years ago. He saw a woman skeleton come over to him.
"Just wait a moment, honey," she said with the accent of a woman in her early twenties, "You must be in a lot of shock. We'll be able to explain it to you in a moment so just relax."
"It's okay," Miguel replied as he closed his eyes again. "I'm not really shocked. I know what is going on."
The woman gasped and Miguel sat to look at her, was that a strange thing to have said? Well, he wasn't like most people who died or at least he didn't think he was. He hadn't seen any other living boys all those years ago and wasn't it only on Dios de Los Muertes that the bridge was able to be used between the dead and the living. The woman looked at her file, "I don't understand. You were shot. This wasn't even a suicide, how can you be prepar-"
"I've been here before," Miguel laughed weakly and the woman looked at him confused before her eyes widened.
"You're that musician," she said, "I was there that night where DeLaCruz became shamed. You're that living boy who was able to get back to the world of the living." Miguel nodded weakly. "I heard that you became a very big deal in music."
"Something like that," Miguel told her before hearing a barking. His eyes widened. No way. He smiled as he saw the multi-colored alebrije dog and opened his arms up to welcome him. Dante immediately went to his old friend and rubbed his head against Miguel's neck before licking him with his long and wet tongue. "Dante," he said before petting the dog's head. "I'm so glad to see you, boy." It was at least half true. He was glad to see his old friend but he just wished that he hadn't had died. He left everything behind by doing that.
"Seems like your family members are here," the female officer told him and Miguel nodded. He kept Dante's head on his leg. He tilted his head to the side but stumbled and it slipped off. He heard someone laughing as he quickly tried to reach for wherever his body part had fallen. How had it just fallen like that?
"You'll get used to that, Chamaco," he heard a familiar voice and one which he would never forget. As his head was placed back on his body, he looked up to see Hector there. He smiled weakly.
"Thank you," he said before looking at the other family member who had come. "Papa Hector, Mama Coco," he said before sighing. He looked at his hand and turned it. He felt Hector come to sit by his side.
"Glad that you remembered me, kid," Hector told him and Miguel gave him a puzzled look that was asking him why he would ever think that Miguel had forgotten him. He shook his head. That was one crazy night but it had taught him so many life lessons. That was it, life lessons and he would never be alive again. "It's too bad about the being dead part."
Miguel nodded slowly, "Yeah," he sighed and turned to Coco who was standing there with her pleasant and calming smile over the skeleton face.
"You need to be proud of the life which you made," she told him and Miguel nodded slowly. He put a hand to where he had been shot. Of course it didn't hurt any longer, he wasn't alive to feel the way that the blood came out of his veins or how his nerves were cut short. He was dead. He now had his afterlife to take part in. "Two beautiful daughters. A beautiful wife. A career filled with popular music. You should be proud, nino."
Miguel looked at her sadly, "things that I will never have again." He froze before looking between the two of them. They hadn't said anything about another Rivera family member turning up in this world. Did that mean that because of his sacrifice, his family was safe. If he could only know their fate then his death would be a little easier to accept. "My family, they're alive aren't they?"
"We heard that you died protecting your little girl," Hector told him and Miguel sighed.
"Yes, an enemy to the family showed up. If I hadn't given my own life then I would have had to bury my Estefenia," he said before looking at his fingers, moving the skeleton hand once more. It didn't make him as uneasy as when he had first seen it. He could accept that he was dead as long as they were alive. "I wanted to tell you so much, Hector," Miguel said as he turned to his great great grandfather. "When you're writing music, you're right, it works better if you have a meaning and a motivation. My wife and my children were the biggest muses to my career but there was also you, you taught me a lot in only one night."
"And there is still more that I can teach you," Hector replied. "Your music is famous here. My music is famous here. I mean, in this family it seems that you have two choices," he tried to joke and Miguel laughed.
"The Rivera family is a little bit more than rogue musicians and shoes these days. Well, the shoe business is going strong but you get a choice to not have to make shoes if you don't want to," he said and Hector laughed at that. Miguel laughed in return, feeling weak and finding it easier to copy what was around him.
MRMRMR
Gloria sat in shock in the area of the Rivera's house where the shoes were made. She had held Miguel's corpse for as long as possible before the doctor had to pry her from it. She couldn't believe that someone had just killed him and worse than that, they had almost killed her baby. It must have been over money or at least a failed reputation because he said something about fifteen years ago and that was when Hector Rivera's story became well-known in the community. They had done this over…music?
Gloria waited nervously for something to happen but she wasn't sure what. She had no idea that she was being watched by ancestors from her dead husband's side of the family. She just wanted to get revenge and to protect the lives which mattered so much to not only Miguel but her too. "He didn't deserve that," she whispered to herself. She wanted to go and hug her daughters but she wasn't ready to give the needed explanations. She grabbed hold of a pair of scissors, letting her fingers go over the shiny metal blades.
She wanted to get some kind of revenge for what grief she was dealing with at this point. She heard the sound of the door open and quickly put the scissors down. She wasn't thinking rationally. Even though she had a great imagination which Miguel always praised, she was able to think rationally and logically. She ignored the sound of the door but then lifted her head as she heard a cough and saw an older woman standing there.
"Mama Elena?" she asked respectfully and Elena nodded her head. Gloria sniffed. "Sorry. I didn't ask permission to be in here. I just knew that if I went to where Miguel's body was, I would not have been permitted to see him. Is it okay to take another moment in here."
"What do you think I am?" Elena asked as she approached her grandson's wife. "An insensitive woman who doesn't care about her grandson!? Take one moment, take two, three, all the moments you wish. It is unfortunate that the curse came to him as well. I mean, I agree that you should follow your passions but this is the second time the curse has come to pass."
"The curse?" Gloria asked as she looked at Miguel's family member. She blinked. "There wasn't a curse. Something must have happened fifteen years ago. Miguel once told me that there was something about the dead that he knew calmed him when thinking about death. I don't know what it is."
"Suspicions aren't going to bring you anywhere, it is because he invested his time into music and not into family," Elena said.
"He lived doing what he loved," Gloria told her. "And there are other musicians in this family, maybe not to Hector Rivera or Miguel's levels but there are others passionate about music. There has to be something about the dead, something will connect me with Miguel again if just for this one night."
End of Chapter Two
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Thank you to the reviewers of Chapter One
DarthJacob1, Pixie-Fairy24