They had looked everywhere. They had covered every tiny inch of the ruined Casita. They couldn't find their Mirabel. She wasn't here anymore. They had looked for hours now and still couldn't find her. She wasn't here anymore.
Luisa didn't know whether to laugh or to cry. This meant that her little sister, didn't die in the ruins of their house, but it also means that her sister left. She ran away as soon as Casita fell. She ran without knowing that no one was mad at her. That no one has deemed her responsible for their house collapsing.
The family came together in front of the house, dirty and exhausted from searching. And they all just sat there for a moment staring into nothingness, not saying anything.
"She isn't inside the house anymore." Luisa was the first to speak, her voice raspy from screaming for her sister.
"What house?" Was uttered quietly by Camillo. He always reacts to scary situations by trying to be funny. His red-rimmed eyes gave away that he wasn't actually feeling as nonchalant as he was acting.
"Camillo, this is not the time for joking around! What's wrong with you!" That was his sister apparently rather dealing with scary situations by lashing out at her family. He never heard her be this loud before. It reminded him of their Mamá.
"We- " Isabela interrupted herself to swallow, trying to get rid of the break in her voice that she wanted no one to hear. "We need to go look for her. She could be anywhere by now. We need to find her before it gets dark. She can't stay out there all night; She's probably injured anyway. The whole house fell on top of her." Now panicking a little she adds in a mumble "Oh, dios mío, please let her be okay." Chocking up again she felt a hand on her shoulder.
"Shh." Luisa had gotten up from where she had sat down previously and had walked up to her sister. Now guiding her into a tight but calming embrace. Isabela hid her face in the space of her little sister's shoulder and grabbed the back of her shirt tightly, her knuckles turning white.
"We'll find her. Let's split up in groups of two and maybe we could ask some people from town to help as well." Luisa once more forced herself to carry the weight of everyone around her.
After a short pause between all of them, processing the information and the new plan, Abuela said quietly "I will go ahead and ask around in town." She started getting up with a heavy sigh feeling so very exhausted and aching everywhere in her body. She kept pushing through her discomfort because they had to find Mirabel.
"I could try to get a vision, but I think all our grifts are gone, right?" Said a quiet voice from outside of their group and everyone turned to see who spoke. It could have even been comical if it was not in one of the family's darkest moments.
"Brunito?" Abuela was the first to speak. She felt every single one of her years slowing her down, as she hurries forward to embrace her hijo, who she thought left them, who she thought dead.
"Bruno" She sobs into his shoulder, inhaling the smell of sweat and dirt and dust but definitely her hijo. The last few hours caught up on her. The exhaustion of crying for Mirabel, of lifting all the rubble, and now the shock of seeing her son again. It's a little too much and now she is only being held up by her son, who panics because he is pretty sure his mother just fainted.
"Mamá? Mamá! What are you doing?" He says as he lowers her to the ground groaning because he really isn't the strongest after living together with rats in the walls for ten years. "Mamá, are you okay? Come on wake up." He looks up to his sisters and begs them to help him, with his eyes.
Julieta doesn't even know what to do anymore. Should she go look for her daughter who has gone missing after their house collapsed, greet her brother who was considered dead for the last ten years, or help her mother who was lying on the ground in a faint? Feeling light-headed as well she stumbles towards her brother lying an arm around him and a hand on her mother, feeling her forehead, checking for a pulse, and panicking because she doesn't know how to help without her gift.
Pepa isn't fairing any better, she holds on tightly to her husband's arm, digging her nails into it and it's probably hurting him, but he doesn't say anything, he never complains, he just helps.