Okay, Bruno immediately regretted his decision to just go along with this the moment his hand had touched the second floor railing.
"Are you sure we can't just-"
"Bruno." Felix's voice was gentle but his grip firm.
Bruno tried to push his hand off.
"Bruno."
"I know my way around. I wasn't in the habit of turning on lights. Besides it draws attention."
"I don't see the kids. I'm pretty sure they're all in Antonio's room." Felix spoke again after Bruno had opened his mouth to say something. "I'll tell you later. Everyone's fine and Antonio has two new pets."
He watched Bruno nod and walk as if nothing was wrong, his fingers drifting lightly along the handrail. His hand followed the curve on the stairs and Felix heard him quietly counting the steps before reaching the floor. He followed the curve of the handrail and made a perfect beeline for the kitchen. Felix was impressed as he listened to Bruno count his steps carefully. Now Felix realized exactly why Bruno had said that he knew Casita inside and out. He'd effectively memorized the layout of the whole house simply because he didn't want to wake anyone and Felix probably would have rolled his eyes if the situation had been different. He still hovered behind Bruno and that seemed to annoy the smaller man.
"Living room." He pointed opposite himself to the doorway. "Dining room." He gestured again. "Kitchen." He pointed ahead. "I can literally feel you behind me."
Felix backed up a little and they kept forward. Until Bruno heard voices in the kitchen and froze.
"Not ideal but no backing out." Before Bruno could really comprehend what was happening he was sat in a dining room chair instead of going directly to the kitchen. "I'll be right back. Stay there or our deal is off and I spill everything."
What a jerk. Blackmail. This was blackmail. Bruno couldn't believe his luck, well actually he could because it was bad. As usual. He strained to try and hear what was being said in the kitchen but he just couldn't make anything out. This was killing him. He was going to die. He was going to die just from sitting here, waiting and unsure. Anything could happen. He didn't want to keep being the person that caused trouble in the family. He didn't want to continue to be a source of stress for everyone. He just didn't want to make scenes and ruin things but here he was again. The day had been bad enough and now he had to go and add more to it. He was a terrible person. He was a terrible hermano, a terrible tío, and certainly a terrible hijo. He clasped his hands tightly and cradled them to his chest, resting his chin against them and just tried to breathe.
A little squeak caught his attention and he reached out, carefully sliding his hands across the table, palms up until the rat crawled into his hand. After petting the little creature he smiled.
"Frida." He huffed, sniffling a little. "Back again huh? Maybe you can give me lessons." He felt another latch itself onto his ruana and crawl up to his shoulder.
Bruno reached out again, running his hands over the little animal. He felt the ear and the small piece that was missing from an old squabble a while back.
"Oh, Estella." He chuckled and felt for the other on his opposite shoulder.
This one's tail was a little shorter than the others. It was from a small accident when the rat was little.
"Aleece." He chuckled. "Behave yourself."
There were many shiny things in the dining room.
Felix had been quiet about things for the kids' sake and Bruno's. Felix was certain that if the man heard something he didn't like he'd bolt, consequences be damned. Pepa wasn't there which was a blessing actually. He'd never actually been glad to see his wife absent from the room but he knew how she would react and she'd scare Bruno off. His courage was hanging by a thread as is. The only people were Agustin, Julieta, and Alma which seemed like the perfect trio to help. Felix couldn't believe his luck.
They all knew he'd, rather angrily, gone off to see Bruno but the expression they saw on his face was not one that they were expecting. Everything stopped.
"He had a vision. It went bad. It went really bad. I don't know exactly how or why but it just went wrong."
There was a tense pause as Felix tried to figure out the best way to approach this. He, eventually, decided on his usual tactic and took the situation head on.
"He-uh...he can't see and when I say he can't see I mean it. He's completely blind. There's blood on his face. It looks like he tried to wash it off but I think I interrupted that."
Agustin's hand flew to his mouth and Alma's head snapped over to look at him.
"What?" Julieta asked, a little too loud for Felix's sake.
"Keep it down. I actually managed to get him down here of his own free will. He's in the dining room. It-" He caught Julieta's arm as she raced passed him. "It's not a pretty sight." Felix shook his head at her and let her go.
He just wanted her to be prepared for what she saw. Well, as prepared as she could ever be. Alma nudged her way passed him too but Agustin stayed. He seemed just as lost as Felix right now. So Felix explained things to him in greater detail. He needed to talk to someone about all of this but, true to his word, he said nothing about the scarred prophecies nor how the wall had crumbled away to reveal them. When he was done Agustin bit his lip before slipping passed Felix and up the stairs.
"Where are you going?" Felix asked as he caught up.
"I want to see that vision cave. Maybe we can piece together what went wrong."
Felix wanted to do exactly that as well so, he followed along but he had to make sure that Bruno's secret stayed just that. A secret. The pair ascended the stairs to Bruno's room and went inside while Alma and Julieta did their best to try and remain calm about this and not get angry when he'd, most likely, try to shrug it off like it was no big deal. When they actually got to the dining room the sight really wasn't unexpected.
He had one rat on each shoulder, one atop his head, two clinging to his back, and three on the table. Not counting Frida who he was holding.
"Aleece." He called out. "I can hear you trying to steal silverware. Stop it."
Sure enough there was a rat digging around in one of the drawers.
It was enough to lighten the mood at least a little bit.
Alma walked right over and snatched rat up out of drawer. It gave out a surprised squeak that had Bruno turning his head.
"Bruno." He heard Julieta's voice next him.
Ah yes. Batten down the hatches, man your posts, and prepare for battle. Though the odds may be stacked against us through strength in arms we shall prevail.
Yeah right.
"Felix told us what happened. Can I see your eyes?"
Oh here we go.
She didn't make a sound and Bruno wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing. She reached out and used her thumb to pull his eyelid down a bit and that had him pulling back with a wince.
"Yeah….that hurts." Bruno's shoulders drooped. "It...happens sometimes. When it goes wrong. Never like this before. Never to where I couldn't see."
"Do you know what went wrong?" He heard his mamá ask before taking a wet rag and work to gently clean away the rest of the dried blood.
"No." He lied. "I'm almost never sure why it goes wrong. It just...happens."
He felt better with his rats here. He felt better holding Frida and petting her soft fur.
"It's usually just a bad headache and maybe blurry vision for a minute or two. Always makes my eyes hurt but not like this." He was grateful for the opportunity to close his eyes again. They really did feel better that way. "Feels like someone took sandpaper to my eyes."
"Oh Brunito." It was his mamá. "I didn't even know that this could happen. I didn't know your visions could hurt you. Why didn't you ever tell me?"
The answer hung heavy in the air and Bruno didn't feel like he was up to that particular conversation.
"I-I'm sure it'll go away with time. It always has in the past. I just think it might take longer this time. I don't know really if Julieta's food would help. I don't know if it works that way. I don't know if this is a magical thing or….." He gave a sigh. "I don't know."
"Well now's the time to find out." Frida scrambled off as Julieta moved to put an arepa in his hands.
Oh he felt like if he took a bite of food he'd throw up. How would that work? If you throw up healing food does it not work anymore or….hmm? Food for thought and yes he was perfectly aware of the pun.
Agustin and Felix stood in Bruno's vision cave in complete shock and at a huge loss as for what to do. The place looked like…..There was a lot of blood. There was a heavy puddle on the floor, soaked in by the sand, that could only have formed from a steady drip, drip, dripping stream. There was blood on the walls, smeared across like there had been enough that the whirlwind his gift made had picked it up. Most disturbing was the ceiling. The blood there wasn't smeared but splattered on the stone. Felix began to rethink his choice on secrets but who knows what else Bruno was keeping to himself. He had to know. Someone had to know and if he let anything slip every ounce of trust Bruno had in him would be gone.
He had almost immediately noticed smoky shards half buried in the sand and had taken the opportunity of Agustin's shock to discreetly bury them with his foot. On the far end of the room though, were a few shards of green tablets glowing faintly under the sand. They were thrown around like someone had been cleaning them up and either gave up or couldn't find the remaining shards.
Either way they were digging down and grabbing shards to try and piece together. Very few of them matched and any that did held no image. Which was odd because if one could put together enough pieces you could at least see a small portion of the image. These were…
"Are these blank?" Agustin squinted sucking on the finger he'd cut on one of the shards. "That can happen?"
"I-I guess it can." Felix didn't have to fake that he'd had no idea.
More questions and not enough answers.
"Oh, I'm coming for you Bruno." He thought to himself.
Downstairs Bruno took both a breath and a bite of food. His stomach churned and he swore he could feel it hit his stomach like lead. Oh dear. If he threw up would his hermana be upset that he couldn't keep down her food? It's not like it would be a statement toward her cooking or anything but it's such an awkward situation where someone hands you home-cooked food from their own hands and you immediately vomit it onto the floor.
Not socially acceptable, let me tell you that.
But he did and the food had worked. He wasn't in pain anymore and, going by the sighs of relief his eyes must look better. Not that he would know. He still couldn't see. He was confident it would come back with time. Maybe a few hours to a day. He wasn't really sure. It had never been this bad before so, he didn't know how much time it might take.
"Okay. That's definitely better."
What was he supposed to say? They'd freak, he knew it. What was he supposed to say? What was he supposed to say? What was he supposed to say?
"Can you see?" Julieta asked.
"If I say yes will you believe me?"
Out of everything he could have said why was it that that decided to crawls its' way out of his throat? He could've said no, but he'd be fine and explain why he'd be fine. He could've been more confident in an answer. He could've said that yes he was starting to see again but he figured it'd take a bit of time like it always did. Heck, he could've just blurted the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help him god. He could've gotten everything right out there on the table. Literally! He was sitting at a table. It could all be out, on this table, if he just said something.
He could've said so many things but that was the one he plumped for?!
"It really will be fine." He said after clearing his throat. "I'm pretty sure I just need a bit of time. That's what happened in the past this will just, take longer. A few hours. A day, at most."
He wasn't sure if he should be grateful that he couldn't see their expressions or not.
"Bruno." His mamá grabbed his hand, the one not holding the food of course. "What happened?"
"I thought Felix told you? Or did you just rush out of the room in a panic?"
"I wouldn't say panic…" His sister said and he bit his lip.
"I was trying to find Antonio. I figured that I could probably see something that might give us a clue to where he was but….I tried so hard but I-I just couldn't see anything. I kept trying and kept trying but I….." He sighed. "Guess I overdid it huh?"
"Well, that's an understatement." Julieta rolled her eyes.
"Enough Julieta. Go to Antonio's room and tell your hermana but keep it quiet. The children don't need to know."
He heard her footsteps fade from the room.
"Brunito, perhaps it's best-"
"If I go lay down?" He could feel her gaze boring into him. "I might not be able to see right now but that doesn't mean I can't still predict the future."
He gave a chuckle and Alma took the comment for what it was. A way to ease the tension.
"I am not laying down in the nursery again." He said with finality but they both knew he'd crumble at the slightest pressure. "I can make it to my room and you don't need to guide me." He said as she began to stand up.
"I know my way around. I mean I wasn't lying when I said I knew Casita inside and out. You all followed my floor plan. I'll be fine mamá." He tried to soothe her.
"Walk out this door, take fifteen steps, turn to the left and that's the front door. Fifteen steps from this room, take six steps left, twenty to the living room border, six more to the table, two to the right and that's the couch." He smiled gently. "I know my way around in the dark."
She made a sound that Bruno was going to pretend did not sound like a choked off sob.
"A few hours. I'm pretty sure. A day at most. I'm alright. It doesn't hurt anymore." He waved the arepa around.
"You just want to try and navigate a desert while you're blind? What landmarks are you working off of there?" He could feel Pepa's wind.
Oh dear.
"Well it's not like we can die in our rooms so…." He shrugged.
"How would you know that?" Julieta asked.
"Well, there is a yawning chasm in my room and apparently I sleepwalk. Not dead yet so it's a good assumption."
He stood and reached out to find Pepa's arm, moving his hand up to rest on her shoulders. He could feel the rain on his hand.
"Eventually storms turn to rainbows." He said as he turned his palm up. "Gotta hold onto that one until I can see it." He smiled.
Why couldn't he have said that instead of "it looks like rain". What was wrong with him?
He nudged his way passed her.
"I always did like the rain you know." He said as he walked out of the room. "He turned his head back over his shoulder. "Makes everything feel….real."
He didn't stick around after that. He was pretty tired so he just made his way back up the stairs and to his room while Felix and Agustin barely managed to slip passed him, green shards cradled in their hands. Bruno was none the wiser and made his way to his bed. Sure he may have run into another wall, possibly the same wall, but no one needed to know that.
Downstairs the four adults were staring at blank shards, trying to figure out what kind of significance they held. It was assumed, and pressed on by Felix, that Bruno had kept having these blank visions and had pushed himself too far. They'd talk to him when he felt better although he did keep asking them how he was supposed to get any rest with one of them poking their heads in his room every twenty minutes. He did laugh about it though.
His sight was back by dinnertime.
