Psst. Did you all know that a group of rats is called a mischief? Mischief of rats, murder of crows, congress of baboons...who did this?
Felix dropped every single thing he was carrying and ran. Everyone could get onto him about broken dishes later. In fact, he barely even heard the sound of the glassware shattering on the stone. There was more strangled screaming, albeit quieter, and words thrown in but Felix was too far away to understand them. He bolted toward the back room where Bruno had been when he'd left. The room was empty and chair abandoned. Felix didn't even bother to notice the two tablets laid out on the table. He turned and looked up the cliff face. Why did he have to have so many stairs?! He was going to have to talk to Bruno about that. In the case of emergencies, such as now, they might not be able to get to him in time. He was in his vision cave. Why was he up there? He'd decided to have a vision? Was this involuntary? His mind flashed back to just last week and the blood that had painted the stone walls.
He had no idea how he'd made it up the stairs so fast. Maybe he was magic. He swore one moment he was staring up and the next he was catching his breath at the top of the stairs. Adrenaline was one hell of a drug.
"¡Oh dios, oh dios, lo siento!" He could barely understand what Bruno was saying. "¡Lo siento! ¡No debería haberlo hecho! ¡No debería haberlo hecho!"
Felix ran across the bridge a lot faster than you would think a fifty-two year old man was capable of.
"¡Dios, por favor, perdóname!" He heard Bruno wail. "¡No puedo seguir haciendo esto! ¡Por favor deje de! ¡Por favor haz que se detenga! ¡Lo siento!"
Felix slammed into the heavy door, having been unable to slow down in time, and shook his head as he saw stars. There were no more words from the other side of the door but that might have been that he was crying too hard to be able to form words. Felix grabbed hold of the door and pulled and dear god Bruno must be stronger than he looks. He grit his teeth, exhaustion catching up with him, and slowly managed to pry the door loose. He was not happy with what he saw. Bruno was on the floor in the center of the cave, head pressed against his knees and gripping his head so hard his nails cut deep into his skull. Rivulets of blood ran down from his hair, down his fingers, and trailing all the way to his elbows to drip into the sand. He ran forward, intending to pull Bruno's hands from his head only for the man to recoil violently.
"¡No me toques!" He screamed. "¡No me toques! ¡Lo siento! ¡Lo siento! I Didn't mean to! ¡Lo juro! I didn't mean to change it!"
A glance to the left was all that was needed to explain the situation. He didn't know what was on that smoky tablet but it must be awful. He remembered the graphic image embedded in the one other scarred prophecy he had seen and knew it had to be something like that. He shook his head. It didn't matter right now. Like Bruno said, there was no changing it. Whatever was on there would happen no matter what. Right now Bruno was the important thing. He didn't know what to do though. He'd never seen the younger man like this.
"Bruno!" He tried to make his voice as gentle as possible but that was a little hard to do when he needed to raise his voice above Bruno's screaming. "Bruno whatever it is it's not your fault!"
"Yes it is! I shouldn't have looked again! I shouldn't have looked!"
Well, at least he recognized that Felix was there. That was a step in the right direction.
"T-then explain it to me!" Felix scrambled for something, anything at all. "I can't understand you right now! You need to calm down!"
Felix could do this. Pepa had a lot of panic attacks. He could do this. He just needed to provide a different focus.
"Hermano let go of your head. Can you do that for me? You're hurting yourself Bruno."
"I didn't mean to! I swear, I promise I didn't mean to!"
"I know! I know you didn't mean to. I understand. It's just you and me here. There's no one else. You don't have to justify yourself."
"I didn't mean to!" He howled.
"Bruno breathe!" Felix yelled and regretted it immediately when Bruno flinched. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Just try and breathe." He reached out and pushed the tablet away. "Just try and quiet down so you can hear me. Don't say anything, just listen to me."
Felix shuffled forward hesitantly, not wanting to get too close to Bruno in case that would make this worse. Which it probably would. He'd ease his way over. Give Bruno time to adjust to having someone else in his space. At least this didn't come with equally as intense weather. Not that he didn't love that no actually he adored that in Pepa. She wore her heart on her sleeve. No matter how hard she tried to push down those emotions she couldn't do it because when Pepa felt something she felt it straight down to her bones. It was wonderful.
Felix saw Bruno's grip loosen a bit and he celebrated quietly in his head. Bruno did manage to quiet down but he was still crying and choking on his own breath as he hyperventilated.
"Okay, now let's focus on breathing."
"I didn't mean to. I'm sorry." Bruno sobbed.
"I don't care. Whatever it is, it doesn't matter right now. Breathe deep. Count to five. Can you do that?"
It was more of a wheeze than an inhale but he'll take what he can get.
"Okay, let's do that again."
The second time featured far better success and Felix inched a bit closer. Felix wasn't sure how long they sat there and he honestly didn't care. Eventually Bruno's breathing evened out and the tears slowed as he continued to breathe steady and Felix gave a sigh of relief. He gave another glance in the direction of the tablet that was half buried in the sand. He kicked more sand over it until it was fully buried and out of Bruno's sight. That thing could stay there for now. It'd stay until Bruno was ready to look or even talk about it. It seemed best to follow Bruno's lead in all of this so he'd wait for Bruno's say so on when Felix could see it. It would be a when and that when would fall under the category of today. Felix was a patient man he could wait.
"Bruno?" He said quietly as he moved a bit closer. "I'm going to touch you now. Is that okay?"
It's what worked with Pepa. There were times when things became too much for her during a panic attack and even so much as a soft touch from another person only added to the overwhelming experience. He didn't know why he'd never noticed how alike the two were while also managing to be complete opposites. Bruno didn't move other than to give the barest hint of a nod alongside a quiet whine. Felix reached out and settled a hand on Bruno's shoulder.
"Why don't we go somewhere more comfortable. I'm getting sand in my shoes."
Divert attention from Bruno. Make things sound like it was Felix who needed it. He knew it would put less pressure on Bruno to act that way and Bruno was actually more likely to move for someone else's sake instead of his own. Pepa, on the other hand, you had to make it seem like it was her idea. The two were the same but different. There had to be a better way to calm him down. This was going to take a long time but Felix didn't want to risk pushing Bruno too hard right now.
He heard a faint scratching sound and turned his head to the door that had swung shut behind him. He backed away from Bruno before standing lest he tower over the smaller man and that could be intimidating on any day of the week let alone right now. He looked back and forth from the buried tablet to Bruno as he backed toward the door. The man didn't move a muscle nor did he say anything. Felix pressed his back against the door and managed to push it open and looked up to see Frida pacing back and forth atop the door.
Perfect!
"Ven aquí pajarito." He said quietly. "I know someone who needs you." He smiled and couldn't hold back a quiet laugh when the rat leaped through the air and landed on his shoulder, little paws scrabbling to grip the fabric of his shirt.
He reached up to take hold of the opal rat on his shoulder and cradled her in his hands while her nose twitched as she sniffed the air in agitation. He walked back over and just set the rat down next to Bruno and backed away a little bit, sitting down in the sand within arm's reach of the younger man. She immediately scrambled up his leg and arm before settling on his shoulder to dig around in his hair. Felix swore that she was massaging his scalp and Bruno calmed down very quickly. Felix loved that rat so much. He'd quickly learned that Bruno's rats were more than just pets. He was always a little calmer when he had one of his rats with him, especially if it was Frida. He really wanted to change Pepa's mind in regards to, at least, this rat in particular. She really was a beautiful animal and stood out from the others in that way. She had to be the most confident out of all of Bruno's rats and that was probably because she knew that whatever happened Bruno would back her.
Like that jaguarundi. Felix rolled his eyes at the thought.
Bruno let go of his hair and laid out a hand next to his shoulder and Frida immediately crawled over with a worried squeak. He uncurled his legs to tuck the rat to his chest where she immediately began to paw and nuzzle the underside of his chin. He took in a deep shaky breath as he ran two fingers down her back along her spine. With the need to hold the opal rat Bruno forced his hands to stop shaking and with that the rest of his body.
"Feel better?"
Bruno nodded gaze never lifting to meet Felix's own.
"Hey." Felix whispered, encouraging Bruno to look at him. "Pepa has moments like this too. You're not alone in this."
He hoped that was comforting.
"You want to go downstairs?"
Bruno just gave another shaky nod before looking around in search of the prophecy tablet.
"How about we deal with that later." Felix said as he laid a gentle hand on Bruno's shoulder.
"N-no...no. Th-this i-is important." He said in a shaky voice.
"Okay, then I'll carry it. She seems like she's missed you. Might get a little miffed at not getting pet the way she wants." He chuckled.
Just ease the tension.
He moved over and pulled the tablet out from beneath the sand, tucking it under his arm before turning back around to grab Bruno's elbow and pull him to his feet. Felix kept a steady hand on his shoulder as they made their descent and just made casual conversation to fill the quiet and try to keep them both from thinking too much. He especially wanted to talk about the swarm of rats that had swooped in on them the moment Bruno was out of his vision cave. They'd run up his legs to burrow beneath the green ruana while hissing and chattering at each other in what Felix assumed were arguments over the best pockets. He talked about any old thing and Bruno just listened without saying anything. He did keep glancing over at the tablet tucked under Felix's arm and Felix shifted it a bit more out of Bruno's vision in what he hoped appeared to be a casual adjustment of his grip.
It felt like forever until they reached the bottom of the stairs and Felix's legs were not happy. He kept talking and, if he was being honest, he'd completely forgotten what he was talking about but his mouth seemed to know. He just went along with it. Once they'd made it to the ground floor Bruno pulled ahead and went straight to his bedroom. Felix picked up his own pace to keep up with Bruno. The man marched straight over to that table where Felix noticed the tablets he'd missed earlier.
"Don't need this anymore." Bruno said as he picked up the green tablet and tossed it behind him before sitting down and pressing his forehead down against the table, encouraging six rats to wriggle out of his ruana and onto the table to nuzzle and nip at his hair.
Tablet still tucked under his arm, Felix slipped behind the table and picked up the green one that Bruno had thrown.
"Isn't that-"
"Liam's bull. Yes." His voice was vacant.
Felix tilted the tablet and hummed at both the eyes above the dead animal..
"Another jaguar?"
"You know what? I don't even know." Bruno muttered, face still pressed against the table.
Felix took a breath, took out the tablet beneath his arm, and set it on the table.
"Ay Dios mío." He thought as he stared down and now he understood Bruno's reaction.
Instead of a mother by the stream there was Liam's youngest, a girl of eight, recoiling violently her mouth open in a terrified scream as two massive paws stretched out toward her telling Felix that the cat was mid-leap. Those paws were huge. The claws were like scythes. She didn't stand a chance.
"Are these the same scenario?"
Bruno grunted in affirmation.
"I don't understand. Did it change?"
Bruno nodded.
"When did you-"
"This morning."
"H-how did it change like this?"
"I looked too much."
"What?"
"I said I looked too much!" Bruno screamed, lifting his head off the table to look at Felix with wild eyes. "This is what happens when you play around with time! Every decision you make affects the future! If you know something is going to happen you make different decisions and that changes things! Every time you look into the future it changes because you looked at it and I looked at it too much!"
He slammed his head back down on top of the table.
"I still don't understand."
"Mirabel's going to be there. I-I can't just leave her in this." He whispered. "The moment I decided that the vision changed."
Felix stared down at the tablet and squinted.
"Where are the spots?"
"Mmm?"
"The spots. There should be spots on those paws. I don't see any." He shook his head. "Esos son más grandes que mis manos."
"Everything keeps changing right now a-and I can't keep up with it." Bruno sobbed. "I can't think straight. I wish I'd never tried to stop it. I shouldn't have done anything. A dead bull and a crippled farm is….Oh dios, solo tiene ocho años."
Felix was stumped. He didn't know what to do. Is this how Bruno reacted every time he had a prophecy that turned scarred? He jumped at the feeling of Bruno's clammy hands grabbing his arm tight.
"You can't show anyone, tell anyone!" His eyes were wide and manic. "T-they'll know I did this! They'll I-I don't know what they'll do to me!"
It was in this moment that Felix understood exactly how badly all of those assumptions everyone had made had hurt Bruno. Not just hurt him either. Felix had never seen the man this afraid and it was the fault of everyone around him that he felt this unsafe. He looked at Felix like he was pleading for his life and that's probably what he was doing. He was even too afraid to tell his own family. Had everything really been that bad? Had they really been bad enough to make him feel like this?
"Bruno, you didn't do this. It's not your fault." He said, barely managing to get the words out through his racing thoughts and rising guilt.
"Yes I did!" Bruno yelled, letting go of Felix's hand to slam a fist on the table causing the rats to scramble away. "It was my decision! My decision changed it! Mirabel was just there. Holding up a lantern there was no which way or the other but the moment that changed…..it turned into this and I still can't see that god damn cat!"
He slammed his forehead on the table again and stayed there. Felix couldn't help but wince at the sharp thunk of Bruno's head hitting the wood.
"You made the same decision that anyone else would have if they saw someone they love in danger and there is no fault in that."
"It is when-"
"No it's not!" Felix was actually starting to get angry. There's no way Bruno was this stupid. "Anyone would have made that same decision but the only difference now is that you see it coming. In any situation that person is not going to get blamed for trying to save someone!"
"I-I can't leave her out there." He whispered, muffled a little by the table.
"I can't either."
"S-see. That's my point." He gestured to Felix, still not lifting his head. "No matter what anyone does someone else is going to show up now. Because you saw that and neither are either of us willing to just stay put." He curled his hands into fists. "It's either you or me or both or….I don't know….I-I don't have a choice here. Even if I did I know I'd make the same one but….."
"I know." Felix said quietly. "It's still not your fault."
Bruno didn't move.
"Do you know wh-"
"Tonight."
The room fell silent. Felix realized there wasn't any time to warn anyone. No time for that conversation, that explanation, before they needed to be there. They would be going into this alone. Felix was beginning to regret not telling anyone. He was really starting to regret it and rethinking the terms of that deal. This had just gotten a whole lot bigger than just the two of them. Would Bruno be right though? His fears were founded and not everyone was trying to see him differently, or even wanted to and Liam was one of those people. His gaze snapped back to Bruno as he sat up, hands firmly clapped over his ears, a grimace distorting his features.
Oh god, it was awful. Bruno grit his teeth against it. Covering his ears did no good. It wasn't a sound that burrowed its' way into his head, his chest, his bones. It was like thousands of voices screaming and shouting different things at him. He could understand it though. It wasn't a sound, not in that sense, but a feeling that overwhelmed him. Every voice, every feeling, all shared the same message.
Hurry, Come.
Felix was about to say something but he froze when Bruno's eyes opened giving off their green glow always came along side a vision. They were different this time. They were like flaming emeralds encased in moonstone. Bruno stood and ran from the room. He was, by far, faster than Felix and was already running up the staircase that led to his crystal mirror by the time the other man had left the bedroom.
"No otra vez, por favor dios." He snarled, throwing his head back before running after.
By the time he reached the top of the stairs Bruno was already out on the cliffside, staring into the basin. Couldn't he only do that at night? He ran out and looked up. It was night. Had that much time passed? He could see the barest reflection of images on Bruno's face. There was a great ruinous roar and Bruno stumbled back in shock after the barest hint of orange reflected on his face.
"That's not a jaguar." He gasped chest heaving. "That's not a jaguar!"
He turned back around and nearly ran face first into Felix. He reached beneath his ruana and pulled out Frida. He quickly handed her off to Felix.
"Do not let her go!" His eyes were wild and frenzied.
Then Bruno was gone, leaving Felix standing out there on the cliff side holding onto Frida who was doing almost nothing other than wriggling and hissing at him. He was standing here holding Frida. Who Bruno never went anywhere without.
Bruno didn't have a single thought in his mind as he ran back down the stairs. He pitched forward when he landed in the soft sand and moved into a roll before leaping back to his feet. He reached beneath his ruana and managed to yank his vest over his head. He dropped it as fast as he could before hauling himself up onto the platform in front of his door. He threw it open with a loud bang and didn't slow his stride. Deciding to forego the stairs for the sake of time he flipped over the second floor railing and landed on his feet moving into another roll that had him back on his feet and running out the door.
Of course, he had to go about doing that in the most dramatic way possible by landing right next to Camilo who'd given out a startled yell. It had been enough to attract the attention of the rest of the family who ran out just in time to see Bruno race out the door.
"Tío Bruno?!" Luisa called, sliding to stop in front of the open door that he hadn't bothered to try and close.
"How did he do that?!" Camilo shouted as he thought back to his own disastrous attempt at finding a way to skip the stairs.
Isabela wasted no time and ran after her tío with Luisa following behind.
"What was that?" Julieta said as she moved to help Camilo stand up, who had fallen over in shock and no could blame him seeing as how that was the last thing he was expecting to see that night.
That very quickly turned into the second strangest thing they saw that night. Camilo had just gotten to his feet when he heard his padre yell which brought Pepa running in from the patio.
"Somebody catch her!"
Camilo gave another startled yell when Frida, much like Bruno, leaped from the second floor and landed on his head. Julieta quickly snatched her up as she made to jump off of the boy. Felix slammed Bruno's door shut and ran down the stairs, obviously out of breath.
"Nobody open that door or the rest of them will get out." He gasped. "Where did he go?"
"What did you do?!" Pepa yelled.
"He ran out the door. What is going on?" Agustin walked out of the kitchen.
"¡Ese idiota!" Felix snarled. "I-I it's a long story." He looked at Pepa who was glaring at him. "I don't have time. I have to catch him!"
"Luisa and Isabela ran after him. I'm sure they'll manage something." Julieta provided.
Julieta gave a shout as Frida hissed and buried her teeth into Julieta's finger. She dropped the rat who tumbled to the ground, much to everyone's horror, and bolted out the door. She could run a lot faster than one would think a rat could.
"You dropped her!" Felix yelled. "How could you just drop her?!"
"She bit me!"
"Se suponía que no debía dejarla ir." He groaned.
"But Frida never bites." Dolores squeaked as she walked out hands over her ears.
"Felix what is going on?!" Both Pepa and Julieta shouted.
"I just-we have to-" He stuttered gesturing toward the door.
"Luisa and Isabela are already going after him! Explain." Alma stepped in.
Felix grew quiet and stared off vacantly, eyes wide and jaw hanging open slightly.
"No way." He whispered. "You-you've got to be kidding me."
Strength shall fail
Luisa.
Nature shall fall
Isabela.
For the road to travail shall give its' call
Bruno's hands had been clapped firmly over his ears. Felix remembered how he'd described it.
"different techniques tell you different things as long as you know what your looking for….or listening for."
"They show what they want to show and I'm just here to listen when they call. It's an odd thing to hear."
When they call.
A baleful cry shall ring forth
The roar from the mirror.
Shattering the bright of day
It was barely past sundown and every bright thought, bright feeling, had been ripped away the moment Bruno thrust Frida into his hands.
By vengeful tempest of north forever marked by disarray
He turned to glance at Pepa.
"Which direction is Liam's ranch again?" He asked.
"South."
"Ay Dios mío."
