Bruno couldn't describe how he'd felt when Mirabel's door faded away. It just drifted away like dust in the wind taking the energy from the room and erasing a young girl's future along side it. He closed his eyes and shivered as he felt what he could only be described as a ripple. He knew he was the only one who could feel it. He knew that there were a lot of things that he could see, hear, and feel that others could not. Bruno didn't need the ripple to tell him that this was an important moment. Of course it was. The only feelings left in the room were confusion and fear. Fear he knew. He saw it in everyone's eyes whenever they looked at him. He saw fear that quickly swept into what he could only say was hatred. Contained hatred but hatred none the less. It wasn't him they were afraid of and he knew that. It was his gift they feared he was just the unlucky person who'd been cursed with it.
It wouldn't be like with him. His gift had simply acted on itself like it was prone to do. His door didn't disappear. He found himself being thankful, being happy, that Mirabel didn't have a door and he instantly hated himself for that. After looking into her confused and heartbroken eyes, welling with tears, he was glad? He was happy? What kind of person thinks that way? What kind of tío would be happy that his sobrina was refused something that everyone in their family was given? Out of all of them he'd always had a special sense when it came to Mirabel. She was a girl who had her own gravity that pulled people in and kept them there. It was a natural feeling but one that he hadn't felt before. She always raised questions for him. He knew she was different but this was far from what he was expecting.
The moment he saw his mamá he knew what she was going to say. He knew what she wanted to ask and Bruno wanted to say no. Oh he wanted to say no so badly. He didn't do visions for his family. That had been the one rule he'd set and it had been respected.
Until this moment. He couldn't blame her for asking. She looked so scared and he couldn't stand to see that. At first he'd managed to push the word no from his lips but he caved shortly after. His room had never felt so big or sounded so quiet. The air was heavy and thick as he closed the door to his vision cave. He took a breath, inhaling the scent of the burning wood and leaves and focused. The vision came to him more than he pursued it. It was a future that wanted to be seen. It felt different as he pulled it in. It smelled different as it filled the sands and tasted different as the sands lifted and whirled to show him the answer to his mamá's question.
"What does this mean for the magic?"
He couldn't deny both the shock and anger at being asked that question instead of how this would effect Mirabel. It pained him to know that she was already being overlooked for the magic like it was more important that the little girl who was scared and crying into her mother's arms in that very moment. Bruno could hear her crying from there and he wondered if his mamá even could. It was the only explanation that Bruno could think of because certainly his mamá wouldn't behave like that.
He stiffened and gasped as he saw the crack that shattered the window where the candle was tipping it over to roll off of its' place. He saw the house crumble and Felix jump forward to snatch up a child that Bruno hadn't seen before that looked remarkably like him. Everything flashed and moved in a chaotic flare that he'd never felt before. He couldn't sort it. He tilted his head to the side in confusion as he saw it change right before his eyes. It changed one way and then another. It couldn't decide. That's how it felt to him. Like the future was tangled within itself all of it rotating around a singular event that wasn't a scar at all. He didn't know what it meant.
What he did know was that no one, no one, could see this. He held onto the tablet in a white knuckled grip. His mind whirled and his heart pounded as he scrambled for a plan. It came to him like the softest of whispers.
Leave now. Leave for her. You know what they'll do. They're already doing it. They're doing it to you.
The realization made him tremble and the tablet shattered on the stone as he turned and walked away from it all. He felt nothing as he walked back down the stairs. He was numb. He hadn't even closed the door to his vision cave. His only clear thought had been to crumble the bridge and make sure that no one found that prophecy. He wasn't sure exactly why he just left it there. The only way he could describe it was that the vision had begged him. It begged to be seen but he couldn't let that happen but neither could he bring himself to cast the shards away. The vision felt desperate but it didn't know how destructive it would be.
He thought long and hard about what to do and his heart pounded as he realized he had only one choice. He had to leave the Encanto. He had to leave it tonight while Dolores was sleeping. She wouldn't understand. His eyes burned as his feet landed on soft sand. He took a deep breath to chase away the tightness in his throat. He raised his hands fists curled and set atop each other, knuckle to wrist. He snapped open his palms, fingers spread, and brought them up in a smooth but quick motion. The sand that tumbled down the doorway stacked on top of itself as Bruno hardened the ground beneath steadily shaping a ramp with its' flow. He walked up and waved a hand behind him to shift it back into simple, unassuming sand. The doorway alone was a deterrent for anyone who wanted to wander into his tower. He had no problem with it. He wondered how it was that no one asked how or why his room kept changing. The drop steadily became steeper and farther as the years passed by. Perhaps no one really noticed but him. To be more accurate, no one paid attention but him.
He'd tried to walk out but Casita had always favored him a little and didn't seem to want him to leave but understood the situation very quickly. Casita built a place for him in the walls but he couldn't get Dolores out of his head. This was stupid. She'd know. She'd know and she was just incapable of keeping secrets. She would tell people then they'd demand to see the prophecy. In fact they'd want to see it even more now.
"Casita, you have to let me go." He whispered as he desperately tried to explain to the house why he needed to leave.
The walls around him quivered.
"I know, but it's for the best you have to understand that. They'll hurt her Casita. Like they've hurt me. You have to let me go."
A few moments passed before a section on wall just opened up and Bruno stumbled out into the darkened Encanto. He could hear that people were still awake. There were still a lot of lights and movement around town. He slipped into the jungle and away from Casita, away from his home, and away from his family. He couldn't help but look back because he knew that everything he loved and everything he wanted lay directly behind him but was just out of his reach. It always had been and he'd been a fool to hope. He took a breath and started running. He had to be out of the Encanto before Dolores woke up. He had to be out by morning.
There was no real road out of the Encanto. Most people who wind up here are by complete accident. The Encanto seemed to pull in lost people and every now and again it would find someone who needed a bit of help. People who needed a safe haven of sorts. He wondered if it would work the other way around. If someone needed to leave would it let them? The magic had a mind of its' own and it may not let a Madrigal leave. He might be bound to the place. He didn't know but he was about to find out.
He stumbled through the undergrowth and found himself on a small dirt path that he didn't recognize but he followed it all the same. Out into the darkness and away from Casita and the lights of the village. He stopped and gasped, breath coming in stuttered huffs as he brought a hand to his mouth to try and stop the tears.
It wasn't fair! Why?! Why always him who has to make the sacrifice? Why always him who has to give away pieces of himself for others. Why oh why couldn't he just have a moment to himself? A moment to focus on himself. Just a moment to be a little selfish and think about only himself if even for a few moments. He wanted that freedom. That ability to make a choice. People would say that this, what he was doing right now, was a choice but they would be wrong. There is no choice with something like this at stake. There is only ever one path to take. No one would miss him. He was almost sure of that. Why would they? All anyone really wanted was to get rid of him. He was just there when no one wanted him to be. Like a spare tire taking up too much space.
Was that all he was? A spare tire? His head said yes but his heart hesitated. He felt like he was but he still clung to a hope that he was wanted. That people would actually miss him if he were to go. He'd thought about it of course. He'd thought about it for a long time. The thought had lingered within him since he was a teenager and had only grown stronger as the years passed him by. Now, here he was, at the end of that road staring into a crystal clear river knowing that one step beyond is a step he will never be able to take back. If he left he might not ever find his way back. He stared at the water and fell to his knees, the weight of his decision pulling him to the ground and leaving him a shell. Only a thought, a whisper in the wind, is what was left of him there. This, this moment would change him, would change everything.
He felt that ripple again, stronger now than it was before like he was standing in its' center and the ripples spilled out from him, or something close to him. The emerald necklace beneath his collar, the one he'd created from his first good vision, began to glow and ring. He pulled it out and stared at it. He stared and stared and stared and he could feel more of himself slipping away like the water in the stream. The emptiness quickly filled with anger.
Why should he feel bad over this? Why should he be the one upset about leaving? Why should he be the one that was expected to give and give and give and give until every last piece of him was gone? They had done this to him. They had made him into what he was today. Nothing but a whimpering coward who couldn't manage to take those last few steps to protect someone he loved. They had done this. They had all done this to him. They'd all made him afraid. They had all made him scared to leave his room and they liked it. They liked it. So, why should he feel bad?
Why? Why should he feel bad? They should be the ones who feel bad! They were cruel and heartless! All of them! Here he was sacrificing himself again because he knew they would hurt her. They would hurt a child. They would hurt their own flesh and blood. Family, his heart snarled this isn't family. They should be the ones ashamed of themselves! He wasn't the one to fear. He wasn't.
They were.
He bared his teeth in a snarl and snapped the chain of the necklace before hurling it into the stream with a howl of rage.
"¡Te maldigo! ¡Malditos sean todos! ¡Sus corazones están podridos!
¡Su pecado es el orgullo y un día todo se derrumbará a su alrededor y entonces verán!"
He felt that ripple again, stronger again and he hated it. He wished it would just go away. He wished that all of this would just go away and he could turn back around and go home and not have to be scared all the time. There were times where he couldn't figure out if he was afraid or angry and those times were becoming more and more frequent. In fact, as the days passed, he began to think of things that he could do to people who hurt him. He could hurt them back. He could hurt them back so easily and it would take little more than a thought. He knew, somewhere in the back of his head he just knew he could do far more than make sand sculptures and mold stone.
If he could do it to stone he could do it to a person. Right? Oh how it had buzzed on his fingertips and tickled his tongue with the angry words he wanted to scream.
"Well what did you go and do that for?" A voice to left said and Bruno froze. "I thought that was supposed to be important to you."
Bruno took a shaky breath and lifted his head to look at the newcomer, praying that no one from the village had found him. At least, no one who would say anything. When he found himself looking upon the figure beside him it was only horror that he felt. He trembled and gasped as he tried to make sense of what he was seeing. It couldn't possibly be and yet it was. He looked just like the portrait on the wall. Just as young and strong, and courageous like all that Bruno wanted to be.
He saw Pedro.
"Y-you're not here. You can't be here." He whispered as the phantom sat down beside him.
"You're right." It said. "I'm not here. Not really. I'm just an echo that your gift has pulled in. Whether there's enough of me is up to you."
"I-I don't know w-what or-or h-how-I" He choked on his words.
"Yes you do." It said.
"I-I don't-I can't."
"Yes you can. You know there's more to this. Is this really what you want? You wanted choices. You wanted to be able to make those choices. I know your whole life has been a fight and I'm so sorry to have ask you to fight one last time. Right here," He gestured around them. "is where my fight ended and right here is where yours began."
Bruno let loose a broken sob.
"This water has a kind of magic to itself in a sense. It's a place of new beginnings. You just need to choose what that beginning is going to be. There is a different kind of fight here. One that I've never experienced so I don't quite know what to say."
Bruno had to have imagined the tears falling from his chin.
"And I'm sorry that I can't be there to help you and I'm so sorry but they need you. You know they do. It's not your fault Bruno. You just tell people things they don't want to hear. This fight isn't over and I'm so sorry and I know I have no right but I have to ask you to stay. I have to ask you please keep this family together. I know it's so much and I don't have the right words for this. For any of this."
He gave a huff and a bittersweet smile as he looked at Bruno.
"I'm sorry I wasn't there. I'm sorry I couldn't be there and I'm sorry that I can't be there now. I did what I knew to be right. I did what I knew was best for my family and now it's your turn. I know you love our family. You just have to figure out how to help them."
They sat in silence for a time. Bruno could feel the ripples growing weaker with each passing minute.
"Don't tell your madre." His voice was quiet and pained. "She'll come here every day looking for a ghost that she will never see. Please promise me that you won't let that happen."
"Don't you want to see her?"
"Of course I do." He said in a shaky whisper. "I want it so much but I want more for her to be happy and for her to let go. Bruno," He lifted his gaze to meet Bruno's. "she hasn't let go. She never will. Look at me." He said sternly and Bruno couldn't help but obey.
"Your madre loves you Bruno. She just has a hard time showing it now. Please Bruno, please help my esposa. She doesn't know it but she needs it. You don't have to be there. You just have to stay and wait."
A time passed before Bruno could bring himself to do anything. It was a time that felt like an eternity and it very well could have been in those moments. All he could manage was a nod and the figure before him smiled.
"You can do this Bruno. I know you can. Not because you're a Madrigal, but because you're my hijo."
The moment lasted only a few seconds beyond that bright but gentle smile before the wind carried the figure away like smoke from a campfire. Bruno sobbed loudly and pressed his face down onto the path. He let loose a scream as he pulled his hair. He stayed like until sunrise having no knowledge or grasp of time in that moment. The world had simply slipped by without a care for him. He stood and wiped his face before taking a breath to steady himself and turning back the way he came.
"Dolores." He said as he walked back down the path. "I need you to listen to me. I have to hide now. I have to go away and you can't tell anyone. I'm not really leaving, I promise. I'm just not going to be there and I need you not to tell anyone where I am. I can't tell you why but if you ever keep a secret in your life let it be this one. I need it to be this one. You have to trust me. I need you to trust me."
A few miles away, unbeknownst to Bruno, Dolores had been inconsolable. She had sent the whole house into a panic when she woke up because she had screamed that she couldn't hear Bruno. If Dolores couldn't hear someone that meant that they were gone. In the span of a few minutes the whole of Casita knew that Bruno was gone. He'd left in the middle of the night without a word to anyone. Not even a note.
Okay, when I think of like ghosts and stuff my belief is that it's an echo of the time that person spent on earth and my brain went oh my god TIME! Whether or not this really was Pedro or just a manifestation Bruno's gift pulled together in a moment of grief. I would like to think that the cloud of butterflies at the end was him throwing his arms up and cheering. This is all up to the reader to interpret though. Personally I think he's basically Casita like he lived on in a sense in through the candle. That the magic was him in a way. I don't know if that's what you guys think or not this is just me.
