* Author's Note *
Hello everyone! Thank you for all the love and support you've given so far! I am so happy to know that my story is being enjoyed by all of you. I am so appreciative of those of who have given follows, likes, and comments on this story. :)
Please comment what you think of the story. I'd like to see what you all think of it. Have a good day!
Chapter 2 - The Breakdown
The sky had turned dark and gray and little wind stirred in the valley. The clouds above looked menacing, but also somber and sad. It seemed at any moment that they would burst and release all the water inside them like tears.
It seemed a too fitting atmosphere to Julieta for what had just happened.
Her mind raced as she sat on the ruined steps of Casita. She wanted to cry, but all her tears seemed to have run out. Julieta tried to push away the thoughts of Mirabel's death, as images of blood stained bandages and clothes danced in her mind like a macabre festival. The sounds of Isabela yelling and Luisa crying seemed to haunt her. And she knew Mirabel's eyes slowly going cold would be seared into her memory forever.
But the thing that echoed through her mind the most was the silence from her mamá.
When Mirabel died, Julieta had cried like never before. In that moment, she looked upwards towards her madre, wanting some kind of comfort. She felt like a small child in that moment, and wanted the peace only a mother could give.
When she looked at her madre however, all Julieta saw in her was disbelief. She had pleaded with her eyes to her mamá to help her in that moment. But Alma hadn't come to her with open arms and reassurances that everything would be ok.
Instead, her mamá had looked away from her, moving her head to hide her face.
Julieta quickly glanced at the clouds above her. How she wished Pepa could clear them all away, so she could feel the warmth of the sun. She felt so cold and empty inside, that she badly wanted to feel something else for a moment.
It might have been a good thing though that Pepa doesn't have her gift right now, Julieta thought. She felt that the clouds above her would be a raging hurricane if Pepa was still influencing them.
Julieta glanced over at her sister and her family to see how they were doing. Pepa's face was streaked with tears as she still gave small muffled sobs. Félix sat beside her, his arm around her, making sure that she was close to him. He seemed awfully quiet, a jarring contrast to the outgoing man he normally was.
Camilo sat close to his mamá, his head close to his knees. Julieta could barely see his face. Dolores stood a few feet away from her family, staring off into the distance. She was still as silent as ever. And Antonio sat close to Félix, confused at all that was happening.
She tore her gaze away from her sister's family, knowing the sorrow she felt was also driving through them like rusty nails.
Huddled beside Juileta was Agustín and Luisa. Agustín has one hand on her shoulder, which she could barely feel. He seemed lost, not fully comprehending what just happened. Luisa sat close to them, her face solemn but blank. She could tell that her daughter was trying to not let her emotions show.
Isabela wasn't with them, but still with Mirabel's body. When Julieta and Agustín tried to get her to leave, Isabela wouldn't budge. She wouldn't let go of Mirabel's hand and kept telling them to go away. It was only when Isabella yelled at them that they decided to leave her alone.
Julieta glanced over Agustín again, trying to meet his eyes. He noticed her gaze and gave her a small smile, trying to reassure her. But she could tell he had no idea what to do to help her. She understood though. He probably doesn't know how to help himself right now.
She looked away from him and focused on her mamá. A couple of the town's people were speaking with her, trying to figure out how to help them. She can barely hear her mother talking to the small group of people.
Could her mamá never relax? The thought frustrated Julieta to no end. Your granddaughter just died, and you can't stop and shed a single tear for her?
But at the same time, it felt familiar. Her madre was someone who always would be doing something for the familia. It's probably how she's coping, Julieta thought. But the angry thought towards her madre danced in her mind for a couple seconds before it was whisked away and drowned in the multitude of thoughts inside her.
Julieta softly shook her head. It felt like she couldn't think straight.
As her mind danced in a frenzy of a whirlwind of thoughts, one thought kept popping up. And even though she didn't want to acknowledge it, Julieta couldn't help but notice who was not among them.
Her brother Bruno.
He had loved Mirabel when she was younger, probably because she would want to be with Bruno when her parents were busy. He had never been comfortable around his sobrinos and sobrinas, fearing his visions would somehow hurt them. The fear stemmed from his botched vision with Dolores. Her vision seemed to make him withdraw more from the rest of his sobrinos and sobrinas. But Mirabel was the only one out of her siblings and cousins to actively seek out Bruno.
Julieta remembered when she couldn't find Mirabel immediately, she would always find her daughter with Bruno. Whether she was playing with the sand in his tower, him reading something to her, or both of them asleep on the couch, they seemed inseparable.
But now both of them are gone.
As Julieta tried to push the feelings of grief for Bruno away, she couldn't help but wonder why he left. What had he seen that made him run away? Her thoughts paused for a moment as a dark thought entered into her mind. Had he foreseen Mirabel's…
Her mind was interrupted by a voice. "Everyone."
She looked up to see her madre standing in front of the broken family. The villagers she had been talking to were standing a couple of feet away from them.
"I have talked to the villagers and we have made accommodations for our familia. Felix's family will be taking him, Pepa, and their children. Julieta, Agustín, the López's are willing to accommodate your familia. As for me, Senorita Guzmán has allowed me to stay in her home."
Her madre paused for a moment before continuing. "I know this is a difficult time for us, but I believe as a familia…"
"What about Mirabel?" Julieta asked.
Alma stopped speaking, a confused look on her face. Out of the side of her eyes, Julieta saw the rest of the familia looking at her in concern.
"Julieta, I know this is a difficult time for you, but Mirabel is…" Alma began.
Before she could finish, Julieta heard Agustín speak up. "I think what Julieta means is where are we going to put Mirabel for the time being. Leaving her outside would not be a good idea."
Julieta inward sighed as Agustín clarified for her. The stress and sadness couldn't even let her explain her thoughts properly.
She saw the familia looking less concerned at her question because of husband's clarification. When Julieta looked at her mama, however, her reaction confused her. Alma still looked confused, but there was something else there.
And then Julieta recognized what was behind her mother's eyes.
It was guilt.
"You…did arrange for Mirabel to be put somewhere, right?" she asked.
When Alma didn't move, something burst inside Julieta. A small bubble of anger that had been simmering underneath the surface popped. Suddenly, she found the strength to stand up. The anger drowned the sorrow inside her as she found the whirlwind of thoughts in her mind recede away.
"You didn't arrange for Mirabel to be put anywhere?", Juletia asked with an edge to her voice. "The least you could have done is talked to the embalmer. Did you even do that?"
"Well…I…" Alma started.
"I can't believe you right now!" Julieta said as she threw up her hands in exasperation. "You told us you would take care of everything. What kind of abuela are you?!"
Alma stood unmoving. Shock and uncertainty were written across her face.
Julieta heard someone behind her slowly stand up and make their way towards her. Alma took a small breath to compose herself and tried to speak.
But Julieta interrupted her.
"No, I am done asking you that question."
Everyone froze, not understanding what she had just said. Julieta looked straight into her mother's eyes, and found something she didn't expect there.
It was fear.
Alma tried to step forward. "Juli…"
Julieta could feel all of her familia watching her. But she didn't care. The rage inside of her had taken hold of her grief. She could feel it deep inside her and it seemed to rattle against her entire body like a wild animal in a cage. It wanted out.
So she gave into it.
"Don't Juli me mamá!" she screamed. The familia jumped at the sound of her voice.
"For years, I have asked what kind of abuela would shun her nieta! What kind of abuela would deflect her responses, put her down, and could hardly ever look at her?! I have always thought you've been too hard on Mirabel, but I never would have thought that you would ignore her even when she was dead!"
The last remark Julieta said must have triggered something inside of her madre as her face became tighter.
"Julieta, this is hardly the time for this," her madre said. "We are in a period of mourning. We have lost everything! And now you want to question my feelings for Mirabel?"
"I would not be questioning you right now if you had treated Mirabel differently in the past! I could have blamed this on grief or confusion. But because you have forgotten Mirabel again, I think you do hate her!"
Alma started shouting. "Look around you! Our home is gone! Our Miracle is gone!"
"Is that all you care about?! The Miracle?! Not your nieta?"
"That Miracle is all we had left of your padre!"
"Padre has been dead for 50 years! Your nieta just died a couple of hours ago because she tried to save that candle! She is dead because she tried to save it! And she tried to save it to please you! But she could never do that!"
"Julieta…!" Alma began.
But Julieta couldn't handle this anymore. The rage inside of her wasn't satisfied. So she let out the small splinter of hate that seemed to contain all her built up frustration and anger for the last 30 years.
"Mirabel is dead because of you!"
Silence followed. All Julieta could hear was her heavy breathing. She realized that Agustín had his hand on her shoulder. She wondered how long he had been there.
All of the familia stood silent, staring at the confrontation in front of them. Alma seemed the most quiet. She stared at Julieta with wide eyes, not understanding who stood in front of her, as if Julieta had slapped her.
Julieta took in a breath, and with it a strangled sob escaped her throat. The rage had died out, but the anger still simmered inside of her.
Julieta tried to speak, but was interrupted by someone screaming inside the ruins of Casita.
Julieta's eyes widened as she realized it was Isabella screaming.
# - - - - # - - - - #
The first thing Mirabel realized was that everything seemed out of focus. The world was in a blur and her thoughts were muddled, as if she had just woken up from a dream. Maybe she had been asleep, she reasoned to herself.
Then her vision gradually seemed to sharpen as a few seconds passed by. She realized that she was lying down, so Mirabel slowly got up.
The first thing she noticed was that she wasn't wearing her old clothes anymore. Her colorful embroidered skirt had been replaced with a straight white skirt, with gold embroidery at the bottom of it depicting simple butterflies. Her shirt was still white, but both the shirt and the skirt seemed whiter than any shade of white she had seen. On top of those laid a purple ruana, which was more heavily embroidered with golden images. At a glance, she recognized many icons that match her family members.
Mirabel marveled at the clothes she was wearing. How did these get on her? Did her family members put them on her?
As she went to rub her face, she realized she wasn't wearing her glasses. But her vision seemed to be fine without them. Wondering what was happening, Mirabel looked up to take in her surroundings.
She then remembered what had just happened.
Surrounding her were the ruins of Casita. The once colorful tiles and walls were now muted by the heavy dust piled on top of them. Furniture and doors lay either askew or smashed apart on the ground. The tiled floor was broken apart with hairline cracks and major gouges. Everything that made up the Madrigal's home seemed gone, as if someone had killed it.
With all the devastation that lay around her, Mirabel could only think of one thing.
"I did this," she whispered.
She was the reason behind the cracks appearing. She was the one who snuffed out the Miracle. Mirabel felt like she had grabbed a knife and stabbed it into the beating heart of the magic.
Casita was dead because of her.
The thoughts of guilt seemed to pile up inside her mind. She didn't mean to do any of this. All she wanted was to help her family. She wanted to prove to them that she was useful. That she made a contribution to this family. That she was a Madrigal.
But now that chance was gone forever.
Mirabel started to panic. What would Abuela say about this? How would her family look at her when they saw her? Would they be angry at her, or scared of her because of what she had done?
And while these thoughts spun around inside her head, one thought was clear.
I need to leave.
Yes, that is what she would do. She would leave. She would get away from her family. Run far away from them, so she could protect them from herself.
Mirabel turned around and started to walk quickly away, hoping to slip away before her family arrived. But then she realized that someone was softly crying behind her.
Mirabel didn't want to turn around. Looking back seemed painful. What if one of her family members was there behind her? But curiosity seemed to get the better of her, and she took a glance backwards.
In the middle of the ruins, Isabela knelt over someone, softly crying to herself. Her hermana held the hand of the person on the ground, and she seemed to be saying something to herself.
Mirabel stopped. She wanted to keep going, to run far away into the mountains and find a way out. But the sight of her hermana crying kept her rooted in place.
She wanted to go to Isabela, to comfort her. They both had gotten along in the past couple of minutes when Mirabel helped her grow and expand her power. But what if Isabela yelled at her? What if things went back to the way that had before because Mirabel had done all this?
As Mirabel stared at Isabela, she realized that the person Isabela was crying over wasn't moving. She couldn't see the person breathing and there seemed to be a large dark stain around them.
Mirabel suppressed a gasp. She had killed one of her family.
The world seemed to go darker. Not only had she killed the Miracle and Casita, but now she had killed a family member in the process.
Could things get any worse?, Mirabel asked herself. How much more had she broken this family? How damage had she done?
Without thinking, Mirabel softly walked toward Isabela and the body.
As she walked over, Mirabel's mind looked over the body and tried to put together who it was. They wore a white blouse. A teal skirt covered their legs. Curly black hair spilled down from her head. Round lime green glass sat on her nose…
Round green glasses.
Her mind stopped on that thought. No one in her family wore green glasses. Her father had glasses, but not of that color. The only person who wore those kinds of glasses…
Was her.
But she couldn't be the one laying dead on the ground right now. She was standing right in front of Isabela! It must be somebody else. It couldn't be her!
But as Mirabel walked closer to the body, she realized with horror that it was true. It was like looking in a mirror. But she knew that there was no mirror.
Mirabel knew that she laid dead in front of herself.
A strangled gasp escaped Mirabel's throat. How could she be dead? Even though she knew that somehow she was dead, part of her mind was in denial. That it was some illusion, a trick, a disguise, anything! How could be seeing herself?
A gasp of fright interrupted her thoughts. But the gasp didn't come from her.
Mirabel tore her eyes away from her body and found herself staring directly into Isabela's eyes. Her hermana sat there with an expression of shock and fear, staring right at her. At that moment, Mirabel knew that Isabela could see her.
They stared at each other for what seemed like hours, both trying to process what they were seeing. Mirabel noticed that Isabela's breathing started to get faster, as if in terror.
Mirabel tried to speak, but the words wouldn't come. The silence was overwhelming, almost suffocating. The unspoken tension of disbelief hung over them, waiting to snap and crush them both.
Mirabel finally found her voice, and after a couple seconds, she spoke.
"Isa…"
Her voice snapped the string that held the tension over them.
Isabela's scream tore through the once silent ruins of Casita. It was ear-piercing and full of terror. Mirabel winced at the noise in surprise, barely noticing she felt no pain in her ears. In a panic, Isabela started to crawl backwards from Mirabel. Her screams started to come out in short bursts as she tried to escape her.
"Isa, wait! Hold on!" Mirabel said, as she stepped forward and tried to reach out to Isabela.
But her words seemed to drive Isabela in a greater panic. Incoherently screaming and crying, Isabela grasped for something behind her. When her hand clenched a small piece of rubble, she chucked it straight at Mirabel.
Mirabel braced herself for the impact of the rock, but it never came. Instead she felt a tingling sensation as the rock seemed to collide with her. The force of it seemed to go through her before the sensation was gone.
Mirabel's mind halted, wondering what had just happened. Then the realization came to her. The rubble felt like it went through her, because that's what had just happened.
She really was dead.
Her thoughts were interrupted as she felt another tingling sensation go through her. Mirabel looked at Isabela, as her hermana grabbed another piece of rubble.
"Stop, please!" Mirabel tried to say.
"Demon!" Isabela shrieked. "Get away from me!" Tears cut through the grime on her face as she tried to get away.
Mirabel's mind raced as she tried to think of what to say when she heard voices coming from outside the ruins. She looked up and realized that the rest of her family was coming towards them.
She looked at Isabela, who continued to throw rubble and crawl away. If this was how badly her presence affected her hermana, how would it affect the rest of her family? Would they run in terror as well? Try to attack her as Isabela was doing?
But the thing that plagued her the most is how they would react to her killing the Miracle.
As the voices grew closer, Mirabel made up her mind. Her feet seemed to rebel against her, as she wanted to stay and comfort her family. But right now, she knew she couldn't.
Taking one step backwards, Mirabel looked at Isabela. With a strangled voice, thick with emotion, Mirabel whispered, "I'm sorry."
Then she turned from Isabela and ran away from the crumbling ruins of Casita.
