The sun shone brightly above in the midday sky as birds perched in the trees sang a graceful chorus through the afternoon breeze. Taking in the Colombian warmth was one Maribel Madrigal, taking a nice walk through the wilderness of the Encanto to a special spot of her's. It had been only a week since the collapse of her living home of Casita, and so far there was only a week left till the new Casita was finished. Having the whole town help really sped up what should've taken a full month. But Maribel was happy. She'd reunited her Tio Bruno with the rest of the family, corrected her relationship with her older hermana Isabela, and finally helped her Abuela find the error of her ways.
Sure, the cracks were still there, they couldn't be fixed overnight. But they were healing, and that made Mira's heart soar at just the thought.
Currently, she was taking a breather after helping her Tia Pepa and Tio Felix move a cabinet. And that was on top of a bunch of other stuff earlier, like sister bonding time. So she decided to take a walk to the river where her Abuelo sacrificed himself to save his family. The same river where she made up with Alma. It had become a special space for her, where she'd come to soak in the beauty and music. With a content sigh, she continued along the trail until she made it to the running batch of water, the liquid calmly splashing against the rocks of the shallow river bed. It was relaxing and peaceful.
Mirabel closed her eyes and took a deep breathe, a bright smile on her face as she soaked up the sun's rays. A few butterflies fluttered over a nearby batch of flowers, completing the whole scene. It was perfect. Just what Mirabel ne-
"I-I…Erg…" *ZZZZT*
Mirabel jumped at the sudden and forgiven noise. It sounded like when her family's radio would go on the frizz, static and all. She darted her head around to try and find the source, and a bit further up the river, leaning against a tree on the bank she was on, was… a thing. Curious it's getting the better of her, she carefully took a closer look at the strange thing, and it was nothing like she had ever seen.
The thing's body was thin, almost like it was made of poles, the glint of dirty metal quickly deducing what this thing was made of. There were very thick wires leading along different places of the thing, going from the shoulders down the arms and from the pelvis down the legs (One of which was bent the wrong way). Its feet and hands were mismatched. It's head resembled a skull a bit, with teeth that look vaguely human attached to thin metal jaws. It had eyelids, but they didn't hid the glassy eyes of the odd creature, which looked down at the ground. The warm breeze made the old chunks of fabric that were stuck to the head gently wave about.
Leaning closer to get a better look, Mirabel jumped back when sparks flew out of the thing. Its head snapped around unnaturally, only for silence to fall as it slumped once again. The bespectacled girl could have swore she heard the thing say something, but the wincing sound of screeching metal made her unsure. She stood a bit of a distance away from the thing after that, but something in her heart panged.
Was it pity? Fear? She wasn't sure. But whatever it was, she knew one thing.
She couldn't leave it here.
One, it was clearly not supposed to be here, and she didn't want it to wreck the beauty of such an important spot. Two, she was worried that if her family didn't claim it and do something with it, someone else might use it for something horrible. So, stealing her resolve, she took a deep breath…
Only to pause and release it. Right, Dolores didn't have her gift anymore. Whelp, plan B then.
"Just wait here, Senor", Mirabel told the odd thing, as if expecting it to respond. "I'll be back with someone. We'll bring you back to my home, and then figure things out there." Mirabel darted away, hoping she could find Luisa or Isabela.
Her back turned, she missed the thing turn its head ever so slightly at her.
~X~
Mirabel dashed back through the cracked mountain, and ran into the town of Encanto. She quickly waved to any villagers she passed, but she didn't stick around to chat. She was on a mission. She ran up the hill that her home rested on, and slowed down as she entered through the front doors. Looking around, she wasn't surprised to see the courtyard packed with people. Able bodied men and women were walking about with construction supplies, all of them playing their part to help the family that supported them for over 50 years.
As her eyes scanned over the scene, she spotted her mom Julieta talking to her sister Pepa and brother Bruno. The anxious rat man was hidden behind his sisters, clearly uncomfortable with all the people. But his family was slowly trying to reintegrate him back into society, much to his chagrin.
Mirabel, with a target in her sights, slowly weaved through the crowd.
"Excuse me", she mumbled as she squeezed past. "Pardon. Sorry, just trying to- Mama!"
Julieta turned around, a bright smile on her face as her daughter approached, shuffling past.
"Hola, mija", the older woman said. She hugged her daughter when she was at her side, and Mira whined at not being a baby anymore. Pepa and Bruno quietly chuckled at the scene, hearts warm.
"Mama, I was wondering where Luisa was", Mirabel asked when the embrace was broken.
"I think I saw her go out back to help Isabela with something", her mother responded. "But, may I ask why you need her help?"
Mirabel fell silent, two voices in her head fighting between telling a lie and telling the truth. In the end, the latter won out.
"I was going on a walk to the river", she began, "And I found this weird metal thing by the water. It's big, so I was hoping to get Luisa to help me."
A flash of confusion and curiosity flashed across all three of the adults' faces, all wondering what the second youngest Madrigal meant. But before they could question further, Mirabel darted off back into the crowd.
"Do you know what she was talking about, Bruno?" Pepa asked her brother.
The ex-seer shrugged, some squeaks coming from his ruana. "No idea. I've had plenty of visions, and none had metal things sitting by the river side."
Julieta hummed, thinking about it for a moment, before turning her attention to Felix and Agustin as they entered, carrying what was going to be Mirabel's new bed.
Mirabel, meanwhile, had finally wiggled her way into the backyard of her home, which was completely untouched when the original Casita collapsed. But now, not only was there a patio, but also an extravagant garden of a bunch of different plants. It was a side project all the grandkids worked together on, the eldest Isabela in charge of the whole operation. And speaking of…
"Isa! Lulu!" Mirabel called. Both her sisters were busy putting on the finishing touches on a batch of flowers that were shaped as a butterfly. The left wing was yellows and oranges (reflecting Pepa's side of the family), the right was blues and purples (to reflect Julieta's side), with a mahogany middle with green antennae (to reflect Alma and Bruno, respectively). It was the centrepiece of the whole garden.
At their sister's call, both older girls turned around and beamed as Mirabel waved at them. She ran up and all three of them shared a brief hug.
"Enjoy your walk, Mira?" Isabela asked. "You missed some amazing gardening from yours truly."
Luisa rolled her eyes with a smirk, and Mirabel scoffed jokingly. "I can tell, judging by the stains."
Isabela looked down at her dress, and blushed when she did see her overalls covered in dirt stains. "I'll change later…" She mumbled sheepishly.
Luisa snorted, then faced the youngest. "So, what's up Mira?"
"I need help with something", she explained. "I found something at the river, but it's way too big for me to carry. So I was hoping if you two could help me?"
Her two older sisters shared a curious look, then faced their sister and shrugged. "Sure, I can help." Luisa said nonchalantly.
Isabela paused for a moment. "Okay. I'm down."
Mirabel beamed. "Great! C'mon, I don't want someone else to take it." She ran around the house back to the cracked mountain, her older sisters in hot pursuit.
~X~
This was not what Luisa and Isabela had expected.
Mirabel and her sisters were standing in front of the old metal contraption, and it was exactly like the second youngest Madrigal had left it.
"Okay, I thought you meant a chest or something", Isa said, looking at her youngest sister with a weird look. "Not… whatever this thing is."
"It kinda reminds me of a knight", Luisa mentioned vaguely. Mirabel nodded as she thought back to the old fairytales her Abuela and Mama would read to her when she was younger. Knights that would fight against dragons and creatures of the night to rescue a princess.
"Well, I was thinking of bringing this back to Casita", Mirabel said.
Isabela gave the thing an unsure glance, then looked at her sister again. "Are you sure? Why can't we leave it here?"
Mirabel gave her sister a look. "Well, I did think that… but what happens if someone else finds it and uses it to hurt people? I'd rather we find out what to do with it then leave it here."
That made both Isabela and Luisa fill with a sharp pang of dread. It was a reasonable thing to assume, and none of them wanted to see where that would go. So, carefully, Luisa knelt down and carefully reached her hands out-
"C-C-C-COME ONNNN DOOOWN-N-N-N TOOOOOoooooo…"
All three sisters suddenly jumped back with yelps of fright as the metal thing suddenly lurched forward, hand reaching for the middle sister as it bellowed out the broken statement. Its pupils were dilated and alight in a ghoulish yellow as it screeched, only for everything to fall into an eerie silence as the thing's voice died.
The three Madrigals remained silent as they stared at the thing in fear.
"Was it trying to attack me?" Luisa said fearfully.
Isabela glared at the machine, and pulled out a garden trowel she still had on her person. "Mira, I love you, but I say we just trash this thing and give it to Ignacio for smelting."
Mirabel waved her hands frantically. "No! What if this is someone's toy, and it's just broken?"
Luisa shot her sister a disbelieving look. "I don't think they make toys this big, Mira."
"You never know", the bespectacled girl said sheepishly.
Both sisters gave her flat looks, but then returned to giving the metal thing an uneasy look. With a sigh, Luisa made another move to pick up the thing, and Isa pocketed her trowel to help.
Luisa was able to shift it so she was carrying it by the head, while the other girls carried one leg each. This meant the arms hung limply at the side, the hands dragging across the ground. They moved in sync together, heading through the forest at a decent pace. The metal creature didn't move or make a sound, remaining dead in their grasp.
Once they finally made it back into the town, they drew a mild amount of attention with the strange object. The villagers, usually ones quick to gossip and mutter rumours, remained eerily quiet this time around. Perhaps it was because of how alien the thing was. It was unlike anything before.
As they scaled the hill to Casita, they were relieved to see the front doors were still open, but Mirabel felt a pang of uneasiness when she saw her whole family, plus the Guzmans, Osvaldo and Ignacio all conversing in the courtyard.
The conversation died when the sisters entered, and quickly set the metal thing on the stairs in a sitting position. Everyone gathered around eyeing the strange contraption before them.
"This is what you found, mija?" Julieta asked in a confused whisper. Augstin looked the thing over like it had just appeared out of thin air.
Mirabel nodded, and her cousin Camilo let out a low whistle . "I gotta say, nice find. What's it do?"
Luisa shrugged. "So far, just spout random stuff and snap around."
Dolores gave off her usually pouty look, Antonio tilting his head in curiosity at the fascinating object. It had eyes, teeth, and the joints of a human, which kinda reminded him of…
"It's a skeleton!" He cheered innocently, pointing at it. Everyone looked down at him, then back at the metal skeleton.
"He's… not wrong…" Bruno said, his voice kind of cracking with anxiety.
Alma remained as stoic as ever, but she did pass an uneasy look to her youngest granddaughter. "Julieta told me you found this by the river?"
Mirabel nodded, and received a hum in return.
"Well, what do we do with it?" Felix asked, putting a reassuring hand on his wife's shoulder as she stroked her braid.
"I can take it off your hands", Ignacio said, his voice seeping with jolly. The village's blacksmith was always one to never let much put a damper on his mood.
"I believe that's best", Alma said. "I'd rather not have to find out what this thing is capable of."
Mirabel felt a bit stung by that, and opened her mouth to offer her counter point-
"HEY KIDS. IF YOU WANTED A FREE TOKEN, GIVE ME A BIG OL' HUG-"
Everyone jumped up in fright at the metal skeleton's sudden and very loud exclamation, its arms snapping into several poses and it twisted its torso about. The voice crackled with static, in an accent that was completely foreign to them all, as the eyes shone with a blue hue. At the word "hug", the eyes flickered and it slumped forward, falling silent once again. Its arms remained outstretched, ready for a hug, but its hands were limp.
No one dared say anything, or even move. There was a sense of dread in the voice that hung in the air, but that wasn't what made Dolores squeak in fright.
It was the fact that one of the metal skeleton's glassy left eye remained glued to the humans in front of them.
No light came from the pupil as it darted sharply at all those standing in a stunned uneasy silence. Mirabel, however, could see something behind that one eye…
Pain, regret, sadness… agony.
It made her feel bad.
Carefully, she took a single slow step forward, and all the Madrigals made a move to stop her. This, seemingly, finally made the metal skeleton begin to stand. It corrected its twisted leg, and rose higher on its feet. It made Luisa cringe, as it was quickly apparent it was taller than even her. She tried a lump in her throat.
"Okay…" Mirabel said carefully, looking the complete metal thing up and down. "So, my name is Maribel, and this", she gestured to the other Madrigals, who gave tense smiles (except Antonio, who was still curious), "Are my family."
The metal skeleton stared down at her, its eyes suddenly flashing on with a vibrant golden glow.
Mirabel could feel the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. "Do…" She took a quick breath. "Do you have a name?"
A moment of silence. "I-I-I… I'm Gregory…" It said, voice breaking as it struggled to form words randomly. "I-I-I'm… GREGORY." The second mention of its name had it sound almost like a roar, with how deep and crackled it was.
Mirabel felt a chill run up her spine, but she didn't show it. "Well… Gregory… Welcome to Encanto!"
'Gregory' tilled its head slightly, as if confused by what Mirabel said. It was then that the tension began to melt away, as the glow from the eyes softened, and the arms hung limp at the side.
"Yes", Mirabel continued, "You're in our home, Casita-"
"Mirabel"
Everyone did a double take. Did it sound exactly like Mirabel?
"Mirabel…" The metal thing repeated, sounding exactly as the bespectacled girl. "So - name is Mirabel." It pointed at her.
It was near impossible to suppress a giggle, and Mirabel just couldn't help it. She giggled, which made the metal skeleton repeat the exact giggle, if a bit more raspy. While the rest of those there were still apprehensive about the very strange metal being, Maribel was quickly warming up to this strange thing that called himself 'Gregory'. She doubted that was its actual name, but she'd press later.
"Well, it's nice to have you here Gregory", Mirabel said with a smile. The metal skeleton looked down at her, and the slightest hints of pink added to the glow in its eyes.
"Okay, well, this is nice and all", Isabela interjected, standing between the two. She gestured at 'Gregory'. "What are we supposed to do with the eight foot tall titanium skeleton?"
'Gregory's' became unfocused at that, while the rest of the humans all began to brainstorm. As they thought of where to keep 'Gregory', it brought a hand to its metal face and traced along the thin metal bottom jaw. Antonio was the only one to notice the odd behaviour, and it only made the poor five-year-old more confused. Carefully he took a few careful steps towards 'Gregory', and asked something that made everything come crashing down.
"Is everything okay, Mr.Gregory? You don't look okay…"
Look.
Look.
LOOK.
That word rang in… its mind. It froze, feeling like nothing work. Then, there was the sickening sound of twisting metal scratching against each other, as the metal skeleton snapped its head to the bathroom door. It began to thump over, almost like it was limping, and swung the door open. The madrigals and other guests all followed after as… it leaned down and looked into the mirror that hung over the sink. There were a few moments of tense silence as the light in its eyes flickered.
Then, there was a crackling gasp.
"Gregory…?" Mirabel asked carefully.
"NOT Gregory…", the metal skeleton forced out, voice breaking considerably.
"What the heck do you mean?" Dolores asked with a hushed voice. "You just told Maribel-"
"NOT Mirabel…", was the immediate response, Mirabel's voice heard amongst the static. "NOT WilliAm. NOT DaVId. NOT ELIzaBEtH. NOT-"
Silence. Not a sound came out of the metal mystery as it stared into the mirror, into its reflection's soul.
"Then who are you?" Came the cautious voice of Bruno.
A sound akin to a choked sob. "NOBODY…"
And then it shut down unexpectedly, face slamming into the sink.
~X~
Two hours had passed since the mysterious metal skeleton's shut down. Mirabel was with the rest of the Madrigal grandkids in the villiage's church, specifically the room all the kids were sharing. In the corner was their mysterious visitor, still unresponsive, yet surprisingly undamaged.
The bespectacled girl paced back and forth, Camilo watching her carefully. Antonio sat on his own bed, eyeing their new acquaintance with sadness. The eldest three conversed quietly amongst themselves.
"Mira, I get your upset", Camilo started, giving his cousin a concerned look. "But walking till the point you dig a trench isn't the way to go."
"I know, I know", she responded, taking a deep breath. "Just, I want to know what happened."
"I have a theory", Isabela suddenly shouted, earning her all the attention.
"Well?" Camilo said with a flat look, eyebrows creased together.
"He couldn't handle his own reflection", she responded. This earned her a slap on the arm courtesy of Dolores, making the flower girl wince.
Mirabel sighed, but then felt her ears perk up a bit. There was the soft melody of very quiet singing, and all heads turned to the slumped over metal man in the corner. He was softly humming as a gentle tune played, a clear voice audible through the slight static.
"Keep calm, carry on…" It mumbled, "When it seems like the end, when you feel ruined… keep calm, carry on. From the monsters underneath your bed, when you feel ruined…"
Everyone watched carefully as the metal skeleton slowly shifted and rose once again, its eyes giving off a lazy dirty yellow glow. Once it was at its full height, it walked over and sat next to Mirabel's bed, eyes glued to the floor. Everyone shared glances, and that was all Mirabel needed. She walked over and sat next to it. Carefully, she placed her hand on its arm. No resistance, only the feeling of cool metal.
"Don't know… who I am…" The metal man muttered, voice seemingly a mix of several as it crackled. "Sorry… for scene…"
Mirabel smiled up at it. "It's okay. Camilo get's what your going through." She jabbed a thumb at the ex-shapeshifter, and he pouted.
But at the metal man's head shake, Mirabel's smirk fell. "No… different… forced to be bad man… voices in head… endless…"
Mirabel frowned. "Well, you don't have to be him anymore. We'll help you figure out who you are! Right guys?" She faced her sisters and cousins, and they all nodded with determination. "But the first part of that is your name. Who are you?"
There was a pause as the metal man's eyes flashed through multiple colours before settling back onto the golden yellow. "Call me… Sammy…"
Mirabel beamed. "I promise you Sammy, we'll help you, no matter how long it takes!"
Sammy's eyes flashed with a grateful glint, and it appeared it was smiling.
~X~
In the dark of the night, watching the glowing church window from the forest, was a mass. It was focused on the girl with the glasses, drawn to her… joy. It envied her, longing for that feeling.
With nothing it could gain, it slunk away into the dark, its long, black tendrils following after like a snake.
~X~
Wow, a separate story unrelated to Dreams Come True? Yep! This was a fun idea I thought of randomly, and I'm gonna try and stay consistent with it. But regardless, I hope y'all like it!
This is a bit of a new thing, too, so please be fair with criticism.
~Caleb~