Another week went by, and this one was even more concerning. Bruno hurt so badly for the first two days that he sat very still and didn't speak much. Of course his sisters noticed his discomfort and Julieta plied him with food. He ate the food and pretended to be better, something he'd had a lot of practice with, but he knew the food wouldn't heal him. Not when the pain had to do with his visions.
Besides that, Mirabel seemed to grow more worried every time she saw him. He would smile at her, but it never alleviated her concerns. It seemed to do the opposite, and she began asking if he was okay more and more frequently. The whole family noticed something was off with him, and they began asking, too. He most assuredly was not okay, but he kept lying through his teeth to the family. He had to protect them. They didn't deserve his pain. They wouldn't understand. They wouldn't care. But as those thoughts echoed in his head one night during dinner, Mirabel spoke again.
"Are you okay, tío?"
"Yes, Mirabel," Bruno said irritably. "Why do you keep asking?"
The family stared at him. He rarely spoke like that.
"Are you… certain?" Alma asked.
"Yes, mamá. I'm fine."
"Really?" Julieta asked.
Bruno rolled his eyes. His whole body still ached from the weird vision and he was sick of their false concern.
"I'm fine, Juli. I'm always fine. Now stop asking."
Silence. Bruno huffed and stood up. He was done eating. He wanted sleep. And to get away from the never ending questions. But as he pushed back his chair, his legs seized and he yelped and staggered back. Tripping over the leg of his chair, he hit the tiled floor hard and gasped.
"Bruno!" Pepa exclaimed, standing up.
"Are you okay?" Agustín asked, moving to help him up.
"Get off of me!" Bruno snapped. "I don't need help from you."
Agustín straightened and took a step back, his face flushing. "Well, sorry. For whatever I did."
Julieta came around the table and handed Bruno an arepa con queso. "Eat," she ordered. "This should take care of the bruises."
"I'm fine, Juli," Bruno groused. He waved her away and staggered to his feet. "Gotta love tripping over yourself."
Mirabel licked her lips. She knew he hadn't tripped. "Are you still in pain?" she finally asked in a small voice.
The family turned to her and Julieta paled. "Pain?" She turned and shoved the arepa into her brothers face. "Eat!"
"That won't help, mamá," Mirabel said.
"And why not?" Julieta demanded.
"It never works for this kind of pain."
"That's enough, Mirabel!" Bruno snapped.
Julieta stared at her daughter then turned to her brother. "You've been doing visions? How many? For who?"
Bruno's face burned with humiliation. "It doesn't matter, Juli. Drop it."
"It does matter, tío," Mirabel argued. "We need to tell them what happened."
"No, Mirabel! It doesn't matter!"
"What happened?" Alma asked.
"Mirabel," Bruno warned.
"We don't know. But his visions aren't working right. I think that's why his door is dark."
"Not working right?" Pepa asked. A thundercloud began to form over her head. "What do you mean?"
"It was red and it made no sense. And it hurt him. That's why he's been limping around. Something's wrong."
Alma turned to Bruno, who was glaring at Mirabel. "What's wrong?"
"Don't know. Don't care," Bruno muttered. "Doesn't matter. I'm going to bed."
He turned and walked into the courtyard, heading for the stairs. His family followed him.
"Bruno, we need to know what's wrong. We need to know why your door is dark," Alma said. "Why won't you help us figure it out?"
"Because I know why my door is dark," Bruno grumbled under his breath.
"You do?" Dolores blurted out.
He grimaced. Of course she'd heard him.
"He does what?" Mirabel asked.
"He said he knows why his door is dark," Dolores replied.
That got everybody's attention.
"You know?" Alma asked.
"Why is it dark then?" Mirabel asked.
Bruno continued to the stairs. "Doesn't matter. Stop worrying. I'm fine."
"It does matter, we are worried, and you are not fine!" Mirabel said, exasperated. "Tell us why the door is dark!"
Bruno didn't want to have this conversation. He wanted everybody to go away, and he wanted sleep. He was determined to get to his room to do it. But Mirabel grabbed his arm.
"Tío Bruno, please!"
And he turned, his anger exploding out of him as he surprised everybody, including himself.
"The door is dark because I'm never using my stupid 'gift' again, okay?!" he shouted. He stared at their shocked faces. "There! You know! No need to worry anymore! Now leave me alone!"
But Alma stepped forward. "Why?"
"Why? Why what?" Bruno asked, crossing his arms.
"Why are you never going to use your gift again?"
Bruno stared at her, then a sarcastic smile bloomed on his face. He shook his head and laughed softly, a bitter, grating noise.
"What's so funny?" Félix asked uneasily.
"Forget it. You wouldn't understand. You never do," Bruno muttered then turned to go up the stairs.
"Bruno!"
"Come back, changuito!"
"Let's talk about this!"
"What's wrong, tío?"
"Please talk to us!"
Bruno ignored them, but an odd floating feeling came over him halfway up the stairs, and his entire body seized. For a moment, he couldn't move, as rigid as a statue as his muscles tensed, then he was driven to his knees with a cry of pain as the world in front of him briefly flashed red. The color drained from his face as he sucked in a breath. A shiver went up his spine, and red sparks erupted off of him, fizzling in the air. The family watched in astonishment as Bruno groaned and leaked red light like blood.
"¡Brunito!" Alma gasped and hurried up the stairs.
"No. 'M fine," Bruno muttered, shaking off her hands as he staggered to his feet again.
He managed to get to the second floor before another seizure struck him, and he hit the floor even harder. Wheezing, trying to see through a haze of red, he tried to get back on his feet, but he couldn't. Red sparks exploded outward again, and he let out a scream, convulsing on the floor as disjointed memories came to his mind. He came back to the present when Alma grasped him and shook him.
"Bruno! Can you hear me?"
"Fine. 'M fine," Bruno muttered. "Sleep now. Bed."
More sparks showered off of him, and Alma cried out and released him. "Ow! What is this?"
"It happened with the weird vision," Mirabel said, coming up the stairs with the rest of the family behind her. She thought for a moment then knelt down. "¿Tío? I think you need to see a vision."
"NO!" Bruno screeched. He twisted away and tried to get up. But another spasm drove him back down and he wailed as every muscle in his body contracted painfully.
"Do you think it's necessary?" Alma asked Mirabel.
"Yes," Mirabel said. "Because he's not fine. It's the only thing I can think of, abuela."
"No!" Bruno growled through clenched teeth. "No! No! No!"
Alma studied Mirabel's earnest face then looked at her son. He was still trying to get up, to get away. Bruno was trying to run from his family. That wasn't right. Perhaps Mirabel was right. And this time, they would all be there with him. He couldn't get away again.
"Very well. Let's go."
"No!" Bruno screamed.
"Yes, Bruno," Alma said sternly. "Whether you like it or not, you need this. Félix, Agustín, help him."
Bruno let out an outraged shout and tried to crawl away, but Félix and Agustín each grabbed one arm and heaved him upright.
"Need help?" Luisa asked.
"No," Agustín grunted as Bruno jerked forward, trying to break his grip.
"But stay close behind us," Félix added, bracing himself as Bruno threw his weight against him to try and get away.
The entire family walked to Bruno's room, Alma leading the way. She reached for the doorknob, but it was locked.
"Casita?" Alma said.
"Don't you dare!" Bruno roared then he seized again. Both men grunted as they held him upright.
Casita opened the door, and Bruno relaxed with a groan, dazed from the pain.
"Traitor," he hissed as he was forced through the door.
"Okay, it's a dune behind the waterfall. Careful," Mirabel cautioned.
Félix and Agustín maneuvered Bruno through the waterfall of sand and into the room. When they were steady, they looked up and froze, their mouths falling open. The rest of the family soon joined them, gaping at the hundreds of stairs that led in a spiral up toward the vision cave.
"What is all this?" Pepa asked. "There were never this many stairs before!"
Bruno laughed bitterly. "You wouldn't know! You haven't been in here since before you were married! Now let me go!"
With a grunt, he wrenched himself out of his brothers-in-law's grips and staggered forward as he tried to get away. Félix and Agustín quickly caught him again, and Mirabel led them to the stairs.
"We can do this. I've done it twice. One step at a time."
Their progress was slow, both because of the daunting task of going up so many stairs and because Bruno kept trying to get away from them. Luisa stayed right behind her father and uncles. They still refused her help, but she was worried. As they ascended higher and higher, Bruno's mental state started to deteriorate. He alternated between jerking them side to side hard enough to nearly topple them off the staircase and seizing more and more violently between escape attempts, red sparks pouring off of him more and more frequently.
"¡Ay, Dios mío!" Félix spat as another shower of sparks burst off of Bruno. "They burn!"
"Let me help you with that," Bruno muttered then used his body to plow into Félix.
Félix hit the cliff face, yowled in pain, and released Bruno. Bruno twisted out of Agustín's hands then turned and, to everyone's shock and dismay, vaulted off the side of the stairs. Luisa was too quick for him, snagging him in midair and jerking him against her chest.
"No!" she barked.
"Have you lost your mind?!" Pepa screeched as everybody else gazed in horror at Bruno. Thunder cracked loudly from her rain cloud, echoing around them. "We've got to be a mile up!"
Bruno laughed hysterically, tears streaming down his cheeks as he fought Luisa's iron grip. "Doesn't matter! Casita won't let me get hurt! It never does! Not when I fall! Or jump! Even when I wanted to get hurt, I was fine! Always fine!"
He seized violently, twitching and jerking in Luisa's arms as he screamed in pain. His family stared at him as the words sank in. He'd… jumped? From this high? On purpose? And he'd wanted to get hurt? They all looked down at the sand far below. Bruno wouldn't have just been hurt jumping from this high. He would have died if Casita hadn't protected him.
"I think that would hurt," Antonio murmured, grasping Mirabel's hand.
Nobody answered, and they turned to ascend the last hundred stairs. Luisa carried Bruno bridal style, her hands firmly grasping him so he wouldn't try anything like that again. Once they were across the bridge, Mirabel led them into the cave. Luisa lowered Bruno so he could stand, but as she released him, he shoved her backwards and bolted for the exit. Félix and Agustín caught him and pushed him into the middle of the room.
"Close the door," Alma ordered.
Camilo obeyed. For a moment, the room was pitch black, no light coming in. Bruno started to whimper and sob in the dark, a heart-wrenching sound that echoed around them. Then green fire flickered to life in the brackets, casting the room in an eerie glow. Bruno stood in the very center, tears streaming down his face as he hunched over and wrung his hands together. He shook from head to foot, distress etched in every line of his thin face.
"Please," he whimpered, shaking his head again and again. "Please no. I don't want to. Don't make me. Please. It hurts. It hurts so bad. Please, mamá, don't make me. I'll be good, just don't make me hurt more."
Then red sparks erupted off of him, and he convulsed, landing hard on the floor and writhing as a sharp cry burst from him. Sweat streamed down his face as he stilled, mixing with the tears still pouring from his eyes. Everything hurt so badly, and he could hardly move, soft sobs still echoing around the room. The family watched, unable to reconcile the childlike pleas with the quiet, reserved man they knew.
"It's okay, Brunito," Alma murmured, kneeling beside him and cradling his head. "Just one more. It's for your own good. I hope."
The last two words were unsure, and Alma looked to Mirabel, who shrugged helplessly.
"We need to set it up. Any idea how?" Mirabel asked.
"We can do it," Pepa said, and Julieta nodded.
"Hurry," Alma murmured as Bruno continued to whimper. She tenderly wiped away the tears as they continued to fall.
With the two women working together, the ritual was set up in five minutes. Julieta set the jar of sand aside after tracing the circle around the whole room. They looked around, muttered to each other, then nodded.
"I think we're done," Pepa said.
"Good. Help me get him sitting up," Mirabel said.
Luisa eased her uncle into a seated position, but he slumped forward, still crying.
"That'll have to do," Mirabel said. "Okay. Let's see…"
"Leaves. Then herbs," Julieta said.
"Right, right."
Mirabel grabbed a match and struck it, lighting the leaves on fire. But as she reached for the twig to light the herbs, Bruno's hand suddenly dashed out and clamped around her wrist. He began to mutter, half delirious. She couldn't understand what he was saying in the echo, and she tried to shake him off before the flames went out.
"Come on, tío. It's for your own good," she coaxed.
But Bruno tightened his grip and continued to mutter.
"Salt," Dolores suddenly said. "He wants salt."
Mirabel nodded. "Okay. Salt. Let me go and I'll get salt."
Bruno released her hand, and she carefully reached into his ruana and found the pocket of salt. She took some into her hand then poured it into Bruno's twitching palm.
"Here we go. Salt. Over the shoulder," she said encouragingly.
Once she had helped him with the salt, she quickly grabbed the twig and lit the herbs. The sweet smoke curled upward, wrapping around Bruno's head, and he suddenly stopped trembling. He took a deep, slow breath and sat up, his eyes half-lidded. His limbs no longer tremored, and the family started to relax. Mirabel had been right. This was what he needed. His eyes took in the room, a green glow starting in his irises as the sand began to shiver around them.
"That's it, tío," Mirabel encouraged. "Relax."
Bruno's eyes focused on her then went to the rest of the family as the sand rose up, ensconcing them in a bubble of green light. He went from face to face, seeing them smile and nod. Then he looked at Camilo. And laughter burst through the room, echoing off the walls.
"Again! Again!" children's voices cried. "Creepy old Bruno!"
All the color drained from Camilo's face as the sand and Bruno's eyes changed from green to red. Then he doubled over and let out a horrible scream of pain as he convulsed on the floor. The green fire in the brackets went out, and the room was full of red, swirling sand. Just like before, disjointed images began to flash across the sand. But then the vision settled into one scene, as clear and sharp as real life, and the family watched in bewilderment as a young Camilo grinned at them from the vision.
"What's going on?" Pepa demanded.
Then, to the astonishment of everybody there, sound began to surround them as the vision came to life.