Chapter Text
Bruno hates the color green. Poisonous and toxic and vile, always worming their way into his every misfortune.
He stares at the ruana that his mother weaved for him when he was five, and it stares back. Green.
But then he imagines his mother, Alma, so loving and kind as she held it out for him to take.
“It may take a bit of growing until you can wear it properly.” She chuckled when it draped all the way down to his knees.
He had put it on over his head and watched her step away, allowing him to rest his hand atop the- his doorknob. It had shined brilliant gold, then opened to reveal a hallway and a waterfall of sand. He had his first vision as soon as he stepped foot into the hall, not even making it to the sand before he fell to the floor and his vision turned green, allowing his mama and sisters to see how horrible he looked while using his power. His sisters, Pepa and Julieta cowered behind his mama, and she looked at him hopeful. Hopeful for a wonderful and promising gift. He had revealed his door last, having been born a few minutes later than Pepa and Julieta. Pepa’s gift was wonderful, yet he managed to find a way to make her scared, rain falling harshly to the floor as she watched him with fearful eyes behind Alma. Mama and her hopeful eyes. She should never have hoped for something good from him. Her eyes lost hope soon when he told them he saw a vision of their family friend dying young within the next week from a sudden illness that will only make itself present during her last hours of life.
He’s ten now, and the green ruana feels heavy against his shoulders as he fidgets sitting on the counter of their kitchen.
Julieta holds a papa rellena out to him, and he takes it nervously. Julieta was clearly upset.
He came home with scraped knees again, after running around the town and falling against the pavement.
“I don’t like to cook, so stop getting hurt.” Julieta pouts and crosses her arms. “Plus, mama says that we should focus on using our powers to help the town, not for our dumb mistakes.”
“I’m sorry.”
They both watch his knees heal as soon as he takes a bite of the papa rellena. It’s too salty, he notes, but he won’t say anything.
She leaves with a hmph as soon as her food serves its purpose, and she stomps her way out of the room, trying her best to act angry. He knows she’s not angry. He thinks she’s scared, and doesn’t like the way her hands shaked when he was handed the papa rellena.
Bruno sets the papa rellena back on the counter, and Casita moves the countertop tiles to drop it in the trash.
He would be too. Scared, he means. Just yesterday they had been playing on the stairs, seeing who could jump the furthest number of stairs with Julieta. Pepa watched on from the side, wind lightly blowing her hair back and forth, a clear sign she was nervous watching the two.
He tripped, of course, but it wasn’t a clumsy mistake. His eyes were glowing toxic green, and he couldn’t see what was in front of him. This wasn’t what scraped his knees.
He can’t control when it happens.
Pepa and Julieta had described it to him once. How he looked when he was having a vision. They said that he would stiffen, and his hands would shake and his hair would waft around his ears and his breath came out laboured. They say that his mouth hangs slack like a corpse and he doesn’t respond to outside stimuli. The temperature would drop to a cold chill. The worst was what they said about his eyes. How they glowed poisonous and scary, and would give anyone nightmares. Pepa agreed, saying she had a nightmare about his eyes before, and that it was terrifying and oh god that broke Bruno’s heart. He didn’t mean to make them afraid. He also had nightmares about it.
He sees Julieta running, and hears a crack and her bone shattering as her leg hits the tile floor when she falls, crying. He wants to cover his ears when she lets out an ear deafening scream of pain as she clutches her leg to her chest, and rocks back and forth and back and forth.
He comes back suddenly, as always, and disorientated, to see Pepa and Julieta worriedly talking to each other and glancing at him.
“I’m gonna get Mama, she can fix him.” Julieta states bravely. Bruno knows she’s scared of him, her hands trembling minutely and tears are gathered in the corner of her eyes.
He tries to get up but his head swims with a sharp pain and he stays seated.
“Wait! Don’t! I’m fine now, please don’t run!” He tried to stop her, he really did, but she was running already. Pepa is crying, and she quickly takes off after Juleita.
Their shoes slap against the hard tile of the floor.
“You’re gonna break your leg!” Bruno calls out.
Then she falls.
And he hears a crack.
And she screams.
And Mama comes rushing into the room from all the commotion within moments, quickly making her way over to Julieta, who’s rocking back and forth and back and forth on the ground, clutching her knee tightly to her chest.
Mama asks what happened and with a pointed finger, Julieta tells their mother how Bruno had cursed her with a bad vision, and that he knew she was going to break her leg. Mama picks her up and cradles her against her chest as she carries her the way to the kitchen, with Pepa crying silently, following close behind. He can hear mama whisper sweet reassurances to Julieta, and he can see- he can see the look she sends his way. Anger, but also fear. And disappointed.
His mother was angry and scared. Because of him. He had disappointed her.
So he ran into town, and no one came looking for him. He spent the night outside, and wandered through the town in the morning, only going home when another kid his age pushed him to the ground from behind and called him a curse. That’s how he scraped his knees. The kid had a right to do that of course, because just a week ago Bruno had told him about his dog’s impending death, and like always, his visions came true.
He’s ten and he hates the color green, and he hates himself.