Chapter Text
"Hey, don't run so fast, Mirabel!" Bruno chuckled, his spindly legs barely catching up to the toddler shaped bundle of energy. The kid was racing him to the town square - they're supposed to meet up with Camilo and Félix there, to lead the kid away from Casita - it was already his fifth birthday - the day of his ceremony. The whole town was excited, happy to help with the preparations. And as much as Pepa would like to have her child by her side to make sure everything would go right, it was simply undoable with the kid around.
Camilo was already in the age of wanting to pull pranks on everyone he laid eyes on, no matter how much they asked him not to. And if Mirabel was added to the mix, well. If they had free roam in Casita the night would be more than doomed to be a disaster.
Bruno's breath was already ragged, but he kept on smiling nonetheless as Casita slid a table under Mira, surprising Bruno as he hit the surface with a low thud. Mirabel only laughed harder as he struggled to catch her.
"Try to catch me, Tío Bruno!" Mirabel teased, running out from under the table. She ran along Casita’s upper hallways, looking past her shoulder every other while to make sure Bruno wasn't catching up to her. Bruno could see her hair was starting to cling to her forehead, dress rugged and dirtied from her previous plays. Her glasses were practically at the tip of her nose, fingertips visible from a mile away.
Bruno was so glad it wasn't her night yet.
“I’m trying!” He called out, pushing the table away, strutting after his niece. He heard her laugh as Casita hoisted her over the corner, out of Bruno's sight. He straightened, feeling his back pop, his lumbar region begging him to sit down and relax. As if Bruno could do that - he had a little girl to catch. He turned around and-
His vision was filled with green images of Mirabel, surrounded by flames and chrysanthemums flashed in and out, before switching to a clear image of a dark moth, confusing the man, not to mention giving him a serious case of a cluster headache. He heard Mirabel’s voice call out to him as Julieta’s solemn face cast him out back into reality.
His knuckles held onto wood as he soon found himself gripping the nearby railing, his feet tangled under him. His head was practically splitting from the pain.
Well, that wasn't really new.
“Tio?” He heard Mirabel call out before another voice - Isabel - started screaming. He shook his head - bad idea, as the pain seemed to spread out into his brain's sides - and rushed towards the screaming Isabela and crying Mirabel.
Bruno saw Mirabel sitting down, the tiles brushing on her leg not unlike a puppy would. She was crying her throat out, face red, hands outstretched towards Julieta who was standing over the two sisters. Bruno grimaced as he saw scarlet droplets roll down Mirabel’s arms and legs. Small, but not unnoticeable.
Julieta picked the crying girl up, outstretching another hand towards her older daughter. Isabela’s eyes were plastered onto the ground, her cheeks red, glistening with tears as the roses she willed to life wilted away and died in a blink of an eye.
“Just because Camilo's out on the town doesn't mean you can crash the party for him.” Julieta chuckled, wiping Mirabel’s tears away with the back of her hand.
“Julieta! Mirabel, I’m so sorry, I should’ve been more careful.” Bruno exclaimed, walking closer to the trio, feeling a sickeningly familiar feeling of dread make his stomach its home. He looked down at Isabela who refused to glance at him, instead hiding behind her mother.
“Bruno, it’s fine. Kids will be kids. They get scrapped sometimes, but it’s nothing my cooking won’t be able to fix.” Bruno’s older sister sighed, seeing her brother deflate. “There’s something bothering you.”
“What? No, of course there is not. I’m just- glad she's fine,” Bruno’s mouth became a thin line as he looked at the tiny girl, still softly whimpering. “Well, she's not fine fine, but she's- she'll be better. Soon. After you cook for her."
Julieta’s soft smile fell as she reached towards her brother’s cheek. “Mano, you're rambling, which means you're worried about something. You can tell me what's wrong."
Bruno felt his sister’s knowing eyes burrow into his own, making him uneasy. He shook his head, feeling pain as his brain rattled in his skull. He hated how his older sister could see right through him.Sometimes, just sometimes, he’d like to keep his feelings to himself, thank you very much. He frowned. At least he wasn't blessed with Pepa's gift, being forced to keep feelings on display for eyeone to see.
He saw Isabel peek an eye at him and saw it as a chance to change the subject. He pulled his ruana’s hood over his eyes, grinning as hard as he could when he heard a soft giggle come from Mirabel. “Why, Hernando has no idea whatever you could mean! He’s not afraid of anything - or worried about anything!”
He crouched down, reaching towards Isabela. “Now, who is this little orchid?” The smile she gave him was enough encouragement for him to reach behind her ear and pull out a small white rose. “Would you look at that!”
Bruno was so glad Félix taught him that.
“It’s a tiny rose! My, and what bright petals it has! Bright - just like you!” That made Isabela giggle before she snatched the flower from her tio’s hand, putting it behind her ear, muttering a proud little thank you. Bruno could feel Julieta roll her eyes, amused at her brother's act.
“Alright, Hernando, how about we get some buñuelos?”
Bruno chuckled, taking his hood off. “Hernando would like that.”
Bruno could already feel the sweetness of the fried pastry, as if it was already crunching between his teeth, as if-
“Uh, Tio Bruno…?”
A voice called out to him, but he ignored it, instead enjoying the bitter juices flowing into his mouth, the-
Wait.
Bruno opened his eyes, startled by big, green leaves tickling his nose. He spat out whatever he had in his mouth onto the tiles - bits of chewed Coleus fell down with a wet splat, causing Bruno to grimace. He could feel his mouth water, unsure whether it was thirst or bile coming up. He blinked his hazy eyes and noticed his niece standing right next to him with a less than desirous expression.
"Luisa! Kid, what are you doing here?" Bruno asked, wiping his mouth at the back of his arm.
"I wanted to take you to your room. Almost everyone went to their rooms and I don't think you'd enjoy spending the night in the hammock." Luisa explained, moving aside to let Bruno see only a few of the townsfolk alongside Isabela and Pepa left Casita's open area. "C'mon, let me help you up."
"No," he waved his hand at her, chuckling solemnly. "No, I still can stand on my own. I'm not that old… although I have to admit, last time I saw you - actually saw you, not just through the walls - you were about, hmm,"
He put his hand on top of his chest, his lips puckered to the side. "About wee high."
Luisa returned her uncle's smile. "And last time I saw you, you only had two rats."
"Yeah, well. The family grew!" Bruno got out of the hammock, his slipper momentarily falling off his foot.
"So did I." Luisa offered her arm to her uncle and he accepted with a smile. They moved slowly, falling in and out of synchronicity with their steps. The dusk sky gleamed with soft lavender and navy blue, not to mention countless tiny specks high, high above. Bruno blinked his eyes, his eyebrows high. "You haven't seen them in a while, have you?"
"Not like that, no," Bruno sighed. He may have been out of the walls for- a while now, really, but he couldn't stop being amazed by the beauty of the sky - something he liked to call a side effect of being confined to a limited amount of open space. It's a wonder he hadn't lost his mind in those crawlspaces, with only the rats keeping him company. "Last time I saw the sky out in the open was Mirabel's ceremony."
Luisa's brows furrowed as she looked away from her uncle, her mouth becoming a thin line. Bruno noticed her uneasiness and brushed his hand on her arm.
"It's all in the past, querida…" He pursed his lips and clicked his tongue, still feeling bits of the coleus, before his eyes widened with enthusiasm. Say, now that I think about it - would you like to watch some telenovelas with me sometime?"
"A teleno-" Luisa's eyes gleamed with excitement as they went upstairs. "What are we talking about here?"
"Well, it's mostly reruns right now, but to recap, a young woman arrives back in her family home, only to find out her lover is deeply in love with her twin sister who he thought was actually her-"
"Uh-huh," Luisa nodded, mouth slightly open.
"But! It turns out her dead aunt - sorry, forgot to mention, she has a dead aunt, who is… well, it turns out her dead aunt had a twin sister, too! And that her dead aunt is actually her mother who faked her death." Bruno exclaimed, swirling his fingers in the air in an exaggerated fashion.
"And what happens next, Tío Bruno?" Luisa asked as they arrived at the steps of Bruno's tower.
"It's for you to find out, Luisa. Why don't you come visit your uncle tomorrow, eh?" Bruno smiled at his niece who gave him an okay sign.
"Let me know when you're free! Buenas noches, Tío!"
"Si, que duermas bien." He replied, bidding Luisa farewell before turning towards his tower- his door.
Mierda, he felt like crying.
He abandoned the place over a decade ago and from what he's heard it was in… less than ideal shape. Not to mention the stairs. Why he got so many stairs in his room was beyond him. Someone must've been pulling a sick joke at him - sure, the stairs were fun to run up when he was 5, but he was ten times this age - his knees couldn't handle much more than a few jumps, and here he was supposed to climb -
So -
So -
High.
Bruno groaned, bonking his head against the wooden door, his glowing avatar staring back at him. "If Mirabel has really drowned my room with sand, I'm going back into the walls."
He said before yelping, eyes wide, as he felt something hard brush against his feet. He glanced down, seeing a few tiles brushing against his leg, right before Casita started clunking away encouragement.
"You don't know how it is inside! You're a house-"
Casita shut its blinds with a thud, getting a wince from Bruno. "Alright, I'm sorry, you're home. But c'mon, my room-"
More tiles clunk against each other.
"Well, I guess you're right, but you don't have much influence inside the walls, anyway."
The wooden railing groaned.
"Of course, I trust you," Bruno said, closing his eyes. "Alright. I'll- I'll see what you mean."
The golden door knob turned in Bruno's hand, letting him inside his tower-
It was… different. Bruno's rodent friends scurried inside, ignoring the sandy waterfall ahead of them, jumping straight into the sandy room. The entrance itself was decorated by small glass lamps, their warm light illuminating the roughness and cracks on the room's walls. He slid under the falling sand, ruffling his hair free of any particles once he was out. The tower itself seemed… smaller? Bruno blinked a few times, looking up at the walls. He was sure there were a few steps missing, last time he was in his room he could barely spot the vision cave, and now? Well, if he was quick about it, he should be able to make it up to the top in less than an hour.
The walls itself were covered in tiny holes resembling empty doorways. Bruno walked up to one of them and noticed a space - big, with tiny ceramic bowls and hay and ladders leading into different sections of the walls. Bruno smiled to himself. They were rooms for all of his rats - no more sleeping in the niches of the walls! No more worrying about the walls crumbling and cracking, no more having to share all of their food and water, it was a dream come true.
Overjoyed, Bruno looked up and his spirit faltered.
Bruno climbed the stairs, finally reaching his bedroom area. He wheezed, holding onto his knees as he caught his breath - in and out, in and out. He looked up, his eyelids already starting to get heavy. He saw his hammock splayed to the side of the room, right under a shelf with a couple of jugs of varying sizes, all decorated in the same triangular pattern as the floor. The opposite wall had some sort of a dark curtain, in the middle of which sat a hollowed out mural, light shining somewhere from behind it.
Wait a second, he knew exactly what it was! It was a tiny makeshift TV - for his rat actors to play to their heart's content!
Yawning, Bruno sat in his hammock, stretching before laying down, enjoying the slight sways of his bed. He wasn’t counting on getting any great sleep - he hadn’t slept a truly full night since he was a tiny babe, always tormented by visions, either jerking him awake and keeping him up, or mixing up with his dreams, creating an eerie phantasmagoria. Speaking of, his dream before Luisa woke him up - he wondered if it truly was a vision. It wasn’t like any other times, it seemed a little too… chaotic. Not to mention it seemed to blend a memory with symbolism-
Bruno furrowed his brows before closing his eyes. He still had tomorrow to worry about, and he planned to not waste any energy on a theorem about the visions pestering him in his dreams. Even if, theoretically, his dream did hold some water and the symbolism - the black moth - was true, then that’d mean someone in the village would face death soon. And- and he could prevent it. But here he was laying down on his hammock, doing nothing about it-
Bruno groaned, rubbing his face as he swung his legs onto the ground, his eyes cracking open. “One vision, that’s all. One vision and I’m done, and I will take care of this tomorrow.”
He walked towards his vision cave, surprised to find it closed. He pushed the heavy door open, using all of his underworked muscles to squeeze himself inside. It looked about the same as it always did - dark, filled with sand. Bruno frowned as he prepared the room for a new vision.
He could feel his breathing grow shallow with his chest tightening, as he kneeled down in front of a small flame, the circle around him already starting to twirl around in the air - not high enough for a full blown vision yet, but he was getting there. He felt his eyes starting to burn as well as his heart seemingly trying to jump out of his chest as the speckles of sand started burning deep green, surrounding him in a friable cocoon.
Well,
No getting back now.
He took a deep breath - it seemed so hard to do that, like his lungs have shrunk in size - and looked at what the future was holding for him. He saw the moth again, big. Big enough to stretch its wings around him, before blowing its wings, pushing sand into Bruno’s eyes. Surprised, he yelped, rubbing them to remove any foreign object. Upon opening them again, he saw someone - it looked like a woman’s hand? - holding a hand before it dropped and dissolved into a green mist.
“C’mon, c’mon! Give me some specifics!” Bruno said, brows furrowed as he felt a migraine grow in the back of his head, not unlike pins pushing their way into the back of his eyeballs.
Next thing was slowly starting to materialize, starting from shoulders up - he saw a dress, with embroidered symbols and- wait,
then he saw the curly hair and round face,
no, he couldn’t do it again.
Bruno squinted his eyes, his elbows burrowing into the sand before him as he looked at the last detail - round glasses, underneath which rested his own fingers, pushing Mirabel’s tears away. The sandy dome dropped to the ground alongside a green glass panel. Bruno crawled towards it, his feet deep in the sand. He looked at it and gasped as the pins finally pushed its way into his eye, the migraine getting unbearable. He was staring at Mirabel’s crying face, her cheeks squished as the vision’s Bruno wiped her tears away with his fingers. Bruno felt knots form in his stomach as he knelt back down.
One of the amazing Madrigals wouldn’t make it until winter.