Chapter Text
“Am I too late for a miracle?” Mirabel asked out loud without worrying about Dolores hearing her, watching as the fireworks set off with loud booms, different colors in the sky. It was such a beautiful view.
She went down off the roof with the help of Casita. She loves her family, she really does. Most days, it just feels like she doesn’t belong. Looking back at the family photo of her not being included just reminded her even more of how she was so different from them.
Her father and uncle don't have gifts. Yet they were included. Mirabel wondered if her abuela ever told them to stay out the way the same way she does to her. She felt targeted most days.
It felt she couldn’t do anything without someone telling her to stay out of the way or leave it to gifted ones. Just because she doesn’t have a gift doesn’t mean she’s not capable of doing anything.
Her eyes watered up, letting out a shaky sigh. She wouldn’t be heard over the music. Even if she was, nobody would care.
She would admit it, she was jealous. Who wouldn’t be? She was officially the only Madrigal born into the family without a gift. She’d be left alone, forgotten.
Mirabel was tired of trying to convince herself that everything’s fine, that she’s fine. That she’s still part of the amazing Madrigals.
She wasn’t fine.
She didn’t feel like she was part of the Madrigals. She was far too different and giftless to be a part of them. More like a stranger. Yet, she couldn't fit in with the townspeople either because she was a Madrigal. She didn’t belong to either.
They just won’t love her for her.
Why is it that she tries to be someone else to get them to notice her? To be proud of her? To love her?
Mirabel took a step outside of Casita, shivering.
They didn’t notice she wasn’t included in the family photo. So, why would they notice that she left? Mirabel Madrigals, she always blended into the shadows well. She’s the type of person to be forgotten easily. How could she feel so lonely in such a big family? How does she feel so alone when she’s constantly surrounded by people?
They’d never see how much they hurt her. How much she endured for them with a smile on her face.
She needed to get away. Anywhere away from that party. She could get away from the party, so she wouldn’t have to deal with them. They wouldn’t notice that she’s gone. She knows that they wouldn’t. She should’ve known that something like this would’ve happened soon. It was too good to be true.
But then again, it was her fault for thinking so positive, right? She tried to be something she isn’t. She tried to convince herself that something will change. She didn’t want to harbor any negative feelings for any of her family members.
But what they did to her was wrong. Even she could see that even when she tried to deny their mistreatment towards her.
How much longer could she ignore her own feelings for the sake of others? How much longer could she use the same excuse of, ‘they’re only doing this for the best?’ That they’re only doing this to her because they don’t want her to get hurt. Overworking herself. Because they’re worried about her.
Not much longer.
They didn’t listen.
They don’t understand.
The miracle clouded her abuela’s judgment.
She was useless in their eyes.
They didn’t have to say it, but Mirabel could see it in their eyes. That they were thinking it.
Mirabel couldn’t go on for much longer. She just couldn’t spend the rest of life putting them above her. She couldn’t spend the rest of her life never putting herself first. She couldn’t spend the rest of her whole life believing that gifts were everything.
…But it was hard to convince herself of the last part where she’s in a town where everyone seemed to believe that their gifts were everything.
There has to be something for her, right? Something better for her. She could only wait for a miracle for so long until she grew tired of waiting. She can’t keep smiling through the pain.
She puts her everything for them, yet she gets nothing in return. She lived in the nursery for years. Five years with Camilo, five years alone, and five years with Antonio.
She’s a teenage girl, she needs her privacy. She knows that Casita is capable of making another room. She doesn’t think she could maintain another five years in the nursery.
The nursery, which is meant for infants and toddlers.
She would actually lose her mind if she has to share five years with one of her sisters or cousins’ child.
Regardless of what they did and didn’t do, she kept going back.
And for what?
To make her abuela proud? To make them proud?
She didn’t understand it back then, since she was a child. She is still a child, but she understands the situation more.
It’s fruitless.
No matter what she does, it’ll never work.
It was fruitless attempts to make them proud. It was stupid to ask such questions as— What was it about them? What made them so different? Why was she so different from them?
The answer was the gifts.
The gifts clearly defined their purpose to everyone else.
For years, she based her actions and choices on whether or not they’ll be proud of her. That maybe they wouldn’t see her as helpless or useless. But it was never enough.
Nothing was ever enough.
Looking back on everything she’s done.
She was never enough.
Mirabel groaned, when she opened her eyes, she wasn’t in Casita anymore. She was instead in front of a house.
Was she really that lost in thought to the point she walked away. She did need to get away from everything else.
She let out a low sigh of relief. Dolores wouldn’t notice that she left anyways. Nobody would.
Mirabel heard low humming making her stop in her tracks. Was someone really in the house? It looked abandoned. But who was she to judge? It was a bit strange that the humming sounded close yet far.
“What do you see? Are you people gazing at me?”
That really startled Mirabel.
There was a woman inside.
She looked at the house as the door slowly opened, her eyes widening. She stared at the opened door for a few more seconds, nothing happened. Was whoever on the other side waiting for her?
Actually, she thought everyone had been invited and went to Antonio’s ceremony.
“Can you see me? Can you see the doll on the music box that’s wound by a key? Can you find the doll that’s under a spell? Can you tell?”
Mirabel stepped inside the house, trying to find the source of the voice. The voice was welcoming , it was almost as if she was being invited inside.
The first thing she noticed was how clean the house was despite the outside appearance. Never judge a book by its cover, right?
Everything was white, it was strange.
“Can you find me?”
Mirabel wanted to find her.
She rounded the corner, entering the kitchen. There was nothing there, it was all just…empty. It was as if nobody lived there.
She didn’t stay in the kitchen too long, trying to find the woman. “Hello?” She called out, trying to get a response.
“You cannot see how much I long to be free!”
She tried to think back at the woman’s words. This person needed help, yet she was being strange about it.
She went inside another room. The bedroom.
Inside was a human-sized ballerina inside of a cage, making Mirabel jump. Her heart stopped for a second, thinking it was a real person.
She was looking for a real person.
She was about to leave the room and search the other room before getting interrupted.
“I’m turning around by a music box that’s wound by a key. Can you tell that I’m waiting for a true love’s first kiss?”
Mirabel stared at the ballerina.
So, she wasn’t looking for a human. She was following the voice of the singeek. She walked closer to it.
The ballerina certainly didn’t look old, but it didn’t necessarily look new.
The ballerina was truly the definition of beautiful. Mirabel thought that it was more beautiful than Isabela. It has such an alluring and nice voice too.
She looked at the ballerina’s face, noticing that its eyes were tracking her every movement. Oh, so it was one of those toys.
She wondered who would build such a beautiful thing and leave it here.
“Can’t you see how much I long to be free? I’m bound by a key.” The ballerina did sudden movement, twirling around before Mirabel could get even more closer. “What do you see while gazing at me? You see a doll that’s bound by a key.”
Huh, that was the fourth time the ballerina said that. Unless it’s in the ballerina’s program, Mirabel knew she would have to find a key. The cage was suspicious with the lock on it.
That’s assuming the key was in the house.
Mirabel first searched around the room.
The closet.
On and under the bed.
In the dressers.
Under the rug.
Nothing.
She exited out the room
It was strangely…exciting.
It was something to do to pass time, to distract her from everything else.
She went to the bathroom next.
Bathtub.
Bathroom sink.
No key in sight.
She went into the kitchen next.
She checked the stove.
She checked the cabinets.
She noticed something shining under the refrigerator.
Oh as if that wasn’t a clue.
Mirabel crouched down, trying to grab the key from under the refrigerator.
She let out an annoyed groan when she failed.
She stood back up, staring at the refrigerator for a few seconds.
She grabbed the refrigerator, trying to move it over with her strength.
It took about a minute before she could fully grab the key.
She let out a sigh of relief, a smile forming on her face.
She turned back around and towards the bedroom the ballerina was in.
“Though I may seem presumptuous…I’m yearning for a true love’s kiss.”
Mirabel entered the key inside of the cage’s lock.
“My heart used to beat so unruly because I loved him truly.”
The lock fell to the ground as the cage’s door swung open.
“…Honestly, I truly did.”
Mirabel just ignored the ballerina’s strange talking. Her vision went blurry all of the sudden.
“While I’m turning around and around…waiting for true love’s kiss.”
Hands went on her face and her consciousness faded away.