Hazel Eyed Visions

Stranger

After dinner, we had all cleaned up our dishes, helping each other out with whatever we needed before heading to our rooms for the night. I followed Mirabel to the nursery where we both shared the space with her young cousin, Antonio. She had a bunk bed with him while I had my own solitary twin bed across the room.

We all got ready for bed separately, climbed into our respective beds and said our goodnights.

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I woke up in the middle of the night. Damn, my throat was so dry. It felt like I had cotton mouth or something.

Water. I need water.

I lazily got up from my bed, walking out of the room carefully not to make a sound before feeling the floor shift beneath me, "Thanks Casita," I mutter as I feel Casita help me move downstairs. Once I got downstairs, however, Casita suddenly stopped, making my body jerk forward a bit.

"Casita? What's wrong?" I look around, walking to the kitchen cautiously, "Why'd you sto-" I froze, interrupting myself mid sentence once I got to the kitchen.

Oh fuck, there's someone here.

I see a silhouette hunched over the sink, rummaging through some cabinets near by. My chest tightens a bit with fear as I slowly approach the intruder, my body instantly getting covered in goosebumps. As soon as I got close enough, I bumped my side into the counter, yelping quietly in pain and catching the figure in surprise.

"Ah, dios mío-!" He gasped, taking a step back and spinning around to face me. His eyes were glowing? I could see his facial features being softly lit up from the glow. His eyebrows were furrowed in worry, there were creases in his skin to show that he was definitely older in age, and there were curls framing his face.

"H-Holy shit." I breathed, backing myself up onto the counter, not really paying attention to my surroundings.

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We both stood in shocked silence, staring at each other for a moment. Before I could say anything, the figure stood straight and turned to leave, "B-Bye," He muttered before I grabbed his poncho, "Wait-" I stopped him, earning a small worried whimper from him. "A-Are you..?" I asked in an anxious tone. He looked back at me, shooing my hand as he walked closer to me, backing me up into the counter even more.

"... You don't know?" He murmured, his hands fidgeting. I hesitated before nodding my head once, "I think I do," I spoke softly. It was really him. I couldn't believe it. "I-I didn't mean to scare you.." He was looking at everything but me, "I-its okay. I just didn't expect..." I gestured to his body, "The Bruno.."

He huffed, furrowing his brows in disappointment, "You mean the Bruno we don't talk about?" I chewed on my bottom lip and nodded, "... Yeah, that Bruno." He sighed and looked down at me. Bruno wasn't seven foot at all, he was only taller than me by an inch or two. He didn't even seem as scary as everyone had made him out to be either.

"You know.." I spoke in a hushed voice, "I don't believe anything they've said about you." Bruno immediately looked at me with annoyance, "Well, y-you should!" He cleared his throat, "One look at me and you're cursed-" Bruno moved his hands in the air in a very theatrical way, "Forever." I raised an eyebrow and crossed my arms.

"You're very dramatic." I huffed, "What are you even doing here?" Bruno seemed to shrink a little, "I-I got hungry." I tilted my head to the side, "What does that mean?" Bruno began to chew on his fingers, getting more and more visibly anxious, "I-I-" Bruno chinned towards the wall with the family tree, "...I never... exactly left." I turned my attention to the wall, flicking my eyes to Bruno and then the wall again. "Wait.." I slid away from Bruno's stature and looked closely at the wall.

There was a small but wide crack, not big enough to get anybody's attention but just enough to look through it. I leaned closely and peeked through, I didn't see a lot but I noticed a large red chair and some clothes hanging from a clothesline. I turned around and saw Bruno fidgeting all over, chewing on one hand, the other gripping his poncho, and his feet stepping on each other.

"Is.. Is that where you've been?" I asked in a quiet voice, a broken feeling in my chest slowly rose. Bruno looked up at me and sighed, nodding as he stammered to tell me why.

"My... My gift wasn't really the best. N-Nobody really trusted me anymore. But.." He paused, "... But I couldn't bear to leave my family behind." He nervously laughed, "Plus, the w-walls around the Encanto are pretty high so you could imagine how difficult it would be to.. to leave!" I frowned, walking over to him and gently placed a hand on his shoulder, feeling his body tense a little at my touch.

"I'm so sorry," We shared a silent moment, looking at each other before Bruno scoffed and shrugged my hand off, "I-Its fine, really. I'm near the kitchen, I see everyone! Its not as bad as y-you think."

Just then, a counter pieced moved around, "Casita?" I cocked my head a bit to the side before hearing another piece shake near the center, "Oh shit, I think somebody's coming-" I whispered, patting Bruno's chest to rush him out, "You need to go, we can meet here again tomorrow night-" Bruno tried to object but I just shushed him repeatedly until he gathered the courage to go back into hiding. We shared a small wave goodbye before I turned back to the kitchen and seeing a small Antonio behind me.

"Pip..? Are you okay?" His voice sounded so tired, "Yeah, I'm alright Toñito. I'm just a little thirsty." I quickly reassured him, grabbing a small cup and filling it with water and sipping from it. "Let's go back to bed, okay?"