Prologue. By the Doorstep.
He felt how a large plank of wood fell on the floor as he scooped the baby up from the crib. The flames surrounding him in various sizes, but all burning all the same. The cries of the baby echoed throughout the burning room, and the man realized that he had two options he could make.
Either he stayed where he was and let the fire engulf both him and the baby, or he'd make a run for it, hoping that he'd be able to escape with minor burns and that none would come close to the crying child in his arms.
He knew that the answer was obvious.
With a strong grip on the child wrapped in cloth in his arms, he took off. The flames on the ground burning away the few strands of hair he had on his arms. An echoing scream of agony that came right from his arms made him realize that the flames had reached the one he swore to protect.
The fear of looking at the child and only seeing one part of the face present was something he was scared of seeing. So he wouldn't dare look at them as he rushed down the stairs. Each step breaking at every touch of his shoes, which almost made him fall through. He held onto the child for dear life, hoping no more flames would hurt them if he simply wished.
The flames hadn't gotten to the first floor yet, and the man's wife stood in the middle of the room with a tearstained face. Her arms were filled with ugly burn marks, her beautiful face full with ash and her long black locks dishevelled from the hysteria of a burning house.
He quickly rushed towards her with the child still in his arms, "... is safe, amor."
"Oh, dios mío, mi pequeño!" she exclaimed and put a hand on the baby's cheek as it cried out in pain. A wound was beginning to appear on the cheek, and the man knew that this was the result of running through the fire from upstairs.
"We need to leave, now!" he yelled at his wife because of the sizzling sound of flames nearing them. Another part of the building fell from the ceiling, and the man knew that if they didn't leave soon they'd get killed. Either by being crushed by falling parts of their house, or by getting burned to death.
The woman quickly nodded towards her husband and took the man's hand in her own. He gripped it tightly, fearing that he'd lose her if he didn't do so. With the screams of their child continuously echoing through both their ears, they began to run through their burning house.
The flames from the second floor began appearing through the cracks of the ceiling, and the sound of their roof falling apart was a prominent thing for the two to remember. The opening of their door was getting closer by every step they were able to make.
They were almost there.
There was no reason for them to run after this.
They'd be free from the flames of their house, once and for all.
But before celebration was in order, a lit wooden torch crashed through the window close to the door. The woman's grip on the man's hand fell, and the explosion caused by the torch erupted through the first floor. The man and the woman felt themselves get pushed further away from one another, and the flames on the wooden floor formed almost exactly like a wall between the two.
"Nataliá!" the man yelled at the woman who'd gotten knocked down by the sudden explosion.
She quickly sat up from the floor with wobbly feet and watched as her husband began every way possible to get through the barrier of flames. Though it seemed like everytime he got close to getting through, the flames got bigger and pushed him back even further. But as she heard the cracks in the ceiling beginning to fall, she knew that this was it. There was no way for her to make it out alive alongside her husband and child. The only thing she could do was make sure that they'd live.
"Run!" she yelled at her husband, as her eyes began to water.
He looked at his wife with tears forming in his eyes through the flaming barrier, "No! I can't leave you!"
A part of the ceiling began to fall, and the woman took a hold on the necklace she had around her neck, "Make sure they'll never find us again... and don't forget to tell our child everything about me "
"No..." the man began trying to find a way through the flames to get to his wife. "No, Nataliá! I will not leave you!"
Another lit up torch got thrown through the already broken window, and the many pieces falling from the ceiling made it clear that only one of them would be able to make it out there alive.
The woman walked up to the flames to get face to face with the love of her life. Tears streamed down both of their faces, and the agonizing pain of the flames hitting them was unbearable.
"Te amo, Stefano...", she whispered to him, before snapping the necklace off her neck and giving it to her husband. She then walked backwards, accepting death as more tears fell from her eyes.
"No... NO!" the man made a jump through the flames to try and grab his wife at the last moment. The ceiling burst open the floor on the upper floor and the torch exploded, filling the entire room with flames. The cries of the child in his arms were ringing loudly as he held onto the necklace his wife had just given to him.
The explosion of the torch pushed the man back and he landed outside of the house on his back. He made sure that he protected the baby in his arms for dear life, as it cried and screamed. He watched as the building in front of him broke down. A blurry vision through the tears in his eyes and a ringing noise heard through his ears.
"NATALIÁ!" he cried, before cursing himself for not being able to save his amor. It was too late to even try, so he held the crying baby closer to his chest, feeling how his heart broke into a million pieces.
For he just lost the one piece that held it together.
This wasn't an attack that targeted all of the town. It was only one household that was attacked, and its two survivors were on their way to find shelter in the nearest village. Which so happened to be the magical land through the Colombian Mountains known as Encanto.
Everyone knew the story of how Encanto came to be; through the death of a loved one, Alma Madrigal, received a candle filled with magic. It created the mountains along Encanto, as well as the magical house Alma Madrigal would turn out to live in.
The magic would later give all the Madrigal children special gifts, which they all used to help the inhabitants of the small town.
Stefano stared down at the necklace his wife had given to him, wondering why his passing of a loved one didn't bring him a magical candle.
The necklace he was holding was a family heirloom. His wife, Nataliá, received it from her parents and she was later going to give it to her own child once it was old enough.
There were two pictures inside of the necklace. One of Stefano himself and one of his wife. The both of them decided that they would change the pictures once their child was born.
Speaking of their child, it was being held by Stefano as he walked. The little rascal had finally stopped crying and was sleeping soundly in their father's arms. Though, he knew that when the baby woke up, they'd be crying over the pain on the left side of their face. A burnmark was present and Stefano cursed himself for not being able to protect his child from such danger.
Before he knew it, he was standing inside the city of Encanto, with the child still sleeping soundly in his arms. The burning lamps around the night's empty streets made the village seem like a ghost town.
What he was about to do was something he knew Nataliá wouldn't approve of. But he knew that it was something he had to do to protect his child. He had to protect them from those people.
If he were to meet his child many years from then, he'd make sure to tell them everything. They just needed to follow every sign that could lead them to him.
Stefano took the child in his arms and placed it on the doorstep of the closest house he saw in the village. He also placed the necklace on top of it. That was before he ripped out the picture of Nataliá. Where he was going, there was no way he'd ever be able to get a picture of her ever again.
The baby began to open their eyes slowly, but as they looked into Stefano's eyes, no crying was present. The baby just looked at their father with big, familiar eyes. The same color that belonged to his wife was present in the baby's.
"Listen here, sweetheart", Stefano whispered as he stroked the part of the baby's face that wasn't burned from the fire. "The only thing you need to do is follow the trace... and you'll find me waiting for you. Remember that, okay? The trace."
POSTED;; [15/12-2021]
WORDS;; [1625]