Pedro, Matheo, and Rosa left the dining room shortly after everyone else had.
"So what Dolores said was true then?" Pedro asked Rosa.
"Maybe? I don't know how to understand a vision; I just know Má was trying to keep Mirabel safe." Rosa answered.
"And, uh, you told us that Pá left for the same reason?" Matheo asked.
He knew that Rosa had indeed told them that, but it came out as a question anyway.
Rosa nodded her head, as she jumped on Pedro's shoulders in a piggyback style.
Pedro rolled his eyes, but carried her anyway.
"Exactly" she said.
They continued walking down the hall. For the time being, there was no one in sight.
"We need to talk to her" Pedro said matter-of-factly, referring to Emilia.
When they made it to the stairs, Pedro set Rosa down and the three of them walked up to Emilia's room.
When they were close to their mother's room, Rosa stopped suddenly, leaving Pedro and Matheo to turn around and look at her in confusion.
"Everything okay?" Pedro asked.
"What happened?" wondered Matheo.
"It seems... that she isn't in her room." Rosa told her older brothers.
...
Emilia and Mirabel walked along the dim hall in silence, unsettled by the cracks that appeared and seemed to follow them along the walls.
Mirabel and Emilia hadn't gone far when a rat ran under their feet, causing them both to flinch. The rat was carrying a vision shard; glowing brightly in the darkness surrounding them.
They saw the green light travel a small way into the distance, the rat barely visable. They could just manage to see the animal hand off the item to something or someone who then picked it up.
It was at that moment that a flash of lightning allowed the figure to become, for a brief moment, easily visable.
Emilia froze. No. Was that....?! It couldn't be.
Without hesitation both Mirabel and Emilia chased after the unknown individual. Mirabel ran in front of Emilia.
"Stop!" Emilia yelled at the retreating form.
"Hey!" Mirabel called, running not too far behind the possible trespasser.
The chase took them through narrow halls and down stairs.
At one point during their pursuit, Mirabel bumped into a wall.
...
"It's okay, mami" Camilo said, offering his mother a cup of tea.
Pepa was still visibly distressed from the events that had occurred over dinner.
"Deep breath in, deep breath out" Camilo instructed.
There was a loud noise from the wall behind Pepa which startled her. Letting out a scream, she accidentally shocked Camilo with a lightning bolt.
"Ah!" he yelled, speedily shifting into multiple family members.
...
"Stop!" Mirabel and Emilia shouted, still chasing after the mystery person.
"Wait!" Emilia called out, running out of breath.
"Stop!" Mirabel yelled once more, gaining on them.
Mirabel and Emilia had to stop when they approached a massive hole in the floor and Emilia pulled Mirabel back to prevent her from falling in. The person that Mirabel and Emilia followed had made it over the opening with ease, however.
Wasting no time, they both bravely tried to make it over to the other side.
After a lucky and sucessful attempt, The two of them safely made it over.
Or so they thought.
Only a second later, the floor collapsed beneath them.
Although Mirabel was able to grab onto a protruding piece of wood to prevent herself from falling, Emilia fell the entire way.
...
Lucky for Emilia, the drop wasn't that high so she only ended up with a few minor cuts, scrapes, and bruises. She heard Mirabel call after her, but the combination of dust, darkness, and being slightly disoriented from the fall made it hard to focus or speak. After a brief moment, Emilia was about to stand up so she could help Mirabel down, when the older woman suddenly felt something land on her. Between this and the fall, she'd be sore tomorrow for sure.
...
"Tía!" Mirabel screamed, seeing her aunt tumble into the darkness.
She then began to slip.
"No! No!" Mirabel cried, clinging onto the already fragile piece of wood, which began to weaken under her weight.
"Help! Help!" she begged, "Casita! Casita!"
"Help me!"
Mirabel desperately held on for dear life.
"Help me!"
Just as she lost her hold and began to plummet downwards, someone caught her hand.
Looking up, she could see that it was her uncle who had saved her.
What was he doing here?
"You're very sweaty" was the first thing he said to Mirabel, despite not speaking with her in ten years.
The floorboard that was supporting Bruno then gave way, and now they were both falling.
Mirabel now held onto a branch with one hand and Bruno with the other. She was the one preventing Bruno from tumbling into the abyss.
Well, that was the case until a rat came out from under Bruno's sleeve. This freaked out Mirabel and she let go of her uncle, letting him fall into the darkness below.
"Aaaaaah!"
"Oh, no!" Mirabel gasped.
Still hanging from the branch, Mirabel watched as her uncle then stood up, gently helped Emilia to her feet, and cleared away the fog. It turned out that the pit wasn't as deep as they had thought.
"Hmm"
After the three of them had climbed out of the pit, they stood in complete, awkward silence.
Bruno, who was now absolutely mortified at being discovered by his wife like this, did the most logical thing he could think of: he panicked.
"Bye" was all Bruno said as he started to briskly walk away.
"What? No. Hold on!" Mirabel told him.
"I don't think so!" said Emilia.
She marched up to her husband and grabbed him by the ear.
"Bruno Madrigal! Where do you think you're going-"
Something broke inside Emilia at that moment and her stern demeanor rapidly faded; soon replaced by a series of cries and sobs. It was simply too much.
"Please don't go" she whispered.
Bruno pulled Emilia close then, placing a kiss on her forehead.
He had never wanted to leave. Everytime he saw glimpses of Emilia or somehow heard her talking through the walls, it would take everything he had not to leave his hiding place. Regardless, he kept himself behind the walls; by telling himself it was for the best.
There was only really one thing he could think to say to her after all this time.
"I'm sorry, I should never have, uh-"
Emilia silenced him by placing her finger in front of his mouth.
"Shhh" she said, just wrapping her arms around him once more. She had stopped crying.
A short while later, they followed him along the walls of Casita.
"Why did you take the vision?" Mirabel asked.
Emilia knew it was too soon to start overwhelming Bruno with questions, so she silently gestured for Mirabel to stop. The teen either didn't get the hint or ignored it.
Bruno continued along, not acknowledging either of them.
"Knock, knock, knock, knock, knock. Knock on wood" he muttered to himself, knocking on some nearby bamboo.
Emilia smirked upon hearing this; it was nice to see that he was still his unique self.
"What does it mean?" Mirabel tried to ask her uncle.
He kept on walking, holding his breath.
"Is it why you came back or...Tío Bruno?"
"Knock, knock, knock, knock, knock. Knock on wood."
"You were never supposed to see that vision. No one was" he eventually spoke to the two of them.
Emilia then saw Bruno reach for some salt.
She quickly covered her eyes in preparation of what was to happen.
"But..." Mirabel tried to say.
Mirabel stopped speaking when Bruno threw some salt over his shoulder and straight into her face.
"A little salt" Bruno said, mumbling to himself.
The teenager flinched, spitting out some salt.
"Sugar" he also mumbled, throwing sugar over his back like he had done with the salt.
Emilia helped Mirabel by moving her out of the way before he could throw the sugar.
They watched him carefully jump over the cracks in the floor; he sang quietly to himself.
"Sana sana colita de rana"
It didn't take long at all for Mirabel and Emilia to observe the cracks that were spread across the wall; they seemed to have been carefully patched over.
"Wait. Have you been in here patching the cracks?" Mirabel asked Bruno.
Emilia was wanted to know the same thing.
"Oh, that? No, no, no" he replied, turning towards the wall and putting his hands up. "I'm too scared to go near those things. All the patching's done by Hernando."
Emilia grew a genuine smile from hearing this. Hernando was one of the first characters that Bruno had ever came up with.
However Mirabel, not knowing who her uncle was talking about, wanted to know about who this Hernando person was.
"Who is Hernando?" asked Mirabel.
Mirabel had no idea what the answer would be, but she did not expect what happened next.
Bruno threw up the hood of his ruana and proceeded to speak in a deep voice.
"I'm Hernando and I'm scared of nothing!" he told Mirabel.
He put his hood back down.
"It's actually me" he said with a chuckle, "I used to say my real gift was acting."
"He really did" Emilia whispered to Mirabel.
To demonstrate further, Bruno grabbed a nearby bucket and placed it on his head.
"I'm Jorge. I make the spackle."
That one was new.
"How long have you been...back here?" Mirabel questioned, a little worried about her uncle.
...
When the three of them finally made it to Bruno's living space, it became clear that he had been there a long time, perhaps about ten years or so.
The tiny area was littered with a variety of different items, including a table and a chair. A large amount of rats moved in and around the room.
"You never left" Mirabel said in realization.
"You've been here the entire time?" Emilia asked in disbelief.
"Well, I left my tower, which was, you know, a lot of stairs and here, eh-" he said, holding up an arepa for them to see, "kitchen adjacent!"
Bruno them picked up a rat that was sitting on top of his chair and carried it over to a tiny, handmade, stage-like area.
"Ooh, ooh, plus, free entertainment!"
One by one, in front of two rats, he held up a variety of cutouts; each cutout had a different scene painted onto it.
"So, what do you like? You like sports? Game shows? Telenovelas?" he asked Mirabel, sinking into his chair.
He knew which one Emilia would have picked.
"Their love could never be" he said, watching the rats "perform".
"I don't understand" Mirabel told Bruno, hoping for some kind of explanation.
"Well, because she's his aunt and she has amnesia so she can't remember that she's his aunt; it's like a very forbidden kind of..." Bruno said, trying to explain the plot.
Mirabel cut him off.
"I don't understand why you left but didn't leave" she clarified.
"I would also like to know why you decided to stay so close this whole time, instead of going somewhere else" Emilia told Bruno.
"Oh, well, because" he told both women, "the mountains around the encanto are pretty tall."
He rose from his seat and walked over to the table, grabbing another arepa.
"And, uh, like I said, free food and everything."
Bruno then took some of his rats and held them in his hands.
"You guys love the free food, don't ya?" he quietly asked them. "Always hungry. Never satisfied."
Looking around some more, Mirabel noticed a little opening in the wall that was above the table. Looking through, she could see into the dining area of Casita. It was then that she also noticed what was on the table; he must have been so lonely. Placed on the table was not only a replica of a plate with Bruno's name on it, similar to the real ones the Madrigals used, but across from it was a framed picture of Emilia and Bruno on their wedding day.
Meanwhile, Emilia's attention was drawn to a nearby shelf. Getting closer, she picked up a meduim set of paints from it. She realized where she had seen them before; it was no wonder Matheo couldn't find them. She let out a small gasp as she continued to study the items on the shelf. Some of Rosa's old dolls, Pedro's poem collection, and Matheo's old sketchbook, to name a few. Emilia discreetly wiped the tears that were beginning to form.
They both turned to face Bruno, who gave them a look that could almost be described as anguished.
"Yeah, my gift wasn't helping the family, but, uh, I love my family, you know?"
His gaze lingered on Emilia.
"I just don't know how to... I just don't know how to..."
Bruno sat back down in his chair.
"Well, anyway, I think you should go" he told them, "because, um, I don't really have a good reason, but, if I did, you'd be like, 'I should go', because that's a good reason."
Emilia took his hands in hers.
"You need to come home" she said to him, "They need you."
He tried to direct his gaze away from Emilia; he couldn't bring himself to look at her.
"I-well, they don't need a father like me" he mumbled.
Mirabel leaned down so she was closer to her uncle. She didn't want to interrupt, but time was becoming limited.
"Why was I in your vision?" she asked.
He didn't answer, glancing towards her before directing his eyes back towards the ground.
"Tío Bruno?" she asked once more.
Still no response.
"I just wanted to make the family proud of me" she told him. "Just once."
Emilia put a comforting hand on Mirabel's shoulder.
Bruno turned his head towards Mirabel, listening. Her words sounded familiar to him somehow.
"But if I should stop, if I'm hurting my family, just tell me." Mirabel begged.
"I can't tell you..." he told her.
Mirabel sighed.
"...because I don't know." he said.
Bruno then pulled out the vision pieces and placed them together.
"I had this vision the night that you didn't get your gift" he explained, "Abuela worried about the magic. So, she begged me to look into the future; see what it meant."
Emilia knew this much. She had figured out long ago what had more or less happened then, but it was enlightening hearing his personal account of that night.
"And I saw the magic in danger, our house breaking" he continued the tale, "and then, and then, and then, I saw you. But the vision was different. It... it would change. And there was no one answer. No clear fate. Like your future was undecided."
Emilia knew where this was going, she had realized the same thing when she herself found the vision that time ago.
"But I knew how it was gonna look" he told Mirabel "I knew what everyone would think because I'm Bruno and everyone always assumes the worst, so..."
He vividly remembered that night, how he looked back at Emilia for the last time as she asked him to wait for her.
"So..."
"You left to protect me" Mirabel said. She knew that much from what her aunt had told her earlier.
"I don't know which way it'll go" he looked over at the vision, which Mirabel was currently holding, "but my guess... the family, the encanto and the fate of the miracle itself-"
Mirabel moved the stone slab back and forth, watching as the image kept changing.
"-well, it's all gonna come down to you."
Bruno snatched the vision from Mirabel and tossed it carelessly on the ground.
"Or maybe I'm wrong" he said, "you know, it's a mystery, it's a mystery. That's why this vision is..."
He blew a raspberry for effect, and pointed his thumb downwards. Bruno then directed Mirabel towards the door.
"Look, if I could help any more, I would, but that's all I know" he told his niece. "good luck. I wish I could've seen more."
He then shut the door, leaving Mirabel out alone in the hall.
She stayed there a moment, simply wondering what to do next.
"Yeah" she softly said to no one in particular.
She quickly came to a realization. Her uncle could see the future, right? Couldn't he just try to have another vision?
"Yeah!" she said it stronger that time.
...
"You have no idea how happy I am to see you, but I am also so mad at you!" Emilia said, pacing back and forth.
"Thats... understandable" he hesitantly agreed.
Bruno walked over to the shelf and picked up Pedro's poetry book. He flipped through the pages.
"Can you tell me about them?" he asked.
Emilia was going to, before Mirabel suddenly returned.
...
They both let out a yelp when Mirabel forcefully kicked the door open and marched back in.
"You wish you could have seen more, so see more! Have another vision!" she suggested; the excitement was evident in her voice.
"Oh. No, no. See, I don't do visions anymore" Bruno told her, hiding behind his chair.
"But you could!" she pointed out, proceedimg to follow him.
"But I won't" he replied.
Bruno picked up a broom from off the wall, using it as a shield.
"You can't say the weight of the world is on your shoulders. The end." Mirabel told him.
She tried to take the broom away from her uncle, eventually succeeding.
Bruno then rushed over to where the little cardboard cutouts from earlier were, holding one up in an attempt to block Mirabel.
"If our fate's up to me, me says have another vision!-"she said.
She continued towards him, and he tripped backwards.
"-maybe it'll show me what to do."
Bruno rushed to get back onto his feet.
"Look. Even if I wanted to, which I don't, you wrecked my vision cave!" he said to Mirabel, "Which is a problem, 'cause I need a big, open space."
"We'll find one!" Mirabel said, confidence now more evident in her voice.
"Where?" Bruno asked her.
Emilia was about to offer her room, when a little voice unexpectedly spoke up.
"Use my room."
All heads turned towards the sound of the voice: Antonio, accompanied by Matheo, Pedro, Rosa, and many animals.
"The rats told me everything" Antonio explained.
Antonio then whipped his head towards the Jaguar.
"Don't eat those" he said to the large animal, who was just about to eat a pair of mice.
The Jaguar, giving a pout and a sad growl, obeyed Antonio's command.