"Ow ow ow" Andres whined as Dolores pulled him along by the ear.
"Quit it, you brought this on yourself!"
They passed Alma, "The magic is strong, Everything is fine, we are the Madrigal."
He chuckled quietly, "Wrong words." He must have forgotten Dolores could hear him, she pulled on his ear harder and pulled him to her room, which was supposed to be soundproof. Because of the weakening magic it had turned into a tunnel of echos and booms, "This must be Hell on your ears."
"It was fine until you started meddling."
"Yeah, sorry about that, I knew that was gonna be a problem." He twirled his hand and in a puff of purple smoke Ear plugs appeared. "Here it won't do a lot but it will muffle the sound."
She tilted her head with a glare. "You really think I'm gonna take anything you give me after-" there was a loud boom from another crack forming in Casita, Dolores scrambled over and took the ear plugs. "Now start talking, or I will tell Abuela what I saw."
He sat down at her desk, "Are we forgetting that i could just," he mimed zipping his lips. "And you wouldn't be able to say a word oyente."
She gulped, she was terrified of him now, but she wouldn't back down. Her family was more important than her fear. "The last three year may not have meant something for you, but it did for us. We trusted you, we let you into our home and you're threatening us," She grabbed him by the shirt and lifted him. He wasn't even fazed "If you think for one second, I won't do something crazy for my family you've got another thing coming!"
"You think it meant nothing?" now he looked hurt so hurt it almost made Dolores falter. "I care about this family." He pulled himself out of her grip. "I love this family, but I have a job to do, and I'm not allowed to fail or stumble just because I care about you."
"What 'Job' could you possibly have that requires you to hurt us like this!"
He sat back down with a huff, "I'm a descendant of Hecate, The goddess of magic, when I was a kid my mother and father passed away and she made me her champion, so since I was ten years old I've been hoping from town to town doing what she tells me to basically testing them if they deserve magic, if they do i leave it or give it, if they don't i take it. That's why I'm here, that's why I came to Encanto."
Dolores was silent for a moment, "Wow, you must really think I'm an idiot!" She snapped, "You really thought I was gonna believe you were sent by a magic goddess so you could snuff out the candle."
"I never thought that sounded crazy until now." he said, biting the tip of his thumb. "I guess to someone who does believe in the Greek pantheon that wouldn't make any sense or be believable."
She gave him a look of pure unbridled rage, "Now the truth."
"That is the truth, Dolores." He stood up pacing back and forth and ran a hand through his black locks. "Let me just." He put up a finger as if saying 'give me a minute.' He closed his eyes and took a deep breath in and out. When he opened his eyes, they were purple not just the iris like Dolores had been seeing all day but the whole eye there was nothing but an unseeing void of purple, wind whipped around him making his hair and shirt blow around giving him a mystical aura. Speaking of Aura, a rainbow one pulsed to life around him, He cupped his hand under his chest and a light shined from under his shirt, a great white light in the shape of an all too familiar wheel.
As quickly as it came it ended, Dolores eyes were wide and she was leaning away from him, "Thats symbol its on-"
"All of my clothes? Yeah. I'm property of Hecate so I appease her anyway I can."
Her whole world looked like it had turned upside down, which it probably had as Andres just confirmed the existence of Polytheistic deities. He gave her a moment to process the information as another loud boom cracked though her room making her jump. "You're the property of a goddess?"
"Yeah." He nods solemnly like he had been over this a million times in his head. Being the servant of a god wasn't a fun time, but he had to do what she said lest she strike him down. All types of powerful energy running through your veins and only getting to do what she said you could. "I can only stop when she tells me to, until then she holds the metaphorical chain around my neck. The light, the wheel, It's kind of an inner branding. Tells the other gods I'm hers not that, that stops Hermes from trying to get me to be his champion every solstice," he laughs bitterly. "Although I feel like Hermes might want to claim Camilo as an unofficial champion, that boy is a menace to society," This time he lets out a real laugh.
Dolores didn't laugh though, "I can't imagine how that feels, knowing your life isn't your own."
He shrugged, leaning on his hand, "It's all I remember, well for the most part."
"What else do you remember?"
The ghost of a smile long forgotten crosses his face, "My parents, their smiles. I remember being nine," tears were already welling in his eyes, "It was my first time riding a horse on my own. They were so proud of me," tear tracked down his cheeks. "I don't remember their names, or their voices, but I remember their smiles."
"What happened to them?"
"Hellhound. My mom didn't have a lot of magic, but I did, it sensed it and came looking for a good meal. Hecate managed to save me but not my parents, I think she wanted them to die so she could take me. A lot of champions lose their families. Sometimes it's their hero origin story, other times it's their villain origin story, in my case it was both. To some I'm a god sent and to others I'm a demon."
Hearing that made Dolores feel bad for being mad at him. Being called a demon and having people mad at you for taking their magic has to take a toll on your mind.
"I can only be freed when Hecate removes the mark, but I don't know what I'd do or where'd I go. I'm better off being a lifelong servant of the gods."
"You could always come back here."
He lets out a single loud laugh that echoes around Dolores' room making her cover her ears, "Sorry." He wipes his face, "you guys won't want me back after this," he shakes his head. "Alma is getting worse by the hour. All she has to do is admit that there's a problem to the village and stop treating Mirabel like she is the problem." There was a loud booming crack that made Dolores flinch in pain. "That's not even me anymore, that's all her. I just started the fire; she's adding the lighter fluid." He looked up and shook his head.
She placed a hand on his shoulder, "Maybe it's a good thing."
"How?"
"Mami won't have to suppress her emotions anymore, Camilo can learn who he is without having to be everyone else, Abuela won't ever figure out a way to hurt Antonio, Tia Julieta won't have to cook for everybody anymore, Luisa won't have to be so busy anymore, though I have no idea what it could do for señorita perfecta Isabela. And Mirabel won't be treated so badly anymore."
He looks up at her with red puffy eyes, "And you?"
She looks down and breathes out, "Quiet."
Dolores
Have you ever wondered; well I have.
About how when I say, say, red, for example,
There's no way of knowing if red
Means the same thing in your head
As red means in my head
When someone says red?
And how if we are travelling
At almost the speed of light,
And we're holding a light,
That light would still travel away from us
At the full speed of light?
Andres wasn't exactly sure what she was trying to explain to him.
Which seems right in a way,
But I'm trying to say... I'm not sure...
But I'm wondering inside my head,
I'm not just a bit different from some of my friends...
These answers that come into my mind unbidden...
These stories delivered to me fully written...
That when he realized these were things that had been said in the village, things she was nowhere near but heard.
And when everyone shouts - they seem to like shouting -
The noise in my head is incredibly loud,
And I just wish they'd stop, my dad and my mum,
And the telling and stories would stop just for once.
He never realized just how loud it had been for her, she had never known silence.
I'm sorry - I'm not quite explaining it right,
But this noise becomes anger, and the anger is light,
And it's burning inside me would usually fade,
But it isn't today, and the heat and the shouting,
And my heart is pounding, and my eyes are burning,
And suddenly everything, everything is...
Her voice lowered
Quiet...
Like silence, but not really silent...
Just that still sort of quiet
Like the sound of a page being turned in a book,
Or a pause in a walk in the woods.
The fact that small noises would be considered quiet for Dolores was a horrifying thought, how she wasn't deaf yet was a mystery.
Quiet...
Like silence, but not really silent...
Just that nice kind of quiet,
Like the sound when you lie upside down in your bed.
Just the sound of your heart in your head...
And though the people around me,
Their mouths are still moving,
The words they are forming
Cannot reach me anymore.
And it is quiet...
And I am warm...
Like I've sailed
Into the eye of the storm..
Another booming crack pulled her out of her song, "I hear everything," Tears welled up in her eyes, "And I can't turn it off." She whipped the tears away and took a deep breath, "I can even hear-" she cut herself off realizing what she almost reviled.
"Mariano talking about Isabela?"
"How did you know?"
He blinked and his eyes turned yellow, "Clarity, this morning you looked disheartened, so I took a peek, sorry for doing that without your permission by the way. It's why I did what I did at the proposal, I knew you liked him, and Isabela didn't really like him so I- "
He was cut off by Dolores pulling him into a hug, "Thank you." she pulled away and whipped her tears away again, "I won't say my gift is as bad as Tio Brunos but it's not a gift, it's a curse, so in the end maybe it's good that you took the magic."
"You took the magic?" They both turned and saw Luisa only about ten meters away. She turned on her heel and basically sprinted out of the room.
"Wait Luisa!" But it was too late by the time he had processed that she heard Dolores, she was slamming the door. He had rubbed his finger over his eyes with his thumb and pointer to the bridge of his nose and let out a breath.
He walked over the wall slamming on it with one fist after the other then kicking it, but he didn't turn around. "Andres?" she stopped as she saw her notepad rise up from her desk. Items from all over her room rose and started to circle Andres in a twisted domestic hurricane. He looked over his shoulder and suddenly Dolores understood why he would be seen as a demon.
His eyes were fully purple again, a black hue started to crawl up under his skin outlining the veins in his arms and the nerves around his eyes, he curled his hands in a way that made them look like claws, Hecate's Wheel shining proudly under his shirt. He looked like he had crawled out of hell all that was missing were actual flames. He turned to her, "Tell Alma that she better fix herself or I will bring down this place on top of her." he stomps his way out of the room.
Dolores stood stock still for a moment before what he said was processed and she ran out of her room looking for her Abuela.
oyente= Listener
Andres freaks anyone else yet
~DarkVixen