Abuela scanned the chaos inside her house, which had involved the two eldest grandchildren, and the youngest, and, well, you.
You felt obligated to go down the stairs as a sign of respect, but also because Abuela just had something about her menacing stare that even made her own family afraid of her disapproval and anger.
You walk over to the blue staircase that Casíta had prepared for you to go down on, as the bottom of the stairs stopped infront of Abuela and Mirabel.
You lean your forearm on the blue railing, as you slowly descend the staircase and closer to Abuela, who would say and call you words that only she would say, yet that still felt less painful than what Dolores had said earlier.
You slide your eyes to the side, taking a look at Dolores, without making it obvious, because you were still holding a grudge against each other.
What has this led the two of you to?
Dolores slowly followed you, her emotions were a combination of the anger she had still stockpiled after your confrontation with her, and pure and utter shock and fear, after thinking of how Abuela would treat her after this.
Each step that you took closer to the woman that was about to scold you, your fear of what to come becomes even more prevalent and obvious.
"Abuela?" Mirabel sighed, the woman looked at her granddaughter, who made it her sole purpose to pacify her grandmother's anger.
"It's okay, Everything is fine..." Mirabel leaned closer to Abuela, reaching her hand out to lend a comforting hand to her grandmother who was overflowing with anger.
"Señora, Mirabel is right nothing is wron-" You were slowly explaining as you continued descending the stairs, before, you were cut off.
"What?" Abuela shook her head in confusion, still processing the display.
"We're gonna save the miracle. The magic-" Mirabel hopped in excitement, as she thought what she said coul help calm her grandmother down.
"What are you talking about?" Abuela walked back, tucking herself in the black cloak that wrapped around her shoulders.
"Look at our home-" Abuela continued, she pointed her hand at the mess that Mirabel and Isabela had caused when the latter had opened up about her true feelings.
"Your sister!-" Abuela leans towards the eldest sister, who had her perfect and vibrant lavander dress tainted with the black and neon dyes from the exotic plants that she grew, her hair had spots of different colours which ruined the smooth and black texture.
"And your cousin." Abuela then pointed her hand to the woman behind you, whose eyes were completely covered with tears, and so were your's.
Pepa and Felix came out of the shade of the walkway, and immediately made their way to their daughter, politely sliding you to the side as they pass by.
Pepa held Dolores' hands with her own, the warm touch elevated alot of Dolores' worries.
Felix held Dolores' face with his big hands, wiping of the tears, and repeatedly asking the same question, "Are you okay?", while Dolores would keep repeating "Yes, Papa."
"Please, Abuela, Isabela and Dolores weren't happy." Mirabel tried to console her grandmother, but she still wouldn't budge.
"Ofcourse they weren't happy! You ruined Isabela's proposal, and God knows what you did to Dolores, I knew you weren't supposed to be with her." Abuela directed her glare onto you, as her face showed nothing but unadulterated anger and disgust.
"Yeah, I shouldn't be with her...." The words escaped your mouth, your hands felt heavy as they hung from your arms that lost the limber life that your old energetic self once had.
Your face was nearly falling off of your head from how low you were slouching.
The family looked at you with shock, after understanding what had happened from the context clues you and Dolores had left behind.
Even Abuela didn't expect your relationship with Dolores to go to this, you broke her wrath for a split second before she went back to scolding every Madrigal who refused to perform any way less than perfectly.
"It's good you know." Abuela sternly set, as she nodded after you seemed to have accepted her complain, even though it was most definitely your choice.
"I'm gonna go..." You quietly mutter to yourself, you hug your ruana, and felt it's warmth, which helped in pacifying your heavy feelings.
You slowly stepped closer and closer to the front door, each family member looking at you with glares of sympathy.
You take one last look at the family, who was about to have a crisis, a bad one at that.
Everyone was looking at you, with different feelings behind their eyes.
The family members that didn't play much of a role in your relationship, like Julieta's side of the family besides her youngest daughter.
Dolores' side of the family looked at you with sadness, as they personally saw the chemistry between you and their daughter, you were perfect for her in their eyes, and they had already accepted you without you knowing yet.
Mirabel, stood infront of her grandmother, was looking at you with remorse, thinking that her hardheadedness might have caused your argument with Dolores.
Abuela looked at you menacingly, but behind her eyes it was clear that there was still a small hidden side to her, which felt regret, knowing well that she had unconsciously decided who Dolores should love, despite her true feelings.
And the last one, the strongest one, the look that felt the most important to you, Dolores.
Dolores looked at you while she was being comforted, you could not decipher what she trully meant with her eyes, like she was a painting with noone finding the true meaning behind it yet, an abstract painting.
Each time you think she feels anger, her face showed remorse, each time you think she was sad, she sucks up all the tears and tries to put a stable facade to hide her sadness.
And it was the same for Dolores too, she didn't understand what you felt, she could hear you, well and clear, yet she couldn't hear what your heart was saying, a song with no melody, a piano with keys that play different tunes than what they were supposed to.
None of you understood,
How much you each meant to the other.
You break away from the staredown, your head jolted with your body as you turn to continue walking out, with a sense of regret and denial stockpiling in your chest.
Maybe this is all a dream, maybe i,'ll just wake up, forget this ever happened. I can fix this, yes, yes I can. But how do I? Fuck.
You reach your hand towards the turquoise door, the brass doorknob felt cold as your feelings didn't slow down.
The door felt like it closed on itself, like the wind closed it for you, you watched as the hinge on the edge of the door connect with the frame.
You watch as the towering house covers your whole body with a shadow.
But then the shadow grew larger as you hear commotion from inside the house.
It sounded loud, and it didn't seem like they were stopping with the shouting.
Your interest peaked but you simply refused to enter the Madrigal household again, not after what had happened.
A big gray cloud covered the usually bright morning sky, however it didn't seem to cause any rain, the cloud was just sitting there. Pepa was worried sick about her family, controlling her cloud was the least of her worries now.
You look up at the sky, you were standing under the overhang of the roof tiles of the Casíta, the red shingles covered your head.
You reach your hand out, anticipating an incoming drizzle. But something else touched your hand, it wasn't water, it was some sort of dust.
You look closer at the powder, analyzing what it looked like, how it felt, and anything that could tepl you what it was.
Is this Concrete?
You smudge the dust in your palm, you look up to see where it had come from.
The overhang that was covering your head was dripping the greyish dust, or so you thought.
You look around, and notice that the dust was not coming from the roof but from the wall, and across the wall were many different spots that dripped the same gray dust.
What- Casita are you okay?
The commotion from inside the house got louder, there was now a younger voice, Mirabel's, who was talking back to the much older voice coming from her grandmother.
The louder and further they got into their quarrel, the more dust fell out, even faster too.
You managed to make out a sentence from inside the Casíta, and it was coming from Mirabel, her voice sounded melancholic, and it felt like she was holding in a river of tears.
You lean your ear on the door to take a closer listen,
"The miracle is dying, because of you."
Gasps fill the room, and the sound of ground breaking catch your ear.
You pull back from the door, and walk a few steps backwards, you look around the wall of the Casíta, and watched as it slowly degraded.
The holes turned into cracks, and from the cracks, came even more cracks as the process just continues.
The shingles fell one by one, nearly hitting you in the head in some occasions.
The cracks didn't seem confined to just the house, the cracks on the ground continued to stretch throughout the roads of the Encanto.
The villagers who were already outside dropped what they were holding after noticing the huge crack in the middle of the road.
Screams and gasps echoed around the buildings, with some of the people running away while others alerted the people who were inside.
Oh shit.
From pure impulse, or hell maybe even stupidity, something was telling you to go back inside the Casíta.
Maybe it was your kind-heartedness, or your close relationship with the family Madrigal, but you wanted to risk life and limb just to make sure everyone was safe.
No, no, no.
I have to get back to my family, keep them safe, the Madrigals are more than capable of handling themselves.
Just after you finish that though, you were distraught to find that your hand was already prepared to turn the doorknob.
Well, shit.
You twist your wrist, and swallow your worries, the gloom immediately filleed your body when the breeze from inside the house touched you.
Through the open door, cracks randomly crawl around the floor and the walls, furniture were in places they shouldn't be, and pieces of the roof slid into the middle of the room and stacked into a pile of rubble.
"(Y/N)!? WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!? GET OUT!" A woman's voice caught your attention, you turn to your left, and see Julieta Madrigal running over to you, struggling at some points because of the uneven terrain.
Julieta lays her hand on your chest, and gently pushes you, trying to make you go back outside the door, "WE'RE OKAY, THINK ABOUT YOURSELF TOO!".
"I'M GONNA BE FINE, SEÑORA! WORRY ABOUT YOUR DAUGHTERS AND YOUR HUSBAND! I'LL HELP WHERE I CAN!" Your heart started racing even faster, you pull Julieta's hand off your chest, and reassured her of her worries.
"DON'T DO ANYTHING TOO RISKY, OKAY!" Julieta caught Agustin in her arm, and the two search for their three daughters, and soon enough found three of them, yet they only managed to secure the safety of two of them.
You maneuver the cracking floor, and took note of everyone's safety. Making sure each Madrigal gets out of the house without a block of concrete crushing them flat.
The other side of the family, Pepa's, were scattered all around the chaotic room.
Felix was holding his youngest son in his arms, who had both just narrowly dodged a falling wardrobe.
Pepa was desperately calling for Camilo, who had snuck up to the second floor, to get something.
"The Candle!" Camilo shouts, as he sprinted across the unstable walkway, transforming into either a child or a grown man depending on what he needs at the moment.
Isabela looks at the candle, and her primo risking his life just to save it. Isabela tried to swing to the candle herself to get to it quicker.
Isabela summoned vines of different types as she tried to swing herself to the windowsill that held the candle.
Isabela's vines managed to take her just infront of the candle, but when she reached her hand out to get it, the vines started dying, and crumbling, causing her to fall down, thankfully getting caught by Casíta lowering a piece of wooden railing to cushion her fall.
Isabela stumbled from the railway to your hands. Isabela groaned from the pain on her back, as she reaches behind her to soothe the pain, "Are you okay!?" "Yeah, yeah, we need to get the candle..."
You helped Isabela stand up, and led her to her worried parents, who reached out to her after she had just tried to get the candle.
Thankfully, for the candle, we still had one shot in saving the wax stick, Camilo was already nearing the window, and it looked like he was going to reach it.
Camilo dodged the falling wooden frames and the tumbling furniture, until he reached the railing below the window.
Camilo jumped on top of the blue wooden railing, and leaped again to try and reach the candle, the boy had transformed into a tall townsfolk to extend his reach, and that small difference in height looked barely made his arms long enough to reach the candle.
But just as his fingers were about to touch the wax, he reverted back to his original form, the frail teenager, against his own decision.
Casíta used the same railing that caught Isabela to catch the falling boy, Camilo landed safely on the floor, but he didn't look alright.
Camilo looked at his hands, like he was just in disbelief, his powers failed him, and so did Isabela's.
You look at the once glowing doors that held the rooms to the Madrigals. The doors flickered, and the time they were illuminating became shorter and shorter as more of Casíta got destroyed.
You move over to Camilo, who was crawling on the ground, he had lost all the flexibility and limber he used to have.
You grab Camilo's hands and helped him recovdr his footing, "Are you okay, Mijo!?" "Sí, thank you, (Y/N)...."
Felix and Pepa immediately grab their son, and wrapped their arms around the injured boy.
Abuela and Mirabel were standing beside you, they were the two who were most worried about the candle's salvation.
But besides them, it seemed like noone else was left, except maybe...
You see Dolores on the stairs, she was struggling to stay standing thanks to the repeated shaking.
"DOLORES! WATCH OUT!" Pepa screamed,the fear in her voice was echoing as she feared the safety of her daughter.
Felix was helping his two sons, he did not have time to look at what was happening, because he had the safety of two of his children to take care of.
Fuck-.
You look at the lady struggling to go down the stairs safely, debris falling around her, yet none went near her, thanks to Casíta deflecting them with the railing ontop of the stairs.
Every nerve, muscle, and bone click in your body, they all had one synchronous goal, Help Dolores get out safely.
Your heart sank, as your brain just moved by itself, without letting you a single second to process this.
The sandals on your feet were nearly tearing from how briskfully you bolted towards the stairs.
The rough friction from the floor heated up your feet, but that didn't stop you from running, nor did it slow you down.
Mirabel noticed that her prima was going to be in good hands, because she knew you wouldn't stop at anything to save the person you loved, but do you actually love her? It didn't matter right now, you can worry about labels and relationships later, but now you should worry about your possible early death.
Mirabel realized that the candle had little to no hope, but she thought to herself;
The candle! I need the save the candle! We can't let this miracle die!"
"Casíta get me up there!" Mirabel demanded as she ran over to the empty space beside the stairs.
Casíta let down the railing to act as a ladder for Mirabel, as the girl quickly climbed up, attempting to reach the candle, which both her sister and primo had failed trying to do.
"Mirabel! Get out!" Julieta and Agustin were screaming their lungs out as they witnessed their daughter in the middle of danger.
The couple tried to run to Mirabel, however Casíta's floors repeatedly moved them back using a fluid like wave motion that pushed them back to where they started.
Mirabel made her way along the poorly-made path that Casíta had built to make her reach the candle.
Below Mirabel was your desperate body, that tried to help Dolores off the stairs, but found yourself having troubles standing too.
"Dolores! Hold on!" You repeatedly try to steadily hold the railing, but your hand kept sliding or falling with every quake or shake that the floor pulsed.
"Casíta! Help us." Dolores muttered, as her body continuously failed to stand steadily.
Casíta came to your aid by forming a slide with the stairs, which Dolores rode until she reached your arms that were waiting at the bottom.
You held Dolores tightly, as the two of you planned to steadily walk to the door.
Just as the two of you stood up, you hear a groan above your head, and a few pebbles landing on the stone floor.
You look up, to see what you had just heard.
Mirabel had reached the part of the roof just before reaching the windowsill, but the path leading to her spot had already fallen apart, which had practically caused her to remain stuck on the roof.
"Mirabel!"
"MIRABEL!"
Mirabel got her hand on the candle, which had melted, something it had not done, not once for the 50 years that it had burnt brightly.
One final quake caused her to tumble, the silver candleholder in her hand, as the wax burnt more with every second that passed.
Casíta catches the girl with the same railing that caught Camilo and Isabela.
Casíta carefully lays Mirabel next to you and Dolores, who were both struggling to help each other get out safely.
But, despite the three of you still inside, after Abuela was escorted safely outside by Pepa, the house started to break exponentially faster that how it had before.
Even more furniture and debris fell from above you, as Casíta was not as equipped anymore to help you stay safe.
You knelt down, covered the back of your head, and hoped that all the falling things missed you.
You close your eyes, and hope for the best-
That the three of you stay safe.