How Times Change

La visión final

'Brunito?' Julieta spoke quietly, the chamber was extremely wide but it echoed in a booming tone.

She stepped further into the cave, not looking down at all the steps she had just had to climb and instead squinting to see what she could in the darkness before her.

The room itself had taken some persuasion to get it to even open the door for her so persuading her brother to leave, she correctly assumed, wouldn't just be an average pep talk.

'Bruno?' Like she expected, no answer so she ventured further, feeling the sand beneath her feet and a few streams of it pouring from the ceiling.

Eventually Julieta reached the back of the cave, and though she couldn't see him she knew he could hear her. She sat down, using her dress as a blanket, planting her hand in the sand beside her and looked up at the mural on the back wall.

'You know you don't have a clock in here. I came to tell you it's been six days since you locked yourself in here. I also wanted to say that we miss you.'

'No you don't' Bruno thought.

'And we want you to come back.'

'No you don't' He thought again.

'Delores really misses you, she keeps going on about Julia and Jose? Is that your story? She really wants the next part and sooner or later she is going to let herself in here and you're going to have an angry six year old on your hands.'

'Six?'

'Oh yeah, Delores is six now. It's Isabella's birthday next week as well. She wants you to come.'

'No she doesn't.'

'Anyway, you should really come down for the season fate. It's going to be great, I'm even going to make your favorite... I'll see you there then. Tomorrow. Goodbye Brunito.'

'Wait.' Bruno yelled after her, suddenly appearing out of the shadows and running in to hug his sister.

'I'll come.' He regressed finally.

She moved to hug him but he stuttered back slightly and she withdrew, vaguely smiling.

'We love you.' Julieta said softly, dusting off his shoulder and left Bruno alone in his cave again.

-

The final time Bruno left the house he looked exactly like people would remember him: tall, thin and with the hood of his poncho pulled over his eyes. A couple of villagers even swore they saw rats beneath the cloth that day.

He walked with a sort of silent confidence, letting the people in front of him part like the red sea and whisper around him. He looked over some of the stalls, seemingly appearing in different streets and shops, with his soon to be trademark menacing grin.

But despite the mild panic he had caused, Bruno was on the whole extremely still and unchaotic until he came across a group of children who were huddled near the water fountain in the center plaza.

One of them stood knee deep in the clear, still pool and the others sat on the edge of the stone rim, half of the time ready to fall in. They looked up and began to whisper almost immediately as they saw him and Bruno even heard one say that they were brave enough to go and say hello, going against what their mother had told them.

Vaguely uncomfortable but finding their interest slightly comical, the hooded man made his way round the back of the fountain and planted himself just in earshot of the children.

They quietened their voices even further, obviously thinking he couldn't hear them over the sound of the fountain rushing and through his thick poncho that still covered his ears but he could and soon their conversation became darker than brave remarks from the youngest child.

'Did you hear what happened?' A girl said.

'Oh yeah.' Another boy chimed in.

The younger kids began to beg for an answer from the older two, who were only about seven from the sound of their voices, until they finally gave in and playfully explained...

'And he'll kill you too if you get too close.'

Bruno's heart fell out of his chest but he was frozen to his seat and griping the stone so hard that his fingertips were raw.

'Really?' The youngest continued.

'I heard my mum and dad talking, they said he probably killed the only woman who ever loved him as well.'

'Yeah, yeah my parents said he only kept the other one alive to see if it would have the same gift he did.'

'He killed his own baby.'

'It's true. He used his voodoo magic to kill his own baby, before it could even open its eyes.'

Bruno could barely feel his heart beating now and his lungs were stiff. The world went slightly blurry in front of him and before he could even think about what he was causing he felt the beginning of a strong wind blow the hood of his head so that he could see the plaza again.

The sky was going unnaturally darker at a quicker pace and the clouds rolled in thundering slightly as people sheltered their heads for the rain they thought would follow. But instead of rain, sleet or snow what followed was a swarm of sand, littered with bright green lights, that swirled in dangerous patterns.

The sand climbed higher and higher until it had formed a kind of ceiling over the entire village and so that it only stopped where the mountains that surrounded their civilization did.

But Bruno was standing now in a state of pure trance: eyes burning in the back of his skull and visibly a glowing emerald color and hands out in front of him palms up, seemingly casting the huge special.

It was impossible to miss. Every person in the village either ran out of their house to witness it or ran back in to protect themselves from it.

The sand, now in a visibly cage-like dome around the people flooded in little streams of green flame back down to different people, families and homes. Each patch of sand found its way to these people, some even flooding through windows and under door frames to reach their victims.

Once there, each grain of sand worked together to display a feat that ranged from mildly horrific to unbearable, and where some people witnessed their goldfish deaths others saw horrific accidents or their eventual true loves being led away from them. Even the children of the village found themselves either in aw or frozen in terror of these visions and were fixated on what would happen next.

But the vision quelled quickly and the sand along with a hundred glass prophecies fell from the sky with a deafening shatter, leaving the village in silence, and Bruno, the most exhausted he had ever been, lying in the plaza.