My Mirabel~ Papa Bruno Au

Part four

"Hey, get back here!!" I yelled after the rats who were taking the vision shards. I chased them through the house, but when I thought I had caught up with them, they disappeared. They did this a lot when I was little too, but I never figured out where they went until now.

I saw a painting move when I turned the corner. I pushed on a corner and it bounced back up. I pulled on the side of the frame; It was a door to the inside of the walls. Had this always been there? Reluctantly, still wanting to catch the rats, I entered through the hole and stepped down. I looked up, saw a flash of light, and there was a man with a hood on standing there. It went dark again, and when the light returned for a second, he was gone.

"Wait!!" I ran around the corner to catch him. I started sprinting through the walls, ignoring the dust, and the smell. I chased him, until I saw him jump- surprisingly skillfully- over a hole in the floor. He jumped side to side on peices of wood that were still attached to the wall. He had clearly done this a lot.

I stared down at the fog filled hole, knowing I had to be fast to catch up with him. I braced myself, took a few deep breaths, and tried to do what he did. Which I did do successfully, and landed on the edge of the other side of the floor. However, the wood broke, causing me to drop down, nearly into the hole. Luckily, I grabbed a piece of wood, suspending me. It cracked and I fell further.

"Help! Casita! Help!!" It cracked more, then broke. I started to fall, but felt something grab my wrist.

"You're very sweaty.. AHHH!!" Trying to pull me up, he fell. I grabbed a root and held on as hard as I could, but I couldn't hold him. I dropped Bruno into the fog and he disappeared.

"Papa!!" I yelled, reaching out for him. He then popped back up out of the fog. He used his shirt to fan the fog and we saw the floor.

"Huh." He stated, then I helped him out of the hole. He looked at me for a second, then walked past me. "Bye."
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"You've been here, all this time! I thought you left!" I exclaimed.

"I left my tower! Ya-know, stairs and stuff,  heheh.. but it's not so bad, uhhh- kitchen adjacent! Free food!" He grabbed one of Tia Julieta's arepas off a piece of wood attached to the wall.

"I- I thought you left me!! Wait, wait, wait- it was you wasn't it!? Ha! You were my 'imaginary friend', weren't you?! And you sent the rats too, didn't you?" I pointed at him accusingly.

"Yeah... that was me... I wanted to talk to you.. I saw those kids make fun of you and I felt bad. You reminded me of me..."

"Well... I don't understand. Why did you leave, but didn't... leave."

"Ah well- ya know the mountains around encanto are pretty tall. And uh, like I said- free food and everything- heh..." He turned to the rats. "You guys love the free food, don't ya?" He started mumbling.

I went over to the small sliver of light on the wall over the peice of wood. I saw the dinner table. I looked down and there was a fake plate painted on the wood with a fork on the side. Like... it was apart of the table in the other room.

"Yeah.. my gift wasn't helping the family. But, uh, I love my family, ya know? I just don't know how to... anyway, I think you should go because, um... I don't really have a good reason, but if I did you'd be like, 'I should go cause that's a good reason.'"

"Why was I in your vision...? Papa? I just wanted to make the family proud of me. Just once. But if I should stop, if I'm hurting our family, just tell me."

"Heh, it's hard when your dad is me, huh? But I can't tell you..." I sighed, he continued. "because I don't know. I had this vision the night you didn't get your gift. Abuela was worried about the magic, so, she begged me to look into the future. And I saw the magic in danger. 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. But I knew how it was gonna look. I knew what everyone would think, because I'm Bruno and everyone always assumes the worst. I didn't want them to assume the worst about you too... so..."

"You.. left to protect me?"

"Of course I did, you're my daughter. And... I don't know which way it'll go but... but my guess: the family, the encanto, the fate of the miracle itself, it's all gonna come down to you... or maybe I'm wrong, it's a mystery. That's why this vision is-" he blew a raspberry with his tongue. He ushered me to the door, opening it. "Look, if I could help anymore, I would, but that's all I know. Good luck Mirabel. I really wish I could have seen more kid." I left and he closed the door.

"Yeah... yeah!" I turned around and kicked back open the door. I heard him yelp and start backing away. "You wish you could have seen more, so see more! Have another vision!"

"Oh- no, no. See, I don't do visions anymore,"

"But you could!"

"But I won't!" He held up a broom, somewhat defensively for some reason.

"You can't say 'the weight of the world is on your shoulders. The end.' If our fates up to me, me says have another vision!! Maybe it'll show me what to do."

"Even if I wanted to, which I don't," He sounded like a parent, and weirdly enough, I felt comfortable around him. Then again, how much time had we really spent apart? "You wrecked my vision cave! Which is a problem 'cause I need a big open space."

"We'll find one!"

"Where?"

"Use my room." We heard from the door. We both turned and saw Antonio standing there with a bunch of animals, sitting on a tiger. "The rats told me everything. Don't eat those."

I looked towards Papá. "Our family needs help. And you need to get out of here. Myl dad is not going to be in a wall forever. Not if I have anything to say about it."