Blue Flames and Black Candles

Setting My Uncle On Fire Was An Accident!

Mirabel easily found her way out of the woods and back to Casita, it was as if she walked the path to the cottage every day of her life. She just knew every turn, every landmark, and every stone that could be tripped on. It weirded her out, but she finally had a place where she felt she truly belonged!

What she didn't account for was the reaction from everyone when she waltzed through the front door after disappearing the night before. She didn't stand a chance when a blur hit her and knocked her to the ground. That blur happened to be Antonio, who was quickly followed by Delores, Camilo, and Luisa. They were all talking over each other, but were all shoved to the side as her mama and papa yanked her into their arms, her mama crying into her shoulder and her father mumbling to himself and his wife.

What no one expected was once she was dragged to her feet, someone else stepped forward to check on her: Tio Bruno. He seemed to have appeared from thin air, which she knew was actually a secret passage created by Casita. He grabbed her by the shoulders and began to check her thoroughly for any sign of injury. He completely ignored the rest of the family in favor of making sure she was ok. She had almost given him a heart attack after all!

"Don't ever do that again! Do you know how worried I was?" Bruno continued to mumble half-threats and worries into her shoulder as he hugged her.

"Bruno? What? Where have you -" Abuela was cut off by Bruno as he looked at her. His nerves were betrayed by the way his posture stiffened and his breath quickened, but he refused to back down again.

"Mama. I did not return for you, any of you," he looked around at the rest of the family, ignoring how heartbroken his sisters looked at the proclamation. "I came back because my niece went missing. I am here for as long as she wants me to be and if she asks me to leave, I will."

No one could think of anything to say, though abuela looked like she had an ulcer, as Mirabel and Bruno were ushered into the kitchen by her mama. Julieta shoved an arepa con queso into each of their hands and glared until they both ate them. It took quite a few minutes of her mama checking her over while she ate for her eyes to be noticed.

"Mirabel your eyes!"

"Um, I really don't know how to explain...."

"I will be asking later, for now just relax. You scared us."

She knew she should have felt guilty for frightening them, but she just couldn't find it in her to care. Hardly any of them had cared enough to talk to her before she pulled a vanishing act and now everyone was hovering far too close for comfort. She would need to sneak off later and she'd drag Tio Bruno along too. Her mama and papa went to speak with Abuela upstairs while the two stayed in the kitchen.

"Honestly, I don't know why you even came back. We would have been better off without you," Isabella's condescending voice cut through Mirabel's thoughts.

"Oh, hola Isabella. If you want me to leave again, I will. You will be the one explaining to Mama why I've disappeared again. Can you live with that?" Mirabel had stood at this point, getting close to Isabella, and giving her eldest sister a sinister smile. "Can you look at yourself in the mirror after breaking our Mama's heart? I'd watch how you talk to people, sister."

Isabella's eyes widened in fear and surprise as Mirabel gave her a sweet smile before grabbing Tio Bruno's arm and dragging him out to the clearing he had used for the ritual the night before. She hadn't realized that the smile had never slipped even once on the walk over. Bruno, despite having seen the change the night before in his vision, was thrown off by her new way of dealing with the same old snipping that the family had done since her ceremony.

"Ok! I need help trying to get my new gift to work. I know about the vision from last night and all that. Now, you're gonna help me trigger my gift, right?"

"Um, ok. I, uh, I guess I can try?"

"Wonderful! How do I start?"

"It's different for everyone, so this, um, it may not work for you like it does for me. I try to clear my mind first, it should help you focus on control, take a deep breath and imagine that your power is a little knob in the back of your head. Now, slowly start turning that knob in your head," Mirabel listened to the instructions as best she could, she didn't really understand how this would work, but she was eager to try anything. "I don't think this is working."

"I know, but I really want this to work! I don't know how to use a power that I never had before!"

"Maybe your power isn't like the rest of the family's. I mean, it's obvious, but we need to find what makes your power unique."

"I don't know, I'm not really that special!" Mirabel glared at the ground, wishing she could just figure out the trigger. "The only thing special about me is that I wasn't special!"

The two were at a loss as to what to do. They decided to try again later, returning to Casita, and preparing for the fallout of leaving again. They managed to get through the door to be greeted by Casita before they were dragged into the dining room by Felix, who looked extremely guilty, and forced to sit down facing Abuela.

"Now, I wanted to speak to you. Mirabel, I have arranged for you to be married to Baltasar, one of the village boys. You won't be married for a few years, but you will be considered betrothed -"

"What? You can't just make decisions for me!" The temperature in the room began to skyrocket, making the room unbearable. "Is this because I told you the truth? That I tried to warn you about the cracks? Or is it because you're mad that Tio Bruno wanted nothing to do with you even after he returned? Get over yourself, you selfish old hag!"

Mirabel stormed off as Bruno stayed behind to scold Abuela for her actions. She scampered through the painting passage and moved to the room she had seen Bruno in before. She collapsed into an old, overstuffed chair that sat in the corner across from a makeshift table. She sat catching her breath and forcibly lowering the temperature of the room. Well, they had found the trigger: her emotions controlled it, much like Tia Pepa!

"Mirabel? Are you ok? That's a dumb question of course you're not ok," Bruno devolved into distressed mumblings.

"Tio? Tio Bruno! Bruno!" She grabbed his shoulders to shake him, panicking slightly. It was when she went to shake him that everything devolved into chaos: his rauna caught fire. A bright blue flame began to rapidly eat away at the old green cloth that her tio wore everywhere. This did not help either of the two panicking messes.

Bruno managed to throw the rauna off as it was consumed by the flames. The two stared at the cloth as a jingling sound filled the passage before water rained down from the ceiling. It took quite a few minutes of this for the flames to die out completely. The silence stretched out before hysterical laughter burst out of the two emotional wrecks.

They couldn't stop laughing for quite some time. Eventually the two calmed down, Mirabel collapsing into the chair and Bruno sitting on his makeshift bench. The day's events finally began catching up to the two at this point. Though Mirabel had no intention of leaving her Tio in the walls of the house.

"Alright, there's an extra bed in the nursery you can sleep in. Come on, I'm exhausted!" She didn't give him a chance to argue, merely walking back to the painting exit, before making their way to the nursery. She grabbed an extra blanket to throw on Antonio's old bed. They both climbed into bed as Casita shut the lights off. After everything that had happened the two fell asleep quickly.