La Luna - His Future || Bruno Madrigal Fanfic || Book One

Nowhere To Run

Isabela's POV

The sun had begun to set in the sky, the final rays of light creeping over us. I kept replaying the scene that had unfolded in front of me hours earlier. Nobody could have seen it coming.. Tío Bruno had to hold Luna back from running off while she screamed and sobbed uncontrollably. It was haunting.. The sounds of a mother breaking. She had to be carried back to their home. I can still hear her pleading cries to the heavens in my mind.

After seeing the horror that was Luna's past and how she had gotten her gift, I never thought I'd see her more broken than that. I was so very wrong. It was painful to feel her hurt. She always seems so strong, even after living through that. I admired her for it. I still do. She loves her family fiercely. And now we need to be there for her. She's our family now.

My foot hit another tree branch, grumbling at myself for constantly being distracted in my own thoughts. I need to focus. We've been out searching this section of jungle for hours now and there was no sign of Benji. The guard that had come to get Luna, explained what had happened. They had been ambushed during their patrol and only escaped cause Benji had stayed behind. They didn't notice he had turned around and when they went back they were all gone. No sign of Benji or the soldiers they had encountered. Of course Benji would have gone back to buy them time.. That's exactly something he would do.

When Lo started to mobilize members from his group to go out and search, Dolores and I immediately volunteered to join them. This was the least we could do, even if it took all night, I couldn't accept that this would be his fate. We had to find him, for Luna, for Tío Bruno. Beno was too good for this world, too kind, to have to live through more pain. Lo had everyone form teams of two, with one always being someone with a gift. He gave very strict instructions that we're only to search and if we even think we're in any danger to run. We're only supposed to use our gifts to fight if it's an absolute emergency. It was a command and one that I didn't want to have to break after seeing him when he's angry. Benji was his family and his hurt was coming out like a raging volcano, taking down everything in his path.

"Anything?", I called over to Dolores who walked a few feet across from me. She shook her head with a pained expression. What good are our gifts if we can't even find one lost boy in the jungle? The loud crack of a tree branch snapping from behind, alterted us to someone nearby. My body froze, peering into the dense flora. Please don't let it be soldiers, please..

"We come in peace..", Ciro appeared from behind a tree with his hands up, Arthuro following a few steps back.

"Nothing?", he asked. I hung my head down, "We'll keep going, we won't stop.", I tried to comfort them. Arthuro looked just as shattered as Lo and María.

"They probably have him...", Arthuro whispered, looking at the ground.

"You don't know that. Benji is quick...", Ciro sounded like he was trying to convince himself.

"Psst."

We all looked over to Dolores who was crouched over, inspecting something. Sprinting to her side all four of us saw what had caught her attention.

"Is.... Is it....", she stuttered.

The red distinct droplets over the leaves of a borojó. I swallowed the sick feeling in my stomach and noticed Arthuro was shaking next to me. This had to be hard, seeing his best friends life was hanging in the balance with this discovery. I placed my hand on his shoulder, hoping to calm him but his eyes just stared down at the plant.

I can do this... Taking a deep breath in, I stood and tried to see if there were other markers. He had been here. There was a chance he wasn't captured. We just needed to find him in time. I scanned the shrubs and wild undergrowth surrounding us, trying to pick up on any noticeable differences in the flora.