It all started with a Mariposa

Glitch in the Matrix

Bruno and Mirabel rushed out of the wall and followed Antonio and his animals to his room. 

Camilo and I took this as our chance to take action. I sprinted behind Bruno, who shrieked at the appearance of two new people. 

"Don't mind them!" Mirabel called out to Bruno, following Antonio and his animals in hot pursuit. "They're with me."

The way out of the walls and out the portrait hole felt and took longer than expected because the walls and floors seemed to cave in while they were talking. 

Suddenly, when we made it to the hallway, I felt light-headed and swayed as I continued to run. 

"Woah." Mirabel let out as she stopped to catch me from falling. "You okay? You don't look too good."

Before I could answer, my ears picked up on the sound of Senora Alma yelling. I turned to see her, Julieta and Agustín all in the foyer. "You should have told me the second you saw the vision! Think of the family!" Alma yelled. 

Agustín, clearly pissed but too polite to say, walked up to her. "I was thinking of my daughter!" He shot back. "She is more important to me than some vision. We were planning on telling you after the dinner so we could figure everything out!"

A huge gust of wind blew slowly across the room. Alma, still angry, faced Pepa and Félix, who were just across from us on the bottom of the stairway. "Pepa, calm down!" Alma exclaimed. 

"I'm doing my best!" Pepa said, shivering beneath a blanket in fury. "You're lucky it's not a hurricane!" Félix nodded in agreement as he shook the snow off of his wife.  

Julieta looked as if she has something she wanted to say, and thankfully she did end up speaking her mind. "Mamá, you've always been too hard on Mirabel." She said, pain tinted in her voice, bringing back the topic Alma had tried to silence.

Small cracks emerged around us, around them, around the entire house. "Look around!" Alma replied. "We must protect our family, our Encanto. We cannot lose our home!" 

That last sentence definitely felt personal. Although her posture, her clenched fists, and her furrowed brows displayed anger, her eyes were filled with hurt from something in the past that she apparently had never gotten over. 

That's when Alma turned toward the top of the stairs. Where I was.

Our eyes locked, and for a moment, Alma looked at me with a look of slight realization. Then all of a sudden, Alma's gaze was no longer filled with suffering, but instead they were filled with fury. 

I stiffened. What was with that cold look? Was it because I saw her sudden outburst? Was it because I had stayed in her house too long?

My head throbbed. Ugh. Just thinking about the possibilities made my head ache.  

"(Y/n)?" Mirabel let out, worry tinted in her tone. I noticed that Camilo and stopped too, keeping an eye on both Antonio and me. 

Just then, tiny bits and pieces of Casita's roof started to fall. I faced my friend with a fake smile, trying to ease her disturbed feelings. "Uh--yeah yeah..." I said, blinking to regain my focus. Now's not the time to be weak. I tried getting up on my own, but Mira, being the angel that she is, helped me up. 

"I'm... I'm fine." I assured them, rubbing my eyes. Now wasn't the time to faint or get dizzy spells, either. Now was the time to help my friends. "We need to hurry. Casita's not looking too good."

Mirabel hesitantly nodded. She slightly took a hold of my hand as she helped me to run, and although I wanted to protest, I honestly wouldn't have been able to run alongside her without her help and she knew it. I turned to look at Alma one last time to see that she had been watching the whole thing, still giving me a small scowl.