Encanto stories, AUs, and oneshots

Taken AU-pt.2

Julieta walked on the lonely dirt road, her husband would be catching up soon she was sure, she opened a gate and walked through the grass, wet from the light drizzle coming down around her, today was hard for everyone, Alma didn't comment once on the fact Pepa had a cloud, she understood that today there was nothing they could do about it.

Julieta slowly sat down on the ground, she took out some flowers made by Isabela, a small plushie made by Mirabel, and some trinkets and more flowers from her sisters side of the family, she reached out with trembling hands and gently arranged them on the headstone in front of her, a wave of emotion hit her hard, she wanted to sob and scream at the unfairness of the universe, but the gentle touch of her husbands hand on her shoulder quickly brought her back

"I know it's hard Juli, not knowing what happened to her, but we're all here for you, we all want her back"

Julieta turned and cried into her husbands shirt

"It's just not fair! She was only nine! She had her whole life ahead of her, I just want to know why"

She slowly started to calm down, her tears had dried but her face was still wet from the rain, Agustin held her close as they gazed sadly at the carved rock in front of them, Julieta kissed the palm of her hand then pressed it to the lettering on it

"Happy birthday mi corazon, I hope you've found peace now, we still miss you, but I think we will find peace soon as well"

Agustins eyes clouded as he read the text engraved stone

Luisa madrigal, 9 years old

Loving sister, cousin, and daughter, you will be missed by all

Missing: March 8th, pronounced dead: May 21st

He remembered the terrible day, the day his pequena sol had been stolen from him, from everyone, he wiped his eyes and turned to Julieta

"I'm sure she's in a better place now, shes 15 today, our little hija, I want nothing more than to know that she's happy now"

Julieta leaned into him and agreed, trying to keep her mind from flashing back to the bad memories, the specific one, the one where her family fell apart.

———————-

It was a sunny day outside, rare considering what had happened just a few days ago, but today Pepa was going to be happy, happy for her little heartbroken sobrina, and what better way to make people happy then with sunshine?

Mirabel had been miserable, nothing they could do would cheer her up, she was so convinced her family was going to leave her behind because she didn't get a gift, but she got assurances from everyone, Camilo told her jokes, Dolores helped her sew, Isabela made flower crowns with her

Luisa promised to never leave her

The day has been going amazing, Mirabel was smiling for the first time in a while, Bruno didn't look like a corpse, Julieta wasn't overworking herself cooking, they had taken a family day off by the lake, the children played in the water, splashing and kicking and squealing, the adults smiled, it might not last forever, but for now they were a happy family without a care in the world.

That wasn't true, Julieta had one worry, but she pushed it into the back of her mind, there was a group of men passing through town, trying to sell items at ridiculously high prices, they seemed to have giant carts full of odd knickknacks, but they were covered by tarps do no one could see what was in them.

From the first time she had seen the men she got a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach, she knew it was unreasonable but these guys just seemed to radiate bad energy, she tried her best to avoid them but had seemed like she saw them poking around all day, were that following her? No, that was crazy, she was just letting her mind run wild, they couldn't be that bad, could they?

As it reached midday Julieta looked at the pond with happiness, all of the children were still content playing in it,

wait, not all of them

"Agustin, have you seen Luisa?"

He looked around, then realized that he hasn't

"No, but I'm sure she's close, she doesn't like to go to far from us"

That was true, but Julieta still frowned, she couldn't help but feel that something was wrong, so very wrong, the feeling was overwhelming and soon she yelled to the kids in the pond

"Where has Luisa gone? Does anyone know?!"

The kids looked between themselves, Mirabel spoke up

"She went down the shoreline, she was trying to catch a frog, she's been gone pretty long now though"

A sense of panic gripped Julieta, she tried to calm herself down, she was just walking along the shoreline, she wasn't far, but Julieta grabbed Pepa anyway and the two walked down the shoreline, and as they made a full circle of the lake it was clear that Luisa was not there, Julieta was growing frantic and clouds started to block the sun, they quickly went back to casita and put the kids in their rooms, Julieta was convinced she was overreacting and that Luisa had just gotten lost, but as the sun set and there was still no sign of her she was crying out her name desperately, the worst possible scenarios filled their mind.

they couldn't rule out drowning yet, and as she did yet another circle the lake, begging for any sign of her daughter, her prayers were answered, but she wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing

A clump of broken branches lay on the ground, there were lines in the sand, like something had been dragged, whatever had happened here it was obviously a struggle, and as much as Julieta denied it the next piece of evidence confirmed her worst fears.

Pieces of fabric, the exact same colour as Luisas dress, hung from the bushes.

She screamed and cried, she searched every inch of town with the townspeople, and the two mysterious men had disappeared, nowhere to be found.

The town searched day and night, through sun and storm (though it was almost always storm) but after two months the search was called off, Luisa was nowhere within encanto, and that day at the lake was the last time anyone had seen her.

The disappearance of Luisa brought the family close together, the parents were deathly afraid of losing another child, everyone blamed themselves, Alma was very protective of her grandchildren, reluctant to let anyone town court them as they grew older, she made lunch and breaks mandatory, there was a strict curfew but as long as everyone was there she was happy.

Pepa and Felix took care of Isabela and Mirabel for a bit, while their parents grieved, they wanted to be there for their other daughters but the loss of Luisa hurt them, bad.

Isabela had become extremely protective of Mirabel, even more so than Dolores was with her younger hermanos, she did everything with Mirabel, it felt like they only had eachother after their hermanas disappearance so they clung to eachother tightly.

Luisa's birthday was always a sad day at casita, the grandchildren would stay in Isabelas room for the night and talk/cry, the adults would visit the gravestone made for her, the children would just visit her door that had turned dark now, they weren't as scared of going outside anymore but still stuck together, they ate together, talked together, walked together, and they all prayed that Luisa was happy now, wherever she was, together.

(Notes)

Sad chapter, but it gets better, kind of, don't forget to send requests, no matter how stupid the idea, trust me, mine are much stupider.