Chapter Text
Madrigals
Mirabel braced as the floor beneath her feet began to shake.
Her family gasped and fumbled behind her, reaching to steady each other. She quickly turned around to make sure they were alright, giving them a quick one over before turning away in relief and looking upwards.
The candle wobbled precariously.
“It’s going to fall,” she whispered, tense, “it’s going to go out.”
The walls cracked and the floors creaked, creating winding lines of destruction that guided her gaze directly up to its target. She dug her nails into her palm and prayed to whoever would listen. The candle flickered and dropped onto its side. Her eyes widened.
Without wasting another second, she gathered up her courage and stored frustration and took off in a beeline for the candle. She knew exactly what she needed to do- she needed to fix this.
“Casita! Get me up there!” she yelled, stumbling as it obliged.
A second-floor barrier dropped from above, clattering on the stone floor and acting as a perfect ladder to aid in her ascent. Mirabel wrapped her hands tightly around the old wood and forced herself up along the rungs.
A hurrying haze of yellow to her side told her wasn’t the only one with a mission. And, if the explosion of plant life beneath her was any indication, Isabela was preparing to do the same.
Sending a silent thank you to Camilo and her sister, she tuned out the sounds of her mother’s frantic yells from below. Her teeth ground together uncomfortably as she forced herself to focus on the task at hand, they couldn’t afford to be worrying about each other until the miracle was safe – that’s something her family had made clear in the past.
Save the miracle, save the gifts, save the family, save the town.
Besides, Casita would get her family out safely, she had more faith in the home than anything– it wouldn’t let them get hurt. She pulled herself upwards, docking her feet into the grooved carvings and clutching tightly onto them as she pushed her glasses back up her nose. She could do this. She had to.
Camilo let his gaze- and attention- drift momentarily towards his prima, Mirabel, marvelling at how quickly she’d leapt into action despite seemingly having so little on the line. Vines wrapped themselves around the bottom of her ladder, holding it steady as they cushioned the ground below in case she were to fall.
He’d burst into action originally to get to his cousin- to make sure she was safe. But, watching her now, he wasn’t sure she needed his help- or Isabela’s for that matter.
A snap above him snatched his attention back to where he was running.
“Woah-!”
He yelled out in shock as he instinctively shifted to duck under the collapsing ceiling, narrowly avoiding a serious concussion and boatload of lectures from his mamà.
Laughing nervously and swallowing his terrified embarrassment, he pulled himself together and kept running, fully knowing that Casita wasn’t focusing on his well-being, not with it falling apart and Mirabel being in danger. He had to be careful enough to not distract attention away from that.
He weaved through falling beams, bricks and tile, stumbling towards his cousin and trying to let his instincts carry him through the destruction. The candle flickered dangerously out the corner of his eye and when he spared a glance in its direction, he swore he could see thick lines of cooling wax dripping along its side. The thought of their miracle melting made his head spin so he shifted the thoughts away quickly, jumping over a wide split in the floorboards and relaxing his body to prepare for the jump he’d have to take.
Isabela clung tightly onto the vine she’d created, flowers brushing irritatingly against the backs of her hands. She took a breath and ran, lifting herself off of the ground easily and narrowing her eyes- she wasn’t about to sit around and let this family suffer, especially not after the progress she’d been making with her gift and her siblings.
After all these years arguing over nothing, she and Mirabel were finally on the same page, and she wasn’t about to let that go to waste by sitting idly by as the home and family fell apart. There was no way she could leave such a serious task to two of the youngest members of their family, they were just children and there was too much at stake. She had to get to that candle.
Just as she was about to reach its perch, she felt something shift throughout her whole body. It was as if her blood had been completely and suddenly drained from her body. The plants around her and the vine clutched in her hand faded and shrivelled away, dropping her downwards.
Squeezing her eyes shut quickly, she felt Casita reach out and try to soften the landing for her – only somewhat succeeding as her head connected harshly with the stone as she hit the floor.
Gasping at the sudden influx of pain and the discomfort of her gift being torn away, she raised her fingertips to her head, cringing as they came away speckled with blood. She buried her self-concern down as deep as possible and twisted where she landed, trying to get a better view as her sister climbed higher and higher up the breaking building.
Camilo faltered in his stride as Isabela’s door flickered across from him- a bad sign, definitely a bad sign. His attention was on his cousin instantly, watching helplessly as she fell hard and fast, smacking her head off of the ground.
Luckily, she recovered quickly and turned towards her sister, letting him release the tense breath he was holding.
With another tight swallow, he kept running and eyed up his target; the third-floor window was sitting perfectly framed by the dozens of deep gashes in the wall’s colouring.
“Come on, Camilo,” he muttered under his breath, “and… go.”
A shaky breath and a split second later, he took his leap of faith, shifting into José to give himself just the right amount of reach.
Typical of his luck, he checked the status of his door just in time to watch it crack straight through the centre, betraying him at the last second and sending him on a quick path to a broken neck (downwards).
The house bent around him, shoving another broken railing outwards with the expectation that he’d grab onto it and drop to the ground. However, he realised the intent one moment too late, his lack of reaction speed landing him awkwardly jamming his leg through the gaps and flinging his arms outwards, just clipping the second floor’s floorboards.
With a strangled shout, he ripped his leg out and pulled himself fully upwards to relative safety, wincing at the hot flash of pain across his calf. The lack of grace would’ve made him flush red with embarrassment any other day, but ‘luckily’ there were much more pressing matters than a stumble and a yelp.
Well, maybe not for his sister.
Dolores was hovering in the doorway, eyes probably jumping around the room with every crash and gasp. She was calling to him from below, sending another stab of shame through him, accompanying his already growing embarrassment. The injury probably sounded worse to her than it actually was (and she was always a little overprotective anyway).
He raised a pathetic thumbs-up from his place on the floor and rolled onto his front, using the wall as a crutch whilst he tried to stand up, only to fall roughly back onto the ground with a thud.
“Camilo!”
His sister sounded exasperated, concern lacing her tone even through all the surrounding noise. He made the executive decision not to look at her. She rarely yelled and he was already having a bad day, seeing the look of pain on her face as she covered her ears from calling to him over the overwhelming noise was a guilt he’d shelf for later.
Instead, he looked up at his cousin.
Just like always, Mirabel was still pushing herself, almost to her destination before she paused, distracted by something in the distance as she looked into the horizon.
Mirabel turned too fast for her feet to keep up with, slipping slightly on the red tile which led up to the window. She squeezed her eyes shut as she steadied herself, pushing flush against the broken wall with terror making her shoulders tense.
‘You’re okay. You’re fine. Get the candle.’
The mountain at the edge of Encanto had split in two, opening up the route to the rest of Columbia- the place she thought her uncle had vanished to all those years ago. Earthquakes ran alongside the cracks through the hills, shaking the entire town and the home even more.
Swallowing her concern, she refused to let herself get absorbed in the distraction. She leaned back and looked up at the window. It had rolled further back but not onto the ground, she could still reach it, there was still time to save her home.
A toucan whipped past her head with a shrill scream, wingtips brushing across her cheek and almost causing another slip. It must’ve been one of Antonio’s, presumably following his request in getting her to turn around and leave the candle.
‘Sorry, Antonio.’
Larger and larger pieces of the house began to drop downwards and clatter to the ground. She prayed that her family would remove themselves unharmed in time, they didn’t all need to be in here- not when they were losing their gifts.
Félix hurried to scoop up his son, pulling him true against his chest, heart beating loud enough he’d usually expect his eldest to come running. The danger crashed behind them as he ran towards his remaining family, Isabela just coming back to join them, a thin streak of blood running down her forehead.
He brushed shoulders with Julieta and Agustín, squeezing between them and gripping onto Antonio as if he’d vanish from his arms.
“We’ve got to get out of here! Now!”
Dolores ran up to him, hands clamped tightly over her eyes, eyes bloodshot and saying something that he couldn’t quite hear over the chaos. His heart skipped a beat as he got a better look at her, she was distraught- her arm was bleeding and her breathing was heavy and frantic.
Whatever she was worried about could wait until they were safe- all of them
Shaking his head, he dismissed her and linked an arm with hers, shoving Antonio to one side of his body, guiding them both towards the entrance as his youngest yelled up questions at him.
Debris fell and shattered all around them but Dolores ripped her arm out of her papá’s grip nonetheless, tearing her hands from her ears and straightening her back with determination. Her mother ran up, grabbing for her son but finally paying attention to Dolores.
“It’s Camilo! He can’t get out!”
Any objection from her father died on his tongue and he released Antonio to his wife, moving his eyes around the home. Finally, he settled on what she’d been so desperately trying to grab her parents attention for.
Dolores’ hearing lurched- making her freeze. It was dead silent for a split second, quieter than even her room had granted, and then everything came back at full force, causing her to practically hit herself in the head with how quickly she covered her ears.
It flickered a few more times, disorienting her as her family bustled around her, before it finally cut out completely, dulling the sound she’d grown so accustomed to and leaving the crashing and the ringing in her ears in its place.
It made her nauseous and she kept her hands over her ears as she re-focused on the situation. The ringing taunted her over her lack of gift through her palms but her mind was stronger; her brother and her prima were her main priority. Always.
However, before either she or her parents got a chance to make a move towards their younger family members, Casita rippled the floor and pushed them harshly back towards the front entrance, herding and shoving them outdoors and into the soft dirt below.
“No!” She yelled out with the others, grabbing Luisa’s arm to steady herself and running desperately back towards the doorway, only to be pushed back once again.
“Casita! Get him out!” Her mother screamed beside her, Antonio crying into the crook of her neck.
“Camilo!”
Mirabel felt her fingertips freeze as they finally made contact with the metal candleholder. It was faint through all the chaos indoors but she’d heard it. Dolores’ words hung heavy on her shoulders. Had Camilo not gotten out after he’d fallen? Why were they calling for him? She’d watched Casita shove them outside, surely it wouldn’t only leave him behind.
She snapped her head around the wreckage quickly, just in time to see her tío Bruno break through the weakened walls with hits rats clinging to him. He fell into the bushes alongside the home and stumbled to his feet, looking around.
He met her gaze quickly and gestured almost manically back towards the home. She couldn’t hear what he was saying through the noise of everybody yelling at once and the deafening sounds of doors cracking and memories falling apart.
However, what she could do was read his lips, especially when the word he was repeating was already seared into her mind. ‘Camilo’.
Bruno was repeating both her and her primo’s names, yelling for them to get out of the building.
Mirabel bit the inside of her cheek and finally gave in, turning to the spot she’d last seen Camilo. He was trying- and failing, to drag himself among the breaking home and patchy bannister remains towards her, only to trip and fall straight back into a painful heap on the floor.
Mentally she cursed out Casita, trying one final time to push herself far enough through the gap to grab the fading candle it held. A frustrated strangled cry left her lips and she tore her fogged glasses off her face, wiping them roughy against her shirt. Shoving them back on, she met Camilo’s eyes and steeled herself.
Okay, fuck the candle.
“Camil- oh!”
The tiles beneath her feet shook and cracked, sliding over one another. Her eyes widened. Before she had a chance to yell for help, she was falling, Casita making the descent as physically pain-free as it could with its weak and limited magic. Even so, a jabbing pain shot up from her wrist along her forearm as her vision span.
The last thing she remembered before the house went silent was Camilo screaming her name in concern- cut off quickly by a louder, much more pained shout.
It all went wrong so fast.