Chapter Text
He woke up to squeaks in His ear, His face on cool wooden flooring. He blinked, and pushed Himself off of the dusty ground. He looked around in confusion. Where was He? How did He get here?
Who was He?
Well, that wasn't a normal thing to think. He'll just avoid that track of thought for now…
Change of topic! He took note of Himself and His surroundings. He was standing in a dark hallway, and His vision was blurry. There was a pounding in His head, which was aching and tender. What looked like rats were scurrying around Him and attempting to climb up His leg.
He blinked, which cleared His vision slightly. He started making His way down the hallway, choosing a random direction and walking until He reached a shabby door.
Was this the way back to the outside? He opened the door, expecting to see a more well lit area.
He was wrong. The door led to a similarly dim room, the only light coming through a crack in the wall. He took note of what the room was like, adding it to His formerly blank memory.
He frowned. He thought He wasn't going to think about this anymore.
Back to the cramped room. Trinkets of all kinds were on precariously placed shelves. A fraying rope was being used as a clothesline. Papers were pinned all over the room and a small desk had stacks of books and more paper stacked on top of them. A hammock was set up in a corner, and a small table was placed in front of the crack in the wall. A dull red armchair was facing the crack, and random items were scattered across the floor.
He paused, and He stood awkwardly in the middle of the cluttered room, His feet naturally shifting to avoid stepping on any of the junk that littered the floor.
The faint sound of laughter pulled His attention to the sliver of light that filtered into the dim space, and He walked over and peered through it.
Once His eyes adjusted to the change in lighting, He took notice of the details of the outside world.
A boy wearing a yellow rauna was chasing a girl with glasses wearing blue. He felt a pang in his heart as he noticed how happy they were. Why did He want to be out there with them?
"Camilo! Stop messing around, you're a Madrigal, you need to be productive!"
He flinched at the sharp voice, even though He was pretty sure the yell wasn't directed at Him.
"Sorry Abuela," the boy wearing yellow (Camilo?), replied dejectedly.
"But Abuela, we were just playing!" The girl in blue protested.
"Mirabel! You need to stop bothering your primo, he has duties he has to take care of," the strict voice said again.
"...ok Abuela," the girl wearing blue (Mirabel?), said sadly as the boy, Camilo, walked out of His frame of view, presumably to where the owner of the harsh voice was standing.
He watched as the girl, Mirabel, stood there alone. And when Mirabel started crying, He felt tears forming in His own eyes. Whoever this Abuela was, she shouldn't be so rude to her nieta!
He looked away from the crack when he felt small pricks on his ankle. A rat was attempting to climb up his leg. He looked at it in confusion. Had it followed Him from the hall?
After a few seconds of staring in silence, He crouched to sit on the floor. He held His hand out to the rat, which scurried up His arm and sat on His shoulder, sniffing his face.
"Hello little guy…" He whispered, voice cracking from disuse. He winced and rubbed His neck, the sharp pain from His throat being dry piercing from the numbness coming from being disoriented and his pounding headache.
"Guess I need water, huh?"
The rat just scurried under His rauna. He smiled at the small animal's action, even if He didn't know where His fondness for rats had come from.
After a bit of just sitting on the dusty floor, He stood up. The light from the crack had dulled, and He assumed that it was now night, since such a central part of a house usually would stay lit until everyone went to sleep.
He wondered what to do, since exhaustion hadn't descended upon Him yet. After some debate, He headed back into the dusty hallway he woke up in.
He looked around more than when he was traversing the crowded halls earlier in the day. He frowned at the thin lines he could make out in the darkness. He put a hand against the wall and felt gaps between sections of the wall.
He looked further down the hall to confirm His suspicions; cracks were scattered all over the space. He quickly walked down further to see the extent of the discovered damage.
He ended up walking in circles, finding out that the halls spread all throughout the house. There were a few places where there were thin gaps that granted Him the sight of the outside. There were even stairs that gave Him access to even more halls that winded through the second floor of the home He was apparently staying in.
Why was He hiding in this family's walls? Thoughts about the horrid reasons filled His head, and He feared the worst about what He was like before losing His memories.
He shook His head roughly. There was no use thinking about this when He was still in the maze of hallways.
Halfway through walking back to the stairs heading down to His room, a knock against the wall startled Him. He tripped over His own feet and pressed Himself against the wall as hard as He could, holding His breath and crossing His fingers. He idly wondered how often this happened in His previous life for the actions to carry over to the blank mind He had woken with.
"Tío Bruno?" A whisper filtered into his panicked mind, "I brought you some food and water…"
A shuffle of fabric could faintly be heard in the silence. "I know you told me not to, because I could get caught, but I heard you fall earlier and wanted to make sure you were fine. The water is because you mentioned you needed some…"
A few more moments of silence.
"I hope you'll come out soon, it's already been two years…" A clink could be heard through the walls, "Bye Tío, have a good night. You can keep the dishes…"
He continued to press Himself against the wall until He was sure the person had left. He stood up and stumbled as He got dizzy from the movement. In his movement, he bumped into the inside wall, and a portion of it swung outward.
He looked at it in confusion, then noticed the plate and glass on the ground outside of the walls. He picked it up, wincing as the china of the plate scraped against the flooring, creating a noise he thought would wake the residents of the home.
He brought the food and water back to His room in the walls and thought over the experience with the mysterious person on the other side. They had called Him Tío Bruno… was that His name?
Obviously not the Tío part… but Bruno? Was that His name?
Bruno Bruno Bruno
It sounded right…
And Tío, was He (Bruno!) the person's uncle? Was the family residing in this house his family? That eased some of his fears about his existence in the walls, but only gave him more questions about why he had gone into them in the first place.
He finished the plate off and collapsed into the hammock in the corner. His headache had subsided slightly, and his last thought before fading into sleep was wondering why his vision seemed like it was tainted green.
Dolores Snippet I
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Dolores had heard the loud thump halfway into the day, and she wondered if her tío was ok. After a bit she heard him moving around, and she sighed in relief that he was fine.
She continued with her day, and heard Tío Bruno mention to a rat that he probably needed water. She smiled at hearing her tío talk, as he usually never said anything in fear of getting found. Dolores also made a mental note to bring him food and water.
Before the young teen knew it, it was already night. She snuck down from her room and got a small plate of food and a glass of water.
Dolores went to the painting she knew opened to the halls and knocked against the frame. She heard her tío stumble back and hold his breath and frowned at how scared he seemed of her.
"Tío Bruno? I brought you some food and water…" She whispered loudly enough to be heard through the walls. Maybe he would realize that it was just her..? She shifted her stance.
"I know you told me not to, because I could get caught, but I heard you fall earlier and wanted to make sure you were fine. The water is because you mentioned you needed some…"
After a few moments of silence, she realized that Bruno wouldn't respond.
"I hope you'll come out soon, it's already been two years…"
Dolores set the plate and glass down onto the floor outside the painting, "Bye Tío, have a good night. You can keep the dishes…"
She went back to her room and shut the door. She hoped her tío was fine, he was acting a bit strange.