Encanto Ficlet: One Fear
Welp, horror and spooky stuff is difficult. I hope this is bearable 😭 Written for @wdtajn Week 2: Horror.
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Bruno is straddling that fuzzy edge between slumber and wakefulness when he feels it. A squeezing sensation that undulates along his torso—starting at his hips, compressing his belly until it reaches his chest.
Tight, tight, tighter. In the dim light he chokes out a gasp and gives a jerk of his arm. The flailing limb whips up the quilt on his bed like a tent, sends the rats scattering. Suddenly, the awful pressure ceases. Going still, peaceful, Bruno soon tips back toward sleep. The last thing that catches his senses is the sharp bray of a donkey, coming from somewhere in the Encanto…
“Nngh,” Bruno groans. It’s morning. Or at least, time to get up.
He extracts himself from the tangle of blankets and rubs a palm over his face. “…Typical,” he mumbles when he prods the area around his ribs gingerly and doesn’t find the soreness he half-expects. It must’ve been some dream: some leaking vision, twisted into a nightmare. Nothing’s wrong. But he takes a handful of salt from the box beside his bed, and tosses it over his shoulder.
A rumble of his belly pushes away any further thoughts of whatever the dream was. Bruno springs up to get dressed and head downstairs.
It turns out he’s missed breakfast with the family. Casita has fallen completely silent. The kitchen and dining room are devoid their usual noises and laughter as Bruno shuffles about, making quick work of a plate of leftover ground beef and red beans over rice, with a bit of fried egg on top.
Juli must be in town already, Bruno thinks, climbing the stairs above the lifeless courtyard. He’s decided to grab a few things from his room before joining his sister and the others. Pepa might still be home, he realizes; the middle triplet had talked about having a day off.
A voice cuts through the quiet: “I thought I heard you!” Bruno sees Antonio rushing over. The boy barely gets in a hug when he pulls away with a harsh shout, as though burned. His eyes widen; Bruno watches tears form in them while Antonio stares, takes a step back, then another.
“¿T-tío Bruno? But… why? I don’t- No, no!”
“W-huh-wha—? What is it??” Bruno flaps his hands in distress. He tries to understand, to offer comfort, too, but Antonio is crying in earnest now, his small face fearful and disbelieving. With one final wail of No! Antonio runs in the direction of his mother’s bedroom.
A chill sweeps through Bruno’s gut, making him feel faintly ill for a passing second. The dream he had flickers across his mind, and he pushes down the chill, throws more salt and some sugar for good measure. He has to follow Antonio (his stomach clenches; this time from recalling the look on his sobrinito’s face), and hopes Pepa can help.
The air shifts, becoming damp and dense, crackling with electricity, the closer Bruno gets to Pepa and Félix’s room. He can hear sniffles within, and just as he’s reaching for the doorknob, the door flies open.
Pepa’s thunderclouds burst over their heads. “What the hell, Bruno?!”
The younger sibling flinches. “Peps!” He squeaks. “I-I-I don’t know! Wait, t-there was this dream—ah, no, it doesn’t matter. I-I just. Didn’t mean to make Toñito cry!”
“Then what. Happened.” Pepa delivers two good pokes to Bruno’s waist, followed by a sharp, shocked gasp and a blast of frigid wind as she recoils, yanking her hands to her chest.
She breathes, “Dios.” It starts to snow. “Oh. Oh. Brunito. ¿Qué? No… We need… Julieta—Does she know?!”
Bruno feels that chill again, and this time, he allows himself to shudder.
“What is going on?” He asks, voice coming out steadier than he feels.
His sister responds by taking him by the hand and tugging him into her room, where Antonio is seated on the bed with his knees drawn up and tucked beneath his chin.
“…You haven't noticed?”
“Clearly not," he deadpans as he's positioned in front of the full length mirror.
“Mira,” Pepa says cautiously. She gestures at his shirt before moving back to sit next to her son.
Bruno sighs, and starts undoing the buttons there. As his shirt falls open, he sucks in a breath. Oh, no.
Where his belly should be, fattened over time and from many healing meals—
He shivers, squeezes his eyes shut.
It’s worse than he could’ve imagined...
—A firm plane of sculpted muscle.
Abs.
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