Disclaimer: I don't own Encanto (Disney). I don't own the picture (cover). Or the song.

(qwertuno and SilentReadersMatter)

(Inspired by this video: https://youtu.be/eKSliAp6d4Q. Cover isn't mine.)

(Hope you enjoy.)

Casita had always been more loyal to Mirabel than anyone else. Always helping when needed, assuring despite no orders. She considered Casita family more than her actual family.

Now Casita died in her arms. The last remains being the candle slowly flickering to a halt as if it was trying to stay alive just for Mirabel.

Casita, why? You saved the worthless one.

Mirabel revered the situations if anyone else had been in Casita's way of saving the candle. Cradling the object in her hand gently like a baby's precious body. Casita considered Mirabel as its own child, feeding her the food necessary when her family forgot she ever existed.

They all looked so happy together.

Without Mirabel. Was she ever needed?

Maybe I should put myself off permanently.

The thoughts returned per month, one day a week after an insult or an incident in which the Madrigals didn't help Mirabel with a task Abuela or someone else forced on her, this thought happened to be one of the worst.

Not the worst, still one of them.

Casita...

A twitch of floor tiles tapping Mirabel hands. It tapped thoughtfully, one last kind gesture during Casita's last moments of true life.

"Thank you, Casita. You were always the nicest."

Two taps and a cheerful sounding slam of two doors sounded in her ears.

"Your welcome, Mirabel."

She wished Casita were alive today. The candle flickered mockingly in the palm of Mirabel's hand, herself deciding what to with it exactly.

Squash it.

Her hand moved according to the signals sent out by her brain. Attempting to crush the barely flickering giving miracle, she found that her hand..refused it's one orders.

Somewhere in Mirabel's brain, the natural affection she had for the Madrigals still resided enough that she wouldn't take away their well deserved gifts. Not yet.

Not now. Maybe not ever. The love she has for the Madrigals, her mama, papa, tìos and cousins and sibling held enough she wouldn't crush their hopes of a better tomorrow.

Not yet. Not yet.

The voice certainly wanted to.

"Crush it, dear Mariposa. Crush their dreams as they crushed your happiness. Don't they deserve the punishment you fantasise?"

Mirabel's grip on the candle tightened. The internal conflict constantly fighting within her heart and mind's subconscious clashed in what to with the near useless object in her hand.

She had one desire: Having Casita back.

Crack. Crack.

The sound responded to her thoughts. Candle still burning slightly, Mirabel clutched the object close before standing to feet, adorning a darkened determined expression in her crying face which showed the true grief.

Casita.

The candle's glow flickered slightly, a light frame trickling up Mirabel's arm. Caressing her Latina coloured skin, the sensation felt both pleasant and burning simultaneously.

What do I have to do to get you here?

In the distance, she faintly heard the madrigals calls as to where she resided. Surprisingly it didn't feel wrong to refer than as another's.

In another life, maybe Mirabel could've pretended to still be happy. Continue her day to day routine in forcing herself a smile to let others take their places as better than her.

The bitterness expanded far deeper in her heart.

Casita, help me out!

A weakened slam of doors, two clicks of the floors, and one weak wooden tap of a fallen beam from Casita later, it finished its sentence.

Light out the candle.

Mirabel's hands moved if their own accord once again. Letting the candle's magic guide her limbs, the girl sitting under the pillar of beams allowed the magic's guidance crumpling out the flames.

If I can't have a gift..

The magic trickled out the candle, but it wasn't dying. Casita's wooden beams lifted Mirabel out her hiding place, sick of it's considered child pushed into the shadows so other could shine brighter than they deserved.

THEN NO ONE CAN.

Casita's walls hid Mirabel in the darkness upon seeing Abuela pass through the broken halls of the once beautiful corridors, face stricken with regret plastered in the usual place of expectation.

"Mirabel?" The face of her once considered grandmother greeted the broken child. "Are..you okay, you seem...downer than usual."

I'm not fine.

"I wanted to be something I wasn't."

She stepped out the shadows, Abuela gasping response upon seeing the change in her granddaughter. A golden tint adorned her once innocent eyes that were willing to do anything to help the family by any means.

They consumed her previous brown eyes. The natural colour that should've shown themselves to Abuela hid underneath the present rage and slightly insane she saw in Mirabel's own contrast to the other members.

"You broke me, Abuela." Mirabel sobbed, Casita catching her the last second with a sliding chair that arrived in time. "I only wanted to please...What did I do wrong? I...wanted to be part of this family. Abuela, you are a horrible person."

She curled in the chair looking like the broken child under the mask she put on every since day in her existence. It shattered the day Antonio received his gift, the days others outshine herself and never have her a chance.

"Abuela...what did I have to prove?"

Alma's hand reached for Mirabel's cheek, thumb stroking the base as they both made eye contact, the golden irises staring into the sorrowful brown ones truly sorry for what she had caused.

A broken child in a broken home.

"You don't get to touch me."

Mirabel's seized Alma's wrist, gently pushing it toward the older woman in silent rejection. Dejectedly Alma's emailed anger creeped to the surface once again ruining everything it touched.

"MIRABEL MADRIGAL-"

"You don't get to yell. If anything, you should simply calm down and GET OUT. Casita, remove the infection."

Suddenly Casita's floors moved Abuela's feet on their own accord. Sliding her away from Mirabel and to the family waiting near the newly rebuilt front entrance.

"Well done, Mirabel."

In other words than how they treated its child-

Casita was done with the Madrigals.

***

Mirabel walked upto the doorway containing all her family members. Casita's emotions fused with hers creating one entity that wasn't Mirabel nor the Casita the Madrigals loved.

This was the Candle's successor.

"Greetings, Madrigals."

Pepa has a storm cloud hanging. Louisa's hands clenched seeing the thing that had overtaken her innocent sister. Isabella gasped as the delicate woman nearly fainted upon the discovery of their once innocent sibling.

"What brings you to my Casita?"

It looked like Mirabel. Wearing her face and body. Her clothing changed completely.

A black t-shirt showing a broken heart surrounded by a fallen flame now shown on the girl's torso. A dark orange skirt with streaks of darkness reaching every second.

Mirabel's eyes were the worst things. The browned almost consumed by the gold. All signs of their child now replaced by this demon.

At least her bag remained the same.

"What have you done with my daughter?!" Julietta screamed. "Release her now, demon."

"Hmmm..." Mirabel drawled. "No. This mortal's soul is broken, so broken she gave herself to the one responsible for Miracle you did not earned, but received due to Pedro's tragedy. I am not Mirabel, but I mean no harm."

"Candle..." Antonio whispered, realising the entity possessing his cousin. "Why are using Mirabel?"

"Mirabel gave herself to me."

The body stealing entity bent down on its knees as Casita's floors moved Antonio closer to his closet youngest relative. She hugged him in its arms despite his struggles to get free.

"Your safer with me than with them, and you know it, Tonito." It mocked Abuela's fondness nicknames. "Mirabel wants nothing more than to protect you. I shall not harm her relatives."

The flames in its hands vanished and so did their powers. Isabella's flowers disappeared, Julietta's good stopped working mid-healing. That must've hurt Augustine with his bee stings internally crashing his systems.

The old man fainted in the ground.

Pathetic.

Even Mirabel agreed with their statement. Too trapped inside her fantasies where the family accepted and actually loved her so much, she let another entity take ahold of her own body for its to act on its wants and desires.

"Please leave, your disturbing the residents of this household."

The family eye each other, somewhat rightfully confused. Felix bravely stepped up to the plate since everyone was too afraid of this new Mirabel acting cooly as if she was two steps ahead.

"But we live here. We can't just...leave-"

"Casita, remove the Madrigals, except Antonio and Bruno."

"BRUNO?!"

"Where's Bruno?!"

They pleaded to know if there family member is safe. Did they deserve to know the truth?

Absolutely not.

"Casita." The candle's spirit crooned, grabbing Antonio's hand and guiding him inside the now automatically built household. "Please take care of the intruders. They seem to have no regards for safety."

Casita's wooden boards bumped the duo's feet in understanding. Forcefully removing the family from the premises, Antonio hugged them physical manifestation of the candle's spirit's side where it stared blankly, yet a small smile on its face watching the inevitable terrible endings unless something happened.

"What was in Bruno's vision?"

"Your cousin saved your magic. Your Abuela destroyed you all on the inside. Never put up with impossible standards, Tonito. They lead to terrible consequences. Your family is learning their consequences for their actions."

"And...what is their consequence?"

The true Mirabel sudden became in control. She looked saddened to be reminded from her fantasies, but the voice in her promised a return if a visit to her cousin was successful.

Mirabel and the candle were one. Flames trickled up her skin, caressing the skin and the tiles of the floors belonging to Casita. The Madrigals were receiving worse than the wishes for death.

"They're learning to be mere humans."