Who: Alice and Max When: Early Morning Where: Bargain Books
After the attacks died down, Max was still hesitant to leave the safety of the church but when Monday rolled around and all attacks in the area significantly dropped, she made the decision to return to her little shop. It was certainly surprising (understatement), to see the front window smashed to bits with her books scattered both on the floor in the shop and on the concrete outside. There were no words for how her heart dropped, Max liked to seem indifferent to many things but her shop wasn't one of them and although she would have started picking up the pieces of her shattered little store right then, the rain and potential demon attacks kept her from it. Before hanging large plastic sheets over the window, Max went through the shop, making sure nothing was stolen and she was both relieved and a little shocked when everything was in it's place, so to speak. With her mind momentarily at ease, she left the job for the next day, waking up bright and early to start. Currently Max had just finished picking up all the books and putting them into two piles, salvageable and recently deceased.
'You know, it's a little disturbing how upset over your books you are and yet when your sister showed up you were more annoyed than anything else.' Orion mused as he flew books he could lift to the various piles. Max just ignored him and continued busying herself with the disarray of the shop. Alice and her own Familiar were still sleeping as far as Max knew and she refused to indulge Orion anymore.
Wrapped in a robe with a pair of pink bunny slippers on her feet, Alice made her way slowly down from Max's apartment to the vandalized bookstore about ten minutes after her sister. The white witch was minus her Familiar at the moment until she could establish the shop had been sweep free of debris. She didn't want the Great Dane getting any pieces of glass embedded into the soft pads of the dog's feet, and while her Familiar tried arguing the subject with her, Marnie finally relented and agreed to stay stationed on the stairs until any and all shards of glass had been swept up and tossed out.
"Max." Alice called out as she stepped into the shop with a glance around to try and locate her older sister.
Once all the books had been sorted, Max picked up the broom and started shoving big piles of glass into the centre of the store. There was splintered wood, crinkled papers and dirt from outside all mixed in with the glass, Max knew this was going to take all day and was glad for the help her sister would certainly provide. For a moment, she was grateful that her sister wasn't here when this happened because when Max ran it through her mind it scared her. The very thought was shocking, she was so adamant in being resentful of her sisters and her childhood that she didn't often-- and she knew how bad this sounded-- concern herself over them. It only added to the feelings of inadequacy she had as being both an older sister and a daughter.
"Back here," she answered, looking up from the pile of glass. "Watch out for the glass." Max was stationed just behind a shelf that hadn't been blown to bits and stuck a hand out an waved, letting her sister know where she was.
"Do you have another broom around here somewhere?" Alice asked when she reached her sister. after cautiously crossing the floor so she wouldn't end up stepping on any large shards of glass, and found Max already starting to clean the place up.
Blowing back a strand of hair that had escaped her bun, Max shrugged. "I should... Here," she held out the broom for Alice. "You take this one and I'll check the back room." Offering her younger sister a half-hearted smile she looked around at the chaos that was her store. It pained her to see it looking so out of sorts, a stray feeling of relief that her younger sister wasn't here when it happened. Max didn't often think up scenarios wherein her family was hurt but when faced with something like this, it was hard to ignore and the thought surprised her, the small pang of fear that came along with it was disconcerting. Finding the spare broom she idly swept up the glass. "So, how are James and Danielle?" she asked in a nonchalant voice. Although she insisted on calling them by their given names, Max was still worried both about them, her younger sister and their grandparents what with hell on the loose and all. "Have they called you?"
"They seem to be doing fine." Alice answered accepting the broom from her sister. "I got a message from them saying all was well and that they were worried about how things were here." Alice had a tendency to forget to switch on her mobile phone, which had been why she only had a message to listen to instead of actually speaking with their folks. And when she did manage to return the call she got her father's voicemail. All she could do was leave a message with the hope of hearing back from their parents soon.
A silent sigh of relief escaped her as Alice replied. "That's good, I'm glad they're not hurt," Anyone else might have actually sounded relieved, but Max held it back and instead ended up sounding almost conversational in her concern. "I hope you told them we're all well, I'll have to phone myself sometime." Which was not something Max looked forward too, but she had to make sure they were all fine. She needed to hear the voices of her grandparents, and the rest of her family or else she knew that little pit of worry in her stomach wouldn't go away. "And you? Are you alright?" Max's voiced softened a fraction of it's own accord and she was surprised by it.
"I did." And then Alice stopped her cleaning up a moment and smiled all big in total agreement with what her sister said next. "They would just adore you for that, Maxie! You should do it real soon."
"I'm fine." The younger woman answered going back to assisting her older sister with cleaning up the shop. "Was a little worried at first, but now as things seemed to have settled down, I'm good." Smiling her trademark smile to her sister.
Wincing she turned away and grimaced, Max hated the nickname. Her mother had started calling her that when she was just a young girl and apparently it had stuck until now, she'd heard it only a few months earlier but it still got to her. Turning back to her sister she forced a smile that came out a little tight but mostly convincing. "Well, you know, I figure I should check on them. I need to hear their voices." The truth had seemed to slip out without her knowledge and Max simply shrugged it off internally. She was starting to get bored with being so contained all the time. Max took a deep breath and sighed heavily. "I'm... really glad. That you're fine." Her words tumbled out awkwardly and immediately after they were out she returned to her work, Orion fluttering down beside her excitedly and rambling endless in her head. The confession was awkward for Max and she shifted, trying to push Orion away and force him to shut up.