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Explosion

Julian looked over at the shelf filled with tiny Mexican sugar skulls. They had almost sold out yet again, Julian noticed. Riley did seem to know what would sell. It seemed more often than not the shop was half-empty.

"Have one," Riley said. Julian hadn't even realized that he was being watched. "And bring me one too."

"You sure?" Julian asked, reaching over to grab a pair of the sweets. They were a bit creepy, but that evidently was the draw. All of the Mexican Day of the Dead imports were creepy and they sold amongst the quickest of all the merchandise in the shop, save for the Japanese toys and snacks.

"Go ahea..."

Riley's voice was drowned out by a series of loud bangs from somewhere down the corridor followed by the sound of glass breaking.

"What the fuck..." Riley muttered, slowly getting to his feet just before two boys went racing by partially closed gate to the shop.

"Firecrackers," Julian surmised, somehow stuck in place as he watched Riley almost fly through the shop and under the gate. He couldn't think to move for a moment, not until he heard an anguished scream from the same direction of the explosions.

Then it was his turn to go running.

It was the candle shop that had been hit. The carpet was singed and black in a couple of places and an entire display rack had been shattered to pieces.

"Moira..." Julian dropped to his knees as he watched the shop's ownertry to dig through the shards as if somehow the candles beneath would suffocate otherwise. "You're bleeding."

"Ma'am?"

Both Moira and Julian looked up together. Finally one of the members of mall security had showed up.

Moira sighed, standing and kicking at the damaged bit of carpet.

"Insurance will cover it, but..."

"The sheriff is on the way," the security guard, Milton, said. "Why don't you have a seat and wait for them."

"We'll need gloves anyway to handle the glass," Julian said, trying to smile as he guided Moira over to the stool behind the counter. "I'm sure Riley will come help too."

"That's who you are," Moira said. "I couldn't place you... You're Riley's friend."

"Julian," Julian said, watching as Moira gradually came back to herself. Thankfully the cut on her hand wasn't bad.

"Julian... Thank you."

"Julian? Moira?" Riley came skididng into the shop, narrowly missing the remains of the glass rack. "Cool and I got 'em... the sheriff just arrived."

He paused. "Moira... Hang on, I'll go grab you a Coke."