The Chronicles Of Becoming A Buckley - Max Mayfield

4

It was the next day, after a long night of laying there, Max had finally fallen asleep around 4:00 am all to wake up sometime close to 6:30. She had been awake since, eating an early breakfast with Robin. Given the hospital food was no better than something you'd get at school, Robin went and picked up and snuck in some to go food from the nearby diner.

Around 9:00AM, the two had to wait for the chief to show back up with any possible news for Max. To keep the fear on the low, Robin did what she could to distract Max, playing card games, showing her comics she's never seen before, and watching movies that Robin was able to bring from family video. Although it helped Max a lot, she couldn't help but notice the feeling of dread lingering in her chest, the worry about what was going to happen next, where she was going to be put when this whole case was said and done.

"Unfortunately there was no sign of your parents." Powell said. "We investigated the burn site, couldn't even find a sign of remains."

"We take it they fled the house." Callahan said.

"So you're saying that this might've been attempted murder?" Robin questioned.

"Might've is an understatement." Callahan scoffed.

"When we investigated, the site smelled largely of gasoline, your room being the strongest." The chief said. "Anything there that we could find was clearly doused in it." Max sat quietly, not a single emotion showing on her face. All her things were gone, nothing of hers was left. All her clothes, her skateboards, the memories. All gone. And unfortunately they were the kind of things that couldn't be replaced.

"We currently have officers asking around, seeing if there were any signs of your parents, but that's all we have for you. I apologize for this Max." The redhead didn't answer, staring down at her bandaged hands. She wasn't surprised that her step-father had left, but the fact that her mom did, the fact that she probably took part in all of this, and just walked away, left a feeling of loss in Max. "We understand that this all may be distressing, but we promise to help you as much as possible, it doesn't stop here Max. We're going to be on the lookout, and in the meantime, if you ever have any questions, anything you need to tell us, we'll have you covered." Max slowly looked up at the chief, only one question in her mind, because now that her mom and home was gone, where was she supposed to go now?

"What's gonna happen to me?"

"I'm sorry?"

"My parents aren't here anymore, so where am I supposed to go?"

"We won't worry about that yet Max, right now we want you to focus on getting better while we work to find your parents location." Max didn't respond to this, her eyes going back down to her hands. Powell took a deep breath and stood up in his chair, placing his hat on his head. "Thank you for your time to ladies, and I apologize once more. We will come back when we have more news for you Max."

After earning no response the officers turned and left the room, the only people there now being Robin and Max, the older girl shocked at such news that she's learned. She looked to the redhead to check in on her, finding silent tears slipping down her red cheeks, but not a single sob came from her. "Hey, it's alright." Robin said trying to comfort her.

"No it's not." Max pushed out, her voice shaking. Robin went to open her mouth, but what was she to say? She wasn't exactly in Max's situation, she wasn't the one who almost died for crying out loud. Instead of trying to use words Robin placed a hand on Max's back, feeling the younger girl shaking under her hand. "What now? I mean, we know they tried to fucking kill me, but what are we supposed to do now? My parents are probably gone, and my house, my things..." She swallowed a lump in her throat. "What am I supposed to do? What's going to happen to me? Where am I to go?" Robin sighed sadly and rubbed Max's shoulder. "For all I know, they're just gonna throw me into the system with random people I don't know and just hope for the best." Robin sat for a moment and thought hard, soon, an idea popped into her head.