Interested, Penrose took a seat on the chaise lounge and inserted editorial comments when the hyperbole got too much for him. When Elizabeth started laughing, Alice looked at her closely. "That wasn't funny. Are you all right? Oh, he's here, isn't he?" She looked around and selected a likely looking spot in the air, as if she could see Penrose there, although he was someplace else entirely, and scolded him before returning to her narrative.
"So then we arrested Carl and Jennifer for assault and trespassing and whatever else Joe came up with, and Joe let me put the handcuffs on them myself. The others all ran away. We might have been able to catch Becky too, except Bob didn't help because he was busy taking care of you. At least Rififi scratched her good." She scooped up Rififi in her arms and said, "And Rififi was a hero, wasn't him? He tripped the nasty witch and scratched her too, did dearum Rififi!"
Rififi tolerated the adulation for a second and then squirmed free.
Alice continued, "So we carried you upstairs and bundled you up, and then Dirk came back with the plywood and we covered up the windows. And I found a manual typewriter in a tallboy, so I made your ghost use that to talk with us. He said we should go ahead and burn the velvet Elvis right away, 'Precautions be damned'. Dirk didn't want to, and I don't know how it fit into everything, but we just all put our feet down because no one ever liked it. When it was burning, it stank like you would not believe and the flames turned all these strange colors. I hate to think what we were putting into the atmosphere, but I'm glad it's gone and I made Dirk promise not to get another one."
The burning of the Velvis actually sounded kind of interesting and Elizabeth expressed regret at having missed it.
Agreeing, Alice said, "In a way it's too bad this is all over with. It was kind of neat to be attacked by the forces of evil, even with the gross disgusting mess that they made."
"Not to mention the attempted murder," Penrose put in. "This may not be as over as she thinks it is. It's going to take more than a bucket of water and a dollop of patent oil soap to get rid of an avatar of Death. Titania is thoroughly annoyed with us. And there's still the matter of the taxes and the foreclosure."
"Oh, shit. I forgot about that," Elizabeth said. "And what if anyone comes around looking for Marla?" She explained the situation to Alice. It turned out that Bob had neglected to mention some of the details to the others and she belatedly realized why.
Alice bounced. "Death is water soluble? Who knew? That is so cool. If I see Becky again, I'm throwing some water on her. No, wait. We can make a hole in the roof of the shoe store, so the next time it rains, fizz! No more Becky. No, wait. Becky is Pestilence, we'll have to use anti-bacterial soap."
Elizabeth tried to get her back on track. "What about those papers that Jennifer had? She said they owned the house now."
"I didn't see those," Alice said. "They must've gone missing in all that went on. Oh, and I'm supposed to tell you. Miss Price is coming over to check you for hexes and plug up the hole to the Netherworld (if she can) that we evidently have in the basement. She's giving you the day off as a reward for single-handedly preventing the Apocalypse."