Chapitre 64: [Bonus chapter]Up In Smoke

- A few minutes ago.

Minoru drunkenly stumbled out of his car and pulled on his hood to cover his face.

Through his half lidded eyes, he stared at a medium sized two story house that he recognized as his ex wife's.

He wouldn't have known where she lived without Alex Heller, as one of their possible schemes involved him 'randomly' showing up at this address and pretending to have car trouble and a dead phone.

"At least that bastard was good for something..." Minoru pulled on a pair of dark black gloves and reached in his backseat to take out a bottle of vodka and a dirty cloth.

Unscrewing the cap, he quickly stuffed half of the cloth inside the bottle while making sure that it was securely in place.

He took out a small silver lighter from his back pocket, and lit the exposed end of the cloth on fire.

Glancing upstairs, he smile when he realized Sei's bedroom lights were on, indicating she was home.

"I hope you burn to death you WHORE!"

Crash!

Minoru hurled the Molotov cocktail right through Sei's front window into her living room.

He would have liked to stick around and watch her panic from his little gift, but he didn't want to risk being seen by anyone so he had to run for now.

Stumbling back into his vehicle, he pulled off like a drunken madman just as Sei's living room caught on fire.

When Sei finally rushed downstairs, her entire living room was already engulfed in flames and it was quickly traveling to the kitchen and dining area as well.

Tears quickly filled her eyes as her mind ran at a million miles a minute to process next steps.

At the current rate the fire was spreading, the door to her home would soon be engulfed and she would have no way to escape.

There was no back door, and the windows were much too small for her to climb through.

Which meant if she was going to leave soon and call 911, she had an extremely limited amount of time to grab whatever was important and leave.

With tears in her eyes and lungs that were quickly filling with smoke, Sei opened up a closet door near her and pulled out her purse and a folder filled with important documents.

She wished more than anything that she had time to grab more, but her window of opportunity seemed to be quickly closing, as the flames where already a few seconds away from reaching the front door.

But just before she was about to leave, she remembered another important item in her household that she absolutely could not leave behind.

'The money!'

The 500,000 dollars Malachi had received from Rowan as payment for killing Arthur was located in another closet on the other side of the room.

After covering her mouth and nose with her shirt and clutching her things close to her chest, Sei rushed to the closet without wasting another moment.

Grabbing a blanket, she quickly threw it on top of the flames that had started to lick at the door and stamped it out.

After throwing open the door and retrieving the duffel bag, Sei ran directly for the front door of her home.

"Aghh!"

She let out a cry of pain when she touched the burning hot doorknob and felt a searing heat travel through her palm.

Wrenching open the door, she sprinted outside and threw herself onto her front lawn.

Her hand was still stinging a bit and she hadn't fully caught her breath yet but otherwise, she was fine.

"Sei!? Sei is that you? Are you alright?!"

From across the street, Sei's neighbor Mr. Richards had noticed the fire and come out of his house to take a look.

"I-I'm fine!"

"Crawl as far away from the house as you can, alright? I've already called the fire department!"

Nodding in understanding, Sei began to crawl all the way to the edge of her lawn before sitting up and resting against the mailbox.

As she watched the fire continue to spread, the tears that she'd been holding back all this time finally fell freely and she was powerless to stop them.

Why was this happening to her?

She hadn't left any candles burning, or even cooked tonight for that matter!

How could a fire just spring up in her living room out of nowhere!?

Sei was so distraught, she did not notice a very familiar car pulling up along with the sound of sirens growing ever closer.

"Mom!"

Serena barely put her car in park before leaping out of the drivers seat and frantically throwing herself at her mother.

"A-Are you alright?! W-What happened to the house?!"

Sei looked up at her daughter with tears still falling from her eyes and making the most heartbreaking face known to man.

"Serana, I-I don't...." Sei couldn't even finish her sentence before another round of choked sobs escaped her mouth.

Distraught beyond belief, the mother daughter pair said nothing as they cried and held each other for dear life.

The two continued to cling to each other and act as their only comfort long after the fire department arrived to save the remnants of their house and treat Sei's burn.

At Malachi's apartment, the young man had just stepped out of the shower and began wiping his body down with a towel.

After drying himself off and pulling on a pair of cozy house pants, he grabbed his phone to check his messages and frowned when he realized he hadn't heard back from Sei yet.

He'd texted her an hour ago to ask about her plans for the week, and she had yet to give a response.

Normally Mal would not see this as a cause for concern but his girlfriend typically always texted him back within twenty minutes unless she was either working or sleeping.

'Did she fall asleep?' He wondered.

Ding Dong!

Just as Mal prepared to use his powers to check on her, his doorbell rang and he lost his train of thought.

Malachi raised a brow in confusion when he realized he had visitors at this time of night, but after a moment's thought he realized that there weren't very many people it could have been.

Appearing at his front door, he opened it to find both Sei and Serena with red puffy eyes, and a few personal items in their hands.

Immediately recognizing something was wrong, his tone became soft and gentle as he allowed them both inside.

"Girls... Tell me what's the matter."

"Honey...C-Can we stay with you for a little bit...?" Sei asked gently, embarrassed to even be asking such a question.

Next to her, Serana was biting her lip hard so as not to cry in front of Mal, and that look only tugged at his heartstrings even more.

In the blink of an eye, he had pulled the both of them into his embrace and brought them inside.

"You girls are being silly... You should already know that I will do whatever I can for you."

"Thank you, honey..."

"Thanks Malachi..."

The mother daughter duo thought they'd thoroughly cried themselves into exhaustion tonight, but in Malachi's warm and caring embrace, they found that they still had a few more tears left to shed.

Although, these tears contained something other than sadness or confusion, and it made the burden on their spirits much lighter.

Relief.