Josh arrived home and did not see Daniel. "He didn't come back, hehe." He went to the kitchen to get water from the fridge. As he was about to pick the bottle, he paused. He remembered the times whenever he will try to take water from the fridge, his dad will pick it up instead, since he could not reach it. He smiled at his thoughts. He closed the fridge and went back to the living room. He sat on the couch and switched on the television. On watching the news, he saw a familiar building that was burning. "Is this not.. Oh my God!!" He jumped from his seat and took his jacket and left the house.
On arriving at the store that was burning severely, he saw Sabrina who was crying, trying to force her way inside. "She is inside. Bring her out! Let me go!!" Sabrina struggled with the police officer who was trying to control the crowd.
"Miss you can't go in. It's dangerous in there. The officer pitied Sabrina who was at the verge of breaking down. She walked away from the crowd. She wasn't even looking at where she was going.
Josh was still shocked at the condition of the store. He saw Sabrina who was sitting on the floor. He ran to her and squatted in front of her. He held her shoulders. "Sabrina how did this happen? Didn't we just leave here like, three hours ago? Where is Mrs Williams?" He asked all these not giving Sabrina the chance to answer him.
"Josh. Mrs Williams. She, she. She Is in the building." She bursted into tears.
Josh couldn't hear anything as soon as he heard that Mrs Williams was still in the building. He ran to the building and tried to get inside. Up to three police officers tried to stop him, cos he was to strong.
"Please do something! She is inside! Please she can't die!"
One of the officers pushed him hard that he fell on the floor. "Mister, so? If she is there. What should we do. So we should die because of her!?"
The crowd gasped at the officer's words. There started hurling abusive words at him.
"Scoundrel!"
"You are evil and vile!"
"Get lost!"
The crowd tried to beat the man, but other officers guarded him.
Josh grittted his teeth in anger. 'Nobody pushes me!' He got up and pushed the officer who fell on the floor. He straddled the man and started punching him. The officers tried to release him from the man. But, he was way to strong.
He kept on punching the man. "Nobody pushes me! I am not weak!" Sabrina ran to where Josh was. She was shocked to see this side of him. She quickly held the hand he was using to punch the officer, whose face was covered with blood.
Josh felt a soft hand grab his. He was about to punch the person, before he paused, seeing it was Sabrina.
Sabrina flinched when she saw Josh almost hit her. She closed her eyes, expecting the pain. She waited, but the pain did not come. She opened her eyes slowly to see Josh staring at her with his eyes filled with tears. His hand was still hanging in the air. She placed his hand down and cupped his face.
She whispered to him. "Please be strong. Okay?" She lifted him from the officer's body who looked like he was almost dead. The crowd was happy when the officer who said those heartless words was injured.
Josh seeing it was Sabrina immediately calmed down. Two officers came to them. One of them grabbed Josh's hands and cuffed them. Josh did not refuse this time.
Sabrina's pulled Josh's cuffed hands from the officer. "What are you doing?!"
"Miss, its a criminal offence to hit an officer." The other officer pulled Josh who was not even trying to struggle.
Sabrina panicked. She tried to beg the officers to let him go cos, he wasn't himself when he did it. The officer refused to let Josh go. "Miss. The law is the law. And he broke it." The officer glared at her before taking Josh to the police car.
Sabrina ran to the car. Josh looked at the floor, lost. Sabrina couldn't stop crying. She tapped his cheeks lightly. "Josh."
Josh looked up to meet her gaze. Her eyes were red due to her crying for a long time. He smiled at her. "Don't worry about me okay? Please let them bring Mrs Williams out of there."
She cried harder. "I promise."
The officer rolled his eyes before lowering Josh's head for him to enter the car.
The car sped off that the breeze swept Sabrina's long hair. She stared at the going car for a long time before she heard the sound of an ambulance. She ran back to the store that was almost burnt to the foundation. " I am sorry Mrs Williams. We couldn't save you."
After an hour, the firetruck that was called a long time ago came. The firefighters started quenching the fire. After twenty minutes of battling with the fire, it was finally quenched.
Sabrina knew that Mrs Williams was already dead. The paramedics from the ambulance quickly went to work. They went into the building to see if Mrs Williams was either injured or dead.
Sabrina still hoped that Mrs Williams will still be alive. She went to the front of the store waiting for when they will bring Mrs Williams out. The paramedics came out carrying a charred body. The crowd started making noise again. Some were screaming. While some who knew Mrs Williams started crying.
The whole world seemed to have stopped for Sabrina. Among the whole noise, Sabrina suddenly couldn't hear anymore. She fell to her knees as Mrs Williams body was taken into the ambulance.
She got up and ran to the ambulance. She begged them to let her in since she knew Mrs Williams. The paramedics were hesitant about letting her in.
"I work for her. She has no family, please." She clasped her hands together looking at them. Pleading for them to let her in. They looked at each other before agreeing to let her in.
"Thank you." She quickly got into the ambulance. While they were going to the hospital.
Sabrina kept staring at the body that was covered. She couldn't look at the body of Mrs Williams. She kept on crying throughout the journey. "I am sorry. I shouldn't have gone home. I shouldn't have listened to you. I am sorry." She cried so much that even the paramedics pitied her.
They arrived at the hospital. Mrs Williams was taken into the morgue after she was certified dead. Sabrina was sitting at the reception, staring at nothing. One of the doctors came to meet her.
"Miss Sabrina." She looked up and saw the doctor before standing up. "We will be expecting the deceased family to come and claim her body."
Sabrina sighed. She never met any of Mrs Williams family till she died. What was she going to do? She decided to tell the doctor that she is Mrs Williams own family, as the woman was like the mother she never had.
"Doctor I..... She was interrupted by someone's sudden scream. She and the doctor turned to look at where the sound was coming from. They saw a lady who was wearing a corporate outfit, with her short red hair that was slightly messed up. She was coming towards them.
The lady stopped in front of the doctor who had a confused look. She grabbed him by the shirt shouting. "Where is my mother!?" Sabrina and the doctor were left stupefied at the sudden behavior of the woman.
The doctor who was still confused about the sudden behavior of the woman, tried to calm her down, but she didn't listen.
Sabrina was still staring at the lady. She never remembered Mrs Williams mention anything about her family, neither did she ask. She was confused about why the lady called Mrs Williams her mother. "Miss. Who are you?"
The lady released the poor doctor and turned to look at Sabrina. She didn't even notice Sabrina when she came in. "Sabrina right?"
Sabrina was once again stupefied. "How do you know my name?"
"I knew you through my motheeerr." She started crying again. Sabrina helped her sit down and told the doctor that she will take care of her. The doctor left them both.
The lady started to explain. "I and my mother had issues for a long time. So, decided to leave the house. It has been two years since I last saw my mother." She paused for a while, before talking again. " I missed her everyday so, I decided to disguise myself to come to her store to buy things without her seeing me."
Sabrina suddenly remembered someone who tied a scarf around her head, wearing sunglasses in the store. She looked suspicious, but she did not really think of it. "Were you the one who wore a black ....."
"Yes I was the one. I know you saw me. I got to know your name when she came out from the door behind and called you." She smiled. "I knew that my mum was doing well. I was very happy."
"Why did you disguise yourself." Sabrina wondered.
The lady sighed. "Mum was so angry with me that she didn't want to even see my face. I had to come to the store because I missed her a lot." She started crying again. "I shouldn't have left the house. If I was with her, probably this day wouldn't have come. I am a useless child." She wept bitterly.
Sabrina hugged her as she was crying. "Please don't cry okay. Your mum will forgive you okay?"
She released herself from Sabrina. "I will only be at peace If I can see her body.
Sabrina smiled at her. "Sure. Follow me."
She led the lady to the morgue. Mrs Williams was covered but Sabrina could identity her. She led the lady to the bed where her mother was laid. The lady was about to open the cloth to see her mom one last time but Sabrina stopped her.
"You won't be able to look at her. She is burnt."
The lady was dumbfounded. Her hands started shaking as she withdrew her hands from the cloth, used to cover her mother's face. "When I came in after seeing the news at my workplace, I came here. One of the nurses told me that the patient that was brought here, was burnt. I I didn't want to believe it. But now." She bent to hug the body. "Mama I am sorry. I am sorry. You mean everything to me. You are all I had. I am sorry. Please forgive me." She cried her eyes out for a long time. Sabrina also cried, but she had to console the one woman, who treated her like a daughter, daughter.