Page 124 of Quasim: King Inferno

He laughed as he headed out the door, and I grabbed the bottle of wine and looked for a wine glass before checking in on Elijah and going to find his bathroom. On the way toward where I assumed his room was, I bypassed a door with little flowers on it, and it was slightly cracked open.

My hand hovered over the doorknob as I peered inside the room. It hurt my heart that his angel left behind her room and would never return back to it. Her room was pale pink and white with a white wooden bed in the center of the room, stuffed animals all lined up on the bed, and a water bottle that remained on the side table next to her bed.

It was half empty and it looked like it had been there for a while. On the wall above her bed, she had pictures of her favorite princesses, and a picture of Quasim, Harley, and Cherie. They were both kissing her cheeks as she smiled with a toothless grin in the middle of them.

There were a few Chuckie Cheese photos that you got when you used their photobooth. One of Quasim smiling at the camera while holding his baby girl up. I quickly closed the door slightly and headed further down the hall to his bedroom.

I smiled when I entered his room because it smelled like him. A little dark, but I guess that was his thing. A regular bed sat in the middle of the floor with side tables and a big fluffy duvet. He had a few pictures hanging up, nothing crazy. The room was very plain and looked like he just slept in here. There wasn’t a television in here, or side lamps in case he wanted to read in bed.

Folded in the middle of the bed was the blanket he let me use when we were traveling to Bali. I smiled as I sat the bottle of wine down and went into the bathroom to run a bath. His bathroom was perfect. His and her sinks were on opposite sides of the bathroom. You had to walk through them to get to the shower and tub combo.

I looked at his toothbrush and all his face care stuff that he used. Sim didn’t take me as a man that did skincare, then again, his skin was amazing. On the other sink, there was perfume and a bunch of women’s products. Some had the label off of them because they were that old.

Pushing it out of my head, I figured out how to run the bath and used some of his shower gel to give me some bubbles. I sat on the toilet and looked at the other side of the sink and my heart broke for him.

Every day, he had to come in here and see the sink that used to be hers. He had to brush his teeth in here alone, a home that was supposed to be for his family. Tears fell down my face as I looked in the bathroom, seeing a pink, fluffy towel that looked like it hadn’t been touched in a long time.

In a basket on the side of her sink, there were a bunch of curling irons and flat irons wrapped up. It was one thing knowing what he had gone through, and knowing how hard it was for him to get through it.

It was different experiencing it.

This home was a museum of his old life, and he had been living in his past and grief for years. How could he truly move on,when every part of his home reminded him of his past life with them?

I had a sweatshirt from my mom that I took with me to all the different foster homes I stayed in. It still smelled like her and reminded me of her. Every time I was scared, stressed, or worried, I would smell the shirt because it reminded me of home.

Home was a feeling I hadn’t experienced in a very long time. The last time I felt like home was when my mother was alive. With Quasim, I felt like home. I felt protected, loved, and respected. When he stared down into my eyes, I knew he would rather die before he ever caused any pain to me.

A loud crash caused me to jump, and I heard Elijah screaming. I jumped up and ran out the room and went down to where he was in the bathroom. He popped his head out of the room before the second bathroom with wide eyes.

“Fire, Ms. Blair… there’s fire!” He hollered.

I looked behind him and there were flames on his bed. My eyes damn near popped out of my head while I grabbed him and rushed to the front door. Another crash caused us both to look and a bottle crashed through the window on fire.

“Elijah, come on!” I ran to the garage door and swung it open, only for it to be filled with smoke.

My heart was about to come out my chest as we kept hearing glass break. I ran into the bedroom, pulling Elijah behind me and looked for my phone. I snatched it from next to the wine bottle, and as I was about to go toward the bathroom, the glass in the bedroom broke, and another bottle on fire entered the room.

“What the fuck is going on?” I screamed.

Running to the second window, I paused while my thoughts raced everywhere. “Ms. Blair the window.”

“Elijah, open the windows… I’ll be back!” I screamed and opened the door.

Smoke hit me in the face as I ran down the hall, using muscle memory until I made it to Harley’s room. I grabbed whatever I could and ran back down the hall. The bedroom window was stuck, it only opened a little bit.

I shoved the blankets and a picture book out through the small slits. “My phone!” I screamed, remembering I had my phone in my hand.

I called Quasim. “Yes, my love?”

He sounded so at peace that I hated to disturb that peace. “Sim, the fucking house is on fire, and we cannot get out!” I screamed.

“What? Where’s Havoc?”

“Baby, I don’t know,” I choked. “It’s getting hard to breathe and the window isn’t opening for us.”

“I’m coming now, baby, use something to break the window.” His voice was laced in malice as I heard the engine in the background.

“Elijah, go in the bathroom until I get this open, please,” I said in a shaky voice. “It’s going to be alright.” I pushed him into the bathroom, noticing he had wet himself in the process.

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