Chapter 8

Many floors above Cassius, the fire was growing in intensity. Water from the firefighters' efforts to put out the fire was seeping down into the place he and Sabrina once called home, slowly destroying what little remained. Seeing this, Cassius made his way back upstairs. Finally, the fire consuming the laboratory was extinguished. All that remained was the thick, cloying smell of smoke and burnt objects. For a long while, Cassius stood there in numb shock. A firefighter said, "Mr. Folane, we failed to save whatever was in the room, but thankfully, nobody was harmed." Cassius slowly made his way to the laboratory, which was now a charred shell of what it used to be. How many days and nights had he and Sabrina spent here? This was their workplace and even the place where they had engaged in intimate activities a few times. Everything they had was there. At that moment, Cassius was suddenly hit with a question. He wondered why he and Sabrina had ended up like this. Was it because