Chapter 5 - Fire in the Night
Elena had won the battle, but she knew the brutal war was just beginning.
Silas would not let the miraculous return of the water go unanswered.
That night, Elena kept a loaded hunting rifle by her side as the girls slept.
Around midnight, she smelled the distinct, sickening odor of gasoline.
She rushed to the boarded-up window and saw bright orange flames licking the wooden porch.
Three figures dressed entirely in black were tossing torches at the fragile farmhouse.
"Mia! Lily! Wake up right now!" Elena screamed, dropping the rifle and rushing to the mattress.
The house filled rapidly with thick, suffocating black smoke.
She wrapped her crying daughters in heavy woolen blankets and scooped them into her arms.
The front door was completely blocked by a roaring, terrifying wall of fire.
Elena kicked open the back window, shattering the remaining glass with her heavy work boots.
She threw the girls out onto the soft mud outside and climbed out right behind them.
The intense heat singed her hair and blistered the exposed skin on her arms.
They crawled desperately away from the burning structure, coughing violently into the night air.
The men in black stood near their trucks, laughing as the widow's last hope burned to the ground.
"I told you this land was cursed!" a familiar voice shouted from the shadows.
It was Silas himself, watching the destruction with a sick, twisted smile.
Elena clutched her terrified daughters to her chest, tears cutting paths through the dark soot on her face.
He had destroyed her home, but he had failed to destroy her.
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She still had the hidden lockbox, safely buried deep in the muddy woods behind the property.
And tomorrow, she was going to burn his entire empire to ashes.
