Sunday, 10 am.

- "So, are we ready to list the property again?" Jennifer asked.

- "Not yet, I need to go through the process of guests checking out first, I hate being surprised, and you know hosts are rated too, and you can't expect every guest to be this nice."

- "They're really nice right? You don't be getting no bad surprises from the get go at least."

- "Yeah.. I'm still surprised they took the property because even a cabin would have been plenty for them, but they didn't have much time flexibility and it's not easy to find something around here on such a short notice."

...

1 pm

- "Hello?" Said Jennifer into the phone.

- "Hi Jennifer! It's Ayumi"

- "Hey Ayumi, everything alright?"

- "I'm not sure, I tried calling Mike but he wouldn't pick up.. we're locked out of the house, and it's raining here"

- "Yeah, he's in the shower. Did you say you're locked out of the house?"

- "Exactly, we left the house about 2 hours ago to go for a walk, but we had to cut it short because it was starting to rain, now it's a downpour and when we tried to get in the access codes you gave us wouldn't work. We tried the front and the back doors, with the same codes that were working yesterday. I don't want to keep trying, I'd hate to activate the alarm system."

- "Oh my Gosh! I'm so sorry Ayumi, give me one minute, I'll figure this out, stay on the line please."

- "Okay but please be quick, it's raining and we're literally pressed against the door to avoid getting soaked."

Jennifer apologized again, put the call on hold, and ran to the bathroom, Mike was already dressed and combing his hair. Jennifer explained the situation fast as she could, and he thought for a minute.. "it couldn't be" he muttered.

- "What is it?"

- "You know how I I set the codes to expire at 12 pm on Monday?? Well, it seems I might have set the codes to expire at 12 pm yeah, but on Sunday instead."

- "You idiot! The poor people are literally stuck outside in the middle of a freaking storm! What's the new access code?"

- "It's not so simple, I set the alarm system to reset itself to make sure the property doesn't remain accessible to the same people should something happen. The key will have to be plugged in and then new access codes can be programmed.."

- "Fuck it Mike! It's over 2 hours to get there! What are you going to do?"

- "The only thing that can be done" Mike says hesitantly "I'll drive there and key them in"

- "I'm coming with you, we really need to apologize to them for this, and we might need to partly refund them for that too."

...

- "Crap! It's a freaking thunderstorm.. I really can't apologize enough for this." Mike said apologetically as everyone walked in.

- "That's right. We're very sorry for this mess, and I promise we'll refund part of the rent to make it up to you." Jennifer joined.

Ayumi looked annoyed as expected, but her mother still maintained her calm and reassuring demeanor. She still wore a small smile amd after another jolt of thunder she spoke "That's ok my dear, mistakes happen, and you arrived pretty quick all things considered."

- "A refund would still be nice though!" Ayumi interjected quickly.

Mike nodded with a smile "For sure, I'll refund you 50%. I hope that makes it up to you."

- "That would be very nice, thank you! I totally understand it was a simple slip." Ayumi seemed much happier now.

...

Mike and Jennifer ran back to Michael's BMW, parked in front of the house. "I'm happy they were pretty understanding about this whole mess" he screamed to be heard over the storm "but we just lost 50% in our first hosting"

- "Yeah? Well you should be fucking happy they didn't make a big deal out of this regardless.. they were soaked by the time we showed up"

As they got to the car, the storm was still raging, and as they grabbed the driver and passenger doors, a bright flash of lightning nearly blinded them, and before they could even hear the deafening crack if thunder, they were both thrown a few feet back.

Mike landed on his back and howled in pain, he was conscious, but unble to move for a few minutes. As he started to regain the feeling in his arms and legs and sat up slowly, he remember Jennifer.

"Jen!" He screamed "Are you ok?"

He stood up, he was having difficulty maintaining his balance, and he felt like throwing up, but he knew he had to find Jennifer and get them inside the car or back into the house.

He slowly made his way around his SUV, calling out Jennifer's name the entire time. As he looked around, he saw Jennifer lying on her back, not moving.

"Fuck!" He screamed. Mike made his way to her as fast as he could, and dropped to his knees. "Baby.. Jen.. Wake up!" He shook her gently "Jennifer.. oh my God.. Jen please wake up!”

Suddenly he could see her lips twitch, Jennifer started to open her eyes and mutter something, although he couldn't make out exactly what she was trying to say. Mike knew he had to get them both back into the house.

With his entire body in pain, and with as much balance as he could muster, mike put her arm around his neck, and pulled her to her feet, and started walking towards the house. He heard another thunderbolt and knew if they get struck again, it could be the end.. although he also knew getting hit by lightning twice in a single storm was an extremely unlikely event.

...

He didn't even know how long it'd taken him to get to the front door, barely able to remain on his feet, and starting to get dizzy, he banged on the door as hard as he could screaming for help. He was terrified that they couldn't hear him over the storm, or that they were in the shower, and he knew he didn't have much strength left in him.

Luckily, the door opened, and he could see Ayumi with a puzzled look on her face that soon turned to horror as she saw what state they were in. He told her they were hit by lightning as he made his way inside dragging a barely conscious Jennifer. As he walked inside, he laid Jennifer on the door, and finally felt like he could give in, he could hear Harumi coming down the stairs, he tried to speak, but no words came out.. and everything turned black.