Christmas Extravaganza.

A strange strange night. All Eli remembered was flames. Huge, towering, blazing flames. And then, she remembered that something dear to her crumbled down in front of her eyes. She saw these flames burst into balls of fire, and they suddenly turned straight towards her.

Eli woke up as the fireballs hit her in the face. They vanished into the air as she got up to go wash her face. When she went into the bathroom she saw a disheveled, leaf covered, girl. Eli touched her hair to pick out pieces of old crunchy leaves. She really needed to start watching where she was falling asleep.

As Eli put on her clothes, the events of the past day played back in her head. The first thing she would have to do, was go see the remnants of the Forever 21 building. And also call her boss.

Eli began to cough as soon as she entered Heaven Street. The whole place was covered with the ashes of the burnt Forever 21 building. As she got closer to the building, she saw the bright yellow caution tapes covering the surrounding area.

Eli turned around and made sure no one was looking and went into the remaining parts of the building. She knew this was illegal, but Eli really needed to see if there was anything, anything at all that could be saved from the fire.

The first floor was completely burnt. There was nothing at all to save. Even the fashion posters on the walls were pitch black. All the beautiful sequin and lace covered clothing were ripped and
missing burnt bits and pieces. Eli was about to walk back out when she remembered that there was a second floor. Where Petra, the manager lived.

Not being able to stop her curiosity, Eli went up to the second floor and opened the door to Petra’s home. There were definitely signs of the fire, but many places in the home were untouched. As Eli toured the house, she found out that Petra had been a shopoholic. A really really big shopaholic. There were flashy shopping bags strewn all over the house. Clothes still with tags on them were in her closet.

As Eli touched the fabric of a delicate cream chiffon dress, she realized that Petra probably left all of these things in a hurry for a reason. This was not a safe place to be. Eli hastily dumped most of Petra’s closet into five enormous Forever 21 bags and went down the stairs to leave. Maybe it was the weight of all the clothes, or maybe it was the pressure of Eli’s feet on the half-burnt stairs; the building started to shake.

It must have been a 30 second run out into the street, yet it felt like an hour-long nightmare. Eli took off her 5-inch heels and threw them in one of the bags and started bolting to the door as the building threatened to engulf her. Just as Eli tumbled out the door, the second story collapsed into the bottom floor.

Why was she getting into such dangerous situations?

Eli made sure that no one saw what she had done and she rushed home to take a shower to cleanse her body of the ashes now covering her ENTIRE body.

Why take the clothes? Eli wasn’t stealing. No, she wanted to give Petra a well-deserved Christmas present, the lady just had her house burned down for crying out loud! Eli chuckled to herself as she realized she was also covered in ashes, just like a real Santa would be, coming down the chimney. But Petra would have to wait.

Maybe in a day or so Eli will take them to her. But not now.... now, Eli needed to rest.

The Bumpy Ride

Bump. Bump. Bump. BUMP.

Eli woke up dazed and very groggy. And very bumpy...!?!?

She opened her eyes to see trees and then shops flashing by and bobbing up and down in a strange fashion. Her head was violently bobbing as well. She then felt the cool metal touching her legs and arms. She appeared to be in a shopping cart of some sort. That's when she looked up and saw a tomato-red asian man panting as he pushed the cart, and her, down the unevenly-paved street. Realizing the situation she was in, it was about time that Eli screamed.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"HUH?AHHHHHHHHHH!" screamed the man in response to Eli's screeching.

"Where are you taking me?"

"Look, I-uh- I'm not a bad person- I saw you sleeping- I mean, I found you all alone- What I mean to say is that I remember you from before. "

That was all Eli needed to hear to be completely creeped out. She tried to get out of the cart, but realized too late that her sense of balance was off from sitting in the cramped space for so long. Her movements and the crazy speed the cart was going at made the man lose grasp of the cart and sent Eli full speed down the road.

The inevitable was about to happen when something, or somebody cushioned her fall. Her cushion groaned as he pushed Eli off of him. No way. It couldn't be. But it was. The asian man was warily getting off the wet ground as it had started pouring.

"Mister, are you okay?"

"Does it look like I'm okay? All I was trying to say was that I remember you as the girl from Forever 21 who let me borrow this cart and that I found you in the woods when I was on my way returning from my mail delivery. I didn't want to leave you there, so I was bringing you back to the store. I'm not a pervert or a crazy person. I'm really not."

" I'm sorry, I didn't know you were helping me that much. And thank you for saving me again, you know, from falling, even though it was your fault for letting go of the cart."

"Your welcome, I guess" he said as Eli helped him to his feet. They both walked the rest of the way with the cart to the Forever 21 building. Eli had been side-stepping a puddle, so Renshu (they had introduced themselves at this point) was first to notice the ablaze building.

"Eli, Look!" he said running towards the fire. Eli couldn't close her mouth for the disbelief of what was happening. Her future project, job, and everything was burning up right in front of her eyes. The building was completely covered in ashes and was on the verge of crumbling down. Eli composed herself and called 911 and they came shortly after the call.

The fire department tried to overpower the growing fire, and Eli paced outside the over-lit building. While she was pacing, she looked up to see a man come out of the theater to look at the burning Forever 21. But instead of looking concerned or shocked, she saw the man burst out laughing and saying "Someone probably doused the whole thing in gas and set it off. Too bad I didn't think of that". 


Oh how she wished he did think of it, so she could send him to jail. How inconsiderate! People thought the store was for lame girls but this store meant so much more, even if it was a pain at times. What was she going to do about her job? They were going to kill her!

By the time Eli calmed down and stopped glaring at the man who went back into the theater, she realized that Renshu was nowhere to be seen. "Oh well," she thought. "I'm sure I'll see him again, and hopefully this time, he'll have some better news to tell me about."

Eli left the depressing scene with a flyer of a white teenage girl in hand- not knowing who this girl was- and went back to her crappy apartment building.