Velvety fabric caressed the eight-year-old Evelyn's fingers as she inspected the clothes individually. She hardly ever wanted to buy clothes but her birthday was coming soon - 28th February. 

The interior of the building was dimly lit. Evelyn huffed in annoyance as she couldn't find the right color - Amaranth. In fact, she didn't even what to shop at Velvet Rose for it sounded cringe. She'd rather be at a mall, running through different stores until she found the perfect, glittery dress. Alas, her parents were hell-bent on trying someplace new. 

"Evelyn, how does this look?" her mom asked, pulling out an olive green gown. It was glittery but if there was one color Evelyn hated, it was olive green. 

"Yuck," Evelyn remarked, "this place stinks."

"You're not giving it a chance darling," her father soothed but she was having none of it. 

"Can't we try this store some other day? I don't want this for my birthday," she whined, moments away from a tantrum. 

"Evelyn. No tantrums," her mother warned. 

"Ugh," she groaned, storming off. 

Her parents looked at her from a distance, hoping that she'd look for clothes and get the shopping over with. However, Evelyn had better plans. She stalked off in an unventured route, finding a ramp that lead to the second floor. The ramp definitely put her in a better mood; she'd only ever seen stores with stairs or an elevator, never a ramp. 

She crouched her body and ran up, her legs sinking with the momentum. When she reached the second floor though, she saw something odd. 

It was mostly filled with clothes for men but around the corner was a room enclosed in glass. She walked toward it and noticed a desk and a computer, along with a man inside. This was another odd thing that she'd seen. In a clothes store, she wasn't expecting to see an office of sorts and decided to investigate it; it was far more interesting than the clothes below. 

Inside was a fifteen-year-old boy sitting on a black chair in an odd position. His knees were on the seat and he faced his body towards the backrest rather than the other way. He dropped one leg down and pushed himself, the chair taking him to the other side of the room. From there, he saw Evelyn. 

"Who are you?" the boy asked.

"I'm Evelyn! Who are you?" she said cheerfully, glad to have found someone just as bored of the clothes as her. 

"I'm Andrew, my mom owns this place," he said.

"Oh," Evelyn responded, defeated. Turns out, he was the son of the woman who built this nasty store. 

"What are you doing here?" he asked, getting down from his chair. 

"My mom wants me to buy clothes but I don't like anything," she pouted. 

"Well, I don't know how to help you there," he said, "also, you should probably leave."

"I will! But first, why is there an office in a clothes shop and why is there a ramp?" she asked, not letting go of the glimmer of an interesting conversation. 

"Uhm. Well, me and my sister love ramps so my mom added that in so we could come here often. As for the office, I honestly don't know," he replied. 

Evelyn examined the desk next. It was rather neat, piles of papers were clipped together whereas the pens were neatly designated into a pen stand. One thing caught her eye though. 

It was a rectangular tube, amaranth in color. It was small enough that she could hold it in her hand and it had a beautiful butterfly engraved on it. However, the color was what caught her eye. 

"What's that?" she asked pointing at it. She was nosy, sure but she knew better than to touch other's things.

Andrew turned to look at the device. "Oh, this? It's a lighter," he said, igniting it to show off its olive-green flame. 

It was unlike anything Evelyn had ever seen before. What once used to be an ugly color to her eye turned into something very cool for she had only ever seen an orange flame.

"That looks so cool!" she exclaimed. 

Andrew hesitated for a moment but handed the lighter to her. Evelyn looked at him in shock, never expecting such a kind gesture. She didn't know if it would be right to accept it or not but curiosity got the best of her. 

"You can keep it as long as it means you go back and buy some clothes," he said, trying to promote his mother's business.

"Oh, definitely! Thank you so much, Andrew!" she exclaimed. 

"You better show that to your parents, I don't want to get in trouble if you get hurt," he warned. 

"Don't worry! Thank you, bye!" she exclaimed, skipping away from his office. 

His words stayed in her mind. Although she wasn't happy with her parents, she didn't want to disobey those older than her. So, she held it in her hand tightly as she descended the ramp and walked through the aisles.

Her parents weren't anywhere to be seen. She walked aisle through aisle until she reached the billing counter. Flustered, her pace picked up as she crossed the rows of overpriced accessories. 

"Mom," she screamed but to no avail. 

Now, she was panicked. She began to run but not for long. Her body crashed into the shelves containing numerous bottles of perfume, knocking them all at once. 

The sound of glass cracking did not register in her ears; she was falling and it was as if time had been slowed down. Subconsciously, she held her hand forward hoping that all the force would land on that. 

What a terrible mistake that turned out to be. 

When her hand touched the ground, so did the lighter. Her firm fingers shifted away from the body of the lighter and to the trigger instead. It only took one second for the lighter to react along with the perfume spilling around Evelyn. 

The green flame turned orange. Evelyn shot up from the ground at the same time that the fire had begun to pick up. Fortunately, the perfume hadn't spread in front of her so that fire didn't pick up as quickly. 

She screamed in horror but didn't wait any further. The will to live pumped inside her as she ran far away from the godforsaken store. Her mind shifted from her parents' absence as she only focused on the automatic doors in front of her. Occasionally, she turned to look at the raging fire and the sprinklers on top, wondering why it hadn't rained on her yet.

A crowd had gathered towards the entrance. As she stood behind, trampled by a crowd crush, familiar hands picked her up. She looked up to see the worried eyes of her mother's pale face as tears began to fall from her face. 

"Why aren't the sprinklers working," she asked, her voice hitching up. 

"It's okay sweetheart, we're going to get out," her mother reassured, pushing through the crowd, one hand holding her daughter and the other holding her husband's hand. 

Minutes later, they were outside, their eyes glued on the interior of the building that seemed to be falling apart. Through the glass doors, Evelyn could see the fire spread to the second floor and her heart continued to breathe quickly. 

Her eyes landed on a panicked woman who soothed her crying daughter as she kept looking around the crowd for someone. Something inside Evelyn told her that this had something to do with the boy on the second floor but she didn't have the guts to open her mouth. 

A sense of dread settled over her as she realized that there were women at the billing counter who must have seen her fall. She looked at her parents and realized she needed to tell them what she'd done. But how could she?

However, her thoughts disappeared as the panicked woman from earlier spoke, her voice booming over the crowd. 

"Has anyone seen a fifteen-year-old boy around here? Andrew!" she shrieked, "his name's Andrew, he has dark brown hair and is rather lean-"

She didn't have to finish her sentence. 

A scream erupted from the interior of the building, the sound of a teenage boy.