The darkness wasn't so bad for Elizabeth when Gowan was beside her. The loneliness of the long corridors and dark ceilings had their own sort of comfort as they once again strolled down the center. It had become familiar. Home.

  Elizabeth turned her head and smelled the faint iron odour. "Oh yeah," she noted, "could we stop so I can change clothes? I kinda, you know," she didn't want to say the words out loud and instead just finished the sentence with "blood."

  Gowan looked ahead of them, then back to Elizabeth. She was covered in a fair amount of blood. She'd already gone so far in putting up with wearing them while getting supplies for the group. The least he could do was make her feel comfortable while the storm raged around them.

  Gowan nodded. "Sure."

  "I mean, Victor stabbed a guy," she said, "he'll be ok if we don't follow up for just a little while, right?" She wasn't sure if she was asking Gowan, or trying to convince herself that she wasn't just being selfish.

  "We don't know when the light is coming back anymore. There's no point waiting around in bloodied clothes. The Home Store is near The Book Nook anyway. We can do a pitstop. You're allowed small comforts, Elizabeth."

  She rolled her eyes. The amount of times she'd said that to others in her role at work. Telling veterans that they actually are allowed to put themselves first. Of course, not that she considered herself going through what they did. Hers was short. Temporary. The light was coming back.

  They made their way to The Home Store and the big, broken window leading inside. Elizabeth stopped before they entered.

  "Actually," she said sheepishly, "I was wondering if maybe I could try something else."

  Gowan wasn't sure what she meant.

  Beside The Home Store was Woodland Fawn. The store was not made for Elizabeth, or anyone making under 6 figures a year for that matter. It's signature style were gowns for formal occasions with a fairy-like, dreamy aesthetic. There was lots of tulle, capes, and bishop sleeves.

  Elizabeth wasn't really clear how they made money. Surely space in Southglen Shopping Center was expensive, and there couldn't be that many galas where the dress code was cottage core Pinterest boards. Somehow, they'd stuck around.

  One wall jutted out past The Home Store, the other made up part of the main facade in the hallway where the other stores lined up. Both walls were made of well maintained, large windows. The window dressing was always impeccable. The princess dresses with long, scalloped skirts were adorned with embroidery of mushrooms. The mannequins were seated on toadstools, and they had fairy wings on their backs. When they were lit up, they were delightful. There was something eerie about them when the lights were out.

  Elizabeth walked to the cafe in the center of the hallway that Emilio had borrowed some chairs from to break the big window for The Home Store. Her head moved from the metal chairs to Gowan. A gleeful smile spread across her face.

  "You're not!" he gasped.

  She shrugged. "It looked fun when Emilio did it." She huffed as she picked up the metal chair.

  "What if you're not strong enough and it bounces back?"

  "Well just make sure you stand back far enough!"

  She heaved the chair back in order to use the force of the chair swinging across her body for extra strength. She let go and it collided with the window. It made a large pattern of cracks in the window, but it didn't break.

  She looked at Gowan. "Your turn," she huffed, after using all of her energy.

  He had a look on his face, like an old woman saying "I shouldn't" right before taking a biscuit she's offered. He shrugged casually and picked up a chair. He let out a "hup" noise as it glided across the air.

  This time, the window broke.

  "Ah," Elizabeth said, "I loosened it for you."

  Gowan took another chair and copied the way Emilio used it to clear jagged glass from their entry point. He looked to the rack in front of them. It was covered in glass. "Guess those ones are out of the question."

  Elizabeth took a moment to just let herself browse. For a moment, she pretended the lights weren't off. She pretended that she'd swanned through, being welcomed by security, and would be greeted by staff any second. The security at the door always intimidated her, so she'd never been inside before. The shop often only had one or two shoppers inside at any time.

  If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  "We probably can't take too long," Gowan said nervously.

  Elizabeth was gently running her fingers over all the different fabrics. She shook her head quickly to snap herself out of her daydreams. "Oh, of course."

  "Make sure you can move in it." Gowan said, picking up a purple gown that was taller than he was due to the long train. "You never know when we'll need to run."

  "I'm looking for adequate sleeves too," she noted.

  After a while she found a gorgeous dress. It was a deep green colour. The bell sleeves draped downward but were not so dramatic that they looked like they'd get in the way of, say, holding a candle. They appeared to come up to a sensible neckline. The top half of the dress was a light-weight velvet material, the skirt was made from tulle that was effortlessly layered ethereally. The whole dress had tiny embroidered stars and moons all over it in a gold thread.

  She held it up to the light. "What do you think?"

  Gowan nodded. "Try it on." His eyes widened and he spun around to face the opposite way faster than Elizabeth had seen him move before. "I won't look."

  Elizabeth tried to hide her smile as she begun to get out of her date night clothes. There was a bitter sweet moment of removing them. They had once held so much hope. Now they just held sweat, and blood, and dirt. It felt nice to peel the stiff clothing off her skin. She took a moment to feel the cold air across her skin.

  Gowan clutched the candle in both hands, his eyes looking nervously around the store trying not to think about Elizabeth behind her. The bible said to run from temptation but he was holding the light source. He couldn't exactly leave her undressed in the dark.

  As he tried to occupy his mind by looking at all the odd fashion choices in the store, the shattered glass caught his eye. One piece was quite large, and was angled in such a way that he could just see the sleeve of the dress glide up Elizabeth's exposed shoulder. Her skin was pale and smooth. He could see the outline of her bones under her skin. He'd seen her kill someone, yet in this moment to herself, she looked so delicate.

  "Um, I hate to ask," she awkwardly interrupted, "but could you zip me up?"

  "Oh. Uh. Sure." He turned around, very purposely facing his head away from her so she wouldn't think he was having a perv.

  She just laughed. "You will actually have to look at what you're doing. Here. I'll help." She reached behind her as best she could, keeping the fabric of the zipper together. "Now all you have to do is zip."

  "Sure." His hand was shaking.

  He'd never touched a woman like this before. Maybe it wasn't anything super wild or freaky like the movies, but he couldn't help but feel nervous. The way Elizabeth was holding her arms behind her allowed the muscles in her back to tense in such a way that showed off anatomy he'd never really considered about women before. As he zipped up the dress, his knuckles caressed over her back. It was even softer than the material of the dress.

  "Thanks." She twirled around. She pointed to the sensible shoe choice for the original date. "The shoes don't really match, but what do you think?"

  The colour of the dress made her eyes sparkle. She looked like a princess. The sleeves ran down her arms. Her collar bones which peaked out from the neckline. The hemline of the skirt fell gently below her knees. Her smile would make any dress look perfect, but this took Gowan's breath away. Gowan couldn't find the words to describe how absolutely unreal she looked. It was as if she would disappear the moment he reached out to touch her.

  "Yeah," he managed to get out. "Looks good." He let out a nervous breath, cracking a small smile.

  "I feel better now." She stepped over the pile of clothes on the floor. "We should go find Victor."

  "Good idea." Gowan began to exit the store.

  "WAIT!" Elizabeth yelled suddenly.

  She ran over to a stand and took a small tiara that clipped into her hair. She quickly scanned the shelf nearby and took two small objects before returning to Gowan, holding out a carved, gold ring. "A placeholder, you know, until we have our small, intimate $500,000 wedding."

  Gowan placed the candle on a wooden bench in the store for a moment. "Hey, I got down on one knee for my proposal!"

  She slid another ring on her finger, beside the alfoil ring. "Yeah, but there's glass everywhere. Plus, we have to be sensible with our money if we're going to afford a honeymoon. Do you know how much this dress cost? I can't be on the ground willy nilly!"

  Gowan gently tugged at the back of the dress, removing the safety pin that contained a small ribbon with the price attached. "Yeah, actually. You left the price on, tag dag!" His eyes widened at the $1,350 figure and immediately threw the tag on the ground.

  He picked up the candle and they continued to make their way to The Book Nook. They saw the initial damage that they assumed Donovan had made when he went on his small anger spree. When they entered, the store was dark and quiet.

  They called out to Victor and walked down every shelf to find him. Their back room was unlocked, but he wasn't there. It was only about the size of a walk in wardrobe, so there was no way they could have missed him. They even checked the register. There was no sign of him.

  The base of her throat felt like it was sinking into her stomach. She felt dizzy. Sickness washed over her and she had to hold onto the front counter.

  Gowan put a comforting hand on her back. "It doesn't mean something bad happened. He could have just taken the books and gone back himself. We don't know how long we were."

  "You're right," she gasped between short breaths. "He's probably already on his way back."

  "Yeah, totally. Let's take some deep breaths."

  Elizabeth had to sit down. She could feel her fight or flight kicking in, and it was starting to choose freeze again. "We should have seen him walk past."

  "He could have taken the long way. It'll be fine. He knows his way in the dark."

  Elizabeth closed her eyes to focus on her breath, moving closer to Gowan an extra boost of oxytocin as his skin touched hers. "You're right."

  A curdling, pain-filled scream ripped through the hallway.

  They were no longer so sure.