The lights went out!

(chapter originally by doragom333 on writing.com)

As soon as she grabbed her purse, the lights suddenly turned off, throwing the entire store, and thankfully her, into darkness. The storm must have gotten worse and caused a power outage, Marie realized, partly because she was still sitting under an open skylight and still getting rained on.

With a quick turn, she swiveled over the side of the bed and crouched behind it, peering over to the main area of the store. She could hear the voices of the frustrated customers, disgruntled at this sudden shutdown, and could barely make out the silhouettes shifting along the nearby aisle. Instinctively, she reached for her bag... And pulled her hand away just in time. Now wasn't the time for poetry! She's just have to hope the inspiration remained once she got out of this safe and sound! First she needed to get dressed, and to do that, she needed some clothes, and the clothes were... where, exactly?

It wasn't as though she had no idea where the clothing department was from here. But Marie wasn't familiar with the bedding area of Junes and its relative position to the rest of the store, and she hadn't had much of a chance to get her bearings before the power outage. She'd be going in blind, and while the darkness would help keep her hidden, if she ran into anyone accidentally...

She looked down over herself. Yep, she was still naked, and her eyes were starting to adjust to the darkness already. That would mean the customers could see too, and- she shook her head. That line of thinking was not going to help her one bit! But still, Argh! How could things have turned out like this!? She thought, gripping her cover in frustration. Which, coincidentally, gave her another idea.

Wait a second... she thought, giving the sheet a tug. It moved free. "I could use this!" She couldn't help but mutter.

She didn't need to cross the store, her solution was right here! But she soon began to have second thoughts as the sheet was very big; the bed was a king-size after all. The sheet would cover her no problem, but it could be hard to manage, especially in the wind and rain. And because of its size, if she tried to wear that through the store, she'd be spotted in a heartbeat! The billowing mass and bright color would give away her position, even if she hid among the products. She'd be exposed as a thief, and then they'd take it away and-NO! She couldn't let that happen!

After a moment's thought, Marie gathered up her courage and-