Her life in ruins

A piercing buzz woke Petra up. It wasn’t the usual city noises, it was something else. As Petra dragged herself out of bed, something awoke her senses too. The smell of fire. It engulfed her nostrils. At first, Petra though the smell was coming from outside, until she connected the dots that the buzzing was a fire alarm and that the fire was coming from downstairs.

Petra had a panic attack. She didn’t know what to do. She grabbed a pair of patent leather ballet flats and a few clothing items, and made her way through the smoke. Petra got on her hands and knees and began crawling through the smoke. She made her way to the stairs, frantically running down two steps at a time. When she made it outside she saw what was happening. The Forever 21 was ablaze. All 20,000 square feet of it.
Petra began to shake and fell to the ground. Her life was in that store, it was everything to her. It was hard to process what was happening, but then she felt a man grab her shoulder. 
“Don’t worry, everything will be all right.” The man said.
“Who are you?!” Petra replied, crying hysterically.
“Oh, I’m Lucas. Lucas Shaffer. Nice to meet you.” Lucas said as he extended his hand to help Petra off the concrete.
“Hi...I..I..I’m so scared. How did this happen?”
“I’m not quite sure, but from the looks of it, it appears to be arson. Maybe it has something to do with Occupy up the street.”
“Oh no. My whole life is in this building! How will I move on?”
“Well for now, you could take a walk. I’m heading to the Theater if you’d care to walk in that direction.”
“Yes, that would be nice.”
Petra pulled herself together, took one last glance at Forever 21 and walked away. As she crossed the street with Lucas, it dawned on her that the might never be able to get her old life back. Her routine was broken. Destroyed into a million little scraps of burning fabric.