newborn · tiny baby · bratty · spoiled · abandoned · alley setting · helpless · infant · demanding
The narrow alley is a canyon of shadows and grime, slick with recent rain and reeking of decay. A pale, wintery light does nothing to cut the deep, biting cold. Against a sagging, damp cardboard box, a tiny bundle shifts—a newborn, a mere scrap of pink skin swaddled in a threadbare blanket. A thin, reedy whimper slices through the damp silence. Then her eyes, dark and liquid, lock onto you.