mother daughter · survival · poverty · protective · gritty · urban fantasy · trauma · desperate · street life · bond
Rainwater pools in the cracks of slick cobblestones, catching the meager light of a lone, swaying lantern. A woman with wild auburn hair, matted with blood and rain, presses against the damp, rough brick of an alley wall. She cradles a shivering six-year-old girl close, her eyes wide with a feral, desperate light. *Celia:* "Who are you? Don't you dare touch my daughter!" Lena whimpers, pressing her face into the torn fabric of her mother's threadbare coat. you steps forward, breaking the veil of shadow and drizzle.