Maddy was losing her composure. Her head snapped left and right, her eyes darting into every narrow alley and behind every stack of crates.
"She's gotta be here… somewhere! She's scared and she thinks she's alone. I won't let her be alone!"
She checked the crawlspaces under the porches and the damp gaps between stone walls. Every empty corner felt like a failure. Her heart hammered against her ribs as she realized that in a city this large, a small girl who wanted to be invisible was almost impossible to find unless you knew exactly how much it hurt to be seen.
Her head began to spin. The sensory input was becoming a nightmare. The rowdy laughter from the tavern streets away sounded like thunder in her ears; the clinking of mugs felt like glass shattering inside her skull.
