Prolouge:
A mother sugar glider crouched under her baby's crib, holding her sniffling daughter to her chest as she heard ferocious banging and snarls at the front door.
Someone was trying to break in.
She had come to wish her daughter good night when she heard the noises, keeping her from her room where her phone sat.
She flinched as she heard the door being torn off its hinges and the sound of paws.
"Where is she," a growl-y voice snapped and the sugar glider shuddered.
"Find her," a deeper voice ordered, "Tear up the place while you're at it. The boss said leave nothing unscathed."
Her eyes widened upon hearing those words. This wasn't a random break in, she was being hunted.
She heard crashes and shattering as the intruders ransacked her home, she looked around nervously. It wouldn't take long for them to find her in here…find her and her child.
She slipped out from under the crib and hurried to the closet, placing her whimpering daughter into a hamper and wrapping clothes around her, soothing her until she quieted down, shutting the door to a crack, her baby didn't like the dark.
And then the mother stepped into the center of the room and waited just as she heard a body slam into a door.
The young daughter listened quietly as she heard snarling and grown ups talking, a small struggle, and then fading footsteps, and then there was silence.
She waited for her mother to return and tuck her into bed but no one came as time ticked away and she got more and more sleepy.
"Mama…" she whispered sadly as she curled into a ball, "Mama…"
