[Hamartia]
Sirens. The high-pitched mechanical keening didn't wake them, Lily had had a night of it and when the police lights screamed blue against the walls of the apartment building, Toby was already wide-awake and drinking coffee. The kitchen window overlooked the entrance-way; with Lily curled against her hip, half-asleep, Toby looked down and saw broken-doll bodies on the pavement below. And then movement.
A moment later and Toby was amongst the crowd below, a hand cupping the back of the child's head to keep it firmly averted from the scene. She looked at the notes, paper stained with berry-bright blood and her lips thinned. Young girls as the victims of violence for one thing or another wasn't unusual sadly, not when you worked night-shifts in a city that stayed awake late but this wasn't normal at all. This building was a choice. She pulled her dressing gown tighter at the neck, closing the v and watched the ambulance team work, with bleak eyes.