It had been days - days - since the incident. The brothers had come home, heads hung low and absolutely no plan to get their sister back. They tried to make it outside, but those monstrous things called “cars” were already too far away. They could only watch as the humans left and vanished around the corner into the much larger human world beyond the world they knew indoors.

What could they even say to make this right? What could they even tell their parents? How could they justify returning without her? They were charged with their sister’s safety and the first time she went out she was taken

Regardless, they had to go home. There was nothing that could be done now.

Their mother’s cries could barely be stifled and their father was furious; not with the brothers, but with himself. They wept together, shaking in fear and sadness for their daughter.

Where had Shay been taken? When was the family going to return? Could she make it back on her own? Could she even survive on her own? She knew the basics, but this visit to the human’s home was her first time. Could she live undetected? Was she already caught? Seen?

There was little sleep among the family that night. There was nothing else they could say to one another. They could only hope their daughter was able to return home. She was clever. She was quick. She was their daughter - and they raised her fierce and determined.

All hopes of these things, however, shattered when many of the humans returned home and there was no sign of Shay. She wasn’t in the luggage and she wasn’t in the bags. She wasn’t seen sneaking away back into the safety of the walls. She wasn’t there. She wasn’t anywhere.

No. She was somewhere. She had to be where the other human who didn’t return was staying.

The last fragments of hope were slipping from the Borrower family. Their last thread - that she was alive and okay - was all that tethered them to their daughter. They could only hope it would be enough to bring her home.