It’s not uncommon for the newsboys in the lode to have nightmares. It’s especially unbearable during winter, when all the jobless, homeless kids stay in the lodge for someplace warm to sleep. Everyone shares a bed, and sometimes you have the unfortunate gift of sleeping with a stranger that you don’t want to awake.

You and Blink, however, are far from strangers. You know each other as well as you know Manhattan, and every winter you sleep in the same bed. But Blink gets nightmares every night, and feels guilty for waking you when he does.

So when your eyes flutter open, meeting nothing but darkness and the boy huddled under the blanket next to you and trying to cry quietly, you’re stricken with worry.