The rain pounded roughly against the lodging house's windows. The room was completely dark; no lights filtered through the window on that night, even the full moon was entirely hidden from view.
Around one in the morning the storm began to get worse. Thunder crashed like mighty drums, and lightening flashed zigzags in the sky, briefly illuminating the room every few seconds. The room was quiet, except for the occasional snore here and there.
Kid Blink bolted upright in his bed. Sweat had collected along his hairline, and his breathing was heavy and labored. He looked about the room, feeling slightly dizzy as the room became light and then dark again repeatedly. Blink was about to lie back down, but he stopped as another crack of thunder and flash of lightening allowed him to see a figure silhouetted against the window.
He froze. When the light flashed again the figure was gone. He shook his head, thinking that it was just his imagination overreacting.
The light flashed again, and the figure was right in front of him. It grabbed Blink roughly by the shoulders and tossed him out of his bunk and onto the floor. Blink tried to stand, but he was in a very great deal of pain.
The thump of the boy's body hitting the floor did not go unnoticed. Racetrack awoke immediately, confused to see his bunkmate on the floor below. He got out of bed quickly and went to the fallen newsies side.
"What happened?" Race asked trying to help Blink up.
"There's someone up there," Blink said pointing to his bunk, while managing to sit up. Race looked up at the bunk, and there just as Blink had said, a person stood. Race couldn't make out whom it was, but the lightening flared once again, lighting the room entirely.
Skittery. Race gasped as he saw the malice burning in Skittery's darkened eyes. But before Racetrack could take another breath, the boy had landed in front of him. He was crouched low on his haunches.
All of a sudden he stood, bringing his arm up swiftly, allowing it collide with Race's head. His action sent Race across the floor, and into the bunk Jack solely occupied – the bang was enough to wake the whole bunkroom.
Jack peered over the front of his bunk bed, and saw Race lying limply against one of the posts. He looked out and saw Skittery bent over Blink. Jack made a mad leap from the top of his bunk on to the floor, and was there just in time to pull Blink away from Skittery's blows. Jack half dragged Blink backwards, pushing him to his feet, and then they both stood, looking at Skittery in horror.
The rest of the bunkroom occupants were awake by then, and standing by the doors. Jack took a quick glance at the assembled group and saw that Crutchy along with Pie Eater and Snitch had managed to get the younger newsies out. That had always been Jack's plan. If something was wrong, those three newsies would get them out as fast as possible. Jack nodded at the group and they all started towards the door. But before any of them could even blink Skittery was in front of it, blocking them from any escape.
They slowly backed up, and Jake who was at the very back of the group quietly opened the door to the girls' room. They all filtered in, careful not to make any sudden movements. But when Jack was the last one in the doorway, Skittery tried to pounce on him. Jack slammed the door as quickly as he could; Skittery's hand was caught in the door. Jack opened it in inch and then closed it roughly on his hand. The force was enough for Skittery to retract his hand, and Jack closed the door all the way. He let out a small sigh of relief. Behind the boys Quotes lit a small candle and brought it towards the door.
"What's going on?" she asked Jack, before she saw Blink crouched in pain. "Oh my goodness, what happened?" She bent over him and they embraced. The other boys did the same to their girlfriends. Piper walked over to Jack, and gave him a questioning look.
"Skittery's gone crazy or something. I think he's killed Race already." Dice gasped, pushing her way to where Jack was talking.
"What?" But Jack didn't answer, Blink did.
"Skittery pushed me off my bunk, and Race came to check out what happened. He tried to help me out of the way, but Skittery… hit him and…" Dice just stared. Piper hugged her gently, and then looked to Jack.
"I think I know what's going on. Skittery told me he sleepwalks."
"But that doesn't make sense. He just killed someone! Isn't sleepwalking just walking?" Jake interjected, as he, Specs and Dutchy joined the conversation.
"The older you get the more dangerous it becomes," Piper replied trying to sound as rational as possible.
"Fine, then let's just wake him up."
"You can't. He'll kill you before you do. They're like super humans in that state. They can do things that would normally be impossible." As the conversation went from Jake to Piper, to Dutchy and then back to Piper again, Jack started to feel like they had no hope.
"But why is he acting like this?" Jake asked, pulling Shortie over to him. The girl nodded.
"Yeah, this ain't never happened before," Shortie added.
"Well, he wants to get someone. That's the only explanation if he's on a killing spree. I mean who knows if he even saw Race when he killed him, to him he may have just been there; something blocking him from what he wanted." Jack raised his hands after Piper finished.
"Do you hear that?" Jack asked.
"I don't hear anything." Mush answered.
"Exactly…. I wonder what he's doing in there?" Jack asked reaching for the knob.
"Jack, don't!" Piper begged. There was a loud scratching noise on the door; Jack jerked his hand back so quickly, it was as if he had just been burned.
"What was that?" Duckie asked grabbing hold of Mush, as the sound occurred once again. Cautiously Jack approached the door, and put his head up against it.
"He's trying to get through the door." The scratches got more frequent by the minute, then there was banging. The sounds alternated as Skittery searched for a soft spot in the wood to break through. The newsies all backed slowly away from the door, one thought on all of their minds: how much longer would they be safe in there?
Disclaimer: I don't own the newsies, however Piper and Dice are of my own creation. Iris, Bailey, Quotes and Duckie belong to themselves and Shortie belongs to Iris.