He started to smile—a real smile that stretched the dark lines on his chin. “She and I used to play together. When she was scared at night sometimes, I would entertain her with puppet shows. She especially liked shadow puppets, which are something of a specialty of mine. Remember that, N—” He hiccupped. Coughed. “Uh, I remember that Nightmare well. Little Nightmare. We were buds…” His brow creased, a sadness overshadowing the sudden burst of joy. “Back then, at least.” Nova felt like her heart was being torn apart. For the past number of years she’d thought of Winston as little more than a
...more
