His Nightmare Queen (Pitch Black x Reader)

17: Mingling

You weren't quite sure how much he was expecting of you at this point as you both revealed yourselves from the shadows in this final location. There was a young woman - close to your age really - sleeping peacefully under the warmth of her covers, and all you could think of as you slowly approached her with the Nightmare King at your side by then was how much you would love to be in her position.

The two of you stopped once you were up to the side of the woman's mattress where she lay on her side with her back to you. It took you a moment to focus enough to see the glistening gold of the dream sand curling over her head into the formation of shapes and figures that introduced joy. Where you once used to not be able to see such magic, your refreshed belief in such spirits and bringers of magic enabled you to see more of what was there that was previously invisible to your eyes. You took a deep breath to ready yourself for your next few attempts that you already lacked hope for. Oh, why couldn't he have brought you to an easier location like a younger kid's room?  You shot a glance at Pitch to your side.

"I can't make you any promises that this'll work," you reminded him in a murmur. He would have replied, but knowing that you were already sick of any words of encouragement he tried due to the amount of doubt you maintained within yourself, he only flashed a look that told you to give the task another shot.

You reached out with one arm toward the gold sands swirling over the woman's head. Your breaths were shallow as your heart thudded hard against your chest with high hopes that you would make no sound past the silence that might awaken her - even though you knew Pitch would immediately whisk you away into the shadows with him before you could be seen. You pricked the softness of the sands with your index finger, letting it wrap around your nail as a few grains slid to your knuckle.

And that was the most you could do at that point.

Trying to poke through the figures formed by the sands repeatedly or moving your finger through the formation of the dream too harshly would potentially cause the sand to collapse and disintegrate into nothingness, ultimately risking waking the woman. You bit your lower lip and stood for a moment more while trying to concentrate, seeing if anything at all would come out of how much Pitch believed that you would achieve any level of mastery in wielding the nightmare sands. Even tainting the dream sand or maybe even changing the plot of the dream with your touch would be enough to receive praise from Pitch at this rate. Still, even with the confidence that he wanted to grant you and that you wished to take in, the mental block in you still remained to hold you back. What makes Pitch think that you, a human, would be able to do this right away anyhow? You wondered. Were you supposed to feel magical?

He studied your motions carefully, eyeing your fingertip at the surface of the bright sands to see if anything from your touch may taint the substance - if there was anything maybe left in you that could prove any ounce of power or mystique in your being. If possibly there was a hint of who you might have been before if it really was you. However, when you could once again tell that nothing was going to come of the sands from the pad of your finger, you pulled your arm away and dropped it to your side.

"I keep telling you that nothing is going to happen," you sighed to him quietly to not awaken the sleeping woman. "Can you please just do it yourself again so I can get some sleep?"

He lifted a brow at you. He could already tell how your lack of rest was toying with your mood tonight. Before he replied though, you heard him mumble something under his breath. Most of his words were muffled too deeply within his exhale that you could only make out a fraction of his sentence carrying something along the lines of immortality making tasks easier within the whisper. This made you frown at him for a moment.