A Cure for Hiccups

Chapter 13: Sadness

"I can stand anyone's tears but yours." (Joyce, William. The Sandman and the War of Dreams. Atheneum Books, 2013.)

~🌟~

Riding on Oynx the Nightmare, Seraphina and Pitch flew across land and sea alike to get back to Sandman. When they did they found the guardian of dreams outside walking dejectedly down the empty street. Not even the street lamps were on. Pitch landed Oynx and Seraphina jumped off the mare. The teenager ran over to Sandman. "Sandy!" she called his name like a bird chirping. Pitch smiled as he got off his horse.

Sandman turned around and he couldn't help smiling when his oldest friend hugged him. He hugged her back, he didn't even mind that she could have wakened the children.

"Sandy, we are here to help," Seraphina said. She pointed to Pitch who was slowly making his way over the pair. Sandman raised an eyebrow. He did the sign for help which is a fist getting slammed on the palm of the other hand (though he did this softy) while a question mark made of dreamsand formed above his head. Seraphina tilted her head, she didn't know sign language.

"He's asking how we are going to help him," Pitch explained, joining the group. "That's a good question. I'm not exactly sure, but Seraphina has an idea she wants us to try." Seraphina nodded her head and explained her make-shift plan to the adult men.

***

Pitch weary entered a child's bedroom. It was just like before, yet it was different now. Only moments before was he giving this child a nightmare to scare Sandman. Now he was going to try and give the child a dream, or at least the closest thing he could to a dream.

Seraphina and Sandman entered with him; his daughter stood at the foot of the bed while Pitch kneeled by the child's side; Sandman stood by Pitch's side.

Sandman rotated his hand around the air and made a Dreamline. Since the child in question was already sleeping, Sandman didn't need to knock them out. The wispy line of golden sand connects to the child's head. As the dream manifested, it showed a rollercoaster. Seraphina made a motion for him to go on, her arm outstretched in a sweeping motion.

Pitch let out a nervous breath as he used his Inducement on the dream. Slowly the dream started turning black and Pitch let go of the dream. Now it was half black and half gold, an interesting swirl of the two. The two colors did not mix turning brown. Pitch looked at Sandan and Sandman looked at Pitch and Seraphina looked at her father. A look of interest on their faces. Something new happened.

"Can you control your individual parts?" Seraphina asked in a hushed voice.

Pitch and Sandman looked at each other once again. Pitch raised an eyebrow while Sandman shrugged his shoulders, throwing his hands up. The two men worked on the mixed dream. It did appear that they could control their own parts of the dream. So it was still a dream because of Sandman, but with Pitch's added black sand it stayed and was more fun. Roller Coasters are scary after all.

"Highfive?" Seraphina asked already holding up her hand; Pitch raised his while the short one in the group raised his, but being of his stature, he wasn't tall enough. Seraphine stifled back a chortle. She formed a cloud and raised it so the three of them could create a soft high five sandwich.