Saundra slowly woke up to the sound of water being poured into the tub in the bathroom. The flow of water hitting the surface of the metal tub confused her. She lightly rubbed her eyes, waking herself up.
Saundra climbed off her small bed and slowly walked towards the bathroom.
The room was dark without any candle light, but at least one corner of the room was lit by soft moonlight.
Saundra reached her hand out over the bath and felt warm steam rising against her hand.
It didn’t make sense. Why was there warm water in the bath she didn't use that night? She was exhausted after the hunt for information and The Sandman showing up, ruining all of her hard work.
She can understand, he maybe thought she was in trouble and wanted to help but she has been working too hard and losing too much sleep just to lose a lead like that. It just made her lose her temper filter.
Saundra looked around the bathroom, checking the windows, they were all locked. She walked out of the bathroom to the front door, the door was locked and the self-made alarm, she made with a broomstick, untouched.
“That won’t keep you safe from me.” A slow, slimy voice said and it came from the bathroom, Saundra realised as she sprinted to her bed and pulled a dagger out from under her pillow and ran to the bathroom door. She stopped just by the edge of the entrance, hiding next to the door.
“Did you miss me, Child?” The voice asked. “You’ve been busy.”
Saundra listened and tried to pinpoint exactly where the voice stood in the dark. “Why were you so busy, I wanted to come and visit you? Why would you take that pleasure away from me?” The voice kept on talking and it gave Saundra more than enough time to figure out where in the room the voice came from.
With quick movement she stepped out of her hiding spot, stepped into the bathroom entrance and threw the dagger in the direction where the voice came from.
She heard the dagger swiftly moving through the air and then it hit wood, the wooden wall.
She stepped further into the bathroom, confused about how she could have missed such an obvious target.
“Did you really think that would have worked?” The voice asked rhetorically, but it surrounded her, coming from all directions.
“I thought you’ve learned your lesson from my previous visits. Your weapons never work on me, Child.” The voice slow, slimy voice said as it walked out of the shadows, in front of the bathroom door, placing her body in between Saundra and the door.
Saundra’s heart began to gallop in her chest and her breath got more out of control as soon as she realised what was happening. She was having one of her unforgettable nightmares again. Jude haunting her once again.
Without thinking she pulled the dagger out of the wall and threw it again at the nightmare but Jade turned into shadows just before the dagger could hit her. Saundra bolted for the exit but the door shut with a thunderous strike.
Saundra’s head was pulled back by her hair and she fell backwards onto the floor, knocking the breath out of her lungs and hitting her head with an unstoppable force against the floor.
She tried to get back up as soon as her head stopped spinning but she struggled with getting her breath back.
The nightmare wrapped her rotting hands around Saundra’s throat and picked her up, cutting her oxygen off.
The nightmare lifted her into the air and dragged her to the bathtub and lifted Saundra’s body higher to rest her on the rim of the bath.
“Thank you for this, I really appreciate it.” Jude said with a smile that was falling apart and it was the last thing Saundra heard before her head was pushed under water.
Sandra tried to rip the hand off her neck and kick the nightmares body, but there was no body to kick and no hand to rip. It was like an invisible force was pushing her down.
Saundra’s lungs began to burn not soon after her head was under water. She already barely had any oxygen in her lung to begin with and it was tearing her lungs apart. She started to panic and soon after she lost her ability to hold her breath and the panic forced her to inhale the water. Her body went into auto mode, trying to cough out the water she just inhaled but that caused her to just breathe in more of the water. Her body started to feel heavy and she slowly started to lose consciousness.
A breathless scream escaped Saundra as she sat up awake in her bed and breathlessly tried to jump out of bed but tripped and fell on her knees because the blanket was still wrapped around her legs.
With her knee and hands on the floor, she started to fill her lungs with long deep breaths. She saw movement in the corner of the room, the shadows moved in long waving strides towards her and then a deep calming voice spoke up. She instantly knew who it was.
“That nightmare won’t bother you any longer… Judeath was smart by picking you to haunt-“
“What is going on, you are not making any sense and my head won’t stop spinning…” Saundra mumbled as her voice broke with tears in her eyes. Still on the floor she leaned her head against it, wishing to get the world to stop being chaotic for just one peaceful moment.
The man in the room, patiently stood there, waiting for her to get herself back. He took the time to look around, she had just about nothing in the room with her. Nothing to show her personality. There was a small bed, a long narrow closet and a heavy stack of books in the corner. And let's not forget her two daggers on the bedside table.
Saundra slowly stood up from her knees and sat back down on the bed and leaned her head against the headset.
“By what I think I heard of what you just said…” Saundra took another breath. “You know this things that gave me nightmares?”
“Correct. Judeath was a rogue nightmare, eating on fear and pain, and chose you to haunt because your conciseness wasn’t connected to the Dreaming or to me. I wouldn’t be able to sense what was going on but what most didn’t know was that I knew of you and your… unique situation, so I kept a close eye on.”
“Well, apparently not close enough because Jude has been doing this to me for quite some time now.” Saundra closed down as she pushed her knees to her chest. “But I can’t really blame you.” She mumbled to herself but she said it loud enough for him to hear.
“What’s going to happen to Jude now?” Saundra looked back at the Sandman.
“Judeath no longer exists, she is all but dust and sand now.” He simply stated, as easily as choosing which pastry he wanted to buy for breakfast.
“Thank you for whatever you did. You saved me from a lifetime of untold nightmares.” Saundra thanked him but her world was sloppy and slow and her eyes vision got darker and her eyelids lower.
She woke up again but this time she was laying on a large field of grass.
The sun above her gave the grass a golden glow and it made her feel warm and safe. Two things that she hasn’t felt at the same time, in a long time.
She stood up and looked around her, she was on the top of a small hill and behind her was…
Her mouth fell open and her eyes stretched with amazement.
Behind her was a palace.
The highest point of the palace was made out of gold and the rest was stone and marble. The entire palace was made out of statues and the statues…. were alive and moving.
There was a big entry to the palace and Sandra realised that the path she was on led straight to the entrance.
Curiously she took quick exciting steps towards the palace. When she got close to the entrance she saw three creatures on pedestals, a moving dragon at the very top in the middle, a Pegasus to its right and a Griffin to the left. All of them were staring at Saundra as she walked inside.
It was a lot darker inside of the palace as she walked in. She walked casually further into the darker room and just when her eyes started to adjust to the darkness, candles on either sides of the massive room magically alight the room.
It was an enormous walkway with a red carpet and at the end was a stairway that split into two stairways that led to the same place. High up in the middle of the room was a skeleton of a sea creature which Saundra couldn't name and on it was more candles.
Saundra walked up the stairs and when she got to the top she saw a door with an inscription carved into it.
“You will go to the place that feels like home.”
Saundra smiled at the sweet message and then reached out to push the door open and at the other end was an endless library.
The library was lit by daylight shining through the windows. The rows of books caught Saundra's eyes and the shining marble floor took her breath away.
“What is this place?” She mumbled to herself.
When she looked up she saw the roof painted with what looked like stories, probably of the stories in the library but the paintings were moving and changing.
Saundra saw more stairs to her left and right that goes to other levels of the, what seem like, a never ending library.
“How did you get in here?”
Saundra turned around with a scare, reaching for her dagger strapped to her tight but she felt nothing there except for the material of her skirt.
But when she focused on who it was she saw that it was the Sandman. She relaxed her shoulders and took in a relaxed breath.
“Answer me.” He ordered but his voice was calm and even but his eyes told her otherwise.
“I walked right through the entrance.” Saundra said like she was stating the obvious, wondering why he would ask her such a weird question.
“No, I mean how did you get here, into my realm?”
“Your realm?” Saundra asked in disbelief.
“Yes, my realm. The realm of the Dreaming. Which is why I’m asking because the last time I checked, you don’t dream.”
“I- I don’t know… I just woke up here on a hill in a grass field and saw a path leading towards the palace.” Saundra started to explain as she started to look around, searching for answers when her eye caught a painting hanging on the wall. It looked incredibly familiar.
A giraffe sitting in a copy of the library she was in right then, wearing a suit and glasses while reading a book. She looked next to it, to the other painting and there it was, just as she guessed, two hummingbirds. One as white as snow and the other as dark as a moonless night. The next painting was a purple panther, lazily lying in a tree.
She walked from the next painting to the next, each one as familiar as the last until she saw the painting that brought everything back.
A painting of a majestic shining blue stag with golden antlers.
And she remembered, she remembered her drawing of the stag being pulled out of the paper, she remembered how it ran around, being bullied by the two Hummingbirds as it ran around the throne room.
The throne room. The throne room of white marble and columns, and a staircase leading to a throne. She turned back to the Sandman.
“I know this library.” She stated as she looked around.
“That’s not possible. No mortals can get in here.” He told her with confusion but he saw a look in her eyes, showing that was being genuinely honest. But she saw a look in his eyes, he didn’t believe her, yet.
“Then how could I possibly know that when I turn this corner?” She walked away from him towards a turn in the path and pointed at a wall of frosted- and stained glass. “I’ll find that wall, but that wall isn’t really a wall because it’s a hidden door that would take me straight to a throne room.”
The throne room, the throne room of the person who pulled her drawing out of the paper. The person was covered in black from neck to the floor, his wild black hair and his pale skin.
She turned around and saw a confused version of the man she remembered in her memories.
“Morpheus.” She stated with remembrance in her voice and the man’s face in front of her dropped. “How would I be able to know that your name is Morpheus?”
He then realised he knew who she was, she was the mortal girl that he escorted through these very library halls, telling her stories that were okay to be heard by an eight year olds ears. And complimented her brilliant mind.
She is all grown up now, and her brilliant mind has grown with her. How could he miss those glowing blue of hers?
The two of them just stared in shock at each other, neither believed how this was possible, how this very moment was happening and neither knew how it would change their path towards the future.
“How did you become immortal?” Morpheus gently asked her, truly curious. Trying to get her to stop staring at him like he did to her. He didn’t know what to think, and for the first time in a long time he didn’t truly know what to say. So he tried his best at saying something.
“I told you-“ She started to say but he interrupted her, knowing that she was going to say and it was the answer to his question.
“Who gave it to you?” he asked more specifically.
Saundra sighed. “I don’t know.”
Morpheus gave her an unsure questioning look.
“Truly, no games. I don’t know. I was born like this. I have been trying to figure it out since the moment I realised that I wasn’t getting older. That I was frozen. But when I could find anything I gave up, not wanting to waste any energy.”
“No mortal is born with immortality.” He explained to Saundra but I looked like he was questioning his own knowledge.
“Thanks for telling me what I already know. But when I figure it out, I promise you’ll be the first to know.” Saundra said sarcastically, she was annoyed again, annoyed that Morpheus would truly believe her. So she turned back around and wondered further through the now familiar library.
Leaving a shocked, frozen Morpheus behind.