Eight at night; children were asleep. A lithe man stood at the top of a roof, watching figures of nightmarish horses gallop from house to house. Every so often, he would hear a loud scream, making him smile. Lights would flick on from those houses; his sign that the parents were trying to convince the child that he wasn't real.

His name was Pitch Black; The King of Nightmares. Pitch had been one of the most feared beings in all the land, but that was a long time ago. The Dark Ages, to be exact. At that time, he had turned his attention away from completely trying to destroy Tsar Lunar and towards the thought of power he could hold over such an insignificant and weak race like humans.

Humans were easy for him to manipulate. Since he had also learned how to change Sandman's Dream Sand into Nightmares, it only made it even easier. He could bring anyone's worst fears to life in their heads, again and again, and nothing would be able to stop him.

A lone car on the road caught his attention. From the back seat, he could notice a small child. "Oh," he spoke, his voice quiet, "A child who's still awake? Dysis!"

One of the mares stopped and turned, hearing her name. She galloped over to her master. He patted her neck before mounting her, "We're following that car."

Dysis reared up before chasing behind the car, which had gone just out of view. Just what do you plan to do? She burred, glancing back at Pitch. He smiled, "The child looked no older than five, she's probably scared of a lot of things."

The car came to a stop in front of a fairly nice house. Dysis jumped up, then dropped into the ground, taking Pitch into the shadows with her. Reemerging from a shadow in an empty room, Pitch caught the tail end of a conversation.

"Can you watch Tracey for a while?" an older woman asked, "I got called on a last minute business meeting. It will only be till Friday night."

"Sure I can," a younger woman replied. The length of time pleased Pitch. A full week of making new Nightmares from one child. It was perfect. This place was out of the way from town as well, so he could have these new Nightmares roam this area, giving anyone who inhabited it nightmares.

He stood back, hiding in the shadows as he heard the footsteps of the younger woman and Tracey approach. He could hear them talking idly, nothing that he really bothered to care about. He did catch another name though. Valeraine. He curled his lip slightly, French name for Brave, huh? We'll have to see how brave she'll actually be.

He overheard that Tracey wanted to go right to bed. He kept an eye on the girls, making note of when Valeraine was going to leave.

"Good night, Trace," she said, kissing her little cousin's forehead.

"Nighty night, Val."

Valeraine left soon after. It wasn't before long that Sandman's golden sand stream came into view. It swirled over Tracey's head for several minutes before becoming a discernible dream. Several different birds flew around the room, perching on lamps and the windowsill.

A bird chirped fearfully when Pitch stepped away from the shadows, making his way to the center of the dream, which was of herself and Valeraine watching the birds flying around.

"What a precious little dream!" Pitch exclaimed quietly, "Just to sit and watch the birds fly around, must be nice." He frowned slightly as one of the birds went to land on his shoulder. As it's clawed, little foot touched him, the bird because to writhe in pain, slowly changing into a raven. The other birds also changed into a series of black-birds and vultures. Soon, the center of the dream warped.

The little sand Valeraine stood up and walked away before falling into black sand. Tracey winced and whimpered in her sleep, crying slightly. The Nightmare Sand slowly formed together, swirling into a new Nightmare. The new mare neighed and tossed her head in the air several times before galloping out the window and into the shadows.

Tracey woke with a start, screaming. She spotted Pitch, leaning over the bed. He smirked maliciously for a moment before muttering a single word to the fear filled child, "Boo."

The five year old jumped out of bed and ran down the stairs to Valeraine. He put his ear towards the open door, listening to the conversation.

"Tracey?" Pitch could hear the panic in the older's voice, "What's wrong?"

The fear filled child could only string her sentences together, "It's the Boogeyman! He's in the closet! I had a bad dream!"

Pitch scowled for a moment. How he despised that name. It demeaned him; mocked him.

"The.. what? I'm lost."

"I had a bad dream... That means the Boogeyman was here and he's most likely hiding in the closet. That's where he goes to hide."

The stories are supposed to be that I hide under beds, annoying little brat, Pitch thought, bitterly.

"Sweetie, the Boogeyman isn't real... and there's no such thing as a bad dream. You had a nightmare."

"He is too real! The nightmare was proof!"

At least the child isn't believing this girl's lies... for now. He could hear the two making their way back towards the bedroom. He hid in the shadows, watching the girls closely. Valeraine inspected every inch of the room, including under the bed and in the closet. She must've spotted something, because Pitch could see the smile on her fair when she turned to say something.

"Oh, Mr. Boogeyman, you in here?" she asked in a sing-song voice. "See Trace, there's no Boogeyman in here."

That only made Pitch angry. I am here, you stupid girl, he wanted to yell at her, a little fear in your life would do you a little good. He didn't speak though. He knew that only Tracey would be able to hear him, so it wasn't like it was going to do him any good.

He missed a large portion of the conversation, only catching, "And if he doesn't, then that proves he isn't real." Then, the lights went off. He saw Valeraine creep across the room. Pitch had to get to Tracey first.

"I believe in you now, Boogeyman. Come out, come out, wherever you are," she said in that sing-song voice again, pulling a blanket over her head. The comment made Pitch freeze up for a moment. Did she really?

"Boo! I'm the Boogeyman!" Pitch could hear Valeraine giggle as she began to tickle her cousin. The little girl screamed, but began to laugh, realizing it was only her cousin.

"The Boogeyman doesn't tickle people!" she laughed.

"And he isn't real. Go back to bed."

Pitch furrowed his brow. The lights were back on, too bright for him to leave the shadows to scare Tracey again.

"You said you believed in him."

"Alright. Even if he is real, he can't get you... so long as I'm here."

"Promise?"

"Yes, now, please, go back to sleep."

"Can you sing me a song first? It will help me sleep."

Pitch saw Valeraine smile before she started singing. The song sounded familiar. As soon as Tracey was asleep, the lights went back out. Pitch retreated to the darkness and comfortable silence of the basement of the house for the remainder of the night.

"Damn children... it's so easy to find their fears, but to believe the words they say..."

I hope you're enjoying my half of this two sided story. This all started when Merrr16 wanted to write a little five chapter story of her OC Guardian before she became a guardian. As she was telling me about this chapter, she said how she wanted to see how Pitch would react to certain elements in it. So, I'm going to write for the first five chapters, then I'll hand Pitch over to her for the rest of her story. I'm going to make my own after these five are done~

Dreaming of birds symbolizes your goals, aspirations and hopes. Each bird has a different meaning, but let's just say she was dreaming of all different types of birds.

I fixed a couple errors that I hadn't realized I had made. They were bugging me. Expect Chapter 2 later today. Edit made 1:27aEST 2-5-2013