I purposely made the dream god as un-Sandman as possible... just shows what stupid humor I have. Sorry for the shortness of this. (And this is obviously in Nico's POV.)
Morpheus visits me.
Goddamn, he's annoying sometimes. Just because he's the 'Sandman' doesn't make him better than the rest of the dark gods. And plus, I'm having a pretty good dream: Mom and me—the mom I never remembered after being dunked in the Lethe—eating gelato together at a small Italian café in Washington, D.C. She looked exactly the way she'd looked in the mist-image I saw a couple years ago: black dress and gloves, soft black curls tumbling out from under her veiled hat, her facial features graced with my eyes and Bianca's glowing smile.
(For a moment, I wonder how my dad managed to steal her heart. Godly charm?)
I stick the tiny spoon-scoop thing into my mouth and watch my mother carefully, lemony flavor melting in my mouth. She's just sitting there, smiling at me, a glimmer of pride in her eyes.
Mom leans toward me, reaching for my hand across the table. Her touch makes my heart hurt, makes me feel warm but lonely at the same time.
"Nico…"
Suddenly, a pale hand appears in my line of vision. My mother's eyes widen and she grips my hand harder, clutching my fingers, squeezing. But the mysterious hand, connected to a flickering black sleeve, swipes horizontally, wiping my dream clean like a dry-erase board.
"Hello, son of Hades."
Damn him.
"Morpheus." I make sure my words friendly and cheerful, although my tone is anything but. "What's up? Been in any collector's edition Neil Gaiman comics lately?"
He doesn't smile.
"I need to talk to you about Blake," the dream god mutters.
"Lively?"
I think of the gossipy fashion magazine Annabeth always scoffs at—the ones she subscribes to herself for 'architectural reasons'. There'd been a skinny blond girl on the last issue's cover—the one Percy had gawked continuously at until Juniper popped out of nowhere and snatched it away... so Grover could start gawking at it, I guess.
Morpheus stares at me like I'm a mildly unintelligent dog trying to assassinate its own tail.
"No. The Blake you met earlier today." His eyes are like two brilliant night skies, full of bright stars and a crescent moon. But even through the odd landscape in his irises, I can tell that he's looking at me with disdain.
"Oh. Her." She seemed like a nice enough girl in the two hours I'd talked to her, although her constant worried glances in my direction kind of creeped me out.
"She…" Morpheus pauses. "Somehow, that mortal channeling me. I mean, her dreams…" His eyebrows furrow together. "I can't see them, or feel them, but I know that they're… different."
I lick excess gelato off of the corner of my mouth and glare at him. "That's terrific, but I really don't see what I have anything to do with this. Now, leave me alone so I can go back to—" I stop talking in realization, jaw dropping. "Wait a minute. Is Blake a demigod? Is she your daughter?"
His night-sky eyes widen and he shakes his head wildly, shaggy hair flying, looking as ridiculous and un-Morpheus-like as possible. For a second, I wonder why his comic-adaption is so much cooler.
"No!"
I cross my arms. "Then why are you here?"
Another pause, a hesitation.
"Well… I can kind of tell that her recent ones are about"—he clears his throat—"you."
Great. Just what I need. Another Nico fanclub member.
"No, no, not like that," Morpheus snorts, reading my mind. "She's dreaming about bad things. The type of things you mortals put into horror movies."
Oh, even better. The first person I meet at CLA happens to be a lost and tormented soul.
Morpheus's eyes flash angrily at my sarcastic thoughts. "Don't you think a god would be serious, king of ghosts? This has already been going on for quite a long time—and just when this 'Blake' girl finally dreams of a half-blood, someone I can sense from her nightmares… you, the half-blood, don't even try to listen!"
I cough. "So… I'm the new Freddy Krueger of her dreams?"
The dream god looks like he wants to kill me. He snarls, and I brace myself for pain or impact, but Morpheus makes no move to touch me. His body shines brightly, revealing his true god form, and I quickly look away, closing my eyes.
When I open them, Morpheus is gone.
There. Too fanfics in one day. I'm so [un-]proud of myself.
