He begins heading toward the window of Jamie's room to get out, but I grab him by his hood and tug him back. "Stay put."
"You givin' me orders, now? When Bunny said this bandage looked like a collar, I guess he really wasn't kidding." He says that, but he's not making to leave anymore, so I suppose it worked, for now. As long as he doesn't change his mind. Before he has a chance to, I touch the incoming thread of dream sand, infecting it with darkness before it even reaches Jamie's sleeping mind.
"Hey wait, is...uh, is Sandy okay with this? You did get permission, right?"
I glare at him. As if I, the Great and Terrible Bogeyman, need permission to give a child a nightmare. Certainly not. We watch as the dream transforms itself, the dark grains coming together to create a small version of Jack. He's making ice and causing trouble, much like that day Jamie remembers so well on his sled, except instead of fun, it's scary. The little black dream version of Jamie nearly getting run over by several cars as dream Jack laughs.
"Stop it! What're you trying to do? I told you forever ago that I don't wanna be feared!" Jack tries to scatter the dream by physically messing with the sand, but it just reforms itself immediately after. after He gives up in frustration and sighs, resigned. After a moment, he looks to me and pats my arm in...affection. "Look at you, got all your stuff back. Congrats. Look, it's not like I don't appreciate the thought, but I'd rather not have Jamie run away screaming the next time I see him, so if you could just, y'know..."
Giving Jamie a nightmare about me to try and get him to believe in me, when Pitch himself has no believers...it's almost sweet. As much as I definitely do not want Jamie to fear me, I get that Pitch is just trying to help, in his own way.
"It's just a dream, Jack. He won't even remember what his nightmare was about once he wakes." Pitch puts his hand on my shoulder, giving me a very small smile that can hardly even be considered there as he nods his head toward the window. "Leave something."
I stare at Pitch. Is this really the same king of nightmares I fought not all that long ago? He seems so changed and I'd hardly noticed it until now. Comparatively, this guy is basically an overgrown fluff ball, with the way he's acting. Bandaging my neck, restoring belief...
"If you don't leave something, I will just have to find a way to make the nightmare...last." His smile turns wicked as more darkness threatens to enter the sand and make it even darker than before. Yeah, definitely the same guy, there's no mistaking it. Without even looking away from Pitch or moving from my spot, I raise my staff, lightly tapping the window pane and spreading frost across the window.
"That gonna be enough?"
"Hopefully."
"Since when do you hope for anythi-"
"Shh." Pitch looks over at Jamie, who has stirred in his sleep.