He had grown unexpectedly tired of conflict; and of a certain unlikely bookkeeper, while he was on the subject. Who was she to impose on his plans? Although, it had been fairly quiet, as of late.

It had only been five years, human time. Had he noticed the quiet so much, before? With furrowed brows, he went about his business, staring at the dark globe that indicated his believers. The numbers were slowly dropping, again, with one glaringly obvious one orbiting around he sphere like the Northern Star. A pang of irritation shot through him as he whipped around to face away from its source.

"Callous girl," he hissed, shadows dodging around his partially hidden form. "She knows nothing of her situation. What a careless child." The voice echoed throughout the cavernous cave before the area around him fell silent again. Had the silence always been so loud?

Still, he couldn't help but smile at the new plans that had virtually worked themselves out. Minimal participation and ultimate gain couldn't be argued with, when it came to the arrangements he'd made; and he would get what was promised.


Countless days later (an estimated five years) found me sprawled out on the floor of the library. I had dismissed Erich for the night in order to concentrate on the delicate work I was doing, so the room was silent except for that of papers fluttering and pens scratching along their surfaces.

A dozen books hovered above me, nudging me in irritation as I scanned through the latest chapter-that being 12-of the one I held in my hands. I had been distractedly shooing them away every so often, sighing when one decided to rest atop my head, until a line on the page caught my attention.

Andrew sat alone on the bench during recess at Davies Elementary School, idly watching his classmates run and play in the cool spring air. No one cast him a second glance. No one wanted to play with a Believer. I immediately snatched the book hovering to my right out of the air, flipping to chapter 12 as words began to form in golden calligraphy.

Lisa, although relatively new to Davies Elementary School, had found how quickly her classmates were to welcome new students. There was one boy, though: Andrew, who always seemed to sit on his own.

Both books stopped in their prospective spots of their owners' stories, waiting for a conclusion to the event that was taking place. As the Bookkeeper, I had no say in which outcome the situation would result in, but I was responsible for adding in information to the book. The information was known to both Andrew and Lisa; it was up to them to carry out their own decisions.

With both books laid out side-by-side, I plucked up a quill that had been fluttering around the room from the air, words floating in the same sparkling gold as I maneuvered it in front of myself.

Lisa had seen Andrew's project on the Sandman; she had only heard about him in storybooks and wanted to know more. Drawings that she had seen of his were also spectacular; she wanted to learn how he had gotten so good at his drawings. With a flourish, I picked Lisa's book up and closed it around the still-floating words, pressing them into the paper as Andrew's book began to automatically fill itself out.

"Nicely done, Lisa," I encouraged quietly, smiling as the story went on to describe a wary but certain beginning of a friendship.

"There's tea ready next to the phonograph, if you'd like," I called suddenly, smiling at the tinkling of bells that came as my guest's response.

"You're awfully late today, Sunshine. Anything interesting happen on your route?" I turned to beam at the small golden man-I really couldn't help it around him-as I closed both books and let them levitate back to their proper places. He nodded, sand language symbols appearing over his head. A bust of Toothiana flanked by her fairies was followed by the European division of tooth collectors-which still skeeved me out. Finally, the fairies and mice were depicted bickering with Toothiana trying to separate them.

"Trouble in Quebec again? I don't understand why the European division would want to cross an ocean to call dibs on one area. Did Toothiana mention any discrepancies with the teeth we need to discuss?" Now floating in midair with a cup of chamomile tea, Sandy shook his head, the image of a roll of parchment and a question mark hovering over him.

"The list? Yeah, I have it written up. Rory Johnson is having an especially hard time getting to sleep, lately. Poor thing recently lost a beloved pet, but the nightmares have lasted nearly three weeks, now." Frowning at the information, he nodded, taking a full swig of tea…and promptly nodded off, little z's floating above his head.

I snorted and stood to take the cup out of his hand. Having completed 20% over my daily quota, I waved the remaining books onto their shelves, deciding it was time for some vanilla chai. Sandy came to as I was stirring cream into my drink.

"'Morning," I teased, handing him the aforementioned scroll. He rolled his eyes but smiled at the light-hearted joke.

"Hey, you deserve a breather once in a while; you work around the clock. There's never a moment when no one's sleeping, right?" Although he nodded thoughtfully, a display of each of the Guardians materialized above his head as he also pointed to me.

"Me? No, I get breaks. I still have no choice in having to eat and sleep and all that other human stuff. Thank you again for that dream catcher, by the way. It's worked wonders." Sandy gave a thumbs-up to my gratitude but shook his head at my doubtful words, playfully poking at where my heart was as depictions of children of all shapes and sizes hung overhead. I smiled fondly and nodded.

"I do care for them; every one of them. Their successes, their faults, their quirks…each one of them has a story to tell. Each one of them matters. I've never gone through a book and thought that someone has never affected another person's life. It's incredible." Catching myself sniffle, I coughed to hide my misty-eyed state, not fooling the Sand Man in the least. He cast me an understanding expression and placed a comforting hand on my shoulder.

"Sorry for getting emotional, Sandy. I know you understand and you've been such a good friend." I straightened up and giggled while returning his fist-bump.

"Okay, okay, I'm done holding you up. Same place tomorrow?" Nodding with a broad smile, the golden man gave a solute, then turned and hopped casually out the window, taking some of the warmth of the room with him.

Letting out the tired yawn I had been holding in, I glanced at the clock-it would be nearing 2AM in Pax, right then. There was nothing else to keep me occupied with, but I didn't feel up to the arduous task of deflecting any potential bad dreams headed my way.

Despite having not spoken to the Nightmare King since my second day as Bookkeeper, the brat was never hesitant to send extremely unpleasant dreams my way, nearly every night. We were both aware of how potent my fears were, and despite Sandy's dream catcher and my practices of lucid dreaming, Pitch always found a way to sneak in a blackout or a random free-fall to end my REM cycle.

"Not tonight," I vowed, determined to rid myself of aching muscles and creaky bones resulting from little sleep and constantly pouring over books.

I sipped my now lukewarm tea and blanched before setting it down on the tray. I almost made it to my living quarters before I caught my reflection in the mirror.

I still wore the standard Bookkeeper's uniform, but had exchanged the boots for brown ballet flats and ditched the skirt in favor of slacks. I still wore the original when expecting company-Sandy excluded-but found that comfort was more important than aesthetics.

What bothered me, however, was that I clearly had not aged a day since arriving at the Horizon. North had repeatedly reassured me that I was still completely human, but I had never heard of an immortal human, which worried me immeasurably. If I didn't keep track of how many calendar years old I was, would my mortality creep up on me? The question ran through my mind every day as Manny remained silent.

"Pleasant thoughts, Vi," I muttered, pinching my cheek experimentally to find any trace of wrinkles, only to come up empty handed. I sighed dejectedly.


I had crossed over to my living space, crawled into bed and was staring up at the ceiling, before what I distinctly recalled to be the sound of tree branches scraping against glass jarred me out of my reverie.

"I am at least three miles off of the ground. There is no tree except for that of Life that could possibly reach here," I reasoned, glaring in the general direction of the noise as I made myself comfortable again. Not thirty seconds after closing my eyes was I disturbed by the sound of claws scraping the floor just below my bed.

Growling heatedly, I chucked a pillow at the nearest cluster of shadows in the corner of the room, frowning as it softly hit some unidentifiable surface.

"Unless there's a matter of great importance involved, my hours of operation are from 10AM to 10PM…usually. Any questions?" Silence came as my only response, to which I closed my eyes and flopped backwards onto the bed, bringing the blankets over my head insistently as I drifted into a deep sleep.


Hey again. Just another sort of short chapter, which took a lot of muddling around to write; the next chapter sets off the actual plot of the darn thing - finally. The follows and reviews are greatly appreciated!

'Til then.