When Kacy Met the Dream King
Summary: One shot. Possible first of a series of them. A girl named Kacy Nelson meets Dream of the Endless aka Morpheus in person after noticing him in her dream of a barbecue. Set in the world of the Netflix series.
Disclaimer: I do not own The Sandman. I only own my original characters. Explanation for why nightmares are important credited to Amanda Pike.
Kacy Nelson had been 12 years old going on 13 in 2022 when she experienced something that she would never forget. The brunette, blue eyed, pale skinned, glasses-wearing girl on the autism spectrum lived with her parents Joseph and Anita and her then 8-year-old brother Seth in a small town in Virginia. She had gone to sleep one night in mid-August at a reasonable time of 9:00 pm. It was on that night that the preteen girl had the strangest dream she had ever experienced up to that point.
In her dream, Kacy was at a barbecue with her friends Noelle McDowell, Ingrid Petersen, and Tanya Turner along with her family and their families. Ingrid was a blonde haired, brown eyed girl who had immigrated to the U.S. from Sweden and had no siblings (though she lived with her mother while her father was often away due to working as a pilot). Noelle was a redhaired girl who had freckles on her pale skin and lived with her older brother Aaron and her parents. Tanya, like Kacy, had brown hair though in her case her eyes were green; Tanya, unlike her friends, had a sister, Bethany (who was 14 at the time), and also lived with both of her parents. Each of the girls was an outcast in some way: besides Kacy being autistic, Ingrid was a lesbian, Noelle was transgender, and Tanya used a wheelchair due to having muscular dystrophy. They had all been friends since 1st grade when Noelle had stood up to a bully who was picking on Kacy for being "weird".
When she noticed someone who looked unusual there in her dream, any thoughts Kacy would have had about reminiscing on the past had disappeared. The someone in question was a being that looked human and had short, black hair, icy blue eyes, and pale skin. He was wearing black clothing and had a brown leather pouch in hand. As the girl watched, the strange being in question took samples of barbecue food off the picnic table and piled them onto a plate before briefly turning to look at her, though it was hard to tell what he was thinking by the expression on his face.
That was the moment that Kacy woke up to her cell phone alarm ringing. She shut off the alarm and went to change out of her red pajamas after scribbling something on a sticky note: "draw mysterious, dark haired, pale skinned man I saw in my dream". After getting dressed in blue shorts, a white t-shirt with the Disney character Figment on it, white socks, and blue and white striped sneakers, Kacy went downstairs to have breakfast before brushing her teeth and going out to go shopping with her family.
Throughout the day, Kacy was trying her best to focus on what she needed to do. She had told her friends about her dream earlier via text and they had all agreed that it did seem weird. Nonetheless, everyone figured that it probably was just a dream and by now, it was time for Kacy to draw a bit after getting ready for bed. She wasn't thinking about what happened earlier during the day; instead, she had headphones plugged in to her cell phone and was listening to a song about dreaming as she drew the mysterious being she had dreamed of the previous night while in her red pajamas once more. The song in question was "Dream Weaver" by Gary Wright and she had started singing along with it softly. She then felt someone tap her on the shoulder as the song ended and she exited out of the music playing app. The preteen girl turned her wheeled desk chair around after she took her headphones off and gasped. Right in front of Kacy was the same being she had seen in her dream last night.
"It is rare for someone to use that title for me affectionately, Kacy Nelson." He said to her.
"How did you know who I am already?" Kacy asked, getting up and going over to her bed, which was across from her desk. She kept her glasses on for now as she sat down on it after pulling the purple sheets back.
"Everyone who has dreamed knows me well. I am Dream of the Endless, sometimes known as Morpheus, the ruler of the Realm of Dream and Nightmare, better known as the Dreaming." He answered, looking at her though not expecting her to try to make eye contact. "You noticed me in your dream last night."
"Yes; you didn't look like you belonged there, and I got confused when I saw you taking a lot of food." Kacy shrugged. "I figured you were worth remembering because I started drawing you tonight. It's not anywhere near finished yet and I don't know if it's any good." She then yawned as she took her glasses off and put them in their case on her side table to the left of her bed. "Sorry about that; had a long day."
"You are a talented artist, Kacy, and there is no need to apologize for being tired." Morpheus assured her, taking a brief look at the drawing that had been left on the desk. Then the third eldest of the Endless watched the girl lie down in bed and put her sheets over herself. "Let us continue this conversation elsewhere." He lifted a little bit of sand out of his pouch and blew it towards Kacy, causing her to fall asleep near instantly. He then turned off the light by her bed and returned to the Dreaming.
In this dream, Kacy was still in her red pajamas and was sitting on a red and white checkered picnic blanket in the clearing of a forest of some of the tallest trees she had ever seen anywhere. Near her were a tan basket and a blue cooler full of food and drinks. Morpheus was sitting next to her.
"I don't have my glasses on and yet I can see everything just fine." Kacy realized, smiling a little. Now she knew that she was dreaming.
"That is because anything is possible in my realm." Morpheus replied. "Please help yourself to the food and drink."
"Thank you, Morpheus." Kacy found a paper plate that she wasn't sure had been there before and got herself a PB&J sandwich, some chips, a few carrot sticks, and two sugar cookies. She also got herself a juice box full of apple juice. "So, why did you take the food from the barbecue I dreamed of?"
"Food and drink from dreams are what I prefer to consume. While I would not starve to death without it, I still get hungry." The lord of dreams answered the preteen girl after having swallowed a few bites of his own food. "Anything brought into dreams is mine for the taking if I have need of it."
"Makes as much sense as anything else." Kacy shrugged. "I did have two more questions for you that I really want to ask before I wake up. First, I've decided that my big project for my history class when I go to 8th grade via homeschooling is going to be about the sleeping sickness that occurred from 1916 to 1926. Why did it happen?" She wasn't sure why she had decided to ask it even though she was normally shy. Perhaps it was the fact that by dream logic she knew that Morpheus would never harm children physically and therefore was comfortable with saying it. Maybe it was the fact that he had made this environment feel so real that it was hard to remember that it was a fantasy. She had soon finished up the food, making a mental note to try to eat a big breakfast in the morning since she would likely wake up feeling hungry.
"The explanation is not one that most mortals will believe if you decide to tell them, but I will answer your question anyway. It happened because I was imprisoned for 105 years in the basement of a mortal who used petty hedge magic to attempt to summon my elder sister but gained me by mistake." Morpheus had taken some sand out of his pouch and was using it to make visuals of what had happened when he had been imprisoned while continuing to speak; the effects his presence had on his captors' aging, the second and permanent death of his previous raven, Jessamy (who had once been a human), his escape and punishment of his captor's son, and his search for his tools.
By the end of it, Kacy had started shedding tears. She knew that it was extremely unlikely that someone like Morpheus would appreciate sympathy from a mortal, but she could not help it. As her tears hit the ground, they wound up turning into wildflowers. She had noticed that the picnic blanket, the food, the juice boxes, the cooler, and the picnic basket had all disappeared as she did this and that she was now sitting in the grass next to the dream lord.
Morpheus knew perfectly well what Kacy was feeling; while it was true that he would normally not appreciate sympathy from mortals, he couldn't blame her for it since she clearly cared deeply about others and was a sensitive person. He created a handkerchief with his sand and handed it to her.
"Thank you." The preteen girl wiped her tears away after taking the handkerchief. "Sorry for being so emotional."
"There is no need to apologize for that, Kacy Nelson. You are, after all, only human even if some of your peers try to convince themselves otherwise." Morpheus reminded her.
"You did not deserve that, being stuck in a basement for over a century, or at least I don't think so. Then again, I have claustrophobia." Kacy explained, feeling a little better since her host seemed to think that her feelings were somewhat valid right now. "Speaking of phobias, my other question is what is the purpose of nightmares?"
Morpheus knew exactly how he was going to answer that question for her; whether she would remember it when she woke was another matter. "Nightmares are important. They serve to teach the dreamer. The nightmare reflects the darkness within yourself. They help you to confront both fears and follies. Nightmares serve the purpose of making you aware of what you are afraid of, and to come to terms with those things, and if you are lucky, to overcome them. Sometimes the lesson is as simple as to not take what you have for granted- to wake and know you still have what you feared lost. Sometimes the nightmare is meant to ready you for darkness. And sometimes it is a reaction to the pain of the past. If you pay attention, there is always a lesson to be learned from each and every nightmare. These are the true mysteries and secrets of the realm of nightmare- the lessons of the self."
"Thanks for explaining that to me, Morpheus." Kacy said softly.
"You are welcome, Kacy. It is time for you to wake but perhaps in the future, I may be able to show you my castle's library since I know you love to read. Farewell." He replied.
At that moment, Kacy woke up to her alarm going off before she stopped it. She was ready to put Morpheus out of her mind and focus on her waking life for now. Though the idea of seeing his own library was very appealing to say the least and she couldn't help but wonder what it would be like as she got herself ready for the day. She knew she would find out soon enough; she would just have to be patient.
Back in the Dreaming, Morpheus had gotten Lucienne to get him the dream logs about Kacy and Seth. Then he read through them as he sat in the library; most of Kacy's more pleasant dreams throughout her life were about being a successful author and illustrator as well as being completely accepted by others besides her friends and family. The nightmares she had in the past were not anything unusual and the most recent ones had been about what had happened to her younger brother on the day that John Dee had misused the now destroyed ruby to remove the inhibitions of everyone on Earth. Seth had been beaten quite badly by a bully at school and it had resulted in the brown-haired, blue eyed, 8-year-old boy being hospitalized with a broken arm, a broken ankle, a horrible head injury, and bruised organs among other injuries. It was needless to say that Seth had been very lucky to survive it and had spent quite a bit of time recovering emotionally and physically. The incident had resulted in his and Kacy's parents deciding to homeschool their children starting in the fall; the Nelson family had been getting therapy as well which had seemed to help and the frequency of any nightmares they had been having had decreased. Those nightmares that Seth had been having, which had only gone down to happening 3 nights a week, were a problem though.
"I assume you have found that information helpful, my lord." Lucienne said.
"I have, but I must check on Seth Nelson before he wakes." Morpheus then traveled into the boy's current nightmare, which was a memory of that horrible beatdown on an elementary school playground. To say that it would have been disturbing to a mortal was an understatement. Seth was pleading for the nightmare that had taken the form of the bully to stop but the latter did not seem to be doing so.
"Enough! This has gone on for far too long." Morpheus declared.
The nightmare entity that had the form of an older boy with blonde hair, brown eyes, pale skin, and wearing blue jeans, a brown t-shirt, white socks, and black shoes blinked. Then it disappeared from the scene.
Seth looked shocked by the turn of events but whispered "Thank you."
"You are welcome, Seth Nelson. That nightmare will no longer trouble you and you may wake up now." Morpheus assured the boy.
Seth awoke, feeling much better and hoping that things could continue to improve for him as he got dressed in a blue t-shirt, brown shorts, and tan sandals and went downstairs to join his family for breakfast. He told his family about his dream after Kacy had told them about hers.
"Do you think those were just dreams if Morpheus is really who he said he is?" Seth had asked.
"I don't know. Maybe they weren't." Kacy shrugged as she answered this question. Then again, it really wasn't that crazy for the Sandman to actually exist considering the recent news of many serial killers turning themselves into police for their crimes a little earlier in the month or the crazy 24-hour period of violence that had occurred last year.
"Well, whatever the case may be, it's best to focus on what's ahead of us and not behind us." Anita reminded her children.
"Your mother's right; finish eating and get your chores completed, then we can go to the pool after I get home from work." Joseph reminded them.
Kacy and Seth had soon finished eating and bid goodbye to their father before focusing on their chores and then finding their swimming stuff. They didn't know whether either of them would see Morpheus again anytime soon; only Destiny of the Endless would know for sure when that would happen.