I originally wrote this for my two best friends, who had no idea what The Sandman was. Instead of taking hours to explain it myself, I wrote in the explanation. I can't exactly take it out now since it's kind of important in the storyline. So you people who know get a refresher course. Thanks again to Kurama'srose124, my only reviewer, who is beginning to sound like my real life inspiration and motivator, Brigitt.

Disclaimer:I own only the characters that are not apart of the original story written by Neil Gaiman. Trust me, i would have somehow turned it into a musical...


Consciousness hit me like a thud. Or a series of thuds. Light burned my sensitive eyes, so I rolled over away from the brightness. Strong, lithe arms slipped around my waist and pulled me in closer. My sleepy mind didn't register this as anything wrong at first. Then whoever it was repositioned themselves and something hard brushed against my thigh, jolting me into panicked alertness. I drew my legs up and kicked him away, only to land on my back on the floor when he didn't budge an inch. The light once again blinded me as I lay there dazed. Somewhere above me a soft tinkling laughter, a girl's laugh, chimed in my ears. When my eyes adjusted to the bright morning light, I looked up to see a dark-skinned girl, African maybe, with long black dreadlocks, dangling her feet over the edge of the top bunk bed. She giggled further and said, "At least someones up. The others have been asleep since I came in an hour ago."

I sat up,still on the floor, taking in the room around me. The morning light streamed in from the eastern wall, which was a panel of stained glass windows that went from floor to ceiling. The colors made no sense to me up close, but out of the corner of ones eye, they assembled into a garden view. A second bunk bed sat against the wall opposite the one I'd been sleeping in. On the top bunk, half hanging off of it, was a tall, lanky brunette boy. The bottom was occupied by a vaguely oriental figure but which gender they were was a mystery. The only other objects of interest in the room were a plain looking wardrobe sitting in the corner next to an equally plain looking door.

Suddenly, the brunette fell off the bed with a loud Whump! and landed on his fack on the floor. A blonde that had been out of sight behind him sat up and snapped, "I am NOT gay!" Now somewhat awake, the boy on ground level groaned, "Not my idea! I passed out on the back of that giant rabbit!"

the blond boy swung down and planted himself firmly in front of his unfortunate bed mate. He glared through horn rimmed glasses at the boy on the floor, who was so pale I expected he'd never gone out in sunlight.

"If that isn't a load of bull I don't know what is." Blondie hissed, about to say more when I decided to intervene. "You were awake when we s-Oomph!" The pillow, while soft, was extremely thick and knocked him over onto the lower bed. "Don't you have better things to do than whine?" I yawned before he started yelling again. He was almost as pale as the other boy, and his voice had a soft lilt on the edges that made me guess he was from the British Isles. He sat up gripping the pillow, when a voice cut through the argument.

"Children! Children! Calm down or your grounded." The voice called from the doorway. A familiar raven haired woman materialized holding the doorknob and smirking at our little group. That smirk made the room feel about twenty degrees colder. Everybody seemed frozen in place except for the girl with the dreadlocks. She waved cheerfully and said, "Morning Death! What's the word?" with the same perkiness that she'd displayed in greeting me. I shivered, hearing the name and remembering this was the woman from my dream, so many months ago. The only problem with my memory of her, however, was that all that time close to insanity in jail, my image of her had blurred so I expected her complete with scythe and cloak.

She went to each of the beds, waking whoever wasn't up already. Addressing the girl, she said, "Come on, Marta. Get everybody dressed and down for breakfast before Delirium comes through and switches the dining room for the main garden again." I began to realize that this woman didn't need a scythe or a grim appearance to be authoritative. It came with the job, I guess.

Death swept out the door, leaving Marta in a fit of wind chime-ish giggles. Jumping off the top of the bed, she laughed, "Now that was dining al fresco!"

I noted that I was in a floral nightgown and went to the wardrobe to remedy this. I was expecting to find one set of everyone clothes, but instead I saw about six sets of the outfit I'd come in, all in different color combinations. This would have been less alarming if I really owned that amount of clothes. Instead of asking, and being further confused, I picked out an outfit that looked the least shocking.

It was simple enough. A short brown jacket with white fur around the edges and a long skirt-like pair of midnight blue pants, studded with small buttons where I had hidden pockets. In one of those pockets, I found a hair tie. I squirmed into my clothes, trying to be discreet, when the blond piped up, "So where's my clothes?"

Marta closed the doors behind me and replied, "In the wardrobe where they should be. It has the clothes of whoever opens it. What was your name again?" She asked as politely as if she'd been told already and forgotten. He opened the door she'd closed and rummaged around inside, wondering weather to tell her or not. He finally said, "I'm Simon Carewell."

Marta spun to the rest of our tiny group, silently asking the same polite question. I was shrugging into my jacket when she caught my eye. Feeling like I'd told a thousand people I told her as well, "I'm called Kaiyali Moondancer." And I promptly ducked to avoid to weird looks I got from the boys. The brunette was sitting, bundled in a blanket, next to the person on the lower bunk, who turned out to be a girl. He looked so sad and dopey, I figured he wasn't very social, especially when he muttered, "Enma Kyoya." under his breath.

The girl next to him, obviously from the far east, was more alert, and definatly self confident. "Chi Zhexing. Where are we?" She asked the question on everyone's mind but Marta's. Who knew what was on that girl's mind most of the time. We all went quiet and looked at the strange girl. As brightly as ever, she said, "Destiny's castle. He usually doesn't use a lot of it because he prefers the gardens, so the other Endless use it for the trials."

I flinched. Because as soon as the word was out of her mouth, the sickness came again. I shivered, cold sweat forming on my forehead. The urge to throw up was so great, my face surely had turned green. From the collective groans around the room, I knew I wasn't the only one who got close to violently ill when that word was mentioned.

Marta ignored our illness, which disappated faster than last time, and dragged Chi and the shrinking violet Enma to the wardrobe to get dressed. "Time waits for no one!" She called, "Except maybe Death... Who knows?"

Hurrying through everybody's morning routines, I remembered the guy I'd woken up with. But their were only five people in the room, and I was sure no one had left. No more confused than I'd been for the past two days now, I murmured "Where he...?"
From the wardrobe, Chi pulled a long green dress, and tried it on. She caught my question and asked, "Where'd who do what, Kaiyali?" I shrugged, "I woke up earlier in the arms of a guy with a hard on. But now I can't find him." Chi grinned wickedly. "What'd you want to find him for?"

I glared at her, slightly red, tying my sandals with short, sharp tugs on the straps. Standing up to slip on the other, I said, "Because I didn't see him leave, that's why." Her grin, if anything, only grew further. She sat next to Enma on the opposite bed and asked, "Ooookay. What do you really want him for Kaiyali? You ARE a girl after all." Both shy Enma and I went bright red. I started to re-braid my long hair, snapping "You're a pervert Chi, cut it out!"

Marta broke in, cutting the tension in the room with, "Kaiyali, that wasn't a guy. You shared a bed with Desire." But instead of being comforted, I only went redder; practically hearing the thoughts that were making Chi laugh hysterically. Enma's hopelessly lost expression prompted the girl to to say, "I guess you guys don't know very much about the Endless. Very well, I can explain what I've picked up from them."

Arranging herself infront of the window, we all gathered around as Marta told us what the story of a lifetime. The lifetime of the universe. "The Endless are not mortal. They aren't human because they existed before humans were even thought of. The Endless are ideas, aspects if you will, of forces that have existed since the beginning. And in the beginning, was the eldest of them: Destiny. His book details the entire course of history and the future, but it is set on paper, not stone, and can change sometimes.

"Then, when creatures began to live, came Death. Death is there at the start of a life and will be there at the end of all lives, including the life of the universe. Who knows which will last longer, Destiny or Death. But once the living were aware of themselves and life, they began to dream. So came Dream, because creatures could die before they had the capacity to dream.

"Destruction was next, once being the controller of all wars, famine, disease, and anything that destroyed what could be created. But long ago, he left his post, preferring to create rather than be responsible for the machines of war man was inventing. We don't know if he has any children because he refuses to pass on the burden of being Destruction.

"After him comes the three youngest. The twins, Desire and Despair, are perhaps, the most troublesome, since they were practically made to trouble mortal creatures. Desire is unique among the Endless, being neither male nor female, but being everything one could want in a single living being. Despair is rarely at home outside her realm, where she loves her work like nothing else but her twin.

The youngest Endless was once called Delight. She was a beautiful and happy woman, until a disaster that none of the others talk about, and she herself doesn't clearly remember, happened. Out of that tragedy came her current form, Delirium, the embodiment of all insanity, though some wonder if she is truly insane or if she makes more sense than anyone."

Simon suddenly interrupted, making the other three of us jump out of our skins. Leaning against a bedpost, a dark and distrustful gleam in the eyes behind his glasses, he asked, "So why are we here? If these guys are all powerful, why do they need us mear mortals?"

Marta gave him a look of quiet thoughtfulness for a moment. She sighed, closing her eyes, calmer than she'd been all day. Solemn for another moment, she replied, "I'm sorry. I suppose I've mislead you. The Endless are not mortal, but they are not immortal either. They live as long as they are not killed. To prevent the permanent loss of an Endless, they each have mortal children who will step into their position should they die."

The silence of the room was absolute, and deafening. Then, the normally bubbly girl gone quiet, grinned, "And that's why all us children should get down to breakfast!"