Sandy looked at the empty bed with a frown. He came here as fast as he could after his dreamsand failed to find the young boy who should have occupied the bed. The entire family was asleep in the single room of their small house. It had been dark for an while now and they would have needed to light a candle if they stayed awake. They did not look like a wealthy family. Sleep was less expensive than candles.
The parents' bed was hidden from view behind a curtain and the only sound coming from there was their slow, even breathing as they slept. They did not know of their eldest child's disappearance. Near the curtain, a baby girl slept in a wooden cradle. Golden sand flew over her head in no distinct shapes as she dreamt. Sandy smiled softly at her.
The front door had been partially open when he arrived, as if someone had tried to close it in a hurry and not quite succeeded. Sandy wondered why a young child would decide to go outside alone so late. The adults usually did a good job of scaring them into staying inside after dark. He did not think that was the good way to go about this, but he was not the one raising them. Sighing, he climbed on his golden cloud to try and find the wayward child.
Circling around the small village, he eventually heard quiet sobs coming from the woods. He followed them to their source to find the small, brown-haired boy sitting against a tree in his nightshirt, crying softly. He hugged his legs to his chest, shivering in the chill of the night. He raised his head when he noticed the golden glow of the sand coming near him and looked at him with wide, frightened eyes. Sandy gave him a reassuring smile as he got down from the cloud. Recognition lit the boy's features.
"Y-you... a-are you the Sandman?" the child asked in a small, trembling voice.
Sandy nodded and the boy smiled brightly, his tears forgotten. He got up and walked to stand in front of him, his big brown eyes full of curiosity. The Sandman let the child circle him once before forming the picture of a bed in the sand above his head. The smile disappeared as the child took a step back, his eyes filled with fear once more. He hugged himself, trembling.
"T-there was something... under the bed. I-I saw... the shadows move. I-I got scared and I ran. Now I don't know where I am..."
The boy sniffled and rubbed his eyes. Sandy looked carefully in the darkness around them but found no trace of the black form he searched for. If the Boogeyman had decided to scare the boy, he must have left when he saw him. Or it could be nothing, of course. Just a mouse scurrying under the bed.
"I-I want to go back home. Even if there's a monster under the bed. It's scary here."
The fear left is eyes as golden sand entered them. Sandy caught him as he fell asleep and gently placed him on the golden cloud. He watched with satisfaction as happy dreams formed in the sand, chasing the darkness away from his thoughts. He flew the boy back to his house and carried him to his small bed, tucking him in. It was a rare thing for him to actually see the children sleep and dream. He usually remained far away.
Before he left, he made sure to check under the bed. Sometime the monsters were real.
I wanted to do something with Jack as a kid and I hadn't used Sandy in a while so there you go! Sorry my stories are all really short right now, I have some longer ones planned but I don't have the attention span to try to write them at the moment. I've been trying to fix my computer all night and I want to draw things.
