Chapter 2
Pitch found himself flying over a vast, open ocean. It was dark, but the moon's glow glimmered upon the water, making it shine like a crystal.
Erebos lowered himself towards the water and Pitch looked down at his reflection. Then, the black Pegasus flew upward, barely missing the rocky cliffs. The scenery changed to a forest of pines and some old farmland.
Finally, Erebos began to circle around an old brick house that was surrounded by vast, open acres of farmland. A chimney was releasing white smoke and a light was on in one of the upper room windows.
The black Pegasus flew up to the window and Pitch looked into it. The room had numerous canvases and some papers with pencil drawings. Some were so detailed that Pitch had never seen anything done like this before, not even when he was mortal.
Then, someone came into the room and Pitch was surprised to see the creator of the drawings. A young girl, perhaps ten or maybe eleven years of age, with curly brown and red hair and dazzling green-hazel eyes entered in. She looked at one drawing of a landscape of a farm and she seemed to be admiring it.
"Grace!" a woman's voice called and the girl left the room. "Are you in bed, dear?" the woman asked.
"Just about to, mummy," the girl replied back.
"This is Grace?" Pitch asked Erebos and the black Pegasus snickered.
The two looked into the next room, where the girl, Grace had gone into the bed.
A woman, the girl's mother, perhaps, entered in. "Mummy, can you tell me that story?" Grace asked.
"Again?" the mother asked and Grace nodded.
Pitch decided to listen in.
"Somewhere in this world, a child is suffering from nightmares, only because he deserved it," the woman said and Pitch was surprised to hear this.
"What did the child do to deserve these nightmares?" Grace asked and Pitch was curious himself.
"The child had done something bad and the boogeyman punished him for being bad," Grace's mother answered.
"But the boogeyman is good is he?" the girl asked.
"I believe he is and if you believe he is good, then he'll leave you alone with your good dreams," the girl's mother replied.
"But he does protect children from bad dreams, does he?" Grace asked, again.
"Yes, sometimes the bad dreams will creep upon you when you sleep, but the boogeyman will scare them away," Grace's mother said.
"I know he is good and maybe, he is not so frightening," the girl replied.
Pitch was surprised to hear about this notion and perhaps, he felt a sense of support from this child. Could she really believe that he was good in some way?
"She's an artist and a believer in me," Pitch said to Erebos. The Pegasus neighed and the nightmare king patted his neck.
The light was turned off in the girl's room and Pitch entered in the room next door.
He looked at the pencil drawings; they were beautiful and so detailed that he found it hard to believe that this child was an artist.
"Alright old friend, I'll watch this girl for a year and I'll prove that I can be good," the Shadow Man said and he stared up at the moon.