Chapter 7
The school day ended and the children went home. Grace's mother picked her up and asks, "How was your first day?"
"Good, actually it got awful a little later," the girl answered.
"Oh, what happened?" her mother asked, again.
"This girl was teasing me and some others. I heard that she desires in being the best," Grace replied.
"Oh, don't worry, it was your first day, just give it some more time," her mother said and they drove on home.
Dusk fell and Pitch rode on Erebos to find the Sand Man. Just then, a flock of golden sand birds flew passed them, leaving behind a trail of gold dust.
Erebos followed the stream and it led to a gold cloud, where Sandy was performing his nighttime ritual.
"Hello?" Pitch said and Sandy jumped when he saw the boogeyman. The yellow-colored spirit did not say a word, but above his head, some sand formed an exclamation point.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," Pitch said, but Sandy shook his head, as if to say Pitch was lying.
"Still not talking are you?" the Shadow Man asked and above Sandy's head, a question mark formed.
"I'm here to ask you a favor," Pitch said, but the Sand Man shook his head roughly. "I know, you will not forgive me for what I did, but I am asking you as a friend," Pitch added.
Sandy still did not speak and looks at Pitch and listened.
"There is a girl named Megan Honeycutt," Pitch said and explained about the incident he witnessed earlier. Sandy folded his arms and an angry look formed on his face.
"So, can I ask you to not give her good dreams tonight?" the nightmare king asked and Sandy nods. "Oh, one more thing; the girl I am looking after, Grace Dawson? Give her a good dream that will cheer her up," Pitch adds and Sandy nods, again.
"Thank you," Pitch replied and Erebos flies away from the Sand Man.
The black Pegasus flies above the big town of Blackpool, as if looking for something.
"Do you know where Megan lives?" Pitch asked and Erebos neighs.
They flew over the Blackpool tower and the beach piers. Colored lights had illuminated the darkness and Pitch felt a sense of serenity for some reason.
Then, Erebos began to circle around a white colored house with red shutters. The Pegasus landed in the driveway and Pitch peers into a window.
"I don't want to go to bed!" Megan shouted at her mother.
"Megan, that's enough! Go to sleep!" the woman ordered.
"What if the boogeyman comes?" Megan asked, sounding terrified.
"Oh for heavens sake, there's no such thing as the boogeyman. Now go to sleep," her mother said, shutting off the light and closes the door.
The girl's room had charcoal drawings pinned up on the walls, but Pitch found them to be ugly. Some had smear marks and others were not as detailed as Grace's drawings.
Megan slumped on the bed and shut her eyes, giving Pitch the cue to enter in.
He looked down at the sleeping girl and a grin forms on his lips. "You've been a bad girl, Megan, and you deserve to be punished," he said and black sand began to form in his hands.
The sand then began to dance around the little girl's head and Megan started to toss and turn. She was having a nightmare.
The black sand horse circles around its master. "I've missed you," Pitch said and the horse gave a neigh.
"Be sure to give this girl the worst of the bad," he added and the black sand horse trotted above the girl's head.
Pitch watched in amusement as Megan started to whimper. Then, her eyes flutter open and she stared up at the boogeyman.
"Boo," Pitch said in a creepy voice. Megan gave an ear-piercing scream, one that made Pitch's ears go numb and he quickly left the room.
"Megan! What is it?!" both her parents exclaimed when they came in.
"The boogeyman! He was here! I saw him!" the girl cried out, but her parents gave looks of irritation and Pitch chuckled.
The nightmare circled around its master, leaving a trail of black sand. "Very good, keep it up until morning," he ordered the creature and it returns back inside the girl's room.
"Cry of bloody murder," Pitch said to Erebos, rubbing his ringing ears. "She almost made my ears go deaf," he added and the Black Pegasus whinnied.
Inside Megan's room, the girl begged to her parents to let her stay up all night. "You have school tomorrow," her father, Mr. Honeycutt said.
"I don't want to go to that school anymore! It's boring!" Megan fussed.
"Your father paid a lot of money for you to go to that school. Now show some respect to him," her mother replied, but Megan gave a huff.
"Do you want to be punished? We'll take away your computer games and throw away your drawings," Mrs. Honeycutt said to her daughter.
"No, no, no! I'll be good!" Megan begged and dropped back down on the bed.
"Good, now go to sleep," Mr. Honeycutt replied and he and his wife left their daughter's room.
"It seems that Mr. Honeycutt likes to spoil his daughter," Pitch said to Erebos.
The nightmare king looked in through the window. The nightmare danced around the girl's head and Megan tossed and turned in her sleep.
"That'll make her stay up all night," Pitch said and decided to leave.
He got on Erebos and they flew back to Grace's house on the outskirts of town. The countryside was quieter than the city and Pitch liked this better.
When they got back to the Dawson house, Pitch took a peek inside Grace's room. The girl was asleep, but something was not right as she whimpered in her sleep.
Pitch went in the room and saw a cloud of black sand hovering over Grace. "No, no, no!" he shouted and took the black sand into his hands.
"You are a bad nightmare!" he said to the creature and it dissolved into smoke.
Then, golden light illuminated the room and a gold cloud hovered over Grace. The cloud formed into a Pegasus and someone was riding on it. The creature and its rider flew above Grace's head and Pitch watched as the girl formed a smile on her face.
"That's what I wanted to see," he said to the sleeping girl. He leaves in order to find more bad children and haunt them with bad dreams and protect the good ones from the nightmares.