Mr. Sandman, Bring Me a Dream

Chapter I

Let me tell you a tale, though I don't think it is a pretty one. I like to tell this to my children as they grow and as my husband and I watch them. Every tale starts at the beginning. And we begin in the waking world, which humanity, my old race, insists on calling the real world. As if their dreams have no effect upon the choices they make. Us mortals going about our work, our loves, and our wars, as if our waking lives mattered.

But there is another life which awaits you when you close your eyes. And enter the realm of my husband. When the waking world leaves you wanting and weary, sleep brings you here, to find freedom and adventure. To face your fears and fantasies in dreams and nightmares my husband creates and which he must control, lest they consume and destroy you. That is his purpose and his function.

Or it was until he left his kingdom to pursue a rogue nightmare. A land he thought he would be back to in a matter of minutes. But it all starts in the year 1916, the year that the Gallipoli campaign ended. My father, brother, and I lived in our large stately country house. Father, grieving the loss of Randall, treated us like servants as we were not good enough to stand beside Randall as equals. Then, that day arrived.

I rush to the door as the bell goes off, Alex not too far behind me. With a soft click, I pulled open the door to reveal a man just as old as my father. "Oh. Good afternoon, young lady. My name is Dr. John Hathaway." He introduces himself and my bright (e/c) eyes study him curiously. I didn't recognize him at all so I tilted my head a little bit. "Of the royal museum?" He adds, just as curious as I was seeing as I didn't know him whatsoever.

I glance back at Alex as if he knew who this man was, but he didn't know at all. "Are you here to see the Magus?" I whisper. I hated talking. Though my father didn't have an issue with it, the quieter I was, the easier it would be for him to find me a husband. "Well, I've come to see Mr. Roderick Burgess." He tells me. I look back at Alex before closing the door and making way for Alex. I was too short to reach the door chain.

Alex opened the door for the man and I stepped back so that the Doctor could come in. "Father likes to be called Magus. It means sorcerer." Alex explains simply to the doctor. The minute the doctor had entered the house, I was leading him and Alex down the hall, towards Father. I didn't look back at them though, simply trusted that they were following me. Though they had stopped for a moment I could tell, because I could hear someone talking.

"The Magus will receive his guest in the study, Alex and (y/n)." He says and I bob my head a little, moving again, my ankle-length skirt swishing about. "Yes, Mr. Sykes." Alex answers softly before he begins lending the doctor after me again. Using my ring of keys, I unlocked the door to my father's study and let everyone in, closing the door behind them. "Have you come to join Father's order?" Alex asks the doctor.

Before the door could click shut, Father slams his hand against it and it flies open. I bow my head as he limps in, the cane he often carried hiding the limp so it was less noticeable. "Dr. Hathaway, what an unexpected pleasure." He tells the man, though I suspect that this was not unexpected and this doctor was bringing something to the Magus. "Alex, (y/n), tea for our guest." Father orders and we quickly get to work.

Father then offered the man a chair. Alex and I worked in quick harmony to get the tea ready. Then something caught my attention. "I take it you've reconsidered then?" He questions the doctor. Apparently, Dr. Hathaway wasn't even going to show up, but he had received a telegram that said that his son, Edmund, died. His destroyer had been sunk just off an island near Denmark, Jutland.

So, he was here because his son had died like Randall, the only difference being that Randall was shot in Gallipoli. The poor doctor claimed that he understood that Randall was his only son. "Randall was my greatest joy. And then I got saddled with a useless daughter." He complains as I shooed myself and Alex out of the room. I was about to close the door when I heard something about a book called the Magdalene Grimoire.