My husband led me outside to get some fresh air, only stopping once we reached an elderly woman. She was a wizened thing, wearing a thick plaid coat, purse, and umbrella with a curved handle. Johanna's familiar footsteps echoed through the dark, approaching us and getting the old lady's attention. "I said the Sandman and I meant the bleedin' Sandman." She says to Johanna, smiling up at my husband.
"It's good to have you back, milord. And a pleasure to meet your Queen wife." She says before taking off in a direction. I waved her off, my hand resettling on my bump when I stopped. I let the two of them talk as I finally noticed it. I almost missed it due to the darkness of the night as well as its own sleek, feathered body. "Something of mine came into your possession. A leather pouch filled with sand." Dream reminds her.
I noticed the trigger of recollection going off in her head. Apparently, she had bought it at an estate sale. Couldn't get the drawstrings to open. "Where is it?" Morpheus demanded but Johanna was not quite understanding of his desperation. I sighed as Johanna finally left, but not without triggering all of the buttons leading to his aggravation. The raven had since come and landed on my arm.
The two of us watched as Johanna walked off and Morpheus was left to brew in his own little stew of frustration. He then turned on myself and the raven who quickly flew over to a park bench after getting a brutal glare from my husband. "Who are you?" He demands the raven who is looking at the two of us. "Tell me your name." Morpheus orders the beautiful black bird looking up at us.
"It's...uh...Matthew, sir." He says to us and I smile at him. I placed my hand on Morpheus' shoulder. "Remember. You promised me a raven to protect me and the children." I cooed, quickly putting out the volcanic eruption I could feel coming. I was pouring water over the flame and it was working quickly. He nodded and we took off to begin our search to look for Johanna Constantine and Morpheus' sand.
Poor Matthew happily chatted away with me as we walked. He told me how only hours ago he was human until he died in his sleep. But the entire time, Morpheus was stiff. "Sorry about him. He still misses his last raven." I explained to Matthew who was perched on my shoulder. When Matthew asked me what happened, I sighed and held up my silver bracelet showing him the feather that represented Jessamy.
"Her name was Jessamy. She died trying to help me save Morpheus." I informed him, tears pooling in my eyes as I touched my stomach. Matthew apologized softly, kindly. Before an Idea come to him. "Look, at least let me help the two of you find this woman. If she's asleep, we've probably got five or six hours before she's on the move again." Matthew states as I look down at the state of myself.
Pregnant and famished. "If she is asleep, then I know exactly where to find her." Morpheus says as he resettles his hand back onto my back. "Ok, but can we make a stop first? I would kill for some fish and chips." I tell my husband and the raven beside me. Morpheus smiles and nods before leading me to the closest fish and chip shop. There, he more than happily let me order a large chips and a couple of pieces of fish.
Well, at least it kept me quiet for a while. Morpheus needed quiet so that he could find Johanna. And find her he did, in a nightmare. "Found her." He tells me, leading me and my food into the night to find the apartment. She was breathing heavily when we arrived. She was still asleep and I placed down my food in order to head towards her. When she finally shot up out of the nightmare, she didn't notice us right away.
Carefully, I took her hand into mine causing her to jump a little bit. "You're alright." I whisper as she sighs at the two of us. "For fuck's sake." She whispers as she clutches my hand a little tighter, like it was the first human contact she had had in a while. I smile at her and run my thumb over her knuckles in a comforting motion. "How did you find me?" She asks as I glanced over at my food that was sitting on the counter.
I quickly got up to get it before returning to my spot beside Johanna. She smiled at me a little as I balanced my food on top of my stomach. I was at the point that I could probably give birth any minute given the alarming rate they were growing. "You were dreaming. But it wasn't only a dream, was it?" Morpheus questions her as I finish my last piece of fish. I offer her some chips but she shakes her head as she continued to hold my hand.
Not that I really had a problem with it. "No wonder you do not sleep." Morpheus muses and I look at her sadly. I remember the moments in which my sleep was haunted by my awful life and I assumed that it was the same thing for her. "Maybe I don't deserve to." She comments as I finish my food. I move her chin so that she was looking at me. "Everyone deserves to sleep." I tell her, wincing as one of my babies kicks my bladder.
"But I could make it go away." Morpheus waves the promise toward her, piquing her interest. She seemed to be desperate for at least a hint of peace when she slept. It made me wonder what she saw in those awful dreams that haunted her. "Only if I help find your sand." She scoffs as he nods. Then he looks about the messy apartment. "Though finding anything in this place may require more magic than even you can muster." He comments.
She let go of me and stood, brushing off her blanket. "I'll look in the office. Try not to clean up while I'm gone." She informs Morpheus. As she goes to walk past him, he stops her. He mentions that she has a gift for disappearing and that he needed to keep an eye on her. She smiles almost sarcastically. "But if the mess in here offends you, wait till you see my office." She teases and I chuckle a little, brushing my hand along my stomach.
Jessamy Johanna Burgess. JJ Burgess. It actually had a nice ring to it. I manage to locate a bathroom while the two are looking for Morpheus' sand. As I come out of the bathroom, the two walk past me. "Where are you two going?" I question as I quickly waddle up behind Morpheus. "We're going to get my sand." He says as we're led out of Johanna's apartment. Apparently, it's at her ex-girlfriend's place. Rachel Moodie.
As I waddled behind the two, they chatted about Rachel. "This is her. Or it used to be." Johanna says as she walked up to the door, muttering to herself about moving. And the hope that she had moved. Unfortunately for her, it was not meant to be. As she pressed the buzzer, she glanced over at us. "Maybe we'll get lucky and she won't be..." She starts but is cut off suddenly as Rachel buzzes her up to the apartment.
Johanna frowns at the buzzer. "That's weird. She didn't even ask who it is." She murmurs before coming to the realization that she might be expecting someone. And it was going to get awkward if Johanna went up and it wasn't who Rachel was expecting. But regardless, after informing us that we should wait, Johanna went up into the apartment. I placed my hand on his arm as a cramp ripped through my abdomen.
I cried out and placed my hand on the underside of my stomach. Morpheus placed one of his hands on my back and the other went to my stomach. "I'm fine." I breathe out and smile up at him. Probably just Braxton hicks, false contractions. "I say this as someone who was recently human. Human Beings cannot be trusted." He says as I sit on a small bench across the way from Rachel's apartment.
According to Matthew, if he was Johanna, he'd be up there cutting a deal with Rachel to keep the sand. Then they could cut the dream sand with real sand and sell it to the highest bidder. Another false contraction burned through me and I took a couple of deep breaths. "The sand isn't drugs, Matthew. You can't just cut the sand with regular sand." I explained to him and he looks down a little.
"We can't all be Jessamy, who was apparently perfect in every way." Matthew tells Morpheus before informing him that even if he thought that he didn't need a raven, out here he needed someone. In a place where no one thinks of anyone but themselves, he was going to be standing in the rain forever. I groaned again before looking up at the apartment. I pressed my hand to my pelvis as my husband and Matthew look at me.
"Where is Johanna? I think I'm going into labor." I cry.
YOU ARE READING
Mr. Sandman, Bring Me a Dream
Fanfiction(y/n) Burgess was someone that spent most of her mortal life wishing she wasn't born. That was until she found someone to love and listen to her. Lord Morpheus of Dreams.
