Dear Mister Sandman

Chapter 15

"What did he say to you?" Morpheus asked Charlie, as soon as she sat back down on his bed.

"He told me to get you. He's ready to talk to you in his office now." She responded. Morpheus rolled his eyes.
"I didn't mean that. I meant what was he telling you that I wasn't allowed to hear?" He asked, to which Charlie had the perfect answer to. She repeated the exact words Hypnos told her to say in case Morpheus would ask her that.

"He tested my subconscious, since for some reason, I found your guys' house again. So he had me do some things while he put me to sleep. He needed no distractions, so he didn't want you in the office too." She shrugged and looked away from him, in the hope that he bought it. Charlie had never been a good liar, but Morpheus didn't know that. Unlike her mother, who always noticed that Charlie wasn't telling the truth. Because when Charlie lied, she could not look into anybody's eyes and often acted more nonchalant about it than necessary.

"And you didn't feel the undeniable urge to come to me?" Morpheus' eyebrows rose. That was really odd to him. Charlie shrugged once more.
"I guess not." Was her short reply. Morpheus looked at her. But her eyes seemed to avoid his. Very odd indeed, Morpheus thought. But he let it slip as he had better things to discuss with her.

"I have not found a case like yours. But I have found one somewhat familiar. It's a reach, but important nonetheless." His words caught Charlie's attention and she looked at him.
"You have?" She asked and Morpheus nodded before standing up to take a seat on the bed as well. His previous- in his opinion inappropriate thoughts about Miss Denver were forgotten. Or at least in that moment, he found his discovery more important.

"Here." He leaned closer, showing her the two pages in the eighth book he read. Charlie glanced at them.
"I have never seen anything quite like it. My husband had opened his eyes and was lacking his pupils. Instead, his eyes were bright red." Charlie read aloud, still weirded out that she could read and translate ancient Greek.
"This is a diary entry about a woman, whose husband had been cursed by a demon called Färo. It says that the husband had tried to steal from him, but got caught. Färo took his soul bit by bit. He first started by letting him forget about certain things, such as his wife's name." Morpheus sighed, looking into Charlie's eyes now.

"She describes how he was close to not even remembering his own name before he stopped talking completely. That was the next stage. Then came the sleepwalking and then-" He gulped, not knowing how to phrase it.
"What?" Charlie asked, her heart pounding like crazy.
"Morpheus, what came then?" She demanded an answer after watching him struggle to form his sentence.

"Well, he never woke up. It was gone. His soul was gone and his body- according to the wife, remained alive. She doesn't specify what she means by alive, but it's probably not the type of alive you would like to be." He eventually explained. Charlie gulped. Was that going to happen to her too?
"But he was cursed by a demon, right? You're not a demon." She tried to find an excuse for as to why that wouldn't happen to her.

"I'm most certainly not. It is what confuses me too. But we cannot ignore the similarities of his symptoms and yours. Other than the sudden memory loss, you have the exact same issues." Morpheus explained, making her gulp once more as she looked down at her trembling hands. Telling him about her memory loss now would maybe not be the best idea. But how was she going to live if he didn't know how to cure her without the senate?

"I guess." Charlie only shrugged and Morpheus took that as a sign to stop talking about it. He figured she was uncomfortable and scared and maybe sad. Heck, he couldn't even imagine what he would feel like if he were in her shoes. He was really thankful that he wasn't, yet that didn't make him feel any better. She was in this position because of him. Morpheus shook his head and stood back up.