Twinkling lights

Behind closed eyes

With sandy beaches

Consuming dreams tonight.

Calming reflections

Of starry skies

Refracting and mirrored

In ocean tides.

See beauty resplendent

On this fervent night.

Please enter sandman

Before first light

To prolong this dream

Against hourglass grains

And revel in the peace

Until darkness drains.

With a flick of my hand....

And a sprinkle of golden dust....

I gaze into a sparkling fantasy....

A vision so bright....

Full of stars,

Like a clear dark-

blue night sky.

There's an ancient tree

Speaking of your destiny;

Don't you worry.

Let your heart

be your guide.

Then a little soon...

Pretty deep indigo,

Butterflies-

float by...

They sing a tune:

To yourself

Ever be true

Never fear,

And remember...

The sandman is...

always near.

A pinch of my sleeping dust, and everyone falls into a deep slumber. Most dreams are the same: flying, crushes or loved ones, monsters chasing them, fear of darkness, wearing underwear in front of people with a hint of surrealism that makes the job interesting. But there is one who has caught my eye. A special girl dreams up far more unique things than average. Lava mermaids, water trolls, magical robots, even taming nightmares. I call her my Sleeping Beauty, because her mind is far more open-minded than others. Her name's Bria, who now haunts my dreams, and my heart.

Darkness is descending; red lightning flickers across the sky as if it is bleeding from a million wounds. Boiling ocean waves crash against the jagged, obsidian stone shore. A single figure stands there, mourning the fall of this once beautiful world. Rain starts to fall, and the ground is beginning to tremble as fires rage on the horizon. The fall of Fortran will be quick as the Legions of Blood's dreadnaughts pound the surface of the planet, reducing it to a pockmarked crater. The dark waves are now strangely tinted red.

I jerk awake. This dream means someone survived. Who?

Sleep, children, sleep. They do, but some of their dreams trail behind me like wisps of choking gas. There’s Bennie who sees the monsters hiding underneath his bed and wakes up in a cold sweat every day. There’s Casey whose visions are overlaid with the sound of her parents’ arguments in the next room. And there’s Annie, whose mother died last year and whose father enters her room and startles her awake with promises of all the fun they’ll have together. For these, bedtime is a horror. Sometimes I really hate my job.

I see not only dreams, but nightmares too. Truly dark things. Hate and violence are used. Don't worry there are still dreams. People hoping to be something one day or searching for long lost love. Kids dream of fairy princesses and roller coasters. Out of all honestly, I can see why the last Sandman quit. 

They cry out and scream

As the impossible unfolds before them

Humpty Dumpty 

chasing them through the shadowed streets of London

Holding a knife

Most of us would laugh

At the idea,

But when bad dreams hovers over your bed at nighttime

They're far too vivid

And you forget

And as reality twists into fantasy

You're too afraid and confused to tell the difference.

I try to help

To plant dreams brimming with sunshine and blooming flowers

But sometimes

They're already too immersed

In the nightmares 

Overflowing with their greatest fears

As I leave Tasha's subconscious I'm bothered she can't conceive the babies in her heart. She holds them at night.

I'll see Timothy across town. He dreams it's happening over again. She cheats and cleans him out before leaving.

Enough of this! I'll visit old Martha tonight too. It is so gentle and beautiful to see her with Jordan dancing to their wedding songs. He tells her she'll join him soon and kisses her as bright light glows from his skin. I leave little sand as her tears roll down her temples. I hope for her she doesn't wake.

Oh, Salvador Dalí would enjoy walking throughout your psyche. So much fodder! What a life you have lived and at such a young age. You're going to burn out if you keep up this pace.

What are you hiding? What are you trying to avoid? Who hurt you that you're so eager to self-sabotage? Let's find out.

Just a lighter state of sleep. Cue the eye motion. Now bring up a childhood memory and...

"It's raining so much...it's so cold...I didn't do anything wrong..."

How cruel children can be. Leaving you all alone on that rooftop...