He froze.

He was so dead.

Not only had he been seen by a human child but

he was being held by a human child.

And spoken to.

The rules were:

no touching,

no communication,

no trace that you were ever there.

He silently struggled in the hold of the child, it was bigger then him so it was futile to try escape it’s hold.

“Oh no, I don’t want to hurt you!

I wanted to see if you were alright! You seemed scared!”

The child spoke again.

Slowly Leo looked up. Big worried eyes looked down at him.

They stared at each other for what seemed like ages.

“Are you alright?” the child repeated slowly its first question.

Leo nodded numbly, what else was he suppose to do?

The child smiled widely. It was beautiful.

Leo had never ever seen such a big smile.

The child’s eyes disappeared into half moons and he could almost count all its teeth.

“That is good! I was worried!” with that the child went back to its bed and carefully climbed up it. Then he gently put Leo on his pillow.

Wow, Leo thought, it was soft.

“Are you going to run away now?” Leo froze, right! He should be running away now.

“Please don’t, you seemed very scared, rest here a bit!” the child spoke quickly.

It wasn’t loud but soft as he spoke. The other Sandmen always preached humans were loud and noisy but this wasn’t the case with this child.

There would be nothing wrong with resting a bit right? Leo wondered.

“What’s your name?” the child smiled at him and Leo paniced. He couldn’t speak, could the child thought speak?

That was ridiculous, he was a human.

There hadn’t been a lesson: talking with humans 101 with the Sandmen.

Leo! He panicked and thought spoke out of desperation.

The child blinked.

“Did you just…? Did you hear that? There was something in my head...? Am I dreaming?” It asked slowly, clearly confused at what had just happened.

You can hear me? Leo thought spoke softly, since the other Sandmen had been so mean he was out of practice.

The child smiled and nodded, “That is awesome, what is that?”

Thought speech, Leo tried also a small smile.

“Wow, that is cool! I’m Hongbin by the way!” the child wouldn’t stop smiling, “Are you a Sandman?”
Leo panicked:  He was a Sandman. What on earth was he doing?
How could he?
Speaking to a human?

As Hongbin saw the little creature before him start to panic he realized he hit a nerve.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” he flailed around trying to think of how to calm the little thing down. So he flung his toys at it not knowing what else to do.

That night Leo was hit with: a teddy, a stuffed raccoon and a bunny plushy.

After that Hongbin started to nervously chewed on his nails, “We aren’t suppose to see you guys right?”

Leo nodded.

“But you are the ones who put us to sleep?”

More nodding.

“So… you’re going to put me to sleep… aren’t you?”

Hesitating, but more nodding.

“Will I see you again?”

This time Leo shook his head. He could never let this happen again.

Hongbin narrowed his eyes and pouted, “What that’s unfair! I want to see you again!”

Leo frowned as much as he loved looking at Hongbin's smile if he was ever caught it meant certain exile.

“But, but!

 Fine! But someday I’ll see you again!” Hongbin swore.

At that moment, Leo, still covered in the boys animals, felt his energy return.

He had to go before anyone Sandman wondered by. For the sake of Hongbin, who knows what Sandmen would so to children who saw Sandmen, if the punishment for the Sandman was already so severe.

And with just a split second hesitation he threw some Sand at the boy.

The small human was out like a light.

As Leo crawled out of the plushy pile he pulled the blanket over the boy. It took some effort because it was large but in the end ‘Hongbin’ was all tucked away, in dreamland. Leo felt his heart flutter as he still wore his big smile, even during sleep.

He turned and started to make his way to the window.

But not before looking at the child again and thinking:

Good night and thank you for letting me rest!

Perhaps someday we will meet again.

He could only pray that no other Sandman had seen what had happened in that room.

As he finished his job and returned to the cloud, Ravi as okay. He had chased the Nightmare away successfully.

Leo got a round of yelling at from the head Sandman, about how careless he was to let himself get attacked by a Nightmare.

Never the less Leo slept quite peaccefully.
His thoughts with a certain child, which had blown him away with a certain smile.