Johanna shot up in her bed with a gasp.

Once again, she had a nightmare. The same one she had almost every night. The constant reminder of how she failed.

Maybe she deserved that. She was supposed to take care of her. Astra had her whole life in front of her and because of the stupid demon, the girl won't be able to enjoy it anymore. Johanna failed.

While trying to get her breathing back under control, the woman glanced around the room. If it wasn't for their pale skin tone and Atia's almost white hair, she would've missed the two intruders hidden in the shadows.

"For fuck's sake," Johanna cursed under her breath and shook her head. "How did you find me?"

"You were dreaming," Morpheus said simply.

"But it wasn't only a dream, was it?" Atia added softly. "It was a memory."

Constantine slowly nodded weakly.

"No wonder you do not sleep."

"Maybe I don't deserve to."

"Perhaps not," Morpheus agreed. "But I could make it go away."

"Only if I help you find your sand," Johanna guessed.

She probably didn't know, but even though they were the Rulers of the Dreaming, neither of them had true control over dreams. They could manipulate them, change them slightly, but only the sand had a real power to control them.

"Though, finding anything in this place may require more magic than even you can muster."

Atia elbowed her husband lightly in the side after he made the remark. He just shrugged and subtly gestured around. The room was a mess.

Johanna, on the other hand just glanced at them, before taking a look around. Then, taking a deep breath, she stood up.

"I'll look in the office," she announced. "Try not to clean up while I'm gone."

"We're coming with you. You have a gift for disappearing."

"All right," the woman rolled her eyes. "But if the mess in here offends you, wait till you see my office."

*****

Johanna wasn't lying. Her office was even worse than her room. Things were scattered over all available surfaces.

"Why do you humans love objects so much?" Morpheus asked, looking around.

"I don't know," Atia shook her head. "In my times, we never had that much. Only what was needed to fill basic human needs."

"They do come in handy sometimes," Johanna shrugged, then glanced towards the other female in the room. "You were a human?"

"Yes, a long time ago," she nodded.

"And how did you become... whatever you are now?"

The two immortal beings exchanged a look.

"That's a long story that neither of us wants to talk about," Atia merely said.

There was a moment of silence, in which Johanna looked between the two, as if she tried to figure out what could their story be. In the end, there was no way she could, so she dropped it. Instead, she returned to her search.

"You seem pretty attached to your sand," the woman said, going back to the topic of the love for objects.

"That's different," the Queen of Dreaming shook her head.

"It's not just an object, it's a part of me," Morpheus stated.

"If that's true, how'd you happen to lose it?"

"It was stolen by another magic user called Burgess."

This made Johanna pause for a second.

"Wait, not Roderick Burgess?" she glanced at them over her shoulder. "The old Demon King himself, eh?"

Atia almost scoffed at the name. A monster, that's what he was. A liar, thief-

"Everyone used to say he was a fake," Constantine continued. "Said he had the Devil locked up in his basement. How the fuck did you..."

She cut herself off, as she looked towards the two beings once again. She saw the haunted look in their eyes and the way Atia moved closed to Morpheus. The unshed tears in the Endless' eyes.

She stood up straighter.

"Shit," was all she said, before walking over to the couple. "Wasn't the Devil he had locked up in his basement, was it?"

No answer.

"Were you down there? All this time?" she glanced at Atia. "Both of you?"

Dream looked away. He strayed away from them, opting to walk around and look through Johanna's things. The woman was still too shocked to stop him. Instead, she kept her eyes on the second immortal.

"For a hundred of years, he was locked up down there, while I tried to keep our realm from falling apart," the Queen of the Dreaming took a deep breath. "I went there, every few years, trying to free him. Now, we're trying to bring our realm to the state it was before all this."

Johanna slowly nodded and looked down. Usually, she didn't care, but now, she couldn't imagine how the two of them felt. From what she understood, they lost everything and yet, here they were.

"Is this you?" Morpheus' voice was heard from across the room.

He was holding photos of Johanna with another woman. They were smiling or making silly faces at the camera. They looked genuinely happy.

"Why? Do I look that different?" the woman asked, snatching the photos from his hands. "Or younger?"

"No. Happy."

Looking down at the photos, Constantine let out a long sigh, before looking back up.

"Shit. I know where your sand is."

*****

Johanna led the two others towards the block only she knew. Questions were flowing through Morpheus and Atia's minds.

"Who is she? The woman in the picture?" Dream finally voiced one of them.

"Her name's Rachel, Rachel Moodie."

"Does she deal in magic as well?"

"God, no," Johanna scoffed. "No, she's actually a decent person. Proper job, nice family. Fuckin' hated all the magic stuff."

"And yet you left the sand with her."

"No, I did not leave it with her," Constantine protested, looking towards the Endless. "Sort of left it. And her."

Atia and Morpheus turned almost at the same time, the same questioning look in their eyes. As the moral looked at them once again, she sighed.

"I was staying at her place for a few months. She interpreted that as us living together, which we weren't, so... one night, I just went on a job and... never went back," Johanna quickly explained.

"She sounds like a nice person," Atia mused. "Why?"

For a moment, the woman didn't answer.

"Because it never ends well, does it?"

"What?" Morpheus raised a brow, then looked at the woman. "Love?"

"Can't say it always has a happy ending, but it's not always bad either," his wife glanced up on his with a small smile. "I mean, in the end, it did work out for us."

"Well, I don't know if you've noticed, but people around me tend to get ripped in half or cast down to Hell," Johanna muttered. "Safer for her if I left."

"Did you tell her that?"

"No. I suppose I'll have to now," she sighed and turned towards the entrance of the building. "This is her. Or it used to be. It's been six months. Maybe she might've moved house."

As she approached the intercom, she muttered pleads and prayers under her breath, asking that her ex moved houses. Luck wasn't on her side that day.

Atia raised a brow in amusement, as she heard the woman curse and click the button, which made a buzzing noise.

"Maybe we'll get lucky and she won't be-" Johanna was cut off by the sound of the doors opening. "That's weird. She didn't even ask who it is."

She pushed the doors open and glanced back at the two immortals.

"Maybe she's expecting someone. This could get awkward. More... awkward," the two almost smiled at the situation.

Johanna Constantine, the woman who sassed and talked back to them every chance she got turned into a rambling mess, all because they had to get a sand from her ex.

"Wait here," she told them.

"We're coming with you," Morpheus immediately protested.

"No, you're not. Do you have any idea how much she probably hates me right now? Do you have any ex-girlfriends?"

Atia let out a quiet laugh, which she quickly tried to chock down as the two glanced at her. She knew about Morpheus' past lovers, before he met her. She even knew about his son, but sadly, she never got a chance to meet him, as he died before she was even born.

As for herself, she didn't have much of a story. She only ever had one lover before and it wasn't of her choice, but rather her father's. The marriage would've done their family well, but it didn't work out in the end.

"We will not wait long," Morpheus declared, sending his wife a look.

"You won't have to," Johanna said. "She's gonna slam the door in my face, like I'm about to do with you... right now."

And she did just that.

*****

As the two waited, Matthew joined them out of nowhere. He just seemed to appear out of thin air, but neither of them were startled. No matter how much Morpheus disliked it, they already started forming a bond with the raven.

It would take years for it to get as advanced as it was with Jessamy, but it was there, nonetheless.

"I say this as someone who was recently human," the raven spoke up. "Human beings cannot be trusted."

"No," Morpheus agreed.

"Most of them, at least," Atia said.

"If I were Johanna Constantine, I'd be up there cutting a deal with Rachel to keep the sand, then cut the dream sand with real sand and sell it to the highest bidder," the bird laughed, then looked down as he noticed the look both rulers were sending him. "But then, I wasn't the best person when I was a person. We can't all be Jessamy, who was apparently perfect in every way."

Morpheus' face softened a bit. He still didn't want a raven, but it wasn't fair to Matthew. The constant comparison to Jessamy and trying to get him to leave. Maybe he should give him a chance.

"Matthew, I-"

"No, I get that you don't think you need a raven, but if you're out here, waiting for human beings to help anyone but themselves, you're gonna be sitting out here in the rain forever," this seemed to start up something inside Dream's mind. "Whatever you're doing up there, they're not thinking about you."

*****

Matthew was right. As Morpheus and Atia got up there, into Rachel's apartment, they found Johanna is some kind of dream. The two women were talking, when Dream decided to stop this.

Rachel started to slowly fly apart, dropping to the floor in a small pile of sand. Johanna watched with wide, tearful eyes.

"Constantine," Morpheus called out, catching her attention. "Wake up."

And the woman did.

Suddenly, the apartment became a whole lot darker and dirtier. Dust seemed to be everywhere, as if someone didn't clean up in months. Lights flickered around them.

"What did you do to me?" Johanna asked, still partially in daze.

"It was the sand."

"Where's Rachel?"

The two looked toward the doors of bedroom. The woman slowly turned toward them and without knocking, opened them.

"Rachel?" she called out, before peeking into the room. "Rach?"

"Jo?" a weak, raspy voice answered. "Jo? Is that you?"

In the bed laid a woman. Barely alive. Atia guessed the only thing keeping her alive was the sand. But it wasn't enough to feed the body, keep it healthy.

Rachel was pale and was so thin she looked like skeleton.

"That's such a wonderful dream," she muttered.

Then, she let out a sound between a pained groan and whimper. She barely moved and her breaths were coming in short, irregular pants.

In her clutched had, there was the pouch with sand.

The three of them slowly approached the bed. Rachel kept her eyes on Johanna the whole time.

"What's happened to her?" the healthy mortal asked.

"The sand," Atia said softly.

"It was not meant for humans," Morpheus said.

He reached for the pouch and pried it from the woman's grip. She tried to fight him, keep the sand, but she was too weak. She cried and protested, but Morpheus stood seemingly unaffected.

"We can go," he said.

Johanna, however, or even Atia, didn't move from their spots by the woman's bed. The immortal couldn't help but feel pity and sadness for the woman. She was so lonely and heartbroken, that she reached for something she shouldn't have.

Rachel got addicted and couldn't stop dreaming, not that she wanted to. The sand gave her beautiful images of happiness and peace she wished for. She didn't feel pain. Or hunger. Or even thirst. Sand was the only thing keeping her alive.

Andnow, it was taken from her.