Dream was pacing back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. He was lost. He didn't know what to do. What was he supposed to do? How was he supposed to deal with this by himself?

The date was June 16th, 1870. The time was 4:57 P.M. And right now, Dream's mother was dying.

He didn't know how his life had gotten to this point. Well, he guessed it started when his father and older brother were drafted for the war against Britain. (A/N) this isn't historically accurate at all but we're just going to ignore that for the sake of this story. )  His mother had gotten tuberculosis soon after his father and brother had left. So, he was left to care for her. Granted, he was 21, but how was he supposed to know how to treat her? Most of the doctors were too busy attending to the injured and dying soldiers to pay any attention to a middle aged woman with tuberculosis.

Dream stopped pacing. He had to face the reality of the situation. His father and brother weren't coming back anytime soon. His mother was only getting worse. It was up to him to care for her. By himself. His head was pounding. He was tired. He was hungry, and thirsty. But he had to take care of his mother first.

He cautiously walked into the room where his mother lay on the smallest bed, with a flat pillow and a thin blanket. She was sleeping, however not very peacefully. Every breath was short and staggered. He gently took off the cool cloth that covered her forehead and replaced it with a fresh, warmer one.

Fuck, this was bad.

He wanted to escape. He wanted to get out of there, never to return. 

But that would be selfish.

Dream sighed, walking to the tiny room they called their kitchen. He was desperately searching for something suitable for his mother to eat. The truth was, they were struggling with money. There wasn't much for them to eat, especially for his sick mother. He was searching every nook, every cranny, every crevice he could. He found nothing.

Dropping his shoulders in defeat, he walked out of the kitchen, and towards the small bookshelf next to his mother's bed. There was really nothing else for him to do these days except read, read, read.

He examined the worn down leather covers of the books, reading all the titles. The light from outside shone through, onto the dust floating in the air, eventually settling on the books. The thing was, he had actually already read all the books on the shelf. Now he was stuck re-reading them. But as he reached for a book he had already read a total of 5 times, a different one caught his eye. One he had never seen before.  

The cover was.. in perfect condition? All of the other books on the shelf were ripped, and the words were fading. This one.. it looked brand new. It had a dark brown leather cover. The title read...

"Time is of the Essence".

Hm. Interesting. But where did it come from? He had never seen it before, nor had he heard of it. How had it just appeared? He shrugged, deciding to forget about it. After all, he was tired of all the other books, and needed a new one to read.

He sat down on the hard, rough floor and crossed his legs, leaning against the crumbling wall. Slouching his back and inhaling deeply through his nose, he opened the book.

His breath caught, and his eyes widened.

Instead of words sprawling across the pages, he was met with emptiness. The pages were blank. There was no story to dive into, no way to escape this life and live in another one.

He quickly flipped through all of the pages, searching for something, anything.

He came to a quick stop when he saw a glint in between two of the pages.

Slowly, he flipped the page.

Wait, what?

Encased in glass, buried into the page was...

A necklace?

It wasn't just any necklace, it was an hourglass necklace.

He didn't realize how important that detail was.

He would soon.

He slowly opened the glass case, wrapping his fingers around the small hourglass hanging off of the chain.

"What the..." he breathed.

He sat still, examining every detail on the pendant. 

The top and bottom of the hourglass were a shiny gold, glinting in the small amount of sunlight that was left. The hourglass itself was crystal clear, with no smudges to be seen. On the inside was thousands of grains of black sand.

As he was examining it, flipping it around in his fingers, he flipped it completely upside down.

That's when it happened.

The thing that changed his life forever. 

In just one second, he felt like his heart had stopped. He felt a lump in his throat. His eyes widened in fear. But he couldn't move, and he didn't know why.

Everything around him started swirling. Or maybe his vision was swirling. He didn't know, all he knew was that he didn't like it. 

It got to the point where he couldn't even see anymore. All he could see were the swirling colors all around him of the room he was in. He tried to breathe but soon realized he couldn't. He clutched his chest and fell over sideways in hopes this whole thing would stop soon, whatever it was.

Everything stopped swirling.

But he couldn't breathe again.

In fact, he wasn't conscious anymore.

Everything went black.

(A/N) hey guys! i honestly didn't know exactly how to write this chapter, but i'm happy enough with how it turned out. hope you guys enjoyed!

Feedback is welcome and appreciated! -Meraki :)