Nonexistent (Rise of the Guardians)

9. Yeah, This Is Mine Now

Well, there goes the whole 'discreet' idea.

Jamie shined the flashlight around his bedroom, which at this point was chock full of the characters from his bedtime stories, books and dreams. He smiled widely.

Jack stepped foreword, awestruck. "He can see us?" He marveled. My hopes rose up a little with a flutter in my chest.

Jamie continued to look around the room at the Guardians, his flashlight lingering on each of them for a few moments. The only places the flashlight didn't stop was where Jack and I were standing.

Bunny noticed this, too. He sighed, genuinely disappointed. "Most of us." He murmured in his Aussie accent.

Jack's face fell as he receded into the shadows. 

Tooth butted in, "Umm, guys. He's still awake!" She whispered urgently.

Bunnymund nodded decisively and turned to Sandman. "Sandy! Knock 'im out!" He snipped. Sandman nodded and made a fist with one small hand and pounded it into his other palm as he marched forward towards Jamie. The kid made a skeptical face in an attempt to hide his total confusion.

"With the dream sand, ya gumbies!" Bunny snapped, accentuating his point with a sharp flick to the back of Sandy's shoulder. Sandman formed a little 'o' with his mouth and made a glittering ball of golden sand and tossed it from hand to hand.

Suddenly, a loud growl sounded from below the sheets of Jamie's bed, and they flew back to reveal a snarling spotted greyhound dog, its teeth bared as it snapped at Bunnymund. The rabbit took an instinctive step back, reaching for his boomerangs before quickly dropping his paws the hold out in front of him, trying to ward the dog away.

Jamie tried to pull his dog back onto his bed as it climbed onto the footboard to get to Bunny. "No, stop! That's the Easter Bunny. What are you doing, Abbey, down!" He whispered urgently, trying to grab Abbey's collar.

"Alright, alright. Nobody panic." Bunny muttered, an undertone of worry shining through his voice as he spoke. The dog was nose to nose with him now, still snarling ferociously and snapping its teeth.

Jack spoke up, and I snapped my gaze over to him as he teased Bunny. "But that's a um.. that's a greyhound," he looked like he was enjoying this immensely, "do you know what greyhounds do to rabbits?" I smirked at Bunny's worried expression before he quickly covered it up with a carefree look.

"I think it's a pretty safe bet he's never seen a rabbit like me,"

Sandy tossed his dreamsand ball idly while Bunny prattled on about being a master of tai-chi with nerves of steel. Jack rolled his eyes, noticing an alarm clock on the bedside table. The very familiar mischievous look made its way onto his face as he slowly reached his staff out to touch the alarm clock, hopping up to balance on top of Jamie's chest of drawers. I moved stealthily over to the windowsill, where I managed to balance on the balls of my feet, trying to get a good look at the room by peering over North and Tooth's heads.

With a sudden loud 'BING!' the alarm clock went off as soon as Jack's staff touched it. I heard a loud exclamation of "crikey!" from Bunnymund as Abbey leapt to attention at the sudden noise, lunging towards the rabbit as he bolted across the room, bouncing off walls and shelves as he tried to escape the crazy dog that was chasing him.

Jamie leapt out of bed. "No, Abbey! Stop! Sit!" He pounced, trying to grab onto the dog as it passed, only to bounce right off Bunny's flank and directly on top of Sandman, who dropped his dreamsand baseball as he got tackled by Jamie. The golden orb went sailing across the room.