The clock in Storybrooke struck in the early morning hours, echoing in the empty streets. Many of the residents had the oddest dreams-it started out quite pleasant and then it became frightening. It was pretty confusing. Dreams and nightmares were fighting each other all through the night.

Mr. Gold had awakened from a particularly disturbing nightmare: All he could hear were the distorted screams of a boy. A flash of green light. And the boy disappeared like smoke. Another scene in the dream was a small boy screaming and a man growing smaller and smaller; two little hands reaching for an obscure figure, but he couldn't reach him. The man eventually disappeared like smoke.

While he didn't understand these dreams, but he was certain what one of them was about. Cupping his hands on his face, he felt the urge to cry. His heart was heavy with remorse. He was so selfish for choosing the Darkness. He wondered where Bae might be. Did he hate him for what he did? He decided to get his mind off of the nightmare by taking a walk.

He looked over at Belle. She looked so beautiful with her chestnut hair falling over her face. He moved a lock away, smiling at her graceful features and chuckled upon seeing that she had once again fallen asleep while reading a book. Other than having Belle in his life, there was nothing in the world that he wanted in the world-other than to have Bae back. Not wanting to wake her, he stealthily slipped away from her side. He'd leave a note on his pillow explaining where he had gone.

Gold pulled on some clothes and grabbed his cane. Exiting his home, the air seemed gloomy and foggy. While walking down the sidewalk, there was an unusual crunching sound beneath his feet. He looked down to see two streams of sand.

He was quite confused. What would sand be doing here in Storybrooke? He looked around to see there were more streams of sand in the streets: black and gold. He carefully knelt down and grabbed a pinch of the golden grains-amazingly, it began to respond, creating an image. It was him and Baelfire, dancing and playing, just like old times. The pawn dealer's brown eyes widened as he realized the sand was magic! As he kept watching the image, he started to feel a tiny bit sleepy after touching it.

He shook it off. He turned his attention to the black sand, it responded almost immediately. It whispered tauntingly all of Gold's worst fears-Baelfire screaming as he was sucked away into the world without magic. Milah abandoning him. His own screams as the Shadow dragged him away from his father, Malcolm. Becoming the Dark One.

Gold backed away from the sand almost immediately. He didn't quite understand what was going on but he knew that this sand had dangerous magic. He reached into his pocket, producing two velvet bags and carefully scooped up each of the sand. Maybe Belle could find out something about this strange, magic sand that had come into their town. Given she was a great reader of books, she would surely find something.

As the citizens of Storybrooke began to awaken, they were shocked to find their town was covered in sand. They whispered among themselves about how this got here. What it was. Each of them had a gripe about this freak sandstorm that blew in: how their cars, homes and businesses were covered with sand. Ruby was heard screeching loudly when she found it inside her car since she had left the windows open overnight.

"My car!" she cried. "It's ruined!"

"You're telling me," said Grumpy. "It got into our truck too!"

"I'm sure there's an explanation," Happy said, trying to be optimistic.

"Uh...how do you explain this?" Grumpy replied gruffly, gesturing to the the back hatch. "This was a FREAK of nature, Happy!"

"Since when does a sandstorm happen here?" Ruby said. "The nearest beach is miles away and it's tiny!"

"It's just not logical," Doc said. "This has to be magic."

"Oh, you think?!" Grumpy replied sarcastically.

"But who would have such magic?" Bashful asked.

"Who else would it be?" Grumpy replied.

"Why would Regina bring sand into our town?" argued Happy. "That makes no sense."

"Does Regina need a reason to do anything? I say we confront her."

"Before we jump to conclusions, there has to be another explanation," said Doc. "I'm sure she doesn't know anything about the sand."

Grumpy let out a scoff. "Right. We have no reason to trust that woman...let alone the woman who runs our town and happen to have secrets. She's gone too far this time.

It was not even 8:15 AM and already Regina Mills was grumpy from the start. She didn't sleep really well, given the nightmares she had. She decided to start her morning out with some strong coffee since being mayor of Storybrooke was such a big responsibility. She wasn't even awake when the phone started ringing off the hook. Citizens left her angry messages, complaining about the sand all over the town and they were all demanding answers.

She had barely got a sip of her coffee when Henry interrupted her thoughts.

"Mom?" Henry said.

"What IS it, Henry?" the brunette said, irritated.

Seeing her son's slightly scared face, she apologized quickly, rubbing her temples and changed her tone to a calm one.

"Sorry, honey...what is it?"

"Why is there sand all over town?" he asked.

Regina let out a sigh of exasperation. She had heard enough of the complaints from the citizens about the current problem in her town.

"I don't know, Henry," she said. "I'm still trying to figure that out."

"Did you have nightmares, Mom?" he asked.

Another frown came from the mayor. How could Henry know what was going on? Then again, maybe it was just Henry being his usual self. It was just like when Mary Margaret gave him that fairy tale book three years ago.

"No, Henry," she said.

"I did," he said. "I saw a man in black with yellow eyes. He had these...ugly horses following him. They chased me."

Regina got up from her seat and squatted down to Henry's level with a look of concern. Holding his shoulders, she gazed into his eyes.

"It was just a bad dream, Henry," she said.

"I know. It still felt real."

She hugged him tightly to comfort him. She didn't want to admit that she had a very bad nightmare as well. In her dream, a man with a hole in his chest. A beating of a heart somewhere. He turned to ash and began to disintegrate before her eyes. The dream was disturbing enough to find herself waking up with tears in her eyes. But if there was one thing she didn't like was for anyone to know she was vulnerable. That she had fears. She wanted to be the cool, composed and dominant-someone who could take control of any situation with no problems.

The moment was broken by the sound of angry knocking on the door. Henry ran to the window and looked outside.

"Looks like the whole town is here," he commented.

With a sigh of exasperation, she went to the door. What could she have possibly done to piss off Storybrooke now? She was trying to get past the whole 'Evil Queen' thing since coming to the Land Without Magic and trying to redeem herself. Opening the door, she found Storybrooke's citizens outside along with huge trails of sand everywhere. It was indeed all over her lawn, her porch and walkway, even her apple tree! There were trails in the street, the rooftops were covered with mixture of black and gold sand. It was almost like a sandstorm had blown through here. People began demanding explanations that it sounded like cawing of loud magpies.

"ALRIGHT!" she said loudly, throwing her hands up. "Let's all calm down. I already know about the sand situation. I will run an investigation on this and we will get this cleaned up."

"That's what we'd like to know," said Grumpy, crossing his arms. "This...this is nothing we ever seen before."

"It got in my car!" Ruby complained.

"Understandable that we're all upset," Regina announced. "But rest assured, this will get taken care of. I will have our finest police investigating this, of course."

Regina's heels crunched on the path as she walked towards the a trail of sand, kneeling down with slit brown eyes. She was about to touch it.

"I wouldn't touch it if I were you," Mr. Gold warned.

Regina's hand retracted away from the sand almost immediately. She glanced at the brown-eyed imp that she knew as Rumplestilskin.

"What do you have to say about this, Gold?" she asked.

"This sand...it's magic," he said.

"Magic?" The mayor arched an eyebrow.

"Aye, Regina. I was out walking pretty early when I came upon this sand. The gold sand creates pretty images while the black makes frightening images. It's like it can sense something within you."

"The sand can 'sense' stuff?" Regina said skeptically.

"Aye. I'm bringing some samples to Belle to examine it."

"Well, good then," Regina said. "But it looks like I have a huge mess to clean up."

Emma Swan was already been on the case about the mysterious sand. Her phone was ringing off the hook about this disaster. She had collected samples to put in evidence.

Belle was already awakened when she heard about the sandstorm that blew into Storybrooke. She looked at the sand under a microscope. There was nothing extraordinary about the sand's shape-the gold sample had a mixture of crushed rocks, seashells and crystals. The black looked rough with holes that reminded her of gaping mouths screaming. Eyes that were wide with terror.

"Odd," said Belle. "This is not like any sand I've ever seen."

"Lemme see," said Emma.

Emma glanced down the microscope, looking at the samples.

"Odd looking sand," said Emma. "What can you tell about the sand?"

"Well, one things for sure, it's definitely not sand from any beach I've ever seen," Belle said. "And Rumple said it's magic."

"Magic sand?" Emma said with a frown. "I've never heard of such a thing."

"Well, every magic object has an origin. Let's see if there's anything about it."

Belle got up from her seat and headed to the computer, typing in stories about magical sand. A few words came up until she spotted the word SANDMAN. Clicking on the link, it brought up the article.

"The Sandman," she read.

"As in the character who brings sleep and dreams to people?" Emma said arching an eyebrow.

"Exactly. Says here that the Sandman puts people to sleep with magical sand by sprinkling it in their eyes."

"Makes some sense, but it doesn't explain the black sand. Or why there's so much of it."

Belle frowned. "I'll see if there's any books here about the Sandman. Maybe we can find some answers."

"Keep me posted. Regina's gonna want to know."