I’m cold. But the word ‘cold’ … it doesn’t really fit in this situation. You see, I have these weird powers. And I mean really weird. Like, nobody-else-in-the-world-has-these-powers weird. Not to mention that my friends and colleagues are the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, Sand Man and the Tooth Fairy.

Weirded out yet? Because I totally would be.

And, to top it off, I’m invisible. Well, not really anymore, because my friends and fellow Guardians (who keep hope, wonder and joy alive in children, and yada yada yada) went on a crazy adventure to save the world from an old enemy called Pitch Black.

Corny, right? Well, the name suits him perfectly. He’s basically the original force of all evil and fear in the world. And he’s more commonly known as the Bogey Man. You’ve heard of him, and I’m pretty sure I can guess what you’ve heard about him.

So I wouldn’t blame you if you were thinking, “Okay, what? First he wants me to believe that he, Santa, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny and Sand Man are real, and now he wants me to think that the Bogey Man is going to eat me for supper?”

He just might. To be clear, might have, since we defeated him, but you can never be sure with that creep if he ate kids. Belief is a pretty powerful thing. I should know, so just hear me out. Your parents and you have probably had a similar exchange either many or just a few years ago.

Parent: Come out from there, sweetie! Nothing is going to hurt you.

You: (cowering under some sort of blanket) But…but the Bogey Man is going to get me!

Parent: Don’t be afraid, [your name here], there’s no such thing as the Bogey Man! You’re safe with us.

You: (emerging very slowly and carefully) O-okay, Mom/Dad.

Believe me now? Every kid has heard of him for a reason.

Anyway, he’s gone now, but Bunny’s prediction is that he’s going to come back in a couple hundred years. Though he’s never been much of an optimist, so I wouldn’t say it’s set in stone. But don’t tell him I said – or, wrote, because this is actually down on paper – that, because it’ll really tick him off. And I don’t want to be back to having him mad-at-me-for-fifty-years-because-I-turned-Easter-in-1968-into-a-snow-day mad. We just managed to get past that.

Where was I? Talking too much is usual Tooth’s thing. Oh well, I guess I got carried away (which the wind is actually trying to do to me right now). And another thing, I can ride the wind and get it to take me places. There I go again.

Okay, I am so done with trying to explain everything. As I tell the story, you’ll get what I mean, I promise. It all started, as all good things do, with a snow day…