Down by the brook

Kind of an idea I had right after reading Alice in wonderland, but never finished.

Chapter 1 Watching

Daye sat on a bank down by the stream, watching the soft water lap against the shore. She wasn’t doing anything particularly interesting, just sitting- and watching of course. Watching was a pastime that Daye had gladly taken up when she was but a baby, gazing around at her mother and father as they took care of the household chores. But watching was not just listening with the eyes, it was also listening with the ears! For when she had watched enough sound pass from mouth to mouth, the sound began to come from her own mouth as well.
But none of that was a part of the current watching she was doing, she was doing the watching of the brook bubbling happily at her feet.
“You were right the first time, it’s a stream.” Daye continued to watch the brook, seemingly having her watching unmolested by the intruding voice.
“I daresay I disagree, for it is much too small to be a stream.”
“Ah, but on the contrary it is also much too big to be a brook now isn’t it?” Still watching the brook, for it WAS a brook, Daye said,
“it is a brook, and you know it is a brook as much as I know it is a brook, but you just love to argue don’t you?”
“Maybe,” said the voice, “but you're the one arguing, why not let me believe what I want to believe, and you can believe what you want to believe?”
This caused quite a stir in Daye, as to where she sat thinking for the better part of five minutes before responding with,
“very well, it is a brook AND a stream, how odd of it.”
“Yes, quite odd. But to be fair, odd is all that seems to happen around here.”
“True enough, you are certainly an example of that.”
“Am I? I guess I am, because I don’t really exist outside of your head do I?”
“Well, by your logic, if you exist to ME like you do now, then you must exist,
because I believe you do.”
“You do have a point, but to be fair you yourself are quite odd.”
“Yes, also very true.” Then there was silence, as Daye sat on the bank and watched the stream/brook for a while longer.
Minutes passed with the same comfortable silence laid between the two, or the one. But Daye grew quite bored with the whole situation, for she had watched the stream/brook enough to where she was sure it had had a good amount of watching for the day.
“I think it is time to head back, I might be in trouble if I stay out too late!”
“Quite right, I’ll come with you, although if I were to choose to leave, I’m not sure how I would with no legs.” The voice continued to chatter aimlessly in the back of her mind as she got to her feet, creating a nice background of white noise to keep her entertained as she sped home.
With the stream/brook behind her, and her friend chattering aimlessly around her, Daye made her way through the trees and along the long cobbled path toward home. Each step brought a crackle or crunch from the leaves underfoot, creating a symphony of sounds that were exquisite to Daye’s ears. The bright technicolored trees and leaves created a pattern of ever changing patterns as the wind softly played in their branches, making them sway to an unknown tune while Daye walked on with delight in her big bright eyes. The gentle wind seemed to whisper to her, she couldn't quite make it out with the aimless chattering in her mind, so she said “shhhh” to her friend, and they fell silent with a huff.
Silence fell over them, or her, like a blanket. The trees continued their dance, now undisturbed by Daye’s noise polluting their silent tune. And without the voice’s constant blathering, she could faintly hear something or someone whispering to her in a small voice not used to talking. “Be still, silent like us, he is coming.” “Who is coming?” Daye asked, but the whispering was already gone, and Daye knew that no amount of watching would bring back the whispers if the trees did not want to talk.
Now the silence was becoming deafening, crushing the poor girl until her breath came out in strangled gasps. Like when climbing great heights, Daye noticed the pressure increasing in her ears till they popped like firecrackers. Even the voice was becoming uncomfortable in her head, making nervous chatter of how birds must feel woozy all the time at such heights. Nearly falling to her knees, Daye flailed her arms around wildly as the vertigo set in, reaching out for something, anything- someone caught her arm, holding her in place as the odd feeling of being at a great height faded, while her ears returned to their natural state of hearing. She looked up, and the first thing she noticed was the shine of a gloriously white and perfect smile, like a crescent moon on a clear night. Next was the physical sensation of being held in someone's arms, strong arms that shifted under the material of long midnight black sleeves. When she was quite certain she wasn’t about to fall embarrassingly, she stepped out from the circle of arms and finally took a look at her savior.

Chapter 2 “I sold my soul to a three piece”

About 6 feet high, the man towered over her menacingly, menacingly because his grin seemed to convey a sense of wanting something from her, and as the voice put it quietly in her mind, it was a smile that got under your skin and crawled around inside you like a worm in an apple. Next was his clothing, a three piece suit made of fabric that resembled the blackest midnight, almost seeming to swallow the light coming in through the trees like an unnatural bore opening in the world. Even his shoes were impeccable, glossed and furbished to a shine, they screamed rich and powerful with just their presence alone, let alone the rest of him. But the most disturbing thing about him, the most unsettling thing of all, was his face. Nothing stayed the same, so to speak, she thought he didn't even have a face. Just a blur of features that didn’t register in her mind at all, like he was a movement out of the corner of her eye, but only his face, and she was staring right at him. The only constant in the man’s features was that crecent moon smile, not having stopped grinning for a moment at all as she took him in with wide, and now not so bright, eyes.
“You know, it is not very nice to compare one’s smile to a worm in an apple my young lady.” The man’s voice was as rich as silk and twice as smooth, curling through her hair and whispering I have what you need in that strong accent that she couldn’t place. Germany? Ireland? Somewhere european no doubt, but when she registered what he had said to her, her eyes widened to their extremities. “You can hear them too?!” She almost shuddered at the thought of it, someone in her mind? Unthinkable! “Not so unthinkable as you might think, and as to my accent, well I have adopted the rather noble celtic mannerisms of speaking, I find them quite soothing to the tongue and ear.” His face never stopped being… well, it never stopped being whatever it was being during the time he talked, in fact it had become even more distorted, to the point that she was getting dizzy from just looking at him. Closing her eyes for a moment, she and the voice said “who are you?” in unison with as much confidence and assertiveness they could muster, which unfortunately wasn’t much at all. Chuckling lightly to himself, or itself, the man began to speak. “Who am I? Well that is certainly a question, a good question too, but not the right one at all. The right question is what am I?” Waiting patiently, Daye realized it was her que to ask, “well, what are you then mister?”
“Ha! Mister!” The thing chuckled louder now, a rich sound that comes rolling from the belly and fully exhales the lungs, if it had any lungs to speak of, for she did not know if it, or he, had the same anatomy like that of a human. “Yes, I am growing to like you Daye, and as for what I am, well I am what you silly humans might call a demon. It's a pitiful word if I do say so myself, I much prefer trickster, as that clearly shows that I love mischief, which indeed I do.” This explanation caused daye to reel back in alarm, her heartbeat quickening and her veins pulsating with rushing blood. As if the thing smelled her flowing blood, it giggled madly to itself, a sound not unlike the laugh of the clinically insane down at the local asylum. Turning away to run she spun around, and he was standing right there in front of her again. Scared out of her mind, the young girl fell to her knees and started crying, the voice had fallen silent as death in her mind, and the creature just stood there, smiling.