Hello Alice: Pixie in the Garden

Chapter 1: 'I am real!'

"Hello?" I asked. I could hear… not someone, but something. I knew something was there. It was like… I could hear everything around them. I could hear birds flying away from them, the wind rushing around them, scurrying of animals away… but nothing in that actual space. It was like trying to see a black hole- seeing everything around it being pulled in, but nothing there. I could hear everything around it, nothing from whatever it was.

But there was something heavy in the air, like the feeling I would get on the back of my neck if one of the mean boys at school told me a scary story, but it wasn't scary. It was just important... As if what was about to happen would change everything. I wasn't too old to dismiss this idea from my head. And my eyes gravitated towards a certain point in the trees, which were thick and filled with a woody mystique that my eyes couldn't penetrate.

"No." I heard a voice say. It was like singing, the voice was high and joyful. It sounded like it was replying to something… but I had just said hello… maybe they weren't talking to me. I had definately imagined it.

I was in a clearing in the forest behind my home. I'd been playing pretend games on my own for about an hour before I heard the- presence. And now, from the dark heavy trees, I saw something peak around the trees. A pale face, so perfect and angelic I gasped.

"See? It's just a girl!" She sang again. She danced over to me, with the grace of a ballerina. I stood wide-eyed, watching. I wasn't afraid, though. I had always read books, as many as I could get my hands on, and I believed firmly that the authors were all secretly writing about their own experiences. Thats why I had always wanted to be an author. I wanted to write about my experiences, when the fairies and princesses and dragons and princes and monsters and oracles chose me to have adventures with. So I could only think of one explanation for the tiny girl- a fairy… or a pixie. The thought made my heart leap wonderfully in my chest, and beat faster. I'm sure my cheeks were flushed with excitement and my eyes bright... like hers. She looked as excited as me, and possibly a little daring... as if she was playing a game. Her hair was dark and tufted out of her hair like a halo… and it framed her cherubic face. She was about a foot shorter than me, but her features were quite adult for her size. I hadn't breathed since I saw her, for fear of blowing her away. A real fairy!

She landed right in front of me, and curtsied low to the ground, sweeping down to the floor in a way that reminded me of princesses from my fairytale books. I grinned toothily, unable to believe the dream around me, and tried to mimic her curtsy. Except my foot trapped my skirt so I tipped forward a bit too much and shot back up before I fell. Not nearly the balletic curtsy I had seen. I remembered to breathe, and inhaled a woodsy, feminine scent. Perfect for the fairy… or was she a pixie?

The way her eyes twinkled underneath her spiky lashes, and her cheeky arched eyebrows. Then, as she raised from her curtsy, she tucked her hair behind a slightly pointed ear. Definitely a pixie.

"Good morning, little girl." I tried not to concentrate on her sweet voice. If she called me a girl, she definitely couldn't be one.

"Good morning, pixie." Her face split into a wide smile, and a high laugh escaped from her mouth. But it wasn't an unkind laugh. So I said "I'm Bella."

"I'm Alice."

"Hello Alice." I stuck out my right hand as far as I could. She did the same with her left hand. Somehow the handshake didn't go quite right as we couldn't grasp palm to palm and instead I held the back of her hand and shook it with the dignity of an Ascot Lord. Well, that's how my books said the Pied Piper shook the Mayor's hand.

"See?" She said to the trees behind her. I grinned. I knew pixies existed! "Fine." She huffed. "Bella, are you afraid of me?" She asked, looking up at me with wide eyes. I had no choice.

"Of course not." I stuttered, startled by her question. Pixies could be dangerous, but only in a mischievous, naughty way. She flashed me a huge smile again, and any fear I may have had disappeared like the morning dew. (Whatever that was... again, a phrase from a storybook).

"Would you like to play with me?" She asked. I nodded breathlessly. I had just been imagining flying with fairies- now I was with one! There were fairies in Forks, and one had chosen me to play with! "What would you like to play, Bella?"

"Fairies." I replied instantly. Then I hesitated, thinking she might be insulted, as a pixie, to play a human game with fairies.

"Sure. You want me to be the fairy, don't you?" She trilled, and again, all my doubts disappeared.

"How do you know?" I asked, genuinely surprised. She winked.

"Pixie magic." She suddenly turned and danced out of the clearing. I ran after her, feeling clumsy and big treading after her light footsteps. I couldn't hear her at all- I ran in the direction I thought I saw her in. For once I didn't stumble and trip over everything, and I felt as free and light as the wind blowing around me. Someone was playing with me. Someone had chosen me to play with. It had never happened before. I had never had playmates like everyone else in school, so I ended up always eating my lunch on the small table for two at the back, then going outside to play in the Alone corner by the bins, imagining fairies and princesses and dragons and monsters and oracles that all wanted to be in the Alone corner with me, singing and playing or fighting and causing trouble that a prince would save me from.

A robin was singing, very close to me, which made me stop. I turned slowly, to see it. As I did, I heard another voice join the song perfectly, complementing the song effortlessly a few octaves above. The sound was beautiful.

I gasped as I registered the sight before me. A robin was sitting on the very edge of a branch about twice my height above me. And Alice was perched on the same branch, reaching out towards it, singing the same song, higher and more beautifully. Her long white finger stroked it's feathers for a moment, and then it flew away.

Alice's head turned towards me too fast for me to see the movement. She was smiling again, a heartbreaking grin that was so infectious I grinned back. Then she put a hand on the branch, and used it to swing herself to the ground in a moment. I blinked in awe.

She took my hand, and ran with me. I couldn't hear the pixie's bare feet racing next to mine… and I found myself trying not to trip as I watched her face, flushed in the exaltation of skipping next to me. Suddenly she skidded, and twirled to a stop, somehow not letting go of my hand, but facing behind me.

"I know- why don't we play chase?" She suggested. I blushed- I hated chase. My clumsy feet always tripped me before I run away from the chaser, and I fell over too much to catch anyone else. If anyone ever asked me to play chase, I would fall for their sweet insincere smiles and agree wholeheartedly before I realised it was just to make fun of me so I would always have to chase, and they would flit around me, mocking me as I stumbled and ran slowly. It would be impossible to catch Alice. I opened my mouth to explain, and she replied as if I'd said exactly what I'd been planning to say.

"That's all right, I'll go slow. It'll be magic- have you ever played chase with a-" She paused for a moment, grinning, "pixie before? Trust me." Her voice continued on the same breath, same mind, in enthusiasm so exciting I had no choice but to agree with her.

"Shut your eyes-" I began to say,

"And count to ten." She finished my sentence, with her eyes shut before I spoke. I hesitated in shock- she knew what I was going to say before I did. But she peeked at me through her lashes. "Don't worry, Bella. Go." I pulled my hand from hers and ran off, my feet sounding incredibly loud in the forest- especially compared with hers. I didn't even hear her approach behind me. Before I knew it, a cool arm wrapped around my waist, and I was swung into the air.

I noticed the trees flying past, and felt myself rushing through the wind, before I could even turn my head to see what was going on. Alice had an arm around my waist, one that kept changing as she threw me lightly across her body as she swung between the trees like a monkey. I gasped again. Was this how pixies flew?

Alice caught my gaze, and whispered in my ear-

"Gotcha."

Then the arm was gone from my waist- but I was flying upwards. What's happened, I thought, before I realised she'd thrown me upwards. My heart plummeted and a sick, frozen feeling rose up my chest as I came rushing back towards the ground. I was going to crash into the ground and hurt myself. Pixies were dangerous.

But, just as I tensed myself for the crash, I was cushioned by strong cool arms. I looked up into Alice's face, and she giggled as she set me back on my feet.

I was speechless. This couldn't be real- a pixie would never pick me to play with. I must be dreaming. But I'd never had a dream this real- or imaginative. I reached out to pinch myself, but the pixie grabbed my hand before I could.

"Don't. I am real!" She sang, and swung herself into the nearest tree, twisting around the trunk like a backwards slide until she reached the top, and the tree swayed precariously. She delicately pinched the blossoming flower that was at the tip of the tree- dropped it and slid back down the trunk with her arms in a moment, just in time to catch it as it span to the ground. I took a step back, dazzled by her grace and feat. She stopped at the foot of the tree, and held her palm open for me to see. I took a few steps to her, and examined the content of her palm. A perfect, delicate pink flower with papery crinkled petals span in her hand like a spinning top. It wasn't even damaged. I looked up to her eyes, bewildered. They were very pale blue, rimmed with the deepest indigo in the rainbow. They were startling, and I gazed wonderingly into their beauty, and how they made her face even less believable.

"Take it, Bella." She laughed, batting her lashes over her blue eyes. I tried to very delicately take the flower from her palm, by tipping her hand into mine. Her skin was cool to my touch, but I could feel the pulse in her wrist as I tipped it gently.

"I need to get you something now." I said, looking around.

"Don't worry about it" She chirped, taking my hand in hers again. She didn't say anything for a minute. "I haven't had a friend before." She whispered softly, suddenly. I raised my eyebrows, shocked.

"You? Really?" I asked.

"I've got my family… but they don't let me-" She broke off for a moment and huffed. "Well, I don't see any girls." She admitted.

I blushed, and before I said what I was going to say, Alice's face split into a huge grin.

"I'll be your friend, Alice." I whispered, and she'd already swept me into a hug, her tiny arms a lot stronger than I would have expected.

"You'll be my best friend, Bella." She whispered in my ear. Her words made me so happy I could feel tears welling in my eyes. A best friend? Me, have a best friend? Someone who had just met me liked me enough to ask me, no, tell me, that I was their best friend? But I swallowed them back, and leaned back out of the hug. I saw with shock that her eyes were full of tears, tears that were brimming out of her eyes and spilling down her cheeks.

"What is it, Alice? What's wrong?" I asked, shocked. I reached out and tentatively wiped the tears away with a shaky hand. What had I done?

"You will be my best friend, Bella." She repeated, her lovely voice cracking under sobs. Somehow she changed the sentence, so it wasn't the same but I didn't understand how. I tried to pull her back to me, but she softly pushed against me, hard enough to push me away. I felt hurt stab at me, but her eyes were filled with apology.

"It's not my fault, Bella. I promise. I will see you again- we will be best friends." More tears pulled out of her eyes, and I felt my own rise up again. I realised what she meant. We couldn't be best friends now. And she was leaving. Of course she was. She was a pixie. Fairytale creatures never stay, I thought. Not even in my own games, they always left me alone in the corner with the bins when the bell rang for the end of breaktime. Not even in reality, my pixie best friend was leaving me in the middle of the woods all by myself.

"I'll take you back to your house, Bella." She murmured quietly. How odd, I remember thinking, that she was making it sound like she could protect me. This little pixie... looking after someone like me. It almost made me augh. But then I looked back at her, and her expression made my heart hurt.

I patted her shoulder, at a complete loss for what to say to her, because her heartbroken expression was tearing at my heart, and I didn't know what to say to make it better. She was younger than me, she looked like a very young child, even compared to my five years. But her eyes were older, wiser, and the despair in them was beyond what I knew I could understand. I wished I could do something to help.

She smiled a small smile at me through her tears. Then she held her arms out to me. I frowned, confused.

"I can carry you. I run very fast. I'll show you." She explained, excited through her despair. I nodded, and suddenly her arms swung me onto her tiny back. I towered over her, and felt very heavy on her tiny back, but she held onto me firmly without seeming to use any effort.

The air rushed past me as if I had stuck my hand out of a car window. It was amazing, as much so as swinging through the trees as a monkey. The trees flashing past made my eyes ache, so I squeezed them shut. All too soon Alice stopped, and gently swung me away from her back. I landed very dizzy, and stood reeling for a moment, then fell over backwards. Before I'd even started to fall Alice was behind me, and her arms caught my armpits, like a trust fall, and lowered me to the ground before I had even realised I was falling. She laughed and her bell-like laugh echoed off into the forest. But her laugh died as suddenly as it started, and her head snapped around to behind me. I turned. She'd dropped me back off at my house.

"How did you know-" I started. She shrugged. I got it. She's a pixie. Of course she had powers I hadn't heard of.

She looked at me, tears welling in her eyes again. I opened my palm to reveal the flower she'd given me. Crushed a little by my chubby fist, but mostly intact. And very beautiful. I bit my lip.

"I need to give you something." I decided, looking up at her. She was shaking her head mutely, tears spilling down her elfin face. I got up to comfort her, but she was backing away from me, still shaking her eyes and crying silently. I stopped, hurt. She continued to shake her head, and I got the feeling she wasn't breathing. I turned away towards the house to hide my own tears, and I heard a sob from behind me. I turned back, and briefly felt two cold arms wrapped around my neck. Then she was gone- just flitted out of sight. I tried to hold in my own tears, but it was no use. My chest heaved and a sob erupted from my lips in the jagged breath I took.

Where had she gone? Her emotions were infectious, I felt despair that she had left me, without knowing why she left, or if I would see her again. But she said we would be friends. I would see her again. But her heartbroken expression flashed in front of my eyes again, causing them to pucker up in tears. She had said it to make me feel better. Fairytale creatures wouldn't want to spend time with me.

I stared out at where she had disappeared, in case I might see her again- just a glimpse. Now, alone, my sensible child nature kicked in. I began to doubt that she had even existed. She could have just been a dream. I had no proof I had even seen her. She could just be a product of my imagination.

I tried to conjure her back up again, imagine she was sitting beside me, like I used to do with all my other fairytale creatures. My childish imagination produced her, but I knew it wasn't the same. I couldn't see the details of her. I couldn't see the wind ruffle her halo hair, or imagine the games she came up with. And I knew she wasn't really there. I could still see the grass I was imagining she was sitting on. And I had been so sure she was there before though. She wasn't just a child of my imagination.

Then I remembered my evidence. The flower, lying in my palm. My breath stuttered and my tears stopped as I hesitantly examined the flower. I definitely hadn't picked it myself. She had. That was my proof. And I smiled with my revelation, and took a deep breath in the comfort that my pixie was real. I would see her again, I decided.

Eventually, when it was dark, and I couldn't see into the forest anymore, Charlie came out and saw me, shivering with cold, clutching the flower and staring into the dark.

"Bells? What's wrong?" He asked worriedly, kneeling next to me. My tears had long since dried on my face, and I feared to take my eyes off the spot I saw Alice, lest I miss her.

"Dad?" I asked, keeping my eyes on the dark, "How can I keep this flower forever?"

"Forever? Uh… you could leave it in water, I think. Um…" He contemplated while I frowned.

"I don't want it to go brown and wrinkly like apples and leaves do." I told him.

"Oh, I know! You could press it."

"Press?" I asked doubtfully.

"Well, you put it in the last page of a heavy book. And the flower is dried, and stays exactly as it was when you put it in, except it is crushed paper flat."

I frowned again. "Crushed?" I said. I didn't want it crushed, I wanted it perfect, like Alice had just picked it.

"Yeah, but it stays delicate and beautiful. People say it's because the fairies look after them."

I laughed loudly. Someone like Alice, helping keep crushed flowers pretty in big books? Not a chance.

"What?" Charlie asked.

"Nothing, Dad. I think we should press it. Have you got a heavy book?" I asked.

"Uh… upstairs I think we'll probably have one. Come inside and help me look." I scowled. I couldn't leave, in case Alice came back. "Come on, Bella. It's past dinnertime! You should be in bed." I was appalled to find tears in my eyes again at the thought of leaving where I had seen Alice. I didn't want to separate seeing Alice from myself by going inside to let the day end. Charlie tugged on my arm, and when I didn't respond he picked me up.

"No!" I yelled. "No! I have to stay! No- She won't see me! No, let me go!" I shrieked, kicking and hitting him uselessly, as the forest bobbed in my vision, and disappeared as he took me inside. When the door I slumped uselessly in his arms, the fight gone and tears running down my face again. I'd never cried so much in my life.

"What's wrong, Bells? Are you ill?" I shook my head, and Charlie went to the kitchen to cook dinner. My nose wrinkled in disgust when the smell of Charlie's cooking reached them. I suddenly remembered my flower, and pulled myself up so I could run to my room. I placed the flower delicately on my desk, and then ran to Charlie's room to sift through the bookshelves for a big, heavy book. My eyes fell on one immediately.

A big, heavy hardback. With a dusty dustcover, and thick old pages. I ran my fingers over the spine to read the title hesitantly.

"The Mer- c-hant of Vee- nice." I whispered, "by Will- i- am Shak- es- pear." I smiled. Perfect.

I took The Merchant of Venice of the shelf, and brought it back to my room with two hands. I flipped it open to the last page, and a shocked cry escaped my lips when I saw a note, written in a perfect hand,

I'm sorry, Bella. I did not want to leave you, but sometimes the time is just not right. But it will be. I will definitely meet you again, and you will understand everything someday.

Lots of love from your best friend-to-be,

Alice XXX

At first I was incredulous- how had she managed to get in? And how did she know I would open this book? She couldn't have the time to put it in every book just in case I read it- she knew I would open this one. Then I remembered her insights into what I was thinking, and the future.

I stroked the page. How long ago had she written this? How long ago had her cool hand brushed this page? It took ages to read, and longer for me to understand what she meant. How could she write so well? And long words like 'definitely'- what did they mean? She was younger than me, how could she write better? But she said she did want to be my friend. She wasn't leaving me. I would see her again. I had more proof of her now. I gently put the note next to the flower, and shut the book onto it. Now it would press the flower, and I had proof of my pixie best friend.

Where should I put it? I decided I should hide it somewhere safe, just in case she didn't want anyone else to find the letter. I hid in underneath my bin, under my desk.

"Bella? Dinner!" Charlie called, and I groaned. I needed to learn how to cook. Both Renee and Charlie were useless.

OK, so its my new story! I've been absent for a while, but I haven't gone. Theres another story I've been writing, called Portrait and Perception, that I might post soon too. If I'm honest, I was put off fanfiction for a while because I would put everything into my stories for about 3 reviews each time, and it got me down. So if you read this, the only way to get more updates, fast updates, is to review.

Who likes young Bella?

What makes Alice so strange?

What do you think might happen?

Here's a preview of the next chapter:

I knew it had been her. I just knew. I smiled all over my face and sat there for a while, touching the shoot where Alice had been. I wondered where I was when she had.