14. The Dream

Josh was surrounded by darkness. It was peaceful, even though he was aware of the absence of light around him. He floated in nothingness in a tranquil state of being. Then a voice started calling to him, so faint he almost missed it.

"....."

".... el..... e..."

"H.... lp... M.."

Josh fliated consciously towards the sound and finally recognised the voice. As he did, the voice grew into a thunderous roar, threatening to burst his eardrums.

"HELP ME!!!!!" the voice screamed, making Josh cover his ears in an attempt to quell the volume. The voice continued both roaring and shrieking in a nightmare duet, tearing at Josh's mind like razors.

"Stop it!! Be quiet!!" he screamed back, and thankfully the noise stopped as if by magic. Josh looked towards the sound's origin, not seeing anything and carefully stopped covering his ears, still keeping his hands in range in case of another vocal assault.

".. Someone can finally hear me..?" the voice whispered with a hint of hope and astonishment. Josh squinted at the place he thought the voice came from, trying to make anything out from the darkness. Suddenly he spotted an ever so slightly lighter dot amidst the void.

".. Yeah? Who are you?" Josh answered, approaching the light slowly. He winced when the light grew brighter, looking like a small sun amongst the black.

"My name is Mer. I've been here for as long as I remember. What about you? What's your name? How are you so big?" the voice replied brightly, doing an 180 in temperament as soon as it got the response. "Sorry if I'm talking too fast, I'm just so happy I can finally talk to someone!"

A small human-shaped light formed in front of Josh. It was 20 cm tall at most and its voice sounded like small bells.

"Are you a..." Josh started, searching for the right word. ".. Uh.. Pixie??" he finished, looking at the person with interest.

"Excuse me? What was that?" Mer answered hastily.

"O-oh, never mind. Then what are you?" He studied the person a bit more, but that was still the only thing that came to mind.

"I don't know. What is this 'pixie' thing you speak of?" Mer asked, tilting its head slightly.

'Oh, it wasn't offended. Good' Josh thought, feeling his anxiousness elevating.

"Well..." he sighed and tried his absolute best at making sense of a fictional race. "It's a small magical entity, usually portrayed with wings and nature inspired clothing.. And are associated with either tricking people or blessing them. It depends on the stories and their origins." Josh concluded. Mer seemed to listen intensely since he wasn't interrupted once, though he couldn't be too sure. Mer was simply a source of light shaped like a child. Expressions were a bit hard to read off someone you couldn't stare too long at. Josh felt his eyes sting a bit, although not as much as he'd thought they'd do. Mer stayed quiet, as if completely frozen in time. Then suddenly the light crescendoed into a full glaring sun, making Josh close his eyes while shielding his face.

The light seemed to fade a bit, and Josh peeked at the source. Mer had now formed two butterfly wings on its back and wore some type of leaf-inspired tunic. Mer was still just a light, but as it dimmed it started to look more like an actual pixie.

"Like this?" Mer asked, curiously looking down on its handicraft and back up at Josh.

"... Y-yeah, something like that" Josh answered after a pause. He thought for a while before asking "So you can turn into whatever you want?" looking at the creature of light curiously.

"Well, not exactly." Mer admitted, its bell-like voice sounding a bit defeated. "I can only add on my existing body. Something like this is easy, but changing my core is very difficult."

Josh nodded to show his understanding, and returned to looking around him at the darkness surrounding the two.

"Sorry, but do you know where we are? And how we are talking?" he asked, realising he didn't regard this as a dream but as an actual occurrence somehow.

"I've wondered about that for a long time. I'm not really sure. When I woke up I was here, alone in this darkness." Mer answered, sounding quite devoid of emotion, which surprised Josh since it had practically exploded with energy just a second ago. "As for how you're here, I know even less!" Mer said, acquiring the newly lost energy and sped up to Josh, stopping right in front of his face. Josh flinched and squinted at the pixie-looking light.

".. Um, so you don't know at all?" he asked carefully.

"Nope!" The voice chimed, sounding very happy for some reason. "You're an anomaly, which is very interesting!" Mer moved even closer, making Josh's eyes hurt as he couldn't avoid looking at it anymore. "So now I want to find out!" it said. Josh thought he heard a hint of obsession in its voice, and immediately became nervous. Every time he gathered someone's interest these past few days it had led to him being freaked out by something. The fact that he was still this calm despite floating inside a void with a light that spoke to him was a testament to his slowly hardening mentality. Mer hadn't stopped closing in, and reached out towards his face. Josh felt a strong electrical current run through him as the hand-shaped light touched his cheek, and he woke up.