The first part of this chapter was already posted in the prior thread. I don't know how to link to the first chapter. I guess I'll figure it all out.

Two

The first thing Amelia noticed was that it wasn’t nighttime anymore. She straightened herself quickly, panic filling her as she wondered if her blackout had lasted longer than she thought. She looked up at the gray sky and felt her heart flutter with despair.

Easing herself off the picnic table bench, she gazed around and brought her hands to her chest in bewilderment as she took in the surroundings.

The entire world seemed to have been rearranged around her. The lanes of games had disappeared, as well as the red and white tent of the restaurant she had been sitting next to just a moment before. Despite the change in scenery she could still see she was at a fair, though it didn’t seem to be the Kay County Fair she had just been working at.

Whirling around, she looked at the light blue and white tents, at the old games and the shabby buildings that were positioned differently than what she had grown used to in the past several weeks. Staring down at her feet she saw that the blacktop was gone and a dirt path snaked through the lanes of shops and old games, the light bulbs large and bulky, broken in some places.

Letting out a cry, she put her hands to her face and looked back at the picnic table she had just been sitting at. It had been a brown, etched up thing just a moment before, but now it was green and all of the names and words that had been carved into it were gone, not a mark at all across the surface.

Feeling a shout catch in her throat, she backed away from the table and turned to run down the dirt path. There was a slight wind and clouds of dirt rose as she ran, making her cough and falter until she was gasping and shouting in front of the midway.

Nobody was around. All of the workers and performers she had seen earlier were nowhere in sight. All of the fairgoers who had been perusing through the lanes and enjoying the sights, they had all vanished.

Everything was old. The empty rides were rusted and the Ferris wheel was smaller, painted different colors than it had been. Many areas where there had been rides or games or cages of animals were now empty. It seemed as if she was looking at the same Kay County Fair, but how it had existed decades before.

Grabbing at the hems of her apron, she stood motionless in front of the old rides and a game she didn’t recognize, a whirl of dirt puffing up around her feet as a breath of wind came by. She felt the corners of her eyes welling up and she shook her head, looking around at the vacant pathways and the light of day blaring down.

What had happened? She had just gone sick momentarily and come down with a nasty headache, and suddenly the entire fair had changed around her? It didn’t make any sense. She knew she had blacked out, but it had just been a moment of vagueness, a spot of darkness.

“Hello?” Amelia cried out through the tightness in her throat. Her voice sounded raspy and she wiped at her eyes, looking around once more at the unfamiliar scenery. “Hello, is anybody here?”

She heard a scuffling noise behind her and she jumped, whirling around to see a fat rat scuttle under one of the flaps of the tent. Letting out a shriek, she closed her eyes and put her hands over her face, telling herself that she was just having a dream and when she opened her eyes she would be looking at Kay County Fair at nighttime and hear fireworks in the distance.

But when she opened her eyes everything looked the same. She hit her fists against her temples, willing her vision to change.

“Oh god, I’m dreaming, I’ve lost my mind. Please, please, go back to how you looked before.” she whispered to herself, squinting her eyes shut and trying that again. She even gave the skin on her forearm a sharp pinch. But everything was still the same again when she opened her eyes and she clung at her Jon Boy’s apron, confused and scared.

A soft scuffling noise came again from behind her and she turned jerkily to see if it was another rat or something even worse. She saw nothing but noticed one of the tent flaps fluttering suddenly. No breeze had gone by.

Nervousness clenching her stomach, she walked stiffly over to the flap and pulled it back slightly, peering inside to see if anybody was around. If somebody was, then she could at least find some answers to what was going on.

At first all she could see inside were rows of old tables, some of the chairs fallen over or missing legs. Paper lanterns hung from strings stretched across the poles that held the ceiling up. Cobwebs were forming thick in one of the corners, trapping an ancient looking pipe organ someone must have placed there to match the décor, the keys covered in a thick layer of dust.

She saw a shadow move somewhere in the corner. With a desperate impulse she jumped at it, catching a wrist and hearing a dog-like yelp cut through the air. The figure froze and she found herself looking up into the face of a young man, his dark eyes wide with terror.

He pushed her away and dashed off, heading back toward the flap she had entered through. She was too shocked to chase after him and watched as he pushed the tent’s cloth aside, tripping in his rush over one of the stakes that kept the tent walls standing up.

Knocking the stake out of the ground, the rope gave way and the pole collapsed as well, making the half of the tent that they were under collapse on top of them. She cried out and held her arms over her head as the thick fabric enveloped her, trapping the young man as well.

At this chance, she fussed through the collapsed tent until she found him caught in the broken rope. He was struggling to unwind the sides of the tent from around him, and thrashed even more frantically upon seeing her approach him, trying his hardest to escape her and failing as he only made his entanglement worse.

He ceased his exertion with the tent when she stopped just several feet away from him. He stared up at her with eyes full of dread and wonder. She was shocked by the appearance of him as she drew closer, seeing that he looked nothing like anyone who worked at the fair and that his garments were quite strange.

His eyes were very large and even rounder in his fright, the dark color giving them an eerie depth. His face was oval and smooth, a sharp chin beneath a small, frightened mouth. He had high cheekbones and a slim, pointed nose, a dark mess of hair strewn across his forehead and hanging around his eyes as he stared up at her. It seemed as if he had tried to tame the chaos that was hair somewhat by drawing it back into a sloppy ponytail, which fell across his shoulders in his failed attempts to contain it.

He was very lean, the clothes he was wearing hanging off his body and his sleeves falling over his hands. And the attire was odd enough beyond that, patches stitched messily over rips everywhere, not even the same pattern of fabric as the rest of the outfit.

She observed him for a minute or so, seeing that he was trembling while she did. She prayed that he was harmless, since she couldn’t see any sort of weapon on him and he was almost childlike in the way his hands shook and he scrambled. She walked closer to him, standing over him and bending down slightly to peer into his face.

His eyes grew even wider and he tried to ease himself away, his hair falling over his eyes and his fingers fumbling with the side of the tent. The rope from the stake was tight around one of his feet though and he couldn’t get very far, so he froze again and stared up at her with eyes that begged for mercy.

Amelia tilted her head, confused by the creature before her. Why was he the only one around this strange version of the Kay County Fair? He seemed to be only a few years older than her, though he was acting like a lost six year old.

“It’s okay.” she whispered, amazed she was able to find a voice. She was still nervous and she crossed her arms over her chest as she gazed down at him, trying to hide her anxiety. “My name is Amelia Dahl. Where exactly are we? I blacked out for a little bit and I need you to explain where I am to me. Is this the Kay County Fair?”

He seemed to not want to answer her at first, looking around, looking at the rope his foot was caught in. Then a noise escaped his throat, almost a growl, as if he was trying to speak. He stuttered over his response for a moment, not looking at her and staring at his hands and his entangled self.

“Y-you’re… you’re… lost.” His face was strained with the effort it took him to spit that small sentence out. He looked up at her with his big eyes to see if that was good enough. She gave him an impatient look.

“Well, I may be, I may not be. Where am I? Who are you? Is this the Kay County Fair or isn’t it? Or am I just dreaming you up?” She knelt down next to him and placed her hands on the rope around his leg. She spoke as if she was handling a small child. “I’ll help you out if you explain everything to me.”

He flinched at her movements and panicked when her hand neared his foot, scooting as far away from her as he could and letting a string of frantic sentences tumble out of his mouth, the fear pushing them out in a jumbled mess.

“You’re l-lost, you’re lost, you’ve lost yourself. That’s where you are, lost. This isn’t… this is a place that’s been lost before and n-now you’re lost.”

“What? You have to explain yourself better, what’s going on? Look at me!” Her voice was turning frantic and she leaned even closer to the young man, looking at him eagerly. “Please, tell me what’s going on! I said I’d help you if you did, so please, I just want an explanation that’s all! What do you mean by lost, why do you keep saying that?”

He looked up at her nervously, curiously, for a moment before forcing himself to continue in his shaky pace. “Lost. This is the place where all the lost things go. The things… the things the world loses. Or maybe things that lost the world. The world has lost you… or you have lost it… s-so you’ve come h-here…”

He faded off at her confused, impatient expression, cowering as she stood up again and crossed her arms. She wasn’t looking at him though and gazed off at the old, dusty Kay County Fair she had found herself in.

“I’m dreaming. This is a dream. You’re a dream, right? You’re not even making any sense.” she whispered, looking up at the solid gray sky and then back at the young man. “The world’s lost me, so I’ve come to this old place?”

“Not… not just this place. This world. This world opposite… the real world. The world where the lost things go. You’ve lost yourself.” He shrugged anxiously and peeked up at her through his hair. “You had to go s-somewhere.”

“The world can’t lose people.” Amelia laughed, waving her hand about in her nervous fit. “And I certainly can’t lose it! It’s where I exist, where I live, and I just had a headache, that’s all. I’m dreaming. So how did I think you up? I don’t know where the idea for you came from.”

He regarded her strangely for a moment, like he wanted to say something, but then just let his head droop to his shoulder and tried to pull his knees up toward his chest.

“This place is a dump.” she breathed, putting her hands and looking around. “How am I supposed to wake up? This doesn’t feel like a dream. But it has to be.” She gave the scraggly boy a sharp look, her voice high and unnerved. “Who are you exactly?”

“I-I saw you appear.” he said through his fingers as he tried to fidget away from her again at her sudden temper. “You appeared… over there… out of nowhere. I saw you become lost.”

“Well, if I’m lost like you say, then what are you? Are you lost too? A dream of mine? What?”

“I’m…” His voice failed him for a moment. “I’m Talmon.” He nodded his head meekly. “I saw you appear. I’ve always been lost, I know w-what it looks like when other p-people get lost. I’ve seen it, a lot.”

“Talmon?” she said, looking down at his frayed appearance. “That’s a weird name. What do you mean you’ve always been lost? You mean you’ve always been… here?”

Talmon nodded a little, jerking one shoulder up in a shrug. “I’m a… I’m a… well, in this world they call me a Lostling. I was born lost. I was born here. You’re… you’re from the real world and you’ve lost yourself and come here. This is where the lost things go.”

“So… to get back to the Kay County Fair… I have to be found?” she asked, still not believing this but trying to figure something out at least. “Or find the world, or find myself, or whatever?”

“Well… yes. There are people that, that are very powerful in this world and they… help, or find you, I guess, put you back where you belong. No one else in this world, this small dimension, can do it but them.”

“Oh.” Amelia leaned against the fallen pole of the tent, sliding down to the ground and bringing her knees to her chin. “Oh. Of course. Right.” She laughed and looked down at her hands, seeing the lines on her palm. She looked real. She felt awake. She gave herself a hard, painful pinch on the arm one more time and blinked over at the cowering Talmon. He didn’t disappear and remained watching her uncertainly.

What was happening to her? She blacked out for a moment and suddenly she was speaking with an overly nervous young man who claimed to have been born lost in another world.

She knew she had felt like her world was slipping through her fingertips, but this was ridiculous. This was too much.

Though it wasn’t like her and it was something she had been fighting back for a while, she felt a wail escape her and the next thing she knew she was crying into her hands, muffling her voice and awash with the absurdity of her situation.

This startled Talmon into a different kind of panic, and for the first time he was trying to lean closer to her. She looked up through her bleary eyes to see his face near hers, eyes wide with alarm and her crying obviously bothering him.

“Don’t cry, please, don’t!” He paused for a moment, recalling her name. “Amelia Dahl, it’s okay, being lost isn’t so bad, please don’t cry.” He bowed his head down, looking pleadingly up at her. “Please? I’m sorry, I… I’ll help you, Amelia Dahl.”

She wiped at her face, looking over at him with confusion. She didn’t understand what had triggered the change in him, but now he was at attention and looking at her with nervous eagerness instead of blind fear.

“Why? Why are you offering to help suddenly?” she asked. Not sure if he was even real yet, she wasn’t going to be so trusting.

“S-she…” Talmon froze up again and shook his head wildly, his hair falling across his face. “Some say she can sense that kind of s-sadness, so p-please…”

“What? Who is ‘she’?” She had stopped crying and wiped at her face some more, sitting up straight and looking over at him. He retreated backward again, inching away from her with his head down.

“You slipped through the cracks of your dimension.” he said, ignoring her questions. “The real world’s been lost to you so you’ve slipped through to here.”

“I just want to wake up, I just want to go home.” she replied, feeling her voice began to crack and her eyes well up again. Talmon began to quickly reassure her in his fright.

“If you want to go home, Amelia Dahl, you need to reach the Overseers. They’re the only ones who know how to pass between the realms on will, without being lost. The only ones in this… in this world, at least. They rule this world because they can do this, they help anybody who comes to them. Well, almost anybody.”

She looked down at herself, trying to figure out still if this was really happening to her, and if it was then what she should do about it. Looking over at Talmon, she realized he was all she had right then for help and reasoning. So she went along with him for the moment.

“How do I reach the Overseers?” she asked, hugging her knees to her. “Where do I go? How do I get there?”

“You have to go to Astray, where the Overseers are.” Talmon answered. “It’s not close. But… it’s possible for you to get there.” He seemed to get an idea he thought of as reasonable and his face lit up slightly. “I could help you reach there. I know some of the way. And since I’m a Lostling, I know this world well ‘cause it’s all I’ve ever known.”

Amelia looked at him for a moment before shaking her head. “Do you have any idea how ridiculous you sound? Astray? A Lostling? What sort of fantasy world is this?”

He turned meek again, bobbing his head and looking tentative. “It’s… just… lost to your world, that’s all. Everything here is lost. You are. I am. This place… this place is lost and chaos and unreality. Amelia Dahl?” He put his hands to his face nervously. “Are you okay?”

“Just Amelia. You don’t have to keep saying my last name.” she replied without looking at him, watching the still scenery, the empty lanes and the fallen tent around them. “Don’t you have a last name, Talmon?”

“No. I’m j-just a Lostling. Just Talmon.”

“Well.” she sighed loudly, letting herself go slack and resting her hands on the ground. “Does this mean that this isn’t the real Kay County Fair?”

“Yes.” he said certainly, nodding his head. “This place is just an area your world has lost, or maybe fragments of a lost past that came with you when you came here.”

“Why me, though?” she asked, looking to him since he was the only person she could ask such a question. “You probably won’t know, but… why am I here? Unless this is a dream, why am I here?”

“This isn’t the dream world. That’s a different world. This is the opposite of the reality you came from.” Talmon shrugged, anxious under her gaze. “Some people are lost easily, because of their auras. I think that’s how it goes. I think…”

She shrugged at his response, realizing it didn’t matter whether she could explain it or not, she was still there. Or possibly dreaming. Either way, she knew she couldn’t just sit there and keep chatting with the poor Lostling, or whatever he was, and even in a dream she would have to keep moving forward, to at least see if her situation would change.

Kneeling down, she grabbed at the rope that was wrapped around his foot and pushed the sides of the tent away.

“Will you help me if I get you away from this tent? Will you help me reach that Astray place and these Overseers, or whatever it was you said?”

He nodded eagerly. Considering how afraid of her he had been, she wasn’t sure why he seemed so lively to help her suddenly.

“Really? You won’t try anything funny? Why do you want to help me?”

She looked at him levelly and he gave her an embarrassed look, realizing she was onto him. Bowing his head in shame, he gave a timid shrug.

“I w-want to get away from here. I don’t care h-how. I want to get away.”

He sounded earnest and she wondered if with his extreme nervous habits he was rendered almost completely incapable of lying, or even telling half-truths. His face was covered in a mad blush just from not telling her his ulterior motive.

“Why do you want to get away from here?” she asked gently, unwinding the tent’s rope from around his leg.

“I… I’ve run away and my owner is looking for me.” His voice was getting shaky and he seemed terrified again, jumping at her every movement. “Please, I n-need to get out of here. I’ll help you f-find Astray, just… please… I pr-promise, promise.”

“Somebody owns you?” Amelia said incredulously, freeing him from the rope finally and holding a hand out for him. He looked at it with apprehension for a moment before taking it and slowly standing up. Now that he was on his feet again she could see he was a good head taller than her. “Well… you better keep your promise. Help me and we’ll leave this place. Okay?”

“Okay.” he whispered, pulling up his sleeves as they fell over his hands, trying to brush some of the hair out of his face. “I do promise, Amelia Dahl.”

“Just Amelia.” she corrected him, fiddling with the hems of her apron and looking around at the strange fair. “So, which way do we go? Hurry, if you want to get out of here fast.”

Nodding fervently, Talmon stepped quickly forward and began heading away from the tent, casting glances back to see if she followed.

She kept up with him, heading down the vacant lanes of old games and dusty stages. Wrapping her arms around herself, she felt too awake to be comforted at all and she just kept her mind on where the Lostling was taking her, instead of on the insane situation she had somehow blacked out into.