Okay, THIS is the last one of these until I get more feedback.

Three

The place Amelia had thought was the Kay County Fair turned out to be just as insubstantial as Talmon had said it was, slipping from the fragments of the real world as a lost place and hardly able to even keep itself there.

Talmon said that if something disappeared from the lost world, it had either returned to the real world or had been deleted from existence. Deletion could happen to people or places, and he said it seemed to be happening to the old fair, as it gradually faded while they walked through it.

Amelia watched with amazement as the fair flickered out into a forest, trees entangling themselves into the tents until the fair wasn’t there at all and they were standing completely in the thick woods, shafts of sunlight coming through the treetops and sending spots of light into the shadows.

The paper lanterns and the games faded away completely. Anything that was even remotely familiar to the world she had just been in was gone, dissipating into the strange new world she had found herself in. She kept close to Talmon as this happened, terrified of the idea of deletion from both worlds and frightened by the new place she had come to as well.

The forest seemed to be full of hundreds of bulks of scrap metal, which, after a moment of acute observation, she realized were shattered planes. Planes of every size, of every kind, propellers scattered throughout the undergrowth and glass from the broken windows littering the forest floor.

“What kind of place is this!” she cried, looking at an empty row of seats inside one of the collapsed planes, the wing bent backward and into a patch of tall trees. “Why are there planes here? What’s going on?”

“These are planes that have crashed and been lost by your world. They’re here now, since no one ever found them. The people who were in them probably left this forest and found homes somewhere in this world years ago. Don’t worry.” Talmon assured, watching Amelia with concern. “Being lost isn’t so bad. You get used to it, I’ve seen people who’ve gotten lost turn out fine. This world isn’t so awful. It’s like a quilt, they say… patched up with fragments of the real world.”

“I don’t want to get used to it!” Amelia exclaimed, shaking her head and following after him as they passed by the planes. “I want to wake up from this nightmare and be in my bed at home. Anywhere but here!”

Talmon didn’t say anything but kept leading the way, weaving through a thin forest path and pushing branches out of the way as they stumbled along in a slight hurry. He kept looking around anxiously, as if whoever he was running from would pop out from behind the trees and nab him any second.

The forest they walked through seemed large and she could see no light except for the pieces of sky every now and then seen from above. Ducking under a branch, Amelia rushed forward and grabbed onto the tip of Talmon’s long sleeve, to ensure she did not lose him. It was a small contact but he nearly jumped a foot into the air at it, turning his wide eyes on her and looking relieved when he saw it was just her.

“Hey, Talmon?” she whispered his name, though it sounded strange coming out of her mouth. “How large is this forest? It’s not going to fade too, right? Where does this path lead?”

He turned around, looking at the dark trees and the lightly trodden path they went along. “This… this forest is pretty large, and it shouldn’t disappear.” He had gone very quiet. “It leads to one of the lost cities. If you want to reach Astray we have to pass through here…”

“Oh.” Amelia thought about the idea of lost cities. She knew throughout history there were many cities that had been lost and never found again. Were they there, in that world now? The idea seemed strange and she just shook her head. Soon she would need to get some sleep and maybe when she woke up she would be back at the picnic table in Darlington.

More questions popped into her head and she sped up until she was walking alongside him. “You said you ran away from your owner, right? Who was your owner? Why do you have one?”

He looked down at her like she had confused him, and then he nodded with understanding. “You don’t know, do you? But you’re from the parallel real world. So I supposed you wouldn’t know...” Turning his eyes away, he continued. “Lostlings aren’t allowed to roam free throughout this world. The leaders of the cities keep check of us and have us do labor for them, to give us a purpose. I was owned by the leader of a city south of here, in the city Nibelhem.”

“But you said a Lostling is someone who was born in this world, right?” Amelia inquired, tilting her head to the side curiously. “Why aren’t you allowed to roam free then? You seem harmless to me. So what is it?”

He played with his long sleeves as he walked along, his head down. “The Overseers of this world think that… they think that Lostlings can’t function as well as people of the real world. We’re considered the lowliest of creatures in the alternate world because of this. They say that being born lost has made us faulty.”

“Faulty? Well, you seem fine to me. You’re just a bit nervy, that’s all.” Amelia saw the embarrassment on his face from the topic. She smiled, trying to cheer him up then. “So you’ve run away, good for you! You’ve got rights, nobody can just own you like you’re a slave or something. But they’re looking for you now?”

“Yes.” he mumbled. “I’m done for if they find me.”

“But why did you run off?” she asked. “Where were you trying to head to?”

“I don’t know. I just wanted to, had to, get away. To try… just to try and find something better, maybe. This is a big world, you know.”

“Yeah, well, I suppose a lot has been lost over time.” she said with a shrug. “If it’s really big then will it take a long time to reach this Astray place?”

He paused, thinking this over. “It may take a while. But I don’t know the exact distance. It always changes.” He glanced down at her with a coy smile. “I could find out for you. When we reach the city.” His face lit up slightly then as he seemed to get an idea. “You can pretend to be an apprentice of my owner, and that way I can walk out in the open.”

“A Lostling can’t even walk out in the open freely?” she asked, feeling saddened by the fate of people she wasn’t even certain were real yet. “I’ll do just that then for you, Talmon. You are escorting me to the place where I can find a way home, after all. I owe you a lot for your help.”

For the first time since meeting him she saw a calm come over him, a little pride in his stance, a small amount of confidence in the way he held himself. She laughed a little, keeping a grip on his long sleeve and following him under the drooping trees.

“How did you get lost?” Talmon questioned after several minutes. He was still too shy to look at her as he asked, and she took a moment or so to answer, since she didn’t really know what was going on with her yet.

“I don’t know how I got here. I’m still leaning toward the idea that I fell asleep and I’ve dreamt you up. But if not, then I don’t know. I had a bad two weeks anyway and I was very glum about it all. I’ve been very confused about myself lately, but it didn’t seem like anything to warrant this insanity.”

“What’s Jon Boy’s Ice Cream?” he asked then, pointing at her red apron. She looked down at it and picked it up by the hems, reading the white cursive letters and remembering she was still wearing her work outfit.

“It’s the place where I worked. At the Kay County Fair.” she answered, untying the apron and letting it drop to the ground. “I’ll just lose this here.”

“You have to work in the real world?” Talmon asked, his large eyes focused now on her in his interest. She smiled at this, amazed to be speaking with someone who knew nothing about the normal things of everyday life.

“Yeah, I have to earn money to pay for things. Like a car, and for college. Though I don’t know if you have that stuff here. Maybe cars, if somebody lost them.”

“Earn money?” He seemed genuinely confused.

“Yeah, from working! There must be money here, people lose money all the time. And I’m sure money has been lost that no one’s ever found, so it should have come here.”

“Yes, but that money belongs to whatever lost person finds it here. Giving it away is a crazy idea. If I ever found money I would never just give it away to people.”

“But if you want somebody to do something for you they need money so they have a reason to do that something for you.” Amelia explained, but he just shook his head, as if she was the one who was simply not getting it.

“That’s what Lostlings are for. If you want them to do something, they do it. You don’t give them money.”

“Oh.” She understood now. There was free labor in this alternate world because there was plenty of Lostlings around to be made to do it without pay. All of the work Talmon did in his life and he received nothing for it except a supposed purpose.

He spoke up then in a small voice. “You know, if you were able to get lost without any big reason and come to this world then your aura must be strong enough to let you do that. Usually people get lost when huge accidents happen, or something big anyway. But if you only had a couple bad weeks, then that means you must just have a powerful enough air to you that you were able to slip through to this world without much effort.” He gazed down at her briefly, like he was impressed. “You must be very dynamic and talented if your aura is that strong.”

“What? Me? I’m boring!” Amelia protested, shaking her head and raising her eyebrows. “Sorry Talmon, but there is absolutely nothing extraordinary about me. I can’t do anything really. I have no talents, no real hobbies.” She sighed. “But no real big accident happened to me either. Maybe I was taking it all too seriously though. Maybe I just confused myself too much. Though I really did feel like I was losing myself.” She shrugged and looked around. “And now here I am. Not saying I believe any of this stuff, though.”

“That’s fine.” he nodded, observing her with an odd look then, as if he was seeing her for the first time or seeing something he hadn’t noticed before. “Amelia, I don’t think you’re boring. I think you can do a lot.”

She laughed at this, feeling charmed though she figured he was just trying to be nice. Brendan had grown bored of her, and her father had seen no need to stick around either. “You don’t really know me yet, Tal. But you just need to take me to this Astray thing and then we can part ways. By then you should be far enough away that you won’t have to worry about this owner of yours.”

“Maybe.” he replied uncertainly, looking down at his toes as they walked then.

The two of them continued on through the forest, Amelia’s sneakers sinking into the mossy floor and insects zipping by as they pushed through the growth. Never in her life would she ever had imagined being in such a place. She felt a little scared, but overall was numb to the experience because of her profound puzzlement.

If everything Talmon said was true, and if he was even real, then she was sure she should be doing more than perusing through a forest. If it was all true, then she was pretty sure she was due for a severe panic attack. She was feeling better though and she felt some of the sadness from earlier gone. At least now she had much more to think about than her father and Brendan Ross.

At that second Talmon froze at her side, grabbing her wrist harshly until she stopped walking too. Considering he had avoided all physical contact until that point, she looked up at him with concern, seeing his dark eyes gaping around at the surroundings. He was searching for something, his hair brushed out of his face and his head tilted as he listened carefully.

Then an animal-like yelp came from him and he broke out into a run, dragging Amelia along with him. She nearly tripped over her own feet as she struggled to dash off behind him, his hand tight around her small wrist.

“Talmon! Wait!” she cried, a branch scratching at her face as she fought to keep up with him. He looked back in horror and shook his head fiercely, signaling for her to keep silent.

But it was too late.

Figures stepped out from the shadows beyond the trees, snatching at the two of them and dragging them into the darkness.