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Author's Chapter Notes:
I vowed to myself that I would update ONH with a new chapter before Mare finished reading chapter 18 and here we are. Thank you, Mare, for lighting a fire under me. :)

And my deepest thanks to everyone on the message boards who voted for me as one of their Top Ten favorite authors of all time. I tied for 10th place with our founding father Chaos, whose fic "Ground Zero" I admired sooooo much when I first joined AC. I'm flattered and humbled.

Okay, shutting up now. On to chapter 19!

Nick sat at the breakfast nook in the kitchen, watching as Lene bustled around preparing food. She moved a bit agitatedly, as though she were still unsettled by the fact that he knew her from his own world.

“Yesterday—it was just yesterday, wasn’t it?” she muttered to herself, buttering a slice of toast.

“What was yesterday?” Nick called over to her.

She looked up from the toast. “When I told you how scared I was that you were going to leave me here in Other World, alone. I remember the conversation like it was just yesterday and yet… it almost feels nostalgic, like it happened years and years ago.”

“Well you did say that you’re more than ten years older now. What do you know about yourself now that you’re twenty that you didn’t know when you were nine?” Nick asked.

“Hm, there’s a lot that’s happened in ten years. Everything’s all jumbled up in my head,” Lene told him, frowning to herself. “There are so many things, so many memories, that it’s hard to wrap my mind around them.”

Nick slouched against his high-backed stool. “Do you think we can at least figure out why you and I are both here? I mean, obviously I know you from that coffee shop in Kansas, so—”

“Kansas?” Lene interrupted. “When was I ever in Kansas?”

“Well, I think that I’m from Kansas,” he explained, “and since you work down the street from where I live, you’re probably from Kansas, too.”

“Hmm… I may have a lot of memories to sort out, but I still don’t remember anything about this coffee shop of yours. If you don’t mind me asking, what makes you think you’re from Kansas?”

“Something from back when I first showed up here in Other World. I got bit by this lawn gnome.”

“A lawn gnome?” Lene raised an eyebrow at him. “You mean like those ornaments that you put on grass?”

“Yup,” he held his right palm up for her to see. “That sucker came to life and bit me hard. Well, right after it happened I randomly muttered, ‘I don’t think I’m in Kansas anymore.’ So it makes sense that I come from Kansas.”

Putting the spatula she held down, Lene clapped a hand to her mouth and stifled a giggle.

“I don’t get it, what’s so funny?”

“Nick, you’re not from Kansas. How could you be when you don’t even have an accent? ‘I don’t think I’m in Kansas anymore,’ that’s a line from the movie Wizard of Oz. The main character Dorothy says it after a tornado picks up her house and she lands in a strange place called Oz,” she explained.

Nick still didn’t know what she was talking about, and it must have shown on his face because Lene carried two plates of breakfast over, set them on the tabletop, and reached out to him.

“Here,” she said, taking his hand. At the contact, a flood of images flashed into his brain—a green-faced witch, flying monkeys, little munchkin people, and lions, and tigers, and bears (oh my!). Nick reeled back, astonished by the rush of information that had just passed between them.

“Remember?” Lene asked, this time raising both her eyebrows and looking at him earnestly.

“How did you do that?!” he exclaimed. “I just… I feel like I just saw that whole movie in a second.”

“Because you’ve seen it before,” Lene told him. “That’s why it was so easy for me to remind you of it. I shared a bit of my memory about the film, which made it easier for me to unlock a tiny bit of your memory to you, so then you remembered seeing it. Here, have some eggs.” She slid one of the plates over to Nick and took a seat across from him at the breakfast nook.

/Well, at least I don’t have to worry about vague explanations of how her powers work anymore.../ Nick thought, his mouth hanging open as he stared at her and tried to remind himself that this girl was the same person as the nine-year-old, five-year-old, and toddler that he’d known. She was just older and a lot more on top of the situation than he was. Oh, and stunningly beautiful. But he really shouldn’t be thinking about that.

All of a sudden, Nick remembered just what he had done in the shower that morning and the back of his neck burned at the recollection. He felt disgusted with himself all over again. Was he really such a horndog that he would beat it in the shower, thinking about a girl he had known since she was just a baby? Granted, she was a lot older now but at one time he had changed the kid’s diapers...

Lene, who was digging into her eggs and toast, looked up and caught him staring at her. She motioned at his toast, giving him a look that clearly said ‘What the heck is wrong with you?’

“You should eat your breakfast… before it gets cold.”

***

After they ate, Nick cleaned up since Lene had prepared the food, and then they rummaged through the house for things that might be useful to take with them. They needed to replace the backpack that Nick had been using so far, as it had gotten ripped during their wild chase through the mountain pass. Unlocking a bedroom closet, Nick found a hot pink children’s backpack hanging on a peg inside.

Lene reached for it and ran her hand over the bag’s screen-printed design, which was emblazoned with widely smiling teddy bears and rainbows. “You know, I was never that fond of Care Bears.” She handed it to Nick. “Here you go. I always liked My Little Ponies better anyway.”

“Gee, thanks.” He made a face as he took the bag from her. Nick didn’t know what the “Little Ponies” that Lene mentioned were, either, but if they were anything like the Care Bears on the backpack he was holding now, he wasn’t too interested in finding out.

“ What TV shows did you watch a lot when you were a kid, Nick?” Lene asked him.

“I don’t know,” he shrugged. “You know, ‘cause of this whole memory problem I can’t really say.”

“Oh, right.” Lene put her hand on his upper arm and smiled. “Does this ring a bell?”

At the physical contact, a stream of cartoons danced around in his head – pink and blue bears, prancing ponies, sunshine and rainbows. When he looked down again at the backpack in his hands, Nick realized that he could name every character on it. He could even remember arguing with his younger sister over who was the best Care Bear: Cheer Bear or Tenderheart Bear. And he recalled being firmly in the Cheer Bear camp.

“I remember this…” Nick began slowly. “But those are girl shows. I never watched those!” he lied. Nick decided not to share his childhood addiction to Care Bears and brought up another cartoon instead. “I always fought with my sister over the TV remote because I would rather watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” A memory of giant green turtles eating pizza and doing karate popped into his head.

Lene dropped her hand. “I didn’t watch that one. That was a boys show,” she teased.

Another thought popped into Nick’s head then. “Hey, Lene? Since you’re able to share your memories with me and help me remember stuff, I was wondering… Do you think you can unlock the rest of my memory, too?” he asked. “It would be nice to finally figure out who I am, where I come from, all that stuff.”

“No… sorry.” She shook her head. “To be honest, I’ve been trying to unlock what I could of your memory the past few times, but the block that Other World has set on your mind is really strong. I can only take little cracks at it here and there. I don’t know how to completely unlock you.”

“I see, nevermind then.” He changed the subject, disappointed. “Well, since we can’t figure out anything about me, then what about you? Had enough time to figure anything out?”

“A little…” she said slowly. “I can sort out the main things, but all the details are still jumbled together.”

“Well, you’re better off than I am since your memories are there, at least. You just need to figure them out. I don’t even have that to work with,” Nick said moodily. Lene made a sympathetic sound in response, which he shrugged off. “Let’s focus on you now. What’s your name?”

“You know my name, silly, it’s Lene.”

“I mean, your last name,” Nick corrected himself. Why had he never thought to ask her this before? “Do you remember it? I know that mine starts with the letter ‘C’ but that’s about it. How about you?”

“Oh, my last name is Olsen,” she told him.

“Lene Olsen, huh?” It had a nice sound rolling off his tongue. “And do you remember where you’re from? I know you’re not from here because I’m sure I’ve met you before, in that place wherever it is I’m from.”

“Mm…” she bit the corner of her lip, thinking about it carefully. “I vaguely remember, but I’m not sure exactly. My parents moved around a lot when I was a kid, so I’m not sure where we’re from originally, but if it wasn’t here in Other World, then it must have been… somewhere in Europe, I guess? They never told me why we moved around so much. I was probably too young to understand.”

Nick nodded his head in agreement. “Europe would explain the accent.”

“Accent?” Lene laughed self-consciously. “Is my accent that bad?”

Actually, he thought her accent sounded like music, like tinkling little bells. How odd that he'd never noticed it before; she had just seemed like a kid with a funny voice.

“I’ve tried to get rid of it,” Lene told him. “When my family moved to America, I hoped that my accent would go away so I would sound like the other kids. Is it really so strong?”

“Not in a bad way. It’s nice; I like it,” Nick assured her, which brought a smile to her face. But his next question took it away again. “So, your family moved from Europe to America?”

“Yes, that’s right. When I was nine.” Lene’s face darkened as she said slowly, “It was to a little town in New England… maybe somewhere in Connecticut? I was so angry because by that time I was old enough to be upset that we were moving far away from my friends. My parents wouldn’t even let me give them our new address to keep in touch. Anyway, that was the last time we moved. At least, me and my parents, I mean...” Lene looked down at the ground and became very interested in something by her feet.

Nick realized that he knew what happened next in the story. “From what you’ve told me,” he said carefully, not wanting to upset her, “your parents died when you were nine.”

Lene’s eyes remained on the ground. “Yes.”

“Do you remember what happened?” Nick pressed, trying to find out more. She didn’t say anything, just continued staring at her feet. Silently, they stood there in the bedroom for the longest time, Lene with her eyes on the ground, Nick comically clutching the Care Bears backpack as he watched and waited for her to say something.

Just when it seemed like she wasn’t going to tell him anything, Lene spoke again. Her voice was flat and sad. “It was a few months after we had moved there. One night, it was very late. I was sleeping, but I woke up when I heard them shouting. My parents, they were arguing with… some men. Strangers. And then the house shook. Things were breaking.”

She shut her eyes tight, as though it could help her shut away the painful memories. “Growing up, my parents had always told me that if anything bad happened, I should hide. They didn’t explain what this ‘bad thing’ was, just that I needed to cover myself—with magic, my mother showed me how to do it—and to stay very quiet until one of them came for me. But that night when they were fighting, I heard Bruno, my dog, barking… and I didn’t want to leave him. I wanted to hide him, too. So I left my room and went looking for him.”

Nick swallowed hard, his heart in his throat as he pictured Lene at nine years old, so young and innocent, thinking only of her dog and not her own safety.

“Bruno was in the kitchen. With my… with my father. Papa was on the ground, not moving. Bruno was standing over him, barking in the direction of the living room. The strangers were there, yelling at my mother. And I heard them say, ‘Where is she? Where is she?’ Then there was this bright light and she screamed. And she was dead, too.”

Lene blinked against the tears that came to her eyes. “The strangers saw me through the doorway of the kitchen. I think I was so shocked when I found my father that I forgot to hide myself. They came toward me then.”

Her breath caught. “I don’t… I don’t even remember their faces. Just their open hands stretched out, palms pointed at me as they approached. Bruno tried to protect me from them. He barked and barked. Then there was another bright light and he… he…” Her voice was getting progressively shakier, but Lene continued. “I couldn’t move, I couldn’t do anything. I was terrified. It all had happened so fast… Just like that, everything I knew was gone. I was completely alone.”

Setting down the Care Bears backpack, Nick put his arms around her. His chin rested on the top of her head, and he held her tight. Lene sniffled and buried her face in his chest but refused to let herself break down crying.

“I’m sorry, I know this is hard for you,” Nick said. “Thank you for telling me about what happened.” He stroked her long dark hair and tried his best to be comforting. “There’s one more thing I have to ask, though… The last time we talked about it, you told me that somebody saved you that night…”

He felt Lene stiffen in his arms.

“Yes.”

“You told me… that it was Günter. And that after your parents died, he took care of you.”

“That’s right,” she said quietly.

“I’m sorry, Lene, but that just doesn’t make any sense to me.”

She pulled away from Nick and gave him a cold look. “Listen, I know you think that just because I can use magic, I seem to know everything, but I can’t explain it. It doesn’t make sense to me either.” She raised her hands helplessly. “Somehow I have memories of my life growing up with Günter, while at the same time I have memories of being here in Other World with you. I don’t know how both are possible, but what I do know is that there’s got to be some sort of misunderstanding here. Günter is not a bad man.”

“Are you sure we’re talking about the same person?” Nick asked skeptically. “Tall, long silver hair, piercing eyes…?”

“Yes, and believe me, I’ve known him for over ten years. He’s always looked out for me. I know he’s a good person because he’s been fighting all these years to get rid of bad men, people who would use their magic to hurt others. Like the men who killed my parents.”

“But Günter is after us, Lene, and we’re not bad people,” Nick reminded her. “He tried to attack us in the forest. When you were, like, four years old he kicked you. Seriously, who kicks babies?”

“Kicked me? I have no idea what you’re talking about, Nick,” Lene looked at him doubtfully. “First of all, I don’t know how you expect me to remember something that supposedly happened when I was four years old. Do you remember everything perfectly from when you were four? Or nine?” she stopped. “Oh, well, I guess I’m asking the wrong person since there are a lot of things you can’t remember, but what I’m trying to say is—so much has happened since then, and everything’s all mashed together!”

“Second of all,” Lene crossed her arms, “just what have you got against Günter, anyway? He raised me ever since my parents died and he’s been nothing but kind to me. I think I know him better than you do.”

“But what if you’re wrong about him?” Nick tried to reason. “When we were in the forest, Arthur told me all these bad things that Günter had done. The problems with Other World, they’re because of him. People used to live here in Other World, even in this house, but then Günter came and started a war.”

“A war? That’s ridiculous. First of all, who’s Arthur? Are you sure this guy can even be believed?” She arched an eyebrow at him. “How long have you known him? And why do you trust his word over mine?”

“Don’t you remember? Arthur, he’s the leader of those big black dogs in the forest, but they haven’t always been dogs. He said that Günter declared war on Other World like twenty five years ago and turned them into animals. Come on, you met Arthur… There was another dog in his pack named Bruno, just like your dog.”

“What?” Lene laughed hollowly. “Please… can you just listen to yourself for a second? Your only reason for thinking that Günter—my guardian, the person who saved me—is bad, is because a talking dog told you?”

Nick sighed. Lene didn’t believe him, and she refused to accept that the man who raised her could be a horrible villain. He supposed that he couldn’t blame her. After all, if he were in her shoes, Nick would probably trust the man who’d raised him, as well. But there was too much evidence against Günter, too many things Nick had seen and heard. There was no way that Lene’s guardian could be the good guy that she claimed him to be. Nick had to make her see the truth about Günter before she winded up getting hurt.

“Lene…” He reached out and took her arm.

She looked down at his hand. “What?”

Nick concentrated hard on the memory of their encounter with Günter in the forest, the look of pure evil in his eyes, the cold satisfaction that man had gotten out of hurting them. And then the long talks with Arthur, their ride through the forest with the pack of big dogs, every bad thing that he had heard about Günter’s past.

/If only I could send my memories to her like she did to me.../ Nick thought.

Lene’s face twisted in surprise. She yanked her arm away from him with a gasp, and Nick knew that somehow he had managed to share his memories with her.

“What was that?” she demanded. “How did you figure out how to do that by yourself? I never showed you…”

“I just sort of figured it out on my own,” Nick explained, “but that’s beside the point. Don’t you see?” He took both her hands in his own. “That’s the real Günter. You can’t trust him.”

“No!” She pulled away from him. “You… you’re wrong! And I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”

Why was she being so stubborn? “But, Lene—”

“I told you, I don’t want to talk about it.” She turned and stormed out the bedroom, slamming the door behind her.

Chapter End Notes:
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