Is Annabelle in?

"Well, it's like this, Crissy..."

She shrugs at your use of her name. Of course, only a couple hundred people know that. If you want to prove what you're about to claim, you have to come up with something better.

"Where I come from, Tintin, I'm your brother." You notice her flinching at her childhood nickname and remember that she didn't really like it.

"I don't have a brother. What's your name?"

"Albert."

"Albert. "She kind of tastes it. "Doesn't ring a bell. Guess it's the closest you can get to Annabelle... Abie."

Interesting. And lucky that what seems to be your female parallel in another dimension turned out to get the same nickname as you. Of course it's also lucky that your sister is into science fiction...

You shrug. "Okay, we're even. Both broke the deal, but I guess it was necessary."

She nods. "For the record, what deal?"

"When we turned thirteen we promised each other that we would never use pour nicknames again, under pain of tickling."

She laughs. "Okay, I'm convinced. But why are you here? Have you met my sister?"

"I think I have. It's kind of a long story." You sit down on the bed as your not-sister grabs the only chair in the room, and start relating your adventures from the beginning.

When you finish, Crissy (whose full name is Christine, hence the nickname) nods slowly. "So now Sis is off conspiring with a witch in some other world. Sounds like her. But why are you here?"

"I can only guess, of course, but apparently the Void tried to bring Annabelle back home. But because I'm her parallel and was transformed to look like her, not to mention that I was in the place she was supposed to be, it made a mistake. And there's no magic in this world, which broke the transformation spell." After a brief interval you add: "Your turn."

"Me? I don't have much to tell. Sis disappeared five years ago, and we've kept her room like this since then, only packed away her clothes. And I took care of her hamster until it died. Obviously she ran into one of these voids and ended up on this other world where she somehow became a princess and changed her name slightly. Now the question is..."

Before she can finish a door - the front door from the sound of it - slams and another familiar calls "Crissy, I'm home!"

"It's Mom." You nod. You both recognized the voice, of course. "Okay, the new question is what do we tell her?"

It turns out that you have less time to ponder that than you'd like to. As you speak, familiar footsteps rapidly ascend the stairs and cross the corridor, and the door opens to reveal another familiar figure.

"I saw the open window," Crissy's mother explains. "And I figured... Who is that??"

"That's Albert. He's kind of... would you believe he's the parallel world double of Annabelle?"

"-ine."

"Quit it."

The woman who's kind of your mother as well stares at you for a moment and says

1. "You mean those crazy theories are true? Welcome home, young man."
2. "How gullible can you be, Crissy? He's obviously a stalker. I'm calling the police!"
3. "Oh, I get it! So you are my daughter's secret boyfriend. Nice to meet you at last. Is Albert your real name?"
4. "Now, now, young lady, you know what I've said about starting orgies without me!"
5. "Nobody steps on a church in my town!"
6. Wait, wait, what about the tickling?

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