Franz Lemke

### Enemies

Dr. **Franz Lemke** was a doctor at Clear View. First mentioned by Dr. Kesey Bailey's check-in at Clear View, Lemke specialized in treating witches that experienced adverse Faraway trips and conducted illegal experiments in the white room at Clear View.

## Background

Lemke was a successful and respected doctor in his field and an expert on memory magic. Lemke took bereavement leave when his wife, Josie Lemke, died from carbon monoxide poisoning five years prior. At some point he made a pact with the Spirit of Love to further his experiments on human memories.

## Story

### Book 2

Ren and Lydia Summers were previously patients of Lemke but have few memories of their sessions, with Ren recalling some music music and "a funny language", of which he says that the "words hurt his ears more than the music did".

After being led to the white room by Ren, Bailey finds strange test vials containing gas, one of which has Lydia's name. After inhaling the gas, Bailey has a flashback to when she and Lydia were making Halloween costumes with her mom. Dr. Kesey confirms that these are likely extracted memories from Lemke's unauthorized experiments.

After Kesey confronts Lemke about his illicit experiments he stops appearing at Clear View, resulting in Kesey reporting Lemke to the Coven.

After using one of Lemke's receipts, Bailey finds his residence and is greeted by Josie Lemke, who says Franz is in London on a research fellowship. Later at the cemetery, Bailey dispels the illusion of the person impersonating Josie, who it is revealed to be Lemke himself. He explains that the penalty for spellcasting in front of his wife, who was a nonwitch, led to her memory being wiped by the Coven. As these memories wipes can cause severe side effects including major depression, his wife committed suicide sometime after the memory wipe. Afterwards, Lemke began his experimentations on human memory to develop a better method of memory extractions, which is how he began consulting the Spirit of Love in the Faraway for answers and helped Lemke cope with his loss by suggesting he embody the form of the person he loves the most. However, Lemke tells Bailey that he never treated Lydia, nor does he have any knowledge of her memory vial in the white room.

Lemke tells Bailey to come to his apartment at midnight to show her proof that Lydia was not his patient at Clear View. He claims the memories from the vial are fake after Bailey recounts that the vial in the white room was red instead of blue, and theorized that someone had recreated the memories after Lydia had described it to this person. It was likely Lydia's ancestor, Justice Sommer, who falsified the memory vials to account for Lydia's memory loss through Lemke's illicit experiments to avoid suspicions of Lydia being possessed by him. Before they can finish, Lemke's apartment catches on fire, who runs to gather his photo albums when Bailey sees the arsonist. Bailey begins to lose consciousness but is able to escape the fire when she casts the spirit of love's symbol, which brings her to the ritual tree. Although Bailey escapes by casting the Spirit of Love's symbol, Lemke dies in the fire.

At his funeral, Dr. Kesey, Nurse Kauffman, and Bailey serve as his pallbearers at the cemetery.

## Relationships

Lemke deeply loved his wife and dedicated his life to identifying new memory wipe procedures after her death. He ultimately dies attempting to retrieve their photo albums despite Bailey's attempts to save him.

Lemke was involved with the parasitic Spirit of Love, who helped him transform memory extractions into a storable, gaseous form. However, he eventually displeased the Spirit of Love's demands, which allowed Bailey to dispel his illusion as Josie.

Lemke's colleagues have mixed sentiments towards him, as Dr. Kesey supported his illegal experiments on patients while Nurse Kauffman discredits him for ruining the lives of people in favor of scientific advancement.

## Personality

Lemke has few qualms about conducting his memory experiments on patients, even though these have caused severe side effects.

## Physical Appearance

As an elderly man, Lemke had gray hair, brown eyes, and tan skin. He has a thick mustache, and wears a gray flannel over a white, long-sleeved thermal shirt with a gilded necklace.

## Trivia

* Lemke has a German vinyl record sthat Kesey identified as Heino, his favorite musician.