Oh, but I'm getting ahead of myself, aren't I? You probably want to hear more about those six months first. Well, the changes sure weren't instant.
I had carried her home that night, when she was stolen away and infected with some strange liquid. We rushed to the car, sped down the highway, kicking it into overdrive, and made it to my house in no time flat. When we got home, Molly slumped onto the floor. She was feeling quite weak -- faint -- as though she had been poisoned . At first I assumed the syringe was full of some type of sedative, so get her to calm down, but something about this seemed different. She was scratching herself a lot. This troubled me, so I offered to take her to the hospital.
"Molly, you really should see a doctor."
"I...but..."
Molly always was afraid of the doctors. A fear imbued since she was a child. She hated shots most of all, avoided them at all costs, but this time I wouldn't let her go without.
"I'm taking you. Come on, throw something on." I told her, handing her a spare shirt.
She quickly got dressed into something more acceptable and managed to walk back to the car without my help. It was clear she was just trying to prove she was okay, but It wouldn't save her from the inevitable: Ignoring the problem could only make it worse. As we were driving, Molly began feeling rather hot.
"Jake...I...could you role down a window or something?"
Molly was tugging at her shirt, sweat gleaming across her chest. I felt her forehead.
"You're burning up!" I practically yelled, ever so curious as to what was in that syringe.
"We need to...h-hurry."
We arrived at the hospital, ran into the waiting room; Long line, lots of people. We were told to take a seat, someone would be with us shortly. We did as told and I asked Molly about how she was feeling. She just gave me a look, one I didn't really understand, and turned a little away from me in her seat. I thought she was just angry at me for making her go to the doctors, but I quickly found that I was mistaken. She was trying to show me something that, at the time, was incredibly worrying. There, at the very end of her spine was a small nub, no more than an inch in length. This was not here before our ordeal with the freak show. The drug must have somehow caused a mutation.
"We're getting help real soon, honey. Just hang on. I'm going to report this stuff to the police, okay? Just stay here."
Molly nodded and I stepped out. I really should have done this earlier, I know, but I was too focused on making sure Molly was alright. There hadn't been any good, opportune times to leave her alone for a second. Now that I had the chance I could tell the police everything. I dialed the number and began explaining the situation. All they had to say was that they'd look into it and that we should just continue our visit to the hospital for now.
By the time I got back to the waiting room Molly had already been called. She was now with the doctors and nurses, who were doing various tests to figure out what was in that syringe. I walked over to where she was being held. The doctors looked very busy so I decided not to interrupt, just watch from the sidelines. Molly winced a few times as they took blood samples and poked her with other tools.
An hour passed.
No information.
Two hours.
Nothing.
I lost track of what time it was by the time they had some information. The doctor motioned for me to come in and began speaking with me and molly.
"Okay, so we have something quite alarming to tell you." The doctor said. Molly and I just looked with frightened expressions.
"We took a blood sample on that little 'nub' of hers and...well, we found a few animal cells. Something not human."
Speechless.
"They seem to be mutating and taking over selective other cells, but at an incredibly slow rate...I...don't really know what to tell you beyond that. I mean, we can maybe send her to a vet, or..."
The doctor's words trailed off. Molly and I just sat, confused. Was this possible? How could it be? Well, then again, there were animal people at that freak show, but I thought they were just wearing costumes. Molly started tearing up, so I went over to comfort her. I turned to the doctor to ask what was taking over my mind.
"Uh...what animal was it, doc?"