"I think I remember seeing something about this..." Dave said slowly after a moment.
"It did make national news," I sighed, "my dad tried to keep things toned down as much as possible... but some things are just inescapable."
"So you and your dad went to bust the guy?" Dave asked, "this Eugene Changes?"
"Not immediately," I sighed, "My dad still had to get the warrant to do the investigation, which meant talking with a judge, which I wasn't there for."
"How long did that take?" Dave asked.
"About a week to get everything in order," I sighed.
"And they didn't high-tail it out of there?" Dave gasped.
"They thought that my dad was going to bring Molly to them," I shuddered, "it's partially where the whole thing screwed up our return to college and nearly kept us from graduating..."
"Not to mention the embarrassment Molly went through," Dave finished.
"Right."
+++++++++++++++++++
"Hi, is Molly home?" I asked Molly's mother on an afternoon a couple of days after my dad began working to get the warrant to investigate the Animatrix Fun House.
"Yes, she's downstairs," her mother said slowly, "her feeding time is in half an hour so, you'll need to leave then."
I blinked at that. "Feeding time" not "Dinner time". For the moment, I ignored it and went downstairs. Molly's room was in the basement of her family's house and I went straight to her door. I noticed a series of plates on the floor. All that was on them were some bones, some of them looking almost crushed, as well as whatever side dishes her parents had given her. Apparently what the freak show people had done to her had truly turned her into a carnivore. Vegetables, grains, and starches either tasted bad or made her sick.
"Molly, it's me," I said as I knocked on the closed door.
"Come in, George," came Molly's voice from inside.
I entered to find Molly laying on the floor with her own bedsheets laying over her. She was also reading from a book.
"What are you reading?" I asked curiously.
"Frankenstein," Molly said somewhat grimly, "since I've been turned into a monster..."
"Not a monster, Molly," I said trying to cheer her up in someway, "my dad will get the warrant and we'll find a cure. You have to believe that."
Molly looked up to me, and I saw tears in her eyes, darkening the red orange fur below them.
"They don't love me, George," she whimpered, "you're the only one who treats me the same..."
"I'm sure that that's not true," I told her, "they're your parents."
"They have little to do with me," she began to cry, "I can't sit at the table... I crushed the chair when I tried... so they bring me plates of food down here, and the quality is becoming less and less good for me..."
I didn't know what to say. I couldn't believe that Molly's own parents would treat her so.
"They keep bringing me side dishes... potatoes, vegetables, noodles, fruits... which all taste wonderful, I'm sure," Molly cried, "but they make me sick. I can't eat it, and in the back of my mind... I don't WANT to eat it."
"Well, tigers are carnivores," I commented, "maybe this is a sort of instinct thing. You'll just have to put up with it until my dad and I can find a cure."
"I don't want to endure it! I want it to be over! I want to be cured!" she continued to cry, "it's getting worse... my mind wants to taste blood on the meat... I want the meat rarer and rarer... I wouldn't mind it being raw... but I'm supposed to be human. I'm not supposed to be a tigress. I'm not supposed to eat ten pounds of raw meat a day."
And she broke down again, crying into the floor. I bent down and put a hand on her shoulder.
"We'll find a way to cure you, Molly," I told her, "I promise."
She then turned and pulled me into a hug, clutching at me through the blankets and crying until her mother brought her food down and told me to leave.
"You're the only one who loves me," I heard her say weakly as I left her room.
It all broke my heart.
++++++++++++++++
"We have to find a way to cure her," I told my folks that night.
My present college problems seemed trivial at the moment. I needed to help Molly.
"We can't do anything until we get a warrant," my dad sighed, "analysis of Molly's diary entry and the form that Mr. Changes gave me confirms that the form was forged, but an carnival freak show is not high on the DA's list of priorities."
"They turned my girlfriend into a tigress!" I said firmly, "it's breaking her. Making her something she's not."
"And in comparison to murders, gang activity, organized crime, and illegal drugs, the carnival is low on the list of priorities, George," my dad sighed, "don't worry, we'll get it though. And surely these guys have a cure for what they did to Molly."
"And she was such a sweet girl," my mother commented, "to be turned into a man eating animal..."
"She isn't a man-eater," I countered.
++++++++++++
My dad did get the warrant and at the end of the week, I was with him as he and about four uniformed officers drove up to the "freak show" that had stolen Molly's humanity. I stayed close to the rear of the group as they made their way in. We entered and I saw the half human, half animal people in cages.
"They had to have been like Molly once," I said in a low voice, looking at Leona, laying lazily in her cage. I noticed a sense of depression in her face, similar to what I was seeing in Molly, but Leona seemed to accept it more. Maybe that was because she had been a lioness longer then Molly had been a tigress.
My dad or the officers could answer as they were cut off by another voice cutting in.
"Ah, officers, you have come to me!" a man in a scientists lab coat spoke as he came from the same doors that they had taken Molly through when we visited the freak show. He then looked to me, "and you brought the kidnapper! That is him... although, to send him to jail seems overly harsh. Perhaps we could arrange for a bit of community service... unless you also have my volunteer."
I had all I could do to keep myself from launching myself at him.
"Eugene Changes, I have a warrant for your arrest and to confiscate any and all material you have at this site," my father spoke in a firm voice, "and the people in your cages are to be released to live their lives."
"But sir, this is their life," Mr. Changes argued, "they are all volunteers."
"Maybe them, but in regards to Molly Rhoer, the documents you gave me were forged," my father spoke as two uniformed officers cuffed Mr. Changes, "and if you're so willing to frame my son for your crimes, that leads me to believe you're lying now. So I will be questioning the people you have here. See how they see things."
"There is nothing illegal with what I've done," Mr. Changes answered, "and they're all free to leave whenever they wish. The cages have never been locked!"
"Maybe you've frightened them into staying," I growled, "saying only you can take care of them, and probably while armed... so that they would give the appearance of being loyal to you! Just like you tried to do with Molly!"
"George..."
"Molly? Such an improper name for a Bengal Tigress," Mr. Changes answered, "her name is Durga."
+++++++++++
"Durga?" Dave asked.
"A Hindu goddess that fights demons and is commonly depicted riding a tiger into battle," I told him.
+++++++++++++
"Read him his rights," my father spoke, "he knows he's caught. We'll question him downtown."
He then turned to me, "remember, son, you're not to get involved. Only observe."
I slowly nodded. He then approached Leona's cage while Mr. Changes was taken out of the freak show.
"Can you talk?" he asked to the lioness in the cage.
"Yes," she answered slowly, "though you are really too late to be of any help to us."
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"Changes's freak show began with a simple scientific experiment," Leona spoke, "using a complex retrovirus to give humans the abilities and strengths of animal species. It's supposed to only be in the animal testing phase, but Changes took it beyond that."
"How do you know?" one of the remaining uniformed officers blurted.
"Because Changes and I were working together on the project," Leona said, getting up and opening the cage she was in, "most of it was intended for medical research originally. Various mammals have a stronger immune system then humans that many diseases are not as threatening to... and the immune system of some sharks has even shown to be resistant to cancer. If elements of that system could be transferred into humans, we could end the threat that cancer poses to all humanity."
"I take it Mr. Changes wasn't interested in medical science?" my father questioned.
"Only as a cover," Leona answered, "he's really been more of a businessman. Most of it was dependent on government grants, and since it wasn't making a profit, he started coming up with the idea to create this sort of freak show and have it travel..."
"You did that to yourself... willingly?" I gasped.
"If only to help humanity," Leona admitted, "but everyone else here was taken in against their will... usually with forged waiver forms."
"How does he do it?" my father asked.
"He has a bunch of hired lackeys that do the grunt work," Leona answered, "while people looked at me, acting like I was some mindless animal, they'd grab someone and take him or her into the small attached transformation room... I didn't even know he was doing it until he brought Bertrand out after the first closing day... I tried to confront him, but he pulled a gun on me and threatened to kill me if I confessed anything..."
There was a silence for a moment.
"It was as Mister George said," Leona admitted.
"But you can reverse this, now that it's over... right?" I asked.
"I can not," Leona gave a sigh, "my experiments were supposed to cause a permanent change. Cancer is constantly changing, son. If the process was reversible, the "disease" would adapt to it easily and beat it."
"But why were you turned into a lion? And this Bertrand turned into a lobster or shrimp..."
"American Lobster," Leona sighed, "the specific species is the American Lobster... as I am mutated on the African Lion. Some of that was to prove the theoretical possibility of forcing a transformation... though, again, I didn't intend for it to go beyond animal testing. And my plans in relation to human testing would not be anywhere near as drastic as this."
"You could be in real trouble for going along with Mr. Changes's ideas," my father told her, "even if you didn't agree with him."
"I'm sure," Leona admitted, "and after seeing as far as he's taken things... it needs to stop. If I have to pay for what I've let Changes do... I will. He can't bully us anymore... though you will need help."
"With what?" my father asked, "you can't turn any of these people back..."
"Yes, but Bertrand can not survive for long outside of water," Leona pointed out, "and a couple can not survive outside of water at all."
I then looked over to see a large tank with a Sockeye Salmon/woman hybrid called "Pinkie" and Rainbow Trout/man hybrid called Steal-head. Being fish, they had apparently lost the ability to breathe air. I looked to my father, who looked completely past the point of retaining his calm.
++++++++++
"I don't doubt it," Dave commented, "what happened from there?"
"My father and officers looked around through the "transformation" lab while Leona let those that could breathe air out, to a spot where they could relax," I sighed, "and to be honest, with the knowledge that Molly couldn't be changed back. I lost interest."
+++++++++++++
I found Molly again laying on the floor of her room when I arrived at her home. At the moment she was watching television.
"What is it, George?" she asked looking up.
"My dad got the guy who did this to you," I said weakly.
She looked hopeful.
"Can I be turned back?"
Her look began to be more depressed when she saw the tears going down my cheeks.
"I'm sorry, Molly," I said weakly and collapsed down to her and hugged her neck, "I'm sorry..."
We ended up crying there for nearly an hour.