When the police had gotten to the fair grounds, the Freak Show was GONE, just an empty slot in the carnival. Any records the carnival itself had on the Freak Show turned out to be fake or led to dead ends. There'd been no trace of the other people turned into bipedal animals either. They'd simply vanished.
The police wouldn't have believed me for a second if my girls hadn't been mutating into a creature that was supposed to exist only in myths before their eyes.
At first, Molly had been horrified at herself, questioning how she could ever live a normal life, and was sincerely scared of being vivisected by the government or end up in a zoo or 'released in the wild or something.'
But over the curse of six months, Molly had calmed down, oh, and her eyes had become feline and become golden. She'd grown passive sullen, then she began talking to her sleep.
One of the biggest shockers to those who had investigated this was that she could fly. Not glide or clumsy flap her wings before she hit the ground, actually factually fly. The doctors flat out said this broke the laws of aerodynamics.
This was only the first clue that Molly's transformation wasn't just a mad scientist playing Dr. Frankenstein with the DNA of people and animals.
That talking in her sleep? Turns out it was Egyptian, and not modern Egyptian either, this was the version language spoken before King Tut! Except no verbal version of the language existed! It was extinct! It only existed in written form! This ruled out genetic programming or something like that.
Molly looked at some hieroglyphic in a history book, and said she could read them! Then three month ago, she confessed that when she was reading anything in English, it was like her second language now, she was translating it into Egyptian in her mind when she read it, and was thinking in Egyptian words rather than english.
Two months ago, things got even stranger, when Molly began drawing hieroglyphic on her bedroom wall, Molly had said they had simply felt right. She'd also begun to use Egyptian eyeliner.
This was VERY VERY different from Molly's attitude originally, she HATED anything that might have connected her to the 'stereotype' she was trying to avoid, she wouldn't even go near the beach!
She hadn't wanted to even see her parents at first so they wouldn't have to see their daughter as a 'monster', but since then they'd begun to visit regularly.
She hadn't felt comfortable going to classes with all the stairs she'd gotten, so she'd begun to take online classes instead.
She'd also hated tattoos, but now had commissioned a tattoo artist to tattoo a set of hieroglyphics onto one of her checks and also a set down her back. She wouldn't tell me what they meant, only that they 'felt right.'
While she'd lost height, she'd become much more lithe, with a surprising dense amount of muscle density. When she'd broken a cup by holding it too tight, she'd hadn't cried, but she had shouted at me for not protecting her better or stopping Those Men in time, but had apologized later.
And one month ago, Molly had begun to go around the house and outside wearing less and less, saying nothing felt right against her skin or fur, and grew agitated whenever I asked her to put something on. Finally, three weeks ago, she'd gone outside, not wearing a thing to buy a slap of meat down town (her new language skills had landed her a decent in home job as a translator). An office had approached I bet over public exposure, but he'd stopped, blinked and gone about his day. It was the same story for everyone that looked like they were going to start telling her about going around in the nude.
And last week, she'd begun to wearing clothes again, sort of. She was doing nothing to hide her modest and wasn't even trying. She'd begun to wear gold and jewels shaped like a typical Egyptian from thousands of years ago, I had no idea where it was even coming from at first, figured it was something she'd brought.
Then I saw her take a small pink neck bandana, and before my eyes, it turned into a gold jewel encrusted choker that she calmly put on.
She spotted me, shrugged, and went back to reading history (she'd been practically devouring history books lately, along with a few books on psychology and social dynamics).
I didn't know WHAT to say. Was I supposed to tell someone? Mobster would want her to create treasure for them twenty-four seven, and government would want a threat to the balance of wealth in the world removed. For her own sake I couldn't say anything.
Molly never once begged, order, threatened, or anything, she simply TRUSTED ME not to tell anyone. The least I could do was return that trust.
Now a week since seeing what I could only describe as magic, Molly came down the stairs, already decked out in a few pieces of her own created jewelry. She was humming a tune to herself I was betting hadn't been heard for thousands of years.
"Hello Georgy, what's for breakfast?" She asked calmly, her every motion beautiful and graceful.
"Oh, uh, waffles and eggs dear."
"That sounds nice."
As we ate. Molly carried the conversation. "George, I want you to know, I don't blame you, and it was childish of me ever to. I don't forgive those vermin for violating my body, but I now understand this was not a curse, but a gift. I was simply too limited before to appreciate it. Those filth likely didn't have a clue what they were doing. Maybe they were hoping a half-human would be easier to control than a full blooded. I think now the others were just tests to see if it was possible, working with the DNA of mundane beasts before moving on to majesty creatures that held true power. This is all just speculation on my part dear of course."
"Of course," I said cautiously.
She spun her ordinary fork once, making it onto a golden ornament folk and continued eating. "I've had this feeling for a while. I was scared at first. Terrified. I didn't tell you because I was scared you'd leave me, and I'd be alone. Because I was scared that I was vanishing, that I was losing myself. Now I understand I was becoming something MORE. No offense dear, but I don't think I could bear to look in the mirror and see a human looking back at me."
"None taken." I said, unable to take my eyes off her beautiful form, her eyes gleaming. She casually scratched her chair that became something a bit more fitting nobility then a cheap fold out chair.
"Good. Tell me dear, IF you could become something more, would you? Or would you want to remain in the comfort of what you are, and what you know? Would you want to share that gift with others? Or would you want them to stay in the comfort of what they are, and what they know? People are inherently allergic to change."
"I think that depends on the change. And if it's really for better or worse."
"Georgey, tell me honesty. Would you say I'm good now?"
"You were good before."
"But . . . wouldn't you say I'm . . . better?"
I found myself glued at her eyes. They will they contained, the power, the majesty. I finally grunted out. "Yes, you are."
Molly put her fork down, waltzed up to me, and embraced me before kissing me on the lips. I felt bliss.