Julius sat down and admired what he accomplished in such little time. He managed to fill a basin with water and acclimate Cassandra into it. "Sorry you have to settle for a dollar-ninety-nine-cent bin, we'll get you something better before the next show."

"I-I—" she tried to vocalize what she was feeling, but speech was still incredibly difficult for her. Julius looked at her arm and saw bumps forming. He then heard her teeth chatter rapidly.

"You're cold?" She quickly nodded her head. "Do you want to get out of the water?" He mimed picking her up and putting her down on the ground. She nodded again. "Alright, one sec…"

Julius found a few towels nearby. He placed one on the floor, then slung one over his shoulder. "Okay, come here. Put your arms around my neck." She understood him and looped her only limbs around his head, then gasped with excitement as he reached down into the water and hoister her up, one arm at her back, the other arm beneath her fish tail. He accidentally fell back a bit, but regained his footing. Cassandra chuckled at his clumsiness. Julius chuckled with her and without taking his eyes off of hers, carefully placed her down on the towel. Once she was seated he took the other towel off his shoulder and used it to dry her off. She was completely bare, and her nipples proved she was freezing cold. Instinctually he dried her off there first, but she didn't seem to mind.

"Oh, uh, I have something for you," Julius said, remembering what he toiled over before falling asleep last night. He wandered into the back corner of the room and returned with something in his hands. "Lura, one of our acrobats, has left us for a while, so I don't think she'll mind that I took one of her bras. And I, um, I went to the beach last night and found some seashells. I glued them onto the cups, just like the Little Mermaid." Cassandra was curious and intrigued. "Want me to help you put it on?"

She gave him a nod. "Yyeh," she mumbled. Julius crouched down behind her and helped loop her arms through the bra. Once he clasped it he hesitantly reached around and adjusted the shells to make sure they fit. Cassandra put her hands on top of his, turned her head around to face him, and smiled.

"Ah, Parker, good morning," said Barnaby as he made his way down the length of the train.

"Morning, Mr. Barnaby."

"How have the animals been? I apologize, I meant to check in with you sooner but there's been a lot on my plate lately."

"Oh, they're fine. Actually, I've been looking for Julius. I can't find him anywhere."

"Julius is busy at the moment, I have him working on a very special project that needs to be ready before tonight's show. And with him doing that, I'm in need of your assistance."

"Sure, what for—"

"Well, good morning, gentlemen!" exclaimed Sanguine as he strolled down the hallway.

"Ah, if it isn't the other man I've been needing to speak to," said Barnaby, a bit sarcastic. Parker caught his tone. "Parker, would you mind waiting out here for a moment? I need to speak to Sanguine privately, it's a matter of utmost urgency."

"Oh, sure. I guess I'll pop in and say hi to Lura—"

The ringmaster quickly cut the farm boy off. "Lura's… no longer with us."

"What do you mean?"

"She and I got in a bit of a fight the other night, I'm afraid she's run off." Parker looked extremely disappointed. Lura was the first friend he made in this place. And just like that, she was gone. "Excuse me, Parker. I'll be out shortly." Barnaby shoved his father into the adjacent room and closed the door behind them.

"What do you mean Lura left?" asked Sanguine, concerned.

"She hasn't left, you buffoon. She… I locked her away for a while."

"So does that mean she won't be joining us for dinner tonight?"

"Dinner? What—oh for fuck's sake. Happy birthday." Barnaby's face softened as he gave the man a hug. "So, who's all coming?"

"Looks like it's just gonna be you and me."

Barnaby could tell he was upset. "Well, hey. That sounds splendid. It's going to have to be quick, though, we do have a show to do tonight."

"Yes, I'm aware. So… got any news on our killer?"

"Diego's dead. Whoever it is isn't just after your clown troupe. They're after the whole goddamn circus."

"Jesus Christ."

"They also left a note. Recognize the handwriting?" He handed the paper to Sanguine, and the old man made a show out of squinting and bringing it closer and further away from his eyes.

"Can't say I do."

"So it's not one of our close allies, no one on this train, that much is true. I have a pretty good idea of who it is, though." Sanguine's ears perked up. "If I start spreading rumors around it might only get us in more trouble. I think I can handle it from here, just… promise me you'll be careful."

"I will, son." The two both felt that another hug was necessary. Barnaby sniffled, trying to hide back the tears that started to well up in his eyes. He then let go and opened the door, and Sanguine walked out.

"Parker," he said, calling the young man into the room. "Follow me." Barnaby led Parker through several rooms until they arrived at their destination: the room where Ellen's body was still lying limp and dead on the table. "I need to ask you to do something for me."

She sure was heavy. Then again Parker wasn't too familiar with carrying a dead body. When he killed his father, he just left him there. He paused to take a break and started to relive that night. How he just cracked his head open like a walnut. How he just walked out of there. How he just packed his bags and left for good. He wondered if the cops found the body yet, if anyone who lived nearby started to notice that no one was driving the tractor or tending to the animals. Those poor animals, left all alone with no one to care for them.

He picked up the body again and kept moving, and before long he made it to Ellen's car. Making sure no one saw, he opened the trunk and hauled Ellen's body inside. Clearly not one for putting bodies into cars, he had a bit of trouble at first, but managed to stuff her completely inside.

Parker rearranged Barnaby's gloves on his hands, got into the car, started it, and sped off. Before long he made it to Victor Carson's house. He parked a few houses down and noticed another car was in the driveway. "Shit," Parker hissed.

He got out of the car and stealthily headed towards the house. He didn't know why he needed to be stealthy; it was the middle of the day in a residential area. Anyone could peek their head out of their fancy curtains and see him tiptoeing to the Carson home. Parker figured he would be better off just walking like normal. He did, however, turn around several times to look at the car, making sure that the trunk didn't unexpectedly open, exposing Ellen's corpse to the world.

He finally made it and wormed his way into the bushes to peek inside the window. Victor wasn't in the living room, or the dining room, as far as Parker could tell from his line of vision. The young boy carefully slipped around the side of the house and peered inside. It became relatively clear that Victor wasn't on the main floor. Hopefully he's taking a nap upstairs, Parker thought. He then hurried back to the car, turned it on, and pulled into the driveway. He found the little garage remote clasped onto the overhead sun visor and pushed the button. The door slowly opened, and Parker slowly inched further and further ahead.

To his surprise, Victor was standing in the garage, working at his tool bench.

"Ellen?" Victor recognized the car, but the glare from the sun prevented him from seeing Parker in the front seat.

"Shit, shit, shit!" Parker quickly put the car in reverse and jetted out of the driveway, not even caring about the fact that he nearly ran over a 7-year-old girl walking down the sidewalk.

Victor was understandably confused, and so he started to jog after the car. Once the car was parallel to the road, he realized it wasn't Ellen driving.

Parker sped off, and Victor whipped out his phone and dialed three quick numbers. "Yes, my wife's car has just been stolen, and I think he was attempting to rob my house. The plate number is 460-PKE3, a black Ford sedan. He's currently headed onto Kensington Boulevard. Please, hurry, I didn't see my wife with him, god forbid she's tied up in the trunk or something."

Victor hung up and wiped the sweat starting to bead on his forehead. He then called Ellen, but she wasn't picking up.

Barnaby was in Diego's room, packing up his belongings, when he heard a cell phone ringing. It was faint at first, but he followed the sound of it until he discovered a woman's purse hiding under Diego's bed.

It wasn't Lura's. It wasn't Athena's. He scrolled down all the possible women on the train it could have belonged to, but none of them rang a bell. He reached inside and found the cell phone: VICTOR CARSON – MISSED CALL.

This is Ellen's, he realized. Curious and a bit confused, Barnaby raided the bag and found a large envelope neatly folded inside. "Hello, what's this?" He unfolded it to find, in big red letters, CONFIDENTIAL written across it. When has that ever stopped me before? Charles opened the envelope and found a bunch of bizarre paperwork. Letters from a man named Duncan Manchester. A photograph of the man was attached. He was an elder man, in his late sixties most likely, holding flight gear and standing in front of a plane.

A copy of Duncan Manchester's birth certificate followed, and immediately after that was a copy of Duncan Manchester's death certificate. "September 23… that wasn't too long ago." Barnaby continued to sift through the stack of papers: Duncan Manchester's working papers; newspaper clippings of his obituary; his engineering degree; proof of his work in the Air Force.

"Who in the hell is Duncan Manchester? And why was Ellen carrying this with her when she came here?" He flipped through the papers and fumbled as they started to scatter to the floor. The jumbled mess appeared to make the dots connect more easily for Barnaby. He was immediately drawn to a picture of Victor, Ellen, and Duncan together at a gala. Then he found another interesting piece of paper. "Phone records between Duncan and some Marcus Buchanan… who the hell is this now?!" Barnaby was about to give up, until he came across Marcus Buchanan's birth certificate, and his death certificate, and a picture of him with a woman that looked extremely familiar. "Holy shit… Cassandra."

Athena shuffled to the door and gently tapped it with her fingertips three times. She closed her hands together and waited for a response, but then realized she probably wasn't forceful enough. She closed her fist and quietly knocked, and shortly after Julius opened the door.

"Oh, hi, Athena," Julius quickly closed the door around his head so she couldn't see inside. "I was just, uh, lifting weights…"

"I know about the girl, Julius. I came to see her, if that's alright with you."

"Right. I keep forgetting you can see that kind of stuff. My bad." He opened the door and led her inside. Athena's jaw dropped when she witnessed the half-girl half-fish lying in the basin of water. She was sitting in it, so her only two limbs and the tip of the tail were sticking out. This intruder noticeably upset Cassandra, but Julius leapt to the rescue and knelt by her side, brushing her face, whispering, "It's okay, she's a friend."

"I'm at a loss for words, to be completely candid. I… I never thought Charles would actually pull it off. Can I… approach her?"

"She's a bit skittish, she's been staying with me for most of the day. You can try." Cassandra looked at him, and he looked at her, finding her hand and holding onto it tightly. "It's okay, Cassandra. This is Athena. She's a friend, and she works here with us. She won't hurt you, she just wants to say hi."

Athena slowly walked over to the other side of the basin and knelt down at her side. "Hello, Cassandra." The older woman then extended her right hand. "How do you do?" Cassandra just stared at the hand for a few moments. Julius was about to direct her as to what to do with it, but Athena stopped him. "No, Julius. She can do it on her own." Julius was a bit hurt. In just the short time he was with Cassandra he felt extremely protective over her. But Athena was right. Cassandra picked up her free hand and placed it in Athena's. Athena held it somewhat tightly, not wanting to create too firm of a grip, or else that might provoke the girl. Then she shook it up and down. The two woman exchanged grins.

Barnaby barged into the room, and Cassandra jumped, taking away both her hands from Athena and Julius. "Forgive me. Julius, a word?"

"It's alright, dear, Julius just needs to talk to Charles for a quick moment. I won't leave your side." Athena held out her hand again, and Cassandra took it more readily this time. "You have such supple hands, my darling. The things I would do to get such flawless skin as this again."

Meanwhile, at the door, Barnaby shoved the envelope in Julius' hands. "That girl can't act properly, no? She's forgotten who she used to be."

"Well yeah, but I figured that was just a side effect of the soul exchange, or something," said Julius, opening the envelope and examining its contents.

"That's what I thought. But she has amnesia. She was in a plane wreck. Now I know you're busy acclimating her before tonight, but I need you to also work on getting her to remember her story. Please. It could come in handy and could potentially save all our asses from sharing a cell block."

"Um, ok…" Julius was completely confused, but took his boss' orders. Barnaby left and closed the door behind him. "Cassandra, do you remember your real name?" The girl shook her head and watched him sit down next to her again.

"She had a very horrid past," said Athena, holding the mermaid's hand forcefully with both of hers. "I can see it."

"Well thank goodness, because I don't know what the hell all this paperwork has to do with any of it." Julius flipped through all the papers until he came to some photographs.

"This girl was in a plane crash. Fell right in the middle of the ocean, didn't it?" Athena's eyes were closed as she saw the visions sweep into her eyes, but she opened them to see Cassandra beginning to cry.

Julius picked up a photo. "Cassandra, do you know this man?" He held it out to her and a tear fell from each eye.

Shaking from the sadness, Cassandra muttered out, "mm—mu—Mark."

Barnaby just finished delivering the envelope to Julius when he heard a car approaching in the distance. He looked out the window and saw Ellen Carson's black sedan speeding into the parking lot and coming to a complete halt behind the train. Barnaby sighed, hoping that Parker was just going for a joy ride and that he completed his task. But knowing the Barnaby Traveling Circus over the past few days, he knew well and good that hardly anything went according to plan.

"Barnaby! Barnaby!" Parker got out of the car and sprinted towards the train.

"Relax, son, I'm right here." Parker looked like he was about to cry. "Something tells me you didn't do as I said."

"I'm sorry, I really am! Everything was going just as we expected. But… her husband was home when I got there and so I snuck around the house and I didn't see him inside but when I opened the garage he was in there and he saw me inside the car and I panicked so I drove off and I think he called the cops on me and I think the police are after me!" At this point the farm boy was practically bawling.

"What?! The cops are headed here? Why would you do something so idiotic you… you imbecile!"

"I… I've never staged a dead body before, I was nervous! I'm sorry!" Barnaby slapped the boy right across the face. Parker was dumbfounded. The flashbacks of his past raced through his mind, and as if someone pulled a trigger in his mind, he lunged at Barnaby, knocking him to the ground. He was shouting and screaming and started to punch the man repeatedly in the face. Fortunately Julius was in earshot and heard the commotion outside. He raced to the scene and flung Parker off of Barnaby.

Before any of them could say a word, sirens started to fill the air.

"Listen!" Barnaby shouted, pointing a stern finger at the boy. "Go inside, lock yourself in your room. Don't come out until I tell you to." Parker just stood there and let the tears continue to pour down his face. "I'm trying to help you here! Do you want to go to prison for grand theft auto and for being involved in the disposal of a dead body? Do as I say, now!" He didn't want to listen to Barnaby, but Parker obeyed and headed inside the train. At that point several cop cars started to surround the train and Ellen's car. "Go ahead inside, Julius. I'll handle this." Julius nodded and left, but Barnaby stopped him to say one last thing. "Thank you for helping me out during that… well, I guess you could call it a fight."

A few officers got out of their patrol cars wielding weapons. "Gentlemen, gentlemen, I think this whole thing is being blown far too out of proportion."

"Put your hands where we can see 'em!" shouted one of the cops.

"Officer, I committed no crime." Barnaby did as he was instructed, and as he did he saw a black van pull up behind the line of cop cars. When it came to a halt, Victor Carson popped out from the back seat. "Ah, Victor Carson, mind telling your police pals to let us have a little chat before anything ridiculous starts to happen?"

Victor walked over to the cops. "You're facing severe charges, Mr. Barnaby. You and anyone else involved in this circus scheme of yours. The disappearance of my son and now my wife… not to mention theft of my vehicle."

"That's what I'm trying to tell all of you," Barnaby said, sounding a bit desperate, which even caught himself off guard. "Ellen Carson was here earlier yesterday. We had a discussion regarding the whereabouts of your son, but unfortunately I had no new information to give her. I thought she had left after our meeting, but this morning I discovered her car was still here, and she had left her keys behind. So I asked one of my employees to return the car to its rightful place and explain to you that Ellen may have disappeared. But the poor lad was a bit nervous when he arrived at your place of residence, Mayor Carson. He's not had his fair share of celebrity sightings, you see?"

"That's a complete lie, Mr. Barnaby, there's no reason why Ellen would come here without me. She didn't come here yesterday, that's a load of bullshit and you know it." Victor had enough of this game. He just wanted his wife and his son back.

"I have proof. She brought two gentlemen with her, they're on the train as we speak… Duncan Manchester and Marcus Buchanan."

Victor's eyes widened upon hearing those names. He knows, he thought to himself, suddenly feeling as if he was going to soil himself. "It's alright, gentlemen, drop your weapons. Let Mr. Barnaby and I handle this." Victor followed Barnaby into the train, planning on cornering him and physically demanding to know where Ellen and Jacob were. But Barnaby surprised him by doing the same thing to him. The ringmaster pushed the mayor against the wall once they were out of sight of the cops outside.

"I know about the plane, Victor."

"What plane?"

"Your sweet wife planned on ratting you out. That's why she came here yesterday, without you. She was going to propose a trade: your son for the scoop on your little transgression. How else would I know the names of the two men you helped murder?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"I have all the paperwork to prove it, courtesy of Ellen Carson. And not only that, I have an eye witness. A survivor of the crash, Marcus' mistress, I'm presuming. She's taking a bath right down the hall if you don't believe me." Victor felt embarrassed, and outraged, and a bit betrayed. Barnaby, meanwhile, was quickly thinking of a way to get everything taken care of. "Now listen to me, and listen carefully. Ellen is in the trunk of her car, dead. We have a killer on the loose. Some of our very own have fallen over the past few days. You're not the only one who's lost someone they loved, okay?" Barnaby's eyes started to water as he thought of Diego. "And I'm sure Ellen met the same fate. We found her body and we were going to make it look like she committed suicide in your garage, but ultimately that plan didn't work. I still don't know where Jacob is, but I promise you I will continue the search for him. Now, you're going to walk outside and tell those nice police officers to go home, that it was all a misunderstanding, and that the story I told out there was completely true. You're then going to drive your wife's corpse home, and do what you will with her body. A proper burial seems in order. She seemed like a very classy lady, who certainly knew how to blackmail someone. You do this, exactly as I tell you, and I won't turn you in for conspiring to assassinate three innocent people in what the headlines mistook to be an accidental plane malfunction. And I'll even make sure to bring your son home alive. Now go."

Victor was almost paralyzed, but he was quick to follow Barnaby's orders. Victor made the police go and didn't press any charges on the stolen vehicle. He drove that same vehicle home, and once he was in the privacy of his own garage, he opened the trunk to discover that Ellen's body was in fact there. He pulled her out and collapsed on the ground, crying over her corpse.

Parker looked up from his bed to see Barnaby standing in the doorway. The ringmaster just stood there, staring at his own shoes, for nearly a minute. Parker was too afraid to say anything, so he just waited for Barnaby to say what he needed. And eventually he did.

"Pack your things. After tonight's show, you're out for good." With that he left the boy alone.

Barnaby decided that enough was enough. He finally got Victor and Ellen off of his back. Now it was time to resolve the other major issue.

He opened the funhouse mirror closet.

Lura was sitting on the floor. No, she was slouched over on the floor, with a giant glass shard sticking out of her chest.