After the walk home from school the following day, Elina, holding her books to her chest with her backpack on her back, went to Annika's camper outside the house to find her sitting on the mini steps in front of the side door, strumming a melodious tune on her guitar. However, something about it sounded heartrending, but she listened anyways.

"Oh, hey Elina," she said. "How was school?"

"It could've been better," Elina replied, sitting down next to her sister on the mini steps. Annika began to strum again, and the girl could notice a tear in her eye.

"Hey, what's the matter?" the girl asked; her tone turned cynical. "Oh…that's right. You don't want to tell me."

"Well, it's just I wrote this song finally," Annika replied. "My mind's somewhat clear. Just some meditation to do the trick before songwriting."

"Oh, it's finished?"

"Yeah, wanna listen?"

"Sure."

Annika cleared her throat a bit, positioning her fingers on the correct strings overlapping the fretboard as she began to strum an archipeggio and a few chords that sounded similar. Her singing voice was a deep contralto; very soulful and emotional, so low it almost sounded like a male tenor as she began to sing:

"If you could read my mind love,
What a tale my thoughts could tell.
Just like an old time movie,
'Bout a ghost from a wishing well.
In a castle dark or a fortress strong
With chains upon my feet.
You know that ghost is me…"

The girl seemed to further understand the song's meaning even though she was only singing the first verse. It sounded beautiful, but as the song went on, Elina could further sense Annika's inner emotions—why hadn't she told me she was hurt inside, she asked herself as she listened further:

"If I could read your mind love,
What a tale your thoughts could tell.
Just like a paperback novel,
The kind the drugstore sells.
When you reach the part where the heartaches come,
the hero would be me.
But heroes often fail.
And you won't read that book again
Because the ending's just too hard to take…

I never thought I could act this way
And I've got to say that I just don't get it.
I don't know where we went wrong
But the feeling's here and I wish you were here now…"

The song finished, leaving a tear in Elina's eye—it was so heartbreaking, but beautiful. The lyrics were deep and meaningful, and her sister's soulful contralto voice added to the somber tone of the song. She understood now; she felt hurt, and channeled it into her music.

"You've been hurt," Elina sighed, wiping the tear away. "Heartbroken."

"Well, I guess you can say that," Annika said, being careful not to reveal the slightest bit of information about her sexual orientation or identity. Knowing how Britta raised the children as good Christians, who knows how Elina would've taken the news? Britta was homophobic, and chances were, Elina was as well. Her father was the only one she could talk about these things with, strangely enough.

"Did you write this for them?" she asked.

"Yeah. I love this personvery much…" Annika trailed off and sighed, looking down at her guitar with anguish. "More than anyone I've ever felt anything toward before." She looked over at her sister's beautiful face. "You'll understand when you're older." Elina sighed dreamily, thinking of how beautiful the idea of love is.

"I can't wait to fall in love," she said.

"Elina, that can wait," Annika said, taking a cigarette out of the pocket of her distressed denim jacket. "You're only thirteen years old."

"Now you sound like dad," the girl said, watching as Annika's hands felt around the pockets in her jacket and in her pants to find a lighter.

"Shit," she muttered—she then remembered that her sister had pyrokinesis. She leaned in, the butt of the cigarette in her mouth; the girl was confused. "Can you light it?"

Elina looked at her strangely, but held up her hand to extend her index finger ever so slightly. She concentrated until a candle-sized flame emitted from her finger, lifting it to the end of Annika's cigarette and allowing the flame to catch onto it. As she took her first drag, Elina's loss of concentration allowed the flame to go out; Annika looked at her as she blew the smoke out.

"You know, I never knew why I didn't get any powers," she said calmly, thinking. "You and mamma have them, but the boys don't. Dad doesn't have any at all, so…what's the deal?"

"I don't know," Elina replied with a shrug, her beautiful, passionate eyes fixed downward. "I guess God gave me a gift for a reason." Annika giggled, nearly coughing from her statement; ridiculous, she thought.

"God," she said sarcastically.

"Don't talk about God like that," Elina warned.

"Why? What's the worst that'll happen?" Annika asked, taking another drag of her cigarette.

"He'll punish you," the girl replied.

"Oh, come on, you really believe all that? I'd expect you to be more grown-up about it," Annika answered, standing up and opening the door to her camper with her guitar and notebook in hand. She placed the guitar in its hard case and put her notebook of lyrics on the table, reaching underneath into the mini fridge to grab a bottle of beer.

"Apparently, you don't believe in God," Elina said sadly with a frown, sitting down on the section adjacent to the door.

"You're right, I don't," Annika admitted. "I'm an atheist. There is no God. The idea of 'God' is entirely manmade and obviously someone didn't know their facts when they came up with the idea of 'religion', even."

"How could you not believe? God is very real!" Elina exclaimed passionately. "He offers salvation to those who are faithful to him. We went to church yesterday, and I know why you didn't want to go. At least now I do."

"Ugh," Annika muttered quietly as she sipped her beer. "Elina, you need a grip on reality. God is just an idea. There's no man up in the sky telling you what you have to do in order to be a good person. It just doesn't make sense."

"But mamma and I were given powers. He gave us powers," Elina argued.

"Oh, here we go, now," Annika said cynically. "You were born with them. God didn't give them to you. It's in your genetics, and supposedly in mine, too, but I honestly don't think I have any."

"Why don't you try?"

"I have," Annika responded emphatically. "I don't have powers like you and mamma. I don't know why, but I don't, and if I did, I think I would've had them by now."

"How do you live life without God?" Elina asked. "That my question. I can't picture anything but."

"Ok," Annika replied, walking past toward her bed spot and crouching down to access a mini bookcase with a sliding door. Elina leaned over to take a short peek before she saw her sister take a novel-sized book, handing it to her. The cover was appealing with a translucent figure in a lotus meditation position with colored circles down a line in the middle of their body. The top of the figure's head was illuminated, perhaps with an aura, and the paperback cover was indigo in color.

"I'm going to let you borrow this," her older sister said, handing her the book. "Don't make any judgments. Don't even say it was me that gave it to you. Just read it."

"What is it for?"

"Meditation. Astral travel. Spiritual cleansing," Annika listed. "You need it. Believe me."

"Oh," Elina said, standing up to leave the camper after putting it in her bookbag. She turned back as she opened the door. "Thank you."

"No problem," Annika replied.

As the girl left, the woman opened the drawer beneath her dining table, taking out a photo of a lovely, black-haired girl with stunning blue eyes that shined like diamonds. It was one of two photos Annika kept of her, and in this one, she bore her pearly whites in a happy, cheerful smile. Audrey, she thought, I love you, and the moment we get back together, I will vow to spend the rest of my life with you. I've thought about you non-stop; I can't eat, I can't sleep, and every strum of my guitar I think of you. You are my heart's content.

Elina walked up the steps onto her porch when she heard a speeding car park itself in the front of the house. Dot and Bette, who had been sitting on the porch swing reading a book, were startled by the sudden screech of tires; they stood up and both looked down in the distance at Annika, Elina and then to the dark red car that was parked outside the Darling family home. Bette and Dot saw a man come out of the car, and he was strangely familiar. The man was elderly and overweight, but had huge shoulders and upper arms, and had a black fedora on top of his bald head. Brown leather suspenders held his old blue jeans up over his sky blue, short-sleeved shirt, and he looked quite intimidating with his narrow blue eyes. Annika stared at the stranger, walking forward to get a better look at him—she did not seem afraid.

"Nice car," she began, trying to be friendly. "Uh…can I ask who you are?"

"That ain't important," the man said in his gruff voice. "Is there a…" He paused for a moment, staring quickly into the masculine woman's dark eyes. "Jimmy Darling. Does he live here?"

"I'm not answering until you tell me who you are," the woman answered assertively. The man looked at her again; he looked like he was about to deck her in half.

"Watch your mouth, sir," the old man hissed.

"I'm not a 'sir', sir," Annika replied forcefully, her gaze narrowing into the old man's. Now he was really angry; how dare she test his patience?

"Don't you—"

"Sir?" Elina cut in, staring at the man, who looked back to see her fiery eyes burning holes in his soul. Even his own temper seemed to char by the way she looked at him, and for the first time in his conscious memory, he was afraid of a member of the opposite sex. He approached the girl, who felt intimidated and slinked back a little bit.

"Who are you?" he asked, aggression reduced in his rough tone.

"I am his daughter," she said clearly, taking a short glance at Annika. "We are his daughters."

The old man admired her beautiful, ethereal face as he held it in his thick, calloused hands; Elina felt nervous and beyond uncomfortable as his thumbs felt her defined cheekbones and her heart-shaped jawline. Her eyes met his, and the fire in her soul radiated harshly to burn the holes in his soul even deeper. He was indeed intimidated by her, yet he stared at every detail of her beautiful face to find any resemblance to her father. He found none, and a dead giveaway was her pearlescent, platinum blonde hair that was pulled back but cascaded down her front in graceful waves.

"There's no way," the man said with a grin.

"Let me go," Elina said, trying to maintain calm even though she felt like the anger within would summon fire without her control.

"Get away from her," Annika ordered, walking behind her sister and pulling her away from the old man. Elian felt pressure on her lower face; the man refused to let go.

"HEY!" a voice yelled out. "Let her go!"

The old man looked over, and in the distance stood Jimmy, an angry expression on his face as he walked over to his daughters, staring at the old man and gasping at how familiar he looked. He let Elina's face go, and Annika held her protectively as they watched their father stare at the elderly man in shock. In turn, the old man stared at Jimmy in shock, analyzing the signs of age that had appeared in his face since he had last seen him; he also shot a glance at the deformed hands he was known for at one time. Their father knew exactly who this was—they had a past together.

"Dell?"

"Yup, that's me," the old man answered.

"Wha-" He paused, looking back at his daughters, especially at Elina, before looking back at him. "What are you doing here?"

"I managed to find you," he said.

"How?" Jimmy asked, looking at him strangely. How could he just appear in his life out of the blue like that? "You didn't want to live with here. You ran off with Desiree and did your own thing."

"She's no more. We split a long time ago," Dell replied.

"But why areyou here?" Jimmy asked. "If you came to cause trouble and terrorize my family, get outta here." The old man took a sigh, leaning back against the hood of his car and making it tilt ever so slightly.

"An old man needs a place to stay," Dell stated simply.

"What?" Jimmy asked with disbelief. "We have enough people living here!"

"It don't look like much," the old man replied hoarsely. "I can see an empty barn in the distance over there." Jimmy turned to his daughters, pointing to the front door as he gazed at each of their faces.

"Get in the house, I'll be in there in a bit," he instructed.

As they went in, Jimmy looked at Dell, feeling extremely awkward. He had lied when he said a lot of people were still living there, mainly because he disliked him and didn't want to put his family at risk. Even greater, he didn't want his good reputation as a hard-working landowner in Barnwell to go down the toilet due to the fact that he had a past a freak show performer; tensions were strong between the two back then, but who knows what that could do to them now?

"Ethel still here?" Dell asked.

"She died in '58," Jimmy replied. "And I don't ever want to see you putting your hands on my daughter again!"

"There's no way she's yours," the old man sneered.

"She is," Jimmy replied, a cynical look on his face.

"She looks like you plucked her out of the Snow Kingdom," the old man said arrogantly. Jimmy gritted his teeth, trying to control his anger so that no further problems would arise. Then, out of the blue, Dell changed the subject back to living on their farm.

"Alright, I'm willing to compromise," the old man said. "Name your price."

"On what?"

"I'll pay you whatever you want. As rent. To live here," Dell offered. Jimmy looked at him, an anguished look on his face as he saw the old man take out his wallet.

"Rent?" he asked. He never charged rent to any of the former carnies—they were all his family; he could never do that. The least they could've done in exchange for a home was help Jimmy work the land by harvesting, plowing, planting, and the whole nine yards.

"Yeah, name your price," Dell offered. "One hundred? Two hundred? Three hundred? Five hundred? How about seven hundred?"

"Nothing," Jimmy snapped.

"Seriously? You look like you could use the money, and maybe the labor," the old man said. "I haven't lost my touch, you know."

"I can see that. You hurt my daughter's face," Jimmy sneered, the anger coming back again.

"Alright, I didn't know it was your daughter," Dell reluctantly said. "I'm sorry."

"It's going to take a lot more than sorry to convince me to let you live here," he said. Elina was his pride and joy; anyone who harmed even a hair on her head was going to pay, at least in Jimmy's eyes.

"How about even more than a couple hundred dollars a month?" the old man offered. "Maybe a thousand?"

"Until my wife comes home, we're not negotiating anything," Jimmy said, staring at him coldly.

Britta had been gone to the grocery store for the hour, pushing a metal shopping cart as she worked her way down the aisles of fruit, vegetables, dairy, grains, meats, health products, beauty products, and cleaning supplies to get everything that had been requested of her on the list she brought. She stopped in by a commercial fridge where hickory honey ham was on sale for twenty percent off. Seeing it was the last one, another woman, much older than Britta, also saw the lone ham on the shelf through the glass as she stopped her carriage right near the Swede's.

"Uh…" Britta trailed off, her eyes gazing into the dark brown ones of the old woman.

"You were here first, miss," the old woman said.

"You may have it," the ageless blonde woman said. "Go."

"Are you sure?"

"Ja," Britta answered kindly.

The woman opened the glass door and took out the ham, which was rather lightweight for its size. She put it in the front of the carriage, and looked at Britta, whose green eyes glittered at her. Her golden hair was up in a thick, tight bun with no hints of the few gray strands that had begun to make themselves known. The old woman smiled; she looked so familiar to her.

"You remind me of someone," she said.

"Oh?" Britta was confused.

"I remember, it was a long time ago. Perhaps twenty-five years ago," the woman began. "I went to see a freak show down in Florida with my family. My husband raved about a young girl who had powers."

"Oh?" Britta's attention fixed on the woman, listening to her tell her story.

"She was quite young," the woman said with a smile. "But she was very beautiful. Blonde hair, green eyes. She had powers. She could have lifted this whole store off its foundation with only her mind. She was incredible, and when we saw her, we were amazed. After the show, almost everyone from the audience went to her asking for autographs and to have her picture taken. She was the true star of the show, and you really look like her, miss."

Britta looked at her, a slight smile hidden in her lips as her eyes sparkled at the old woman. That girl was me, she thought as she reminisced on memories of performing with Fraulein Elsa's Cabinet of Curiosities as the major headliner and most popular act to grace Elsa's stage. She had captivated audiences with her angelic presence and, more importantly, the powers that made her unique. Even the fellow carnies would watch backstage as she levitated objects and, on occasion, herself. Britta continued to look at her, remembering the experience of being on a stage.

"I read the newspaper one day to see that the show was shut down. There was a terrible shooting," the woman said with a frown. "People died, and so many were hurt. There were even rumors that the perpetrator died of a heart attack during the crime. It was terrible."

Britta remembered what she was saying all too well, but she didn't want to give herself away; she no longer wanted to be known for the gifts she possessed, and she didn't want to put her family in possible jeopardy especially since Elina also had powers—she knew her husband would kill anyone who tried to harm his daughter, let alone try to exploit her for her abilities if she were found out about.

"I'm sure it was," Britta said emotionlessly. The woman gave her another look, analyzing her facial features; her freckles from her youth were no longer there, and she was fuller figured. Other than that, she had not changed as far as aging would take her.

"Hmm," the old woman smiled. "Are you her?"

"I believe you're mistaken," the Swede said.

With that being said, Britta rolled her carriage away from the old stranger down until she got to the dairy aisle; a thousand worries ran through her mind as she rolled the shopping cart away. That woman did not look familiar, but she knew she had to be careful—they had moved away from Jupiter for a reason, even if it was to escape their old life behind closed curtains.

Hey guys! This is Keri, the author. I rarely ever put captions like this, but if you've been reading my stories, THANK YOU for the support (reviews, favorites, follows, etc) 3

I love hearing you guys and whatever opinions you have, and if you have any ideas for a future chapter, leave it in the Reviews!

Special thanks to NotMarge, Weezy815, and GraffitiArtist14 for reading both stories in my mini AHS: Freak Show "series", and a very special thank-you to MaliceInWonderland23 for giving me the idea to do a sequel of Uplift. Your review put the bug in my ear to write more about Jimmy/Britta ("Brimmy", as one called them in the Reviews). I never expected this, let alone the first one, to be a success so thanks! :3