"Madame Maximoff's Myriad of Mysteries?"
"Someone really wanted to make it all M's."
Therese doesn't particularly want to go see some random Freakshow in some little abandoned farm outside the city, it seems like a terrible idea. But her lack of socialization with coworkers and other friends makes her seem antisocial, strange, and well, Carol socializes with Abby and others so why not?
Just one night out. Danny thinks it'll be great fun, even better than the Coney Island ones from what he's heard, real legitimate magic like nothing they've ever seen before, and she'll have so many opportunities for photos of new and strange things she'd never see otherwise.
And he's right, it's... it's like nothing she's ever been to.
There women stronger than Steve there lifting weights, contorting like real acrobats, using their strength to balance off of each other, a man with a bow who doesn't miss a single shot he takes, the fastest man alive who uses a globe of death on his own, and there's Madame Maximoff herself who... what did she do?
Therese knows what the acts were, she knows she saw them, she knows she was there, but the more she thinks about them, the less she can summon to her mind. There aren't any solid details, or descriptions, no faces, just a weird shimmering vagueness to it.
The woman - Maximoff? - descending like an angel, flying, floating from the skies, but that's not possible, there's no way she could have.
Therese leaves feeling more unsettled than she's ever felt, unable to really explain anything she's just seen, leaves wondering if maybe she's been drugged.
The photos she took look like something Rindy would have taken. They're all out of focus like she's trying to photograph something only inches away, instead of yards away. The subjects seem to exist in vague blurs, outlines, faces never looking quite in her direction, and a dark haze of something, someone, in midair.
But it has to have just been something strange, a fluke, too tired from work maybe and she dozed off. It has to be. Things like that don't happen to someone who doesn't work in New Jersey with Steve and Peggy.
She can't bring it up to Steve, he'd probably laugh at her and if he didn't it'd still just be a waste of whatever resources it is the place that doesn't exist that he definitely doesn't work for has.
Instead she asks Carol to go back with her, inviting Abby and her girlfriend Rose on a double date.
If she doesn't explain to Abby and Rose, then they won't be on the lookout for anything bizarre beyond a normal freak show. They wont' be biased, and working with the news, Therese has to avoid biased reporting. Carol tells them it "Creeped Therese out" and Abby agrees just for the amusement value there.
Inside she clutches her camera, clutches Carol's hand, and takes a deep breath as the lights go out.
And then they're outside again, stood in the cool night air, and her camera has no film left, no more room for photos.
She knows then it wasn't normal, it wasn't right.
It couldn't have been human.
It's not drugs, Rose says almost listing to herself with a fairly pale face, it's not drugs because she's been given many, many drugs in training and to become immune to them or learn to spot them and this wasn't a drug, and this wasn't a gas. This isn't midnight oil, this isn't human in origin it can't be.
If it is... God help them.
"We have to get to Carters. We-- oh god, we have unknown enhanced in New York."
"I don't-- It's an unknown unknown. I need to get to work. Get home, shower, drink --- drink a lot of water okay? On the off chance I'm wrong... Abby, go with them, do not leave them. Therese- don't let that camera out of your sight."
They spend the night restless, not sleeping, Therese fussing over her photos desperate to find any of them that show anything at all.
By time morning comes, and Steve comes round to gather them up, she has exactly one photo that developed into anything at all.
One photo of a fairly young face, with glowing eyes, staring directly into the lens.
Definitely not like Steve.
Maybe staying anti-social would have been the better plan.