A Destined Corruption

Speeding to work after hours, I planted the accelerator pedal of my Tacoma practically through the floor. Anger and desperation fueled my drive to talk with management. I had received a message from a co-worker that rumors that the furniture plant would be closing was looking more likely as the regional manager had made a surprise visit right at closing time. She’d dragged my boss unceremoniously to the reserved office to lay out “important plans” as most of the workers were leaving for the day. What had been a fun off-day of hanging out with my best friend, Twan, was now about to spiral into one I soon wouldn’t forget.

Whipping into the spot next to the regional manager’s ostentatious Hummer EV, I leapt out and rushed inside. I hadn’t seen my boss’s car, so I assumed he’d already been excused at this point. Sprinting down the hall, I reached the reserve office and flung the door open to meet the gaze of my hurried aggression.

Ririka Nitta. A well kept Asian beauty in her early 30s. She’d been the regional manager now for a little over a year, and was known to scare the life out of anyone who did her wrong. In this moment she was staring me down from behind the desk she sat at, her piercing gaze puncturing straight through me as I stood in the doorway. Letting an aggravated sigh escape her lips, she straighted out her hot pink blazer and stood up to address me. Coming around the side of the desk, she began to tear into me.

“Do you have any idea what time it is, mister…?”

“Dukes. Brett Dukes. Loyal employee, and…”

“I didn’t ask for your bio, Mr. Dukes. What I do want to know is why the hell you feel it proper conduct to come barging into this office after hours. I don’t care if you are a loyal employee, what you’re doing is trespassing, and more egregious, you’re pissing off the wrong person!”

“Is it true!?”

“Is what true, Mr. Dukes?,” she responded. Her agitation clearly increasing.

“That they’re going to shut down the plant! What’ll happen to the workers! The community! The…”

“Enough, Mr. Dukes,” she said, cutting me off again. She took a moment to compose herself, and let loose another agitated sigh. “I don’t exactly enjoy delivering this news, but yes. The factory will be shutting down next month. That should give you enough time to get your life in order, yes?”

I was dumbstruck. Get my life in order? The best I had was a high school degree. If the furniture factory pulls out of town, it would ruin me and so many others!

“Please, Ms. Nitta! I really don’t have any other prospects! If the factory goes, me and many others will be left without any options! I know I don’t have the means to move to a better area either.”

She turned and looked out the office window. “How long has it been…?”

“How long has what been, ma’am?”

Looking back at you, a grin crossed her visage.

“Since I’ve had a child, Mr. Dukes.”

“Woah, woah, woah miss. I’m not looking to sleep my way into a better life. And did you say child?”

Before I could question her further, she closed the gap between us with blinding speed and delivered a sharp jab to my gut. It felt like several knives had burrowed into my abdomen as I struggled to breathe. From the corner of my eye I see a set of bony spines spring forth from her opposite hand before she buries them into my throat. Tearing her other hand of spines from my gut, she jabbed them into the other side of my neck. Tears streamed down my face as I struggled to keep eye contact with the monster that I thought was Ririka Nitta.

The spines retract from my throat, and I drop to the floor in a pathetic heap. I roll over on my back only to feel a sharp pain in my balls, followed by a wicked chuckle. Struggling to look up, I see that she’s begun digging the heel of her stiletto heels into my nuts while looking down on me with what seemed to be an uncharacteristic smirk.

“Consider yourself lucky, Mr. Dukes. I’ve decided to take pity on your miserable existence. I do hope you like the real me versus that stuffy bitch, Nitta.”

I watch in horror as she digs into her own neck, and begins to peel back the skin of her head like some sort of mask to reveal a wet, translucent blue head that covered a grotesque mass of red nerves and a yellow skull. The voice of the stern Ririka Nitta replaced by an ever shifting cacophony of muffled, loud voices.

“There’s no need for me to introduce myself further, but I thought I should give you a glimpse into what’s to come. You see, I’m what they call a skinwalker. A creature that jumps from person to person indulging in the pleasures of their lives before leaving them behind, none the wiser. And now, you’re blessed with the same powers. To indulge in a new life, to play with the memories of your prey, develop your own unique evolutions to push your powers further.”

As the creature prattled on, my whole body was wracked with a burning pain. I could see a rash quickly spreading at an unnatural pace across my body as what seemed like a smirk crossed the face of the creature.

“Example A, my own special evolution has begun to affect you.” The monster gleefully proclaimed before remasking itself with the face of Ririka. “What my evolution is, is a rapid degradation of the original skin of my children. I hated my original face with such immense disgust that I developed a toxin within me that melted away that hideous mug. And wouldn’t you know it? I seemed to be able to bless my children with a swift erasure of their old, pitiful lives too. Lovely, isn’t it?”

Her heel dug further into my crotch as she smiled wickedly at me. The creature puppeting her form relishing in my suffering.

“Now, you won’t have to worry about getting your things in order. Because now you can take whatever you want~”

She sauntered over to the window, and propped it open.

“You’ll probably want to head out this way, because I’m afraid I’ll be locking up. Enjoy the gift when you come to you sweet little shit~”

And with that I passed out from a mix of the skinwalker conversion toxins, and the spreading pain of whatever else she’d injected into me.