Changes in the city

The day was warming as we walked downtown. I hurried after “Jack”, feeling a little self-conscious, though I knew I really shouldn’t be. To any onlookers, both of us just looked like any other punk kids, wasters in their early 20s who were still young enough for it to be cool. The kind of people the elderly might instinctively hold in contempt, even while the office drones glanced out of their stale, grey workplaces at us in the streets, viewing us with equal parts disdain and jealously.

“Hey, so…”

I hurried after him, falling in step with his pace.

“… who is this again? The person I’m wearing…”

I said it quietly, while still emphasizing the word for Candida’s benefit. Even though I was well acquainted with my Skinwalker powers now, it still had been only a few weeks. My body may have found a familiar pleasure in it, but my brain still sometimes struggled to wrap itself around what was going on.

“What do you mean, Hailey? You’re my girlfriend.”

He gave a cheeky grin as his fingers interlaced with mine, before he pulled me along.

“Hmpf.”

I wrinkled my nose a little as I huffed, catching my reflection in the sleek, slightly polarized glass of the office we were walking past. Dirty blonde hair with a streak of green in the fringe framed a cute face, topping a body that was covered in a rebellious, late 90s skater girl style. The girl in the mirror couldn’t have been older than 20, a cute nose piercing completing her edgy aesthetic, while her breasts, somewhere between c and d cup, strained against her top. A sports bra underneath fought to keep them constrained, but even with the added support, I could still feel them.

“Mhmm, yes ‘Jack’, but who exactly am I?”

“I mean, it would have looked weird for Isabelle to be exploring the city with me, wouldn’t it? Especially as someone was so concerned about her reputation and integrity earlier. What if your little fiancé was working in one of these offices, huh?”

Despite myself, I caught a weird blush and a pleasurable feeling when I thought about Brad as ‘my’ fiancé, memories of our morning sex bursting into my brain unbidden and causing the wet heat of female arousal to ignite below.

I suppose I am technically still Isabelle right now, after all…

I’d worn Hailey on top of Isabelle, not wanting to leave her skin behind in the ruins of some shady church. It meant that technically, right now I had three different layers of women between me and the outside world, Lucy’s skin below even Isabelle’s.

“Anyway, I thought you’d be excited at the prospect. You’ve got three women with their bodies all over you right now, what young man wouldn’t want that?”

My blush intensified at ‘Jack’s’ comment, the strange, perverse double meaning somehow seeming even hotter when I thought about it.

“Yeah, yeah, well… I get ‘why’ I’m wearing Hailey, but like, who is she??”

Jack stopped, and turned to me, our faces close.

“You’re right. Let me give you her memories.”

With that, he pulled me close and kissed me, his tongue invading my mouth as I moaned involuntarily.

I stumbled back as he pressed me into the wall, body grinding on me, the heat between my legs spiking higher as my body reacted to his touch.

Oh my God, what the hell?? So sudden, and what’s that pressing into me?

I could feel the stiff power of Jack’s cock through his jeans, pressing up against my upper thigh, making my heart seem to grow heavy with desire as my pussy pulsed a little. Then a blossom of pain erupted in my stomach, my shirt pulled slightly upwards as his four spines were stabbed into me, and then a rush of information as Hailey’s soul was poured through.

Seconds passed that felt much longer in the intense, pleasurable kiss, before he broke away from me, his cheeky smile colored by my lipstick now.

“I had to get her soul across to you some way without it looking suspicious, and I thought, why not have some fun at the same time?”

“People are staring at us…”

My voice sounded quiet, and so girly as I spoke, in stark contrast to the more rebellious skin I was in. I couldn’t help it though, I was so overwhelmed by female arousal right now it was hard not to sound like that.

“Good. I want them to know you’re mine.”

“Fuck off…”

I protested, but it just came across as flirty, pleased indignation more than anything else. I pushed myself off the wall and began walking behind him, letting Hailey’s memories sort themselves out in my head.

“Damn, what the hell…”

A troubled expression flicked across my face, as things started getting clearer.

“…she… no, this can’t be right. No way.”

Jack just smirked as he lead the way, further into the city.

“Yes way.”

“…Her memories end in 1998. No new memories since then. You don’t mean…”

“Mhmm, hmmm. You have her memories for yourself now, you know what I’m saying is right.”

Candida wasn’t lying. Hailey was a rebellious girl, having her adolescence in California in the 90s. It was maybe one of the best eras to be a teenager, in maybe the best place to experience adolescence. Sunshine, music, culture. But having so much experience at your fingertips had a dark side too. It was easy to live fast, to want to grow up and do adult things. To fall in with the wrong crowd. Sex. ****. Stealing to afford the habit. A string of bad boyfriends, for years after being thrown out by her conservative family for “being possessed by the devil.”

When Candida had found her, she’d been on the verge of committing suicide, unable to take how awful her life had become. Candida saw the writing on the wall, and made the choice for her. An uncomfortable feeling grew in me as we walked, as Hailey’s memories revealed her sad story, and the terrible ending.

“You made her into a skinsuit… and just never restored her.”

“Yeah, well… isn’t it convenient? No-one was going to miss her, and it wasn’t like she wanted to be around herself anyway. You have to admit, she has a great body. It would be a shame for someone like her to go to waste.”

“I thought… I thought you said your collection was filled with bad people. Criminals, and stuff like that.”

“Ah, ahh! Not exactly. I said they were mainly bad people. Some of them were just unfortunate. Like Hailey. But hey…”

Now he dropped back, his arm sliding around my waist as he walked with me. To anyone else in the street, we were just another young couple, living life together, our alternative styles being just another way to celebrate a rebellious youth.

“… it really isn’t everyday you find a life so perfect to be made into a skinsuit. Making a collection like mine takes a lot of effort over the years, you know? That’s how so many skinwalkers get caught. Especially the younger ones. Oh, they love their powers when they first get them. The thrill of being someone else, someone much more special, or talented, or sexy then they were before. But, well, being so driven by instinct, pleasure and power, it’s only natural that they so easily become greedy.

Before you know it, there’s a spate of beautiful people going missing in the same neighborhood, acting so uncharacteristically slutty before they disappear, one by one. The kind of thing that attracts hunters like flies to shit. The more compassionate, considered hunters might be able to **** the skinwalker to change back it’s victims. The more vicious ones will tear the skinwalker apart, not caring even a little what innocent human it’s wrapped up tight in. And they call us the monsters.”

A sardonic laugh followed, totally at odds with the chill, stoner façade of Jack, before he continued.

“Hailey was perfect then, and she’s perfect now. Her 90s skater style barely even needed updated to be worn today, managing to even look trendy. I guess that speaks to the cyclical nature of fashion.”

“What… what were you going to do with her?”

“Do with her? You already know the answer to that.”

I did, a dissatisfied frown denoting how I felt.

“But now, Alex, the answer’s in your hands.”

“Huh…?”

“I want you to have her. Hailey, I mean. Consider her the first gift in our renewed partnership. She’s cute, isn’t she? A hot skater girl from California in the late 90s? And even better, you can wear her every day, and no-one will ever notice she’s missing. Even if someone had been looking back then, the trails gone cold decades ago. And no-one would believe that you’re the same girl, now that so many years have passed.”

A strange mesh of emotions were stirred in my heart as I thought about it, the conflicted feelings of an admittedly complicated situation.

“But… stealing her life like that would be wrong.”

“She didn’t want it anyway, Alex. You should be the Hailey she never could have been. Well, you can be, if you want. Think fast!”

“Huh?!”

At that, Jack threw his skateboard down in front of me, pushing me hard. On impulse, I felt my reactions kick in as my foot shot out, the momentum from being shoved coming up in a jump that had me landing right on the board.

Oh shit, oh shit, what the hell, I’ve never skateboarded before!

A jumble of panicked thoughts sprung up in my head, fears and anxieties over potentially falling and dashing my head on the pavement crashing together in a natural cortisol dump. But then, just as fast as those negative feelings had rained down, they disappeared. I wasn’t falling. Not at all. The momentum had transferred into motion, my balance and foot stance perfect as I skated along with ease.

Experimentally, I stuck my foot out, propelling myself a little bit along, finding myself easily getting into a rhythm.

Oh my God… I can skateboard. I can skateboard!

Experimentally, I tried jumping up to do an Ollie, finding the board coming up with me, Hailey’s muscle memory still exactly the same even despite being a skinsuit for decades. A huge rush of endorphins erupted in my head as I skated, finding myself laughing in wonder as I tried out more tricks.

I always wanted to learn how to skate, and just never got around to it… I can’t believe I’m doing it now…

“It looks like someone’s enjoying themselves.”

Jack laughed along, seemingly pleased to see me so happy.

“Yeah! This is amazing, what the hell…?”

I skated back his way, falling in line with him as he walked. My conflicted feelings couldn’t help but take a backseat to my simple enjoyment of the moment, as one of the fun possibilities afforded by Hailey’s skin made itself known to me.

“We’re here.”

He gestured slightly, before I realized just where we were. Police and firefighters alike were milling around, a cordon over the building not long ago I was escaping with my life.

Candida’s street… and the destroyed remnants of the hunter’s base.

“Now, that’s what we really came to see.”

I followed his eyes, seeing a group in uniforms I didn’t quite recognize striding up to the cordon after emerging from an armored truck with blacked out windows. Men in full armored uniforms colored navy, with small hits of gold, and openly carrying submachine guns were lead by a man in crisp navy suit, the tie of which featured the same golden color woven into it. Even though the leader’s attire was less clearly combat oriented than the others, his suit was obviously a military cut, and was a world away from the navy suits civilians were going to be buying. I could tell the skinwalker side was enhancing my vision more than ever, as I could even make out the insignias on the arm patches of the combat specialists: A golden eagle, shredding a snake.

“I’ve been keeping tabs on these guys. They’re part of a new government task ****, the ‘Special protection branch.’”

I just looked at him skeptically.

“I know, I know, the name’s super generic. But that was done on purpose. It allowed the branch to blend in with a dozen other vaguely similar organizations, without ever needing to get too specific about what’s done there.”

“So then, what exactly for the ‘special protection branch’ do?”

“Well, they hunt paranormal creatures, of course. There’s a reason why I had to know about them. Know your enemy, and all that.”

“They sound like bad news… I guess they weren’t exactly satisfied with the job Mortiferis had been doing.”

“Interesting that you should say that. Mortiferis is actually just one of a number of international organizations dedicated to hunting monsters. It’s better that way, after all. It would be messy to leave monster hunting in the hands of relatively local national governments, when it’s a problem that affects the whole world. At least, that’s how the humans see it.

So, they have their little secret treaties, and agreements. Mortiferis de Infornem, and those like it, get their little extra judicial powers, and in return, the monsters are slain, and the precious little humans protected. Except, of course, national ego always gets in the way.”

“So, the government got tired of having to wait on an organization outside it’s control to deal with the problem.”

“Bingo, Alex. Very good. Naturally, leaving the defense of your country in the hands of a group you don’t control isn’t overly attractive to the movers and shakers who want to feel important and like they’re actually contributing something to history. So, they did something about it, setting up their own national **** to hunt monsters. Many countries just leave the hunting to Mortiferis, because it’s pretty effective, and it wouldn’t be great for international relations to be breaking the secret treaties countries really want to pay attention to.

But then again, bigger countries, countries with egos, countries with a big sense of self-importance, of course they’re going to set up their own forces. Naturally, this country did too. Okay, so it’s breaking an international treaty, but when you’re at the big dogs table you hardly have to follow those anyway.

Once they found out who was renting the apartment that got blown up, these guys were sent instead of regular counter terrorism. But, it does present a bit of an opportunity for us.”

“Hmm, I think I can see where you’re going with this.”

“You are a sharp one, after all.”

“I’m guessing the Special protection branch and Mortiferis de Infornem don’t exactly play nice together?”

“Not quite. And from what you told me, it seems the leader of this Mortiferis cell especially doesn’t like to play nice.”

Thinking of Kobrina, that was definitely an understatement.

“So, if we play the two against each other…”

“Exactly. You know Alex, you really are perfect for life as a Skinwalker. It’s only natural you’d default to espionage and deception to destroy your enemies. If you’d just let go of those pesky morals, there really wouldn’t be anything holding you back.”

Talking like this, with a conversation so full of schemes, it would really be shocking to any listeners that this was how this young skater couple talked to each other. Then again, I guess that was part of what made Hailey and Jack such ideal disguises.

“So, I take it we’ll be infiltrating the Special protection branch.”

“Well, not exactly us. You will. I can’t do it.”

“Oh?”

Now it was Candida’s turn to look embarrassed, glancing down at Jack’s beaten-up skate shoes.

“Yeah, well… I guess, think of Mortiferis like a rapier. The Special protection branch is more like a sledgehammer. You can even see that in the way they dress, their soldiers open carrying submachine guns and everything. It makes a pretty stark comparison to the everyday clothes Mortiferis wear. Skinwalkers fighting Mortiferis agents is much like a dual of swords. Special protection branch is not that sophisticated. It’s part of why they mainly hunt more tangible enemies, and use a lot of firepower doing so. They’re more the types to blow up a werewolf, rather than sus out a skinwalker. It’s part of why you should be able to infiltrate them, but infiltrating Mortiferis is much, much more difficult.”

I just listened to her, the wind blowing Hailey’s long hair across my shoulders.

“Mortiferis wanted to kill me subtly. Well, relatively speaking. It’s part of why I choose to plant a bomb, such direct confrontation isn’t usually their style, and as it’s typically not skinwalker’s either, so I figured I could get them all with it. I just wasn’t expecting their building to be so well made, otherwise the whole top two floors would have been obliterated by my bomb…”

“You’re getting off topic… babe.”

I took Jack’s hand as sold the part of the girlfriend to any potential listeners, and began leading him off. More of a crowd was starting to form to see what the fuss was all about with the blacked out armored truck, and this definitely wasn’t a discussion you wanted to be overheard having.

“The thing is, if they link up with Mortiferis, and discover where my apartment is, they’ll send a swat team in ASAP. I have several lifetimes of hard-earned treasures in there, all kinds of special artifacts, and of course, my skin collection. I really can’t afford to lose all that. Honestly, I should have started moving it as soon as you warned me about Mortiferis in the first place.”

We rounded the corner into the park, moving along the leafy green paths as we walked, away from prying eyes.

“I need time to get the stuff moved. Naturally, I have several other safe places I can put all of it, but it will take time, time I don’t really have. You need to be the one to do the infiltration. It won’t take the two groups long to find each other. They’ll probably meet tonight, even. I need at least that time. Please, Alex..."