No trouble getting inside... but...

The doors slid open as I scanned Samantha’s pass, the security guard at the desk looking up idly.

“Oh, Samantha. Forget something?”

“Yes, silly me. I’m just heading back up to the Dean’s office now.”

He rolled his eyes, before giving a knowing smile.

“Enjoy yourself then.”

“I will.”

I giggled back, walking to the elevator and getting inside.

From that reaction, I imagine the affair Samantha is having with the Dean isn’t exactly the best kept secret among the staff here… although it does give me the perfect cover to be here outside of hours, with no real suspicion.

Still though, I couldn’t help but shiver a little with pleasure as the elevator made its ascent to the top floor.

He really couldn’t tell anything was different…

A giddy smile took to my features as my hands wandered over Samantha’s body, fingertips brushing up her thighs, her midriff, over her soft breasts. Feeling the luxurious texture of her expensive skirt suit on top only made it better, the quality of her clothes making them a joy to wear, while the way they’d been tailored to flatter the feminine curves I now wore made me feel so good, in a forbidden, pervy way.

The doors to the elevator opened, and I let Samantha’s memories guide, the click of her heels, the expert way I walked in them and the way my hips moved as I did giving its own pleasurable rush. Before long I was standing in front of an expensive oak door, the entryway to the Dean’s office.

Stepping inside, I found myself in a well-appointed atrium style room, Samantha’s desk to the side while the far wall contained the final door that separated the Dean’s room from the one. It was a strange feeling; As myself, this office was totally new to me, it’s expensive wood walls and the most sophisticated modern computer on the desk all holding a novelty to them. For Samantha though, the girl whose memories now stretched back even further than my own, this room was where she spent each day. That juxtaposition of the newness and familiarity was its own trippy experience, even as I pulled up Samantha’s profile on her computer.

True to form, she actually did seem to have some good secretarial skills, as her typing speed was a great deal quicker than my own imputing her password. Once inside, I began to search.

So, I don’t have much to go on… I have to see what I can find in the files relating to Mortiferis…

I knew that I needed to look for the record of the special permission slip being granted, which usually would show up promptly. Something like that, being as rare as it was, should have shown up immediately; However I was finding my brow crinkled a little in frustration as I failed to find it.

Hmpf, it looks like the Dean didn’t even let his own secretary in on the information, and there’s nothing that indicates it ever happened in any of the shared files between the two. This is a dead end…

Samantha’s memories helped back up my disappointment as not finding anything here, as I puzzled about what to try next.

Maybe if there’s nothing on her computer… there might be on his.

My eyes flitted to the door, a slight tension building.

I guess I’ll just sneak in… hopefully he’s out. It’s late, so he’s probably away home. It’ll be fine, right?

No matter what, I need to try and find out more about whoever those people were. The timing, the book they wanted, the power and authority they wielded out of nowhere. I have to know if they’re after me.

Mind made up, I tried the door, finding it unlocked.

Only the Dean and his secretaries key cards could get them into the main room, so it makes sense he’d leave his office unlocked. After all, why would Samantha ever want to do anything suspicious in this room? For all the trust he places in her… I think they both know she’s a girl with simple desires.

As I slid down into the Dean’s chair, booting up his computer, with a certain malicious confidence I couldn’t help but think…

It’s just a shame that the real Samantha isn’t here right now.

The Dean’s computer was something of a mess. It wasn’t messy in the way a teenager or college students would be, filled with joke document names and frequently played games or anything like that. Rather it was messy in the depth of it, bewildering in the dullness of the document names, and the wide variety of them, spread around the file explorer.

I had to admit though, I was relatively impressed. It did seem that despite his indiscretions with his secretary, he did genuinely seem capable at his job. The files were well organized, and the timestamps indicated that he did actually do some work throughout the day, rather than just being a well-paid figurehead who spent all his time on the golf-course.

Deciphering through the documents, similarly I found myself experiencing gratitude for having Samantha’s brain right now. Her own indiscretions notwithstanding, she did seem to be a very capable secretary.

“Got cha…”

I’d found it. Exactly what I was hoping for. The electronic notification of an approval document for a maximum clearance document being printed. I thanked heaven for the fastidious nature of the Universities administration protocols now; anything less and there really wouldn’t have been a trace of this.

Opening it up, I found the information mainly stripped back. It was like the minimum possible had been written down into the request, but still it gave me enough of a lead. Scanning through it, any reference to the name of the organization that needed the information, or it’s members, had been left blank, but there was an address.

Hmmm…

I didn’t recognize it. This wasn’t totally surprising, after all, I’d only moved to this city recently, and was never really great at remembering the names of streets even in my hometown. I pulled out Samantha’s phone, feeling a pulse of satisfaction as its face ID let me into her digital life flawlessly.

It really can’t see a difference between this face, even when I’m the one wearing it… I guess I’m just flawless as her.

I couldn’t help but smile, so pleased with the potency the skinwalker ability, as I typed the address into the maps app. That smile died immediately when I realized where exactly it was, though.

It can’t be…

My blood seemed to chill in my veins as the implications of what I was seeing seemed to settle in. The top floor, a penthouse apartment, in an exclusive part of town. Right across the street from Candida.

They… they’re right there. Right across from her. They must already know that’s where she lives, they must already… be homing in on her! Mortiferis de Infornem… a secret society, monster hunters, ready to slay one of the biggest monsters of all.

A burst of conflicted emotions erupted in my heart as my head raced, too many thoughts seeming to fly through all at once to really focus on any one. I still breathed deeply and tried.

She… she is a monster. I saw that room of skins, all those lives taken, that selfish collection, built up for her pleasure at the expense of so many…

But she said they were criminals, villains, bad people in their own right!

So many of them? All ages, genders, races…? Some of them were a little too young to have done so much evil…

Objectively, I knew that Candida was a monster. She probably did deserve to die for everything she’d done, and humanity as a whole would be safer without a skinwalker like her.

But then again… aren’t I a skinwalker now too?

A strange guilt, a self-loathing, swirled inside me. I was a skinwalker, a monster. I hadn’t had the time to do everything Candida had, but I’d still used my powers. Lisa, that kind and intelligent beauty, studying to be a doctor to help others… she’d become just my vessel, my perfect skin to wear as I faked being her to her friends and used her body for sex with a stranger. That went beyond any normal invasion of someone’s life, and even with her memories being amended so she thought it was all her, it still was a bad thing to do.

Elise too, I’d used her body for sex, played her role as I acted way bolder than she ever would have, sucking dick in the library. That was just as much of an invasion, permanently altering her relationship with her co-worker, even if it was for the better.

Even thinking of my guilt, I still squirmed, Samantha’s stolen slit growing slick and wet between my legs. Even as I thought what I’d done was wrong, I couldn’t help but be turned on by it, craving the deception, the thrill of playing another’s role, of being a sexy, gorgeous young woman while I’d been such a boring guy my whole life. The rich degeneracy and forbidden pleasure of it all.

A thought broke through my budding lust, a realization.

Wait… if they know about Candida, do they know about me too?

The chills returned with even greater ****, as my brain struggled to put the pieces together. “Alex” had never left Lisa’s room, not for a couple days after her date. Would it be believable he’d stayed there, lying in her bed while she went to class, went to a party, and went home with another man? Similarly, if they’d been watching Candida’s apartment, they’d know “Lisa” had gone back to it. I was fortunate the campus didn’t have that many cameras, but were there enough to implicate me? Would they have been watching regardless?

They must be gifted at hunting to even be in an organization like that in the first place, so it wasn’t like my fears were unfounded.

What… what should I do…?

A flurry of possibilities rushed to my head as I shut down the dean’s computer and stood up, smoothing out my skirt as I tried to clear away any sign that I’d been there.

I could always run, just leave, get as far away as possible. Disappear into some random person’s life and lay low, hide before they get the chance to discover me. But am I really ready to abandon my whole life, all the people I’ve ever known, my own identity, over merely a fear I’d been discovered?

But then, who knows what they’d do it me if they caught me…

Should I… should I warn Candida? She is a monster, but she’s also the only one who understands me, the only one who knows how to help me with my condition. The only one I can really turn to about a lot of things… and if I overlook the more dubious elements of her character, the most powerful ally I could possibly have. Who knows if I would ever meet another skinwalker if I let her go? Or let her die at the hands of these monster hunters…

Maybe there was another way, something I hadn’t even considered yet? Someway I could learn more, or someway out of this situation altogether…