Beyond the silver door

I knew exactly how to get inside the silver door now, with a selection of keys being kept in the Librarian’s office close to the front of the library. I bent over to pick up my male clothes, enjoying the way the tight skirt felt and knowing how great it was making my ass look, before I stuffed them underneath one of the bookshelves in the shadows.

I had to hope no-one would find them, but I figured in this distant part of the library it was unlikely someone would just stumble onto them. Taking my first steps in her heels, I let her muscle memory guide me as I slipped into her role, the slight jiggle of her breasts and the way her high heeled strut emphasized her assets giving me deep satisfaction.

With her soul inside me, memories sitting like an open book for my perusal, I found that I had no problem navigating the previously labyrinthine library. It was its own sense of power, recognizing the different avenues of books and having an understanding of what lay down them. More than that, it even seemed like my thought processes were smoother and more complex, picking deep knowledge of a multitude of sources coming from Elise’s extensive reading history.

Rounding the corner, I found myself back in the foyer where so recently I’d been as my own bland, male self, now encased in the irresistibly sexy guise of the librarian. I felt the eyes of some of the students on me, raking up and down, and felt tingles of excitement move through me. There was something supremely satisfying about knowing that right now, I was that older woman they were fantasizing about, more sophisticated and experienced than the girls they had classes with, an unobtainable dream that just seemed all the more enticing for its inaccessibility.

I could see Claude manning the desk, and smiled as I came up behind him and whispered;

“Anything happen while I was gone?”

He seemed to visibly jump and little and turn quickly, only to find our faces a little close, causing him to avert his eyes a little and gain the hints of a blush. It was so cute, and it made me feel so sexy knowing right now I was the one having such an effect on him.

“Ahh, nope. It’s been all quiet here.”

I gave him some mercy and pulled back out of his personal space, causing him to relax yet appear visibly disappointed. Claude seemed to be even better looking up close, and he had a certain appeal as his passion, intelligence and style was plain to see, but without ego or pretension. In Elise’s memories I could feel she had a lot of affection for him, and it seemed the two of them had grown incredibly close working together, similar interests and mutual attraction taking them beyond just friends and co-workers but not quite lovers.

“I’m going to do some sorting in some of the less used sections, they’re overdo for a clean up. You don’t mind doing me a favor and holding out here for a little longer…?”

I asked, knowing he was like putty in my hands.

“Of course! Leave it to me.”

He met my smile with his own as I turned and dipped in the office, returning with the key I needed, stopping just in front of him, enjoying how close I stood to him.

“Thanks, Claude. What would I do without you?”

With that, I left him, feeling his lingering gaze on me as I walked, and feeling like there was something he was wanting to say yet couldn’t articulate. Journeying back to the silver door proved uneventful, as there were few students, and no chance of getting lost with Elise’s soul comfortably inside me.

Soon, I stood in front of that same ominous entryway, admiring the way the light glinted off the ornate designs. My heart was going a little faster in my chest, as even though Elise knew of the books inside and how to organize them, this was one section of the library she had yet to study. I could feel her own enthusiasm at reading them as if it were my own. Holding out the silver key, with snake designs carved throughout the length of it, and sliding it in the lock gave a rush far greater than I’d been expecting.

The room beyond sat down some steps, as though going underground, and unlike the rest of the library had the original stone flooring uncovered by carpet, causing my heels to make echoing clicks around the small space. I switched the light on as I closed over the door, not wanting to be interrupted.

I knew that even Elise would be questioned if she were discovered in here, and not wanting to compromise my mission or the life of my current skin I began work quickly. The books held within this room were old; most written in differing languages and even then, older forms of them; German, Latin, Spanish, French, all much as it may have been spoken hundreds of years ago.

I knew I wouldn’t have been able to read any of them if I were just myself; a relative underachiever who could speak only modern English, and even then not overly well. Elise however, seemed to have working knowledge of all of these languages, not to the point of fluency or anything like that, but certainly to the level where I could understand what was written.

I scanned through the first five books quickly, availing of the special felt gloves to protect the pages from the oils that come naturally from people’s fingers; a must when dealing with such old, special books. They were fascinating each one, and talked at length about a differing “fictional” creature. Dragons, gnomes, goblins, sirens and Minotaur, each one described not as some kind of fantasy, or even a legend with a historical base. No, they were described in as scientific terms as possible for the times they were written in, with an explicit focus on hunting them.

It was a strange mixture of emotions; my own deep concern from the implications of this, and the incredible rush and passion that came from Elise at burrowing into such fascinating materials. I was incredibly grateful to be in her skin as I read, her ability at absorbing, interpreting and retaining knowledge seemed to be several times greater than mine, as the passages that would have confounded me were rendered easily digestible when seen through her eyes.

I idly considered that fact that in nearly every way other than age, Elise seemed to be superior to me as Alex, and even then being her age came with an entirely different sets of advantages to mine. When it came to literature, history and languages as well, she was far superior to Lisa, but in science and math Lisa had been greater. It was incredible how both the women I’d worn so far had been so superior to me in their fields, and when I wore them I experienced all the skill and expertise as if it were my own. Feelings of power like that were just as addictive as the amazing lust the Skinwalker ability could bring, and it made me think there were likely skinwalkers out there who were constantly searching for the “perfect vessel”, that skin with the best combination of brains, beauty, strength, wealth and social station, and whichever gender they preferred to inhabit.

Although the authors of each book seemed to be different, one thing that found them all was they seemed to be the property of an organization called “Mortiferis de Informem”. It seemed they had been some kind of international coalition, moving through history and through different governments, but always being a feature. None of the books I was finding explicitly gave their history or many details other than their mission; the eradication of all non-human sentient creatures.

My blood ran cold as I pieced this together. Surely they were just a historical organization? They couldn’t still exist in the 21st century? The books I’d read so far soothed my fears; things like dragons and Minotaur wouldn’t be easy to hide, so if they had been real at one time, they surely would be extinct now, and the organization dedicated to hunting them along with it.

The next book I discovered on the shelf, would reveal more than anything else. On the cover, carved skillfully into the leather, was an image of an amorphous creature emerging from the deflated skin of a human. This was the book about Skinwalkers! I greedily opened the cover and began reading as fast as I could.

The book was written more recently than the others, the mid-19th century at latest, and seemed to be shorter too. In the preface it detailed why; although skinwalkers had seemingly existed alongside humans as long as could be remembered, their natural stealth capabilities meant their capture and discovery was that much more difficult. More than that, it seemed much of the history of Skinwalkers was kept guarded at a higher level than even this, with references to Mortiferis de Informem keeping most of the details they’d learnt hidden inside their own, specific facilities.

The way it was written, it was clear Mortiferis de Informem feared Skinwalkers as much as it hated them, with references to purposefully giving their own agents only select pieces of the wider truth, to prevent any skinwalker learning all they knew with the wearing of a single skin. They were aware of skinwalkers, descriptions of their raw, unskinned form and base capabilities. Much of this book was concerned with three relatively new skinwalkers who had been captured and subjected to a series of scientific tests to divine their weaknesses.

The first skinwalker of the three was described as the “Larval form”, and seemed to be still retaining most of it’s human characteristics. It was susceptible to all the same weaknesses as a human, and was described as suffering and eventually dying to all ordinary tortures. I swallowed to quell my dry throat as I considered that this would have been me, had I been caught by them.

The second skinwalker was referred to as the “Chrysalis stage”. It still appeared to be mainly human, yet any real attention paid to it revealed how it was turning fast. It was described as being able to pass as ordinary when mainly covered by clothes, albeit with a haunted, sickly look as its own skin seemed to peel back towards the bone, and it became paler and more like a skeleton. Underneath those clothes however, were patches of muscle that were becoming soft and almost liquid, veins and arteries seeming to vanish from all perception, as it seemed the internal structure below became more amorphous and fluid. The original skin on top could be pierced in this stage, but rather than blood coming out, a strange blue translucent slime would more likely emerge. This **** quickly became more of a dissection, as the creature was revealed to be halfway human and halfway full skinwalker inside.

I shuddered as I contemplated this was where I was heading, and at the inevitable breakdown of my body that seemed to be coming.

The third skinwalker was defined as being fully developed. The description of its blue translucent skin, the dull red skeleton beneath and the yellow spines floating in it were frighteningly accurate, and proved the reality of this research. This creature was much, much more difficult to kill, as bladed weapons didn’t work on the blue sections, and the red bones seemed to be capable of bending and changing consistency at will. Apparently this skinwalker had laughed and taunted the researchers, as they’d attempted to kill it.

It was only able to be restrained in a specially designed cage, and even then, they were terrified that it would spontaneously develop the ability to become fully slime and find a way out. Fire seemed to repel it, acid hurt it. Conventional weapons could beat it back, but couldn’t kill it. They had the most success with electricity, using it to electrocute and finally kill the final skinwalker. They had written certain chemical mixes and poisons when applied to conventional weapons had been used to kill Skinwalkers historically, but even then, catching and disposing of them had always been incredibly difficult, especially considering the ability of some of them to develop further powers.

I closed the book, my heart a mix of differing emotions. The other books in this section each concerned a different creature, and having read the one on Skinwalkers I knew I’d already taken the most pertinent information. Still… the reminder of not only my coming transformation, but also the new knowledge of this organization terrified me.

Mortiferis de Informem… surely they can’t still exist? The mid 19th century is an awfully long time ago, after all.

Even thinking that, I couldn’t shake the uneasiness from my heart. I felt incredibly grateful to be back in the regular library, sealing the silver door with it’s special key and beginning to move back towards the entrance.

What would I do if they were real? What if they found me?