"Everything After Is Just A Blur"

Cathy woke up. It was 5:45am.

It was a bit too early to wake up for her, but something just made her get up at that time.

As she was walking, she felt fatter, more compressed than before. Her stomach rumbled, though she ignored it. With her baby on the way, it was usually guessed to be something to do with it, so she ended up ignoring it most of the time.

She entered her bathroom, slightly half tired, thinking that maybe she just needed to take her morning trip to the toilet and then be over and done with. Especially when she let out some gas, which she wafted away with her hand.

However, instead of the hands staying by her stomach. They started to pull her face down, like a skinsuit.

"What the hell?" She asked herself, as she continued to pull her face down. What uncovered was a Slitheen that escaped. "No. I can't be. How, how did this happen?"

She lost control of her arms, as green ones with claws replaced them. Then she slipped down as more of the Slitheen revealed itself and her body became a flimsy suit.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I don't know what I did that made you okay to make me like this but I'm sorry if I provoked you or made you angry enough so that you would use me as a suit."

It didn't answer. It had a mouth, it had a voice. It just didn't want to answer Cathy.

"Please. Answer me." Cathy asked it, before it thrust upwards and dropped her to the floor.

It grabbed her from the bathroom floor and put her on a bathroom peg.

"I guess you're not going to answer." Cathy said. "Jeffrey! Jeff!"

Her fiance didn't run bursting into the bathroom, he just stayed asleep. Like everything in the bathroom was sound proof.

She looked around, before looking right next to her to a skin already hung up. It then turned around to talk to her. It was the Margaret skinsuit from the day before.

"Welcome to the family." It uttered as everything turned into a blinding light.

This woke her up and out of bed. She breathed a couple of times. She checked the time. 5:45am again.

Jeffery rushed from the bathroom to the bedroom as he heard his fiance get up.

"What's up? Are you alright Catherine? Is it the baby?" He asked so many questions, going towards his fiance and her stomach to see if she was alright.

"Nightmare. It was a nightmare. You don't have to worry. Everything's fine." Cathy told him as she calmed him down.

"You sure?" Jeffrey asked, just to make sure. He didn't want her to lie if it was something medical just in case something was wrong.

"Yeah. Pretty sure. I'm just gonna get some more sleep, if you don't mind." Cathy said, as she was now waiting for Jeffrey to leave.

"Alright. Just… I'm gonna be here if you need me." He said as he got up from the bed and walked back towards the bathroom.

"Alright… see you in a couple of minutes." Cathy told him, getting a little sleepy as she laid back in bed.

Except. After having one big nightmare like that, it was harder to get back to sleep than she realised. What if Margaret was planting this as a warning. Like 'now that you've met me… now you can see what I really can do to you.'?

Or perhaps… This was another dream. Like "here's the weirdest dream we can give you today. You meet an alien and it doesn't want to kill you!". Yeah, that made sense to her. Margaret Blaine was just a normal human Lord Mayor of Cardiff and the sky was blue.

That's it, she thought. Now I can get back to normal.

And with that, she decided to go back to sleep.

"Catherine? You alright?" Jeffrey asked her at the table as they were both eating breakfast.

"Yeah. yeah. Sorry about this morning." Cathy apologised to her fiance.

"You don't need to apologise. I get it." Jeffrey told her, as he finished his plate, before going over to kiss her and leave. "See you later. Have a good day."

He left the house as she huffed. Just a normal day.

Her phone then buzzed.

She grabbed it, opening the phone as she read the latest message.

'Read the interview. Very enthralling.' - MB.

Her imaginary "everything is perfect" world came crashing down in that second. Margaret does exist and it seems she still wanted Cathy around. But for how long?

Meanwhile, in Cardiff Town Hall.

"Look. The work that you want done to the project just can't be done, Miss Blaine." Mr Roberts, a government planning official told her. "You might as well be dreaming of a miracle."

"But it was a miracle that this project was able to get off the ground in the first place. I'm sorry if I can't make any more miracles. You'll just have to do it." Margaret told him, whilst eating a sandwich after she spoke.

"I can't, Miss Blaine. You can't finish the project." Mr Roberts said.

"You have to." Margaret told him, her tone now coming off as commanding.

Mr Roberts questioned her change in tone.

"Miss Blane, was that a threat?" Mr Roberts asked her.

"Yes. I'd say it was." Margaret replied, dropping the sandwich to the desk.

She clicked a button underneath her desk that closed the door. Mr Roberts looked at the closing door, a little scared.

"And to be fair, Mr Roberts. I did give you some fair warning."

She stood up from her chair as she began to unzip her forehead in front of Mr Roberts, who was bewildered as blue light began to cover his face.

Mr Roberts hurried out of his chair as the Slitheen climbed out of the Margaret suit.

He ran breathing heavily as he tried to find a hiding place from this ALIEN that had just been unveiled to him.

He found a cupboard in the second room as he thought he could hide in it.

"Trying to hide Mr Roberts?" It asked. "That won't help you. I will find you."

He kept to the cupboard as it walked around the place.

He thought he'd outwitted this stupid slimy alien.

Until he coughed. Which gave away his hiding place.

Margaret heard it as she turned around and went towards the cupboard and scratched it up.

"You could have lied and said yes, Mr Roberts. That way. What will happen… wouldn't have happened." She said as the only other things that were then heard from outside the room was a scream, some roaring and a great big crunch.

Cathy was, however, still at work at the Cardiff Gazette.

As a reporter for the paper, it was usually either busy or very busy. It depended on the news and the week.

For Cathy, she usually got one of the stories or she didn't. It was the luck of the draw.

But today, she was looking around at people. People who were her co-workers and just other people in general. Who around her was a Slitheen? Who wanted to kill her?

Did Margaret hire someone to kill her at her own work?

The paper did sometimes get its death threats from time to time. Every newspaper did. But alien hitmen? Maybe this one did.

She was in her own mindset when her boss walked near to her.

"Cathy, can I see you in my office?" He asked her, as she immediately focused on him. He immediately walked back into his office.

"Yes. Sorry, Mr Smith." Cathy said as she grabbed her bag and walked into her boss's office, whilst still looking around for the Slitheen hitman that Margaret had probably hired.

Mr Smith's office was usual. It was a bit stuffy, being a smaller room than the others (apart from the toilets) which only he worked in. It had filing cabinets, the desk, a hat/coat stand and a couple of chairs.

Cathy closed the door on her way in.

"Sit down, Cathy." Mr Smith said as they both sat down.

Mr Smith, or Robert Smith as his name headerboard said was a larger person than Cathy. He knew that he was putting on the weight himself but didn't have the time to lose it because of working in the news industry. He always wore suits that were too big for himself because he didn't know if he would one size or the other.

He could have been a Slitheen, thought Cathy.

"Now, I have to say…" He began, Cathy on edge in case this would be a firing notice. "Well done on your interview with the Lord Mayor. From what I've heard, the reaction to the article has been positive. And according to an insider, the Lord Mayor has approved of it as well."

"Thank you, Mr Smith." Cathy said, in confidence, now knowing that she wasn't getting fired or that he wasn't a Slitheen.

"I think we need to elevate this somehow. Perhaps you should be Miss Blaine's personal reporter. Any publicity she has or wants, you will report it. How would that sound?"

"Uh, I guess that sounds like a good idea. Thanks, Mr Smith." Cathy answered his question. "I'll guess you'll have to sort that out with her, won't you?"

"Yes, I will." Mr Smith said to her, before looking up something on the computer. "However, there's a report that a Mr Roberts has been missing. Part of the Blaidd Drwgg project, he was. Want to take that report?"

"Yes. Yes I will." Cathy said, after hearing about the Blaidd Drwgg name again. That was what got her into this mess to begin with and this was a way out.

"Okay, well. Any news is news!" Mr Smith told her, it was his catchphrase, so Cathy knew that meant to get back to the computer to report this.

She exited the door, with a smile and forgot about the Slitheen hitman idea completely. So what?! She can just leave her thoughts behind and drown herself in work.

That way, everything could be alright.

Later that day, she returned home, by herself.

She wished Jeffrey would be there, but it seemed that he was perhaps still busy.

She put her coat and bag down in the hallway.

Then the landline phone rang. She answered it.

"Hello?" She asked.

"Hello Miss Salt. Nice to speak to you again."

She knew that voice from the first word. It was Margaret. She hadn't spoken to Cathy since Margaret had unveiled her secret, but Cathy knew she was coming back at some point.

"Nice to speak to you, Miss Blaine." Cathy answered.

"Yes. I've heard from a Mr Smith from The Cardiff Gazette that you've been given quite the new position, haven't you?" Margaret asked her, noting that she was looking at the email Cathy's boss had given her.

"Oh, yes. I'm now in charge of publicity for you." Cathy said.

"Yes. We should be seeing each other more regularly now." Margaret told her as Cathy silently gulped at that sentence being said to her. "I'm sure things will be just fine."

Cathy didn't know what to say after this, although she had one question on her mind which had been with her all day.

"Did you plan this? Have you got an insider at my work?" She asked, trying to get these questions off her mind.

"No. It seems that you have some good luck on your hands." Margaret answered. "And no, I'm the only one of my kind around these days. I don't have an insider at your work."

This calmed Cathy down. At least two of her questions were being answered today.

"But you wouldn't be asking these questions if you weren't okay. So, are you okay, Miss Salt? Is there anything the matter?"

Cathy couldn't quite get the words out of her mouth.

"I had a nightmare. This morning." Cathy began, before taking a breath. "I imagined I was like you and I was pulling my skin down like your skin suit and that all was under me was a Slitheen that had nothing to it and I thought today, that was going to happen."

"It won't. I promise." Margaret told her. "I want you to live. To show… that we don't kill everyone. We can do other things."

"I see. Thank you… Blon." Cathy said, before adding the Blon quietly.

For both Cathy and Margaret, they both smiled.

Until Margaret's stomach rumbled, which then let off some gas exchange.

Cathy cleared her throat. "Right, yes. I'll let you go. I guess you need to let something out. Don't you?"

"Yes. I'll see you some other time, Cathy." Margaret said, before adding. "It was nice to speak with you again."

Margaret ended the call as she began to unzip her forehead, smiling as she did from speaking to Cathy.

Cathy, after finishing the conversation, walked from the corridor, where she left the phone to the living room, as she sat on the sofa.

Thinking about her life had really changed over the last few days. Everything else was just going to become a blur.

A great big Welsh blur.

That made her laugh in her head, as she sat firmly on the couch as she put the TV on.