A/N: Rated M just in case my descriptions are too much. If you have any reviews or comments, please leave them!
It was early evening in a council building that sat in the heart of a modern town, abandoned for the day by its important members as they left their subordinates to pick up the slack. Halls thumped with busy footsteps as the assistants worked overtime to earn their pay from the cheating and backhanded councilmembers that stood above them, who would crush any hope for promotion with their heels. Their brutal and efficient hierarchy scared away almost anyone who wished to get on the political ladder, with only the toughest and ruthless council members able to ascend its ranks. Which made it a prime target for those of a ruthless nature themselves.
Unbeknownst to those still in the building as they worked tirelessly late into the night, an alien creature had begun to infiltrate their chambers, stalking in the darkness of unlit corridors, biding her time while she planned her next move. An individual of the Slitheen crime family, named Entona Fel Fotch Lyr-Draad Slitheen, was on a mission of her own accord, hunting down an individual whose position would be a great asset to her and her future plans. From her position in the empty hallways, the sound of wet snuffling permeated the quiet as she sniffed the air with her small, rounded nose. Her sense of smell, more developed than a mere human's, picked up the minute scents of everyone in the building, scanning through the various perfumes and natural odours that mingled together. She raised her curved neck, head held high as she narrowed her large and glassy black eyes while focusing on one aroma in particular that had been hiding itself behind the abundant smell of office workers: a high pay-grade council member that was still here, even after her colleagues had left to drink the night away. The human woman's perfume was expensive and smothered her natural aroma, sweet flowers and fruit covering up the scent of someone who couldn't care any less about those beneath her.
Someone that rich and powerful would make for the most delicious prey.
The target in question was a high-ranking councilwoman named Cassandra Kingsley, a stern member of the city's council that had deep pockets and a love of letting her friends get away with unlawful building practices, as long as they slid some of the profit to her on the side.
Entona could detect the human from across the building, on the opposite side to where she was hiding. The thought of it made her glutinous green skin prickle with anticipation. Although, as she worked herself up, a thought struck her as she strung her plan together, muttering and cursing to herself in frustration the moment she realised that getting there unnoticed in her true form would be impossible. With all the bustle and light in the main building, The humans would spot her immediately, and could alert the prey to her presence. Perhaps a more covert approach was necessary to get to her quarry. She would need to be someone that the human woman would trust enough to allow in her room, but at the same time be under any suspicion. She observed her surroundings closely, looking for someone whose skin she could borrow for a while, just until she could get to the politician. As much as her observations taught her about the behaviour of human clerical staff, nobody she saw wandering around quite matched her requirements. None of the passing humans had even the slightest trace of the high-up politician's perfume on them, or if they did, it was clear they were visitors- people would notice if they were somewhere they weren't allowed to be. Reminding herself to be patient, she crept closer to the foyer of the building, remembering to keep her presence hidden just enough to be ignored. Scanning through the crowd of workers beginning to head back to their offices after a short break, her attention was drawn to a peculiar individual that had entered the hall from the door opposite to her own hiding place. A young woman, with a hint of the all too familiar flowery perfume around her. She was in her mid twenties, a year older than Entona herself. A willowy figure with pale skin indicative of spending an unhealthy amount of time indoors that wore a business suit and untucked blouse that suggested that she had been rushing around all day to do everything that was demanded of her. Her short, mousy brown hair was neatly cut to just under her ears, bobbing slightly as she walked. A lanyard hung around her neck, identical to those of the other humans working in the building, that displayed a badge with her name and job title for all to see:
Olivia Mayview: Assistant to Ms. Cassandra Kingsley
"Her assistant?" Entona asked herself, voice hissing in a quiet delight.
By mid-afternoon, most of the other humans had cleared from the foyer, making it drastically emptier than before, and in perfect time, as Olivia strode to the staircase that took up most of the space, her footsteps echoing as she walked across the polished stone floor, lanyard pressed against her chest as she tried to rebalance the pile of folders in her arms. All of them were reports and charts for new building projects that her boss was meant to look over and pass judgement on. In reality, it meant stamping a large, red 'unapproved' stamp on the front and calling it a day, dismissing the reasons as some inane and nitpicked rule. Despite this, the assistant's hands were never empty, whether it was folders or stacks of letters complaining about Ms Kingsley. Olivia agreed with most of the angry, strongly worded letters but could never bring herself to say it to her boss's face, Ms Kingsley's ruthless nature made assistant turnover rates very high in her department.
Entona quietly watched Olivia's behaviour as if the human was in some kind of inhuman nature documentary. She made mental notes on the small movements and expressions the woman made, how she carried herself, even how she walked. Remembering how the human acted would be very important later. Her claws twitched, dripping with the poison that tipped them in anticipation.
"Hellooooo…"
A voice called out to Olivia, one that she had never heard before but whoever it was sounded like they were ill, as if their throat was sore. She also found it strange that the voice was coming from somewhere in the direction of the records room, which was confusing because to her knowledge, nobody ventured down to the archives unless their boss despised them. It was only right she went to see what they wanted. The archive room was an overwhelming place, full of dusty boxes and too many files to count. Maybe they needed some help finding that one file from twenty years ago. Her confident, authoritative footsteps echoed throughout the foyer, getting closer to Entona, who had slunk back into the pooling shadows.
"Do you need help finding something?" Olivia asked, confused that no response came her way. She poked her head around the corner but saw nothing but darkness, "It's okay. I'm not as harsh as them. You can ask me for help if you want." She spoke into the void, a look of confusion on her face. A look that quickly changed as her hand slipped over the light switch.
"Oh my god…" Her voice trailed off as she came face-to-face with the Slitheen's hulking alien form, glistening under the lights.
"Well, there's certainly one thing you can help me with." Entona told her, stepping forward, towering over her, "I need help getting a disguise. And you're just the person I'm looking for." She told Olivia, a terrible smile across her lips. Olivia trembled and stuttered as she clutched the folders tight to her chest, too frightened to move.
"Who are you?" She quietly asked, her voice only a whisper as she managed to gather the courage to speak.
Her newfound courage broke into pieces as Entona mockingly laughed at her, retorting with an unnerving, childish glee: "Wouldn't you like to know, little human?"
Olivia met the creature's unblinking gaze for a fraction of a second, only seeing the same pools of darkness that it had been lurking in, waiting to ambush her. They only got bigger and bigger as it took steps towards her.
"The only thing you need to worry about-" Entona poked at Olivia with an oversized claw, "-Is what you want your last words to be." She took another step closer to the human, sensing the overbearing fear that had begun to take hold of her prey. It made her smile a sharp-toothed grin at Olivia, jet black eyes somehow able to convey a look of twisted and purely alien joy.
Olivia matched the Slitheen's steps backwards in a cruel dance as she stared into the eyes of a monster. Head slowly turning to the foyer, thinking If she could only get the creature to make one, maybe two more steps, she had a clear shot to the door. Somewhere the monster would never follow her. It had been hiding, of course it wouldn't go anywhere near the doors to the outside world. She glanced at Entona, thinking quickly, mind racing with decisions. The creature before her was fat and bulky and evidently slow moving as it edged closer. She affirmed to herself that she could outrun whatever this was. Easily.
Entona, however, wasn't planning on hunting the human down. Time was of the essence in her mission. The method would be much more efficient, albeit less entertaining.
The moment Olivia turned and bolted, a poison-tipped fragment shot out of the Slitheen's claw. Aimed squarely at her back, it hit its mark and stuck into her skin like a thorn. Hands scrabbled and scratched to get it out as pain began to take root. Staggering forwards, her legs buckled underneath her; folders and papers scattered across the white tile below her feet as a potent alien poison surged through her bloodstream. Her legs fell from underneath her, the muscles tightening as any feeling she once had in them vanished as one-by-one the rest of her body followed. She opened her mouth to speak as the last of it took hold. Only small, unintelligible sounds choked up from her throat as she slumped to the floor. No cry coming from her mouth as she fell to the cold marble floor, head smacking against the freezing stone.
Blood seeped like ink into the halo of paper that framed her corpse, dripping from her head as the monster gently picked up her lifeless body and carried her away.
Time had passed by quickly as the Slitheen laboriously put in hours of work, hollowing out the body until it was nothing but a husk, an empty shell to puppeteer. A lure to ensnare her true victim.
She wriggled her way inside the skin suit, the compression field device around her neck faintly whirring to life as it forced her body down into human proportions, enveloping her in a harsh blue light that drained the once bright corridor of its safety, replacing it with a fiendish glow that only faded once it was closed by a silver zip that had been inserted across the forehead; the sound of rubber stretching could be heard once Entona attempted to make herself comfortable inside of it with a disturbingly playful and almost childlike bounce to her step. As she accustomed to her human disguise — straightening out the clothes and tidying the hair — the air that had become trapped inside the suit began to move around inside, causing her a great discomfort as it refused to settle in one place, only adding to the pressure placed on her body by being inside the skin suit until it finally heaved its way, ungracefully, out of her mouth, making her gasp to catch her breath. She patted her chest in the hope it would calm down, only to cause a second rush of air to force itself up in defiance as she refocused on the task at hand.
Placing Olivia's lanyard around her neck, she began to pick up the scattered papers that the human had been taking to Cassandra Kingsley, being careful to discard the ones that had soaked up the human's blood. Her deviously curious mind flicked through the confidential files while she collected them together, finding that nimble human hands were much better at this than claws. Building plans for housing, plans for a set of high-rise flats on the outskirts of the town, and a patch of land awaiting development were a small number that caught her eye. She was more of the administration type herself, used to dealing with the detailed ins-and-outs of her family's plans before they were set in motion.
"The family could do with something like this." Entona said through Olivia's dead lips, her own sickly-sweet voice in place of the human's while her fingers flicked through pages of planning permissions and architectural floor plans. The wealth of pages kept her occupied during her brief journey to the other side of the building, mental notes beginning to stack in her head about what she could do with it. Perhaps give it over to some companies run by her aunts and uncles, maybe let her brothers and sisters in on any valuable pieces of land. The possibilities were endless when you had the right resources.
Eventually, Entona noticed the floor changing to a much plusher and well-maintained carpet that softened her heavy steps, past the empty, identical offices of council members. Her nostrils twitched at the smell of expensive alcohol and pipe smoke coming from inside a darkened office, still lingering after a 'hard day's work' by the upper classes. She liked the thought of that, telling other people what to do without lifting a single finger herself. The idea of it delighted her as continued on her way, half-stalking through the hallway. Something that was surprisingly easier to do in the guise of a human. Something she assumed was because they took up less space, a fact she was getting very familiar with in this evening's mission.
Slowly, Ms Kingsley's perfumed scent wafted through the air once more, directing the Slitheen to the back of the luxurious floor, where she found a pair of heavy-looking wooden doors, one with a glass pane in its centre, looking into a dark office. Entona assumed that the office room most likely belonged to Olivia before she was killed.
Now she came to think of it, the Slitheen poked a hand into the skin suit's jacket pocket and found two small silver keys, one that fit inside of the glass-paned door's lock. She turned it in the keyhole, but decided she would look at it later, although imagined it contained all manner of secrets. For now, she returned to the larger room, a soft yellow light shining through a gap between the door and its frame. Giving a light knock on the open door's wooden surface, it appeared that the human suit's presence had been expected after all, as Ms Kingsley invited her in, somewhat irate at her assistant's lateness.
As Entona put on an act of awkwardly apologising the moment she set foot in the office. she felt an undeniably powerful presence coming from the councilwoman that personally reminded her of herself. Cassandra Kingsley was a matronly-figured woman with dark blonde hair that fell past her shoulders in a ponytail, which only lightened her already white face.
From the moment Entona had opened the door, an annoyed expression had been aimed at her, especially now, as she set the files down in front of Cassandra — the Slitheen's human frame glancing up from the desk to meet a stern set of shimmering blue eyes. But at the same time, now that she was closer, she could smell what truly laid behind the flowery aroma: a strong air of corruption and arrogance.
"I'm so sorry, I got caught up in something on my way here." Entona continued her false apology, replicating Olivia's voice to the best of her ability from the brief speech she'd heard. Vocal mimicry wasn't her talent, but she attempted it all the same. "There are more building plans for you to look over. As usual." She quickly stepped back, her arms resting on the front of her body and hands entwined as Cassandra slid the files over to her side of the desk. Tapping her foot restlessly against the floor as the councilwoman flicked the first file open, she hoped the human wouldn't notice that several pages were missing.
"I see." Cassandra sighed as if she didn't have enough to do already, unaware of the drastic change in her assistant, "Well, it's getting late and I clearly have more work to do. You can go for today." She waved her hand dismissively at the assistant, in a way that suggested it wasn't to be debated.
"Oh. Well if that's everything." Entona said, slowly turning back to the door, dragging her departure out as long as possible. Ms Kingsley looked up from her files, with an even more frustrated look, wishing her assistant would leave as she was told.
"Do you have something you wish to say to me, Olivia?" She asked with another heavy sigh as Entona placed a hand on the door handle, "You'd better do it now."
"I was wondering if you want anything? Tea, coffee, wine-" the Slitheen asked innocently.
"No. I do not need anything, unless you wish to do this paperwork yourself."
"I'll just leave you to it, then." Entona quickly left before she was dragged into doing work that she would loathe to do.
As the heavy wooden door slammed shut behind her — causing her to jump slightly — she retrieved the first key from her pocket, unlocking what was now her room with a soft click; switching on a light to reveal an orderly, moderately-sized office with a small window. Behind the door was a table pushed against the wall that came with a silver laptop, and a pair of metal filing cabinets lined up at the wall behind the desk chair. She decided it would be a suitable base of operations for now, tossing the key and an unusual and small metal disk onto the table while making herself at home. Reclining back on the chair, she found it to be quite comfortable, even if it did creak as it tried to hold a creature much heavier than a human. Jolting back spinning the chair around, she wrenched open a metal drawer beside her out of curiosity, flicking her fingers over the folders tossed inside. All were stamped with bright red ink, labelling them as 'unapproved'. Despite finding nothing of real worth to her mission, it gave Entona a strong suspicion that Cassandra didn't like giving funding to projects.
"What a waste…" Entona commented to herself, picking at more of the same 'land for development' papers, "That would make a good-"
Abruptly, her thoughts about how the land should be used were interrupted by a series of beeps from the metal disk, an inset ring on its surface glowing with a neon green hue that sprang to life, projecting a bright green hologram; a familiar yet human figure, dressed in only the finest clothes and surrounded by a bank of screens and control panels who began talking while her back was turned:
"Sister." The figure hissed in a distinct upper-class accent that made her spin back around, "What do you think you're doing? You aren't authorised to be on Earth without informing us first. Without informing me first. I'm your brother, I need to know these things."
"Is that worry I hear from you, Tlane?" Entona asked. She appreciated his concern, but wouldn't say it to his face — hologram or not.
"I'm only down here to have a little fun," she continued, "There's no rule against that, is there?" She leaned forward at the hologram on her elbows, a wide smile across her lips.
The live image of Tlane Lyr-Draad Slitheen rested on his human hand, sounding slightly bored, "No, I suppose there isn't. But by yourself, hm?" He twisted a small curl of hair around his finger, "It's a shame I can't be there with you, but I have other business to attend to." He chuckled knowingly, "I have to go and live as the son of a wealthy noble for a few days. You know how these things are." He spoke with.a hint of smugness in his voice that made Entona roll her eyes at him. Yes, she was jealous, but at the same time could only feel a shared sense of villainous glee that he was able to pull off that kind of treachery.
"Am I correct in assuming you'll be taking some time to prepare before you set everything in motion?"
"Yes…"
"You're learning fast." Tlane nodded his approval, "They do say that patience is a virtue. Perhaps you'll be rewarded for your dedication."
"I hope so. You know I hate taking orders from humans."
Tlane made an amused humming sound: "And you especially hate taking them from me. But I think you'll do just fine as long as you don't draw attention to yourself."
"I don't think that's going to be a problem." Entona looked at herself reflected in the blank screen of the laptop. Perfectly human, and below suspicion.
"Excellent." hissed Tlane, "And remember: I'll be keeping an eye on you."
One month of work slowly passed by. Nothing but paperwork and admin duties for four weeks straight.
All of this work made Entona realise how glad she was that the family business wasn't like this, aside from the odd large-scale plot of course. That needed all hands on deck and hers were invaluable to the running of such a con or heist. As a matter of fact, she had falsified a day's worth of paperwork for her to look through that would turn out to be building plans for projects that didn't even exist, all to keep Cassandra in her office until it was time.
Entona confidently exited her room, silently pulling the door closed behind her as she checked that her boss was in her office, just as she planned; gently knocking on the wooden door and pushing it open with one hand — making a point to alert Cassandra to her presence as she looked up from the pile of paperwork still on her desk, shooting her assistant an icy glare.
"What part of 'don't disturb me' do you not understand!?" Cassandra shouted, before sighing, "...What do you want, Olivia? As you can clearly see, I'm busy."
"Oh, I just wanted to check in on you, you've been in here all day." Entona lied, putting on an act of being concerned for her wellbeing that Cassandra seemed to see through.
"If you really cared about how much work I was doing, you would have said something earlier. I don't know what you're playing at, but over these past weeks, you've been acting very odd." She stated, her emotion running high as she finally got her feelings off of her chest. Cassandra's statement took Entona off-guard. Had she really been able to see through the human act already?
"You think I'm not suited for this position don't you?" Cassandra accused, to Entona's genuine surprise, "You believe you can do better than me, is that it? Because from what I've seen these last two months is starting to make sense."
"Two? I killed your assistant ONE month ago." Entona thought, giving Cassandra a sceptical look up-and-down, "I guess we had similar plans, then. Huh."
"Well it would be rude to tell you to your face." Entona told her, shrugging with a smirk on her face as she played into Cassandra's paranoia of being replaced.
"Yes it would. And yet here you are." Cassandra scowled, "So what are you going to do now? Because I can have you removed from this building like that." She frowned, snapping her fingers.
"What am I going to do?" The Slitheen pretended to ponder, her natural saccharine inflection showing through the grounded tones that the human Olivia once spoke with, clapping her hands together in excitement and hardly able to contain herself at the thought.
"I'm going to kill you!" She told Cassandra in a sing-song voice, bouncing on her toes as she revealed her plan to her up-until-now unsuspecting victim. The councilwoman did a double take at this statement, all of her attention directed towards who she thought was Olivia.
"And then, I'm going to take your place just like I did to your dear little assistant." Entona's disturbingly upbeat voice snarled with venom, eyes widened as shock dawned on Cassandra's face, her mouth curled into a wicked smile: she had the prey she so desired within her grasp at last, fervour washing over her as she prepared to reveal her true self to the councilwoman at last.
Pressing one hand to her temple as the other began pulling on the silver zip embedded in her forehead, a serene smile that turned to one of relief graced her lips as a familiar blue light flooded the room.
Cassandra stood at her desk, stunned. She felt every muscle in her body tense at this threat to her life. Her head was telling her to run, but her body refused to move, mesmerised by the cascade of flickering light that poured from the open zip as the warm glow from the chandelier above dimmed away into nothing. She looked on in fear as something huge pushed its way out of the body of her faithful assistant. For the first time in her life, she didn't know what to do. She had no control over her situation as it unravelled in front of her, only able to stare as Entona pulled her claws free from the skin suit's thin arms, flexing them in an intimidating display of power. Seeing this threat realised before her eyes finally shook Cassandra out of her stupor. Part of her still wanted to stay and watch…whatever this display was in grim fascination but she didn't have the time, not now. If she was still here when the creature finished then she would surely be dead. She ran over to the door, sparking blue light still filling her peripheral vision while her hand pulled on the handle, throwing it open as fast as she could as She looked back in horror as the monster had finished shedding its human body. Cassandra's head turned to see the creature's full form: dark green flesh rippling with inhuman power, bristling with spikes and spines. It kicked the human skin aside with a three-clawed foot, slowly approaching her and sending her heart racing, its beats loudly pulsing within her chest and ears.
"Don't worry. This won't take long at all." Entona said with honeyed words that only served to harshen her actions. In a sudden motion, her claws slashed at Cassandra, barely missing her sternum as she leaned back just in time, fleeing as fast as she could.
"Awww, you think you can run from me." The Slitheen's sickly-sweet voice cooed, as she prowled to the open door, claws primed with deadly poisons.
"Try as hard as you can, you can't escape me!"
Cassandra could hear the creature's discordant shout from the end of the corridor as it chased after her, shaking the floor, rattling vases and lights with its heavy bounds while she ran down the branching carpeted hallway that connected her office to the others, turning a corner to try and get the creature off of her back, checking the door of every office to try and find a hiding place as the creature behind her roared with a feral hunger to its voice. This thing, this…alien, wasn't a wild animal. It could talk and clearly had no problem with making decisions of its own accord. It was hunting her down for sport. For fun. It knew exactly what it was doing and was loving every second of it, the sound of it cackling and giggling it made while searching for her sent a shiver through her body.
She banged on the doors as hard as she could hoping someone would save her from this pursuit, hoping that a door would open to give her some refuge, anything that could let her have some chance of escaping.
"What did I do to deserve this? What even is that thing?" Her mind raced, "If I can just find somewhere then maybe I could call for help. Security would be up here in an instant."
"Wherever you are, whatever you are, I'm ordering you to stop this before I call security up here and have them-" She yelled into the empty corridor behind her, interrupted by the creature's laugh.
"What are security gonna do? Go on, tell me, because I've seen them and we both know they don't do a damn thing. I got in here like this without them noticing." Cassandra couldn't hear the Slitheen running anymore, at least, not behind her, "I have talons, Cassandra. Talons that are sharp enough to cut through humans like butter. What could they possibly do to me?"
"I…" Cassandra thought aloud as she continued checking doors without the monster gaining ground, "I'll have to…get back to you with that question." She said, trying not to make the creature realise she was stalling for time.
"You don't have much time left. I know where you are. I can smell you, all that adrenaline coursing through your blood is making it very easy to find you, you know."
"Is it?"
"Yes." Entona hissed, a strangely pleasant tone to her voice, "Why don't I come to you so I can show you!"
Cassandra looked back as the monster's footsteps began again, even more brutish than before. It was going to kill her, and nothing could stop it now, not even—
The door she had her hand on pushed open. A miracle, a place to hide herself until the creature gave up. As silently as she could make it, she closed the door behind her and surveyed the dark room. It looked like the meeting room they would all convene in for smaller issues. It would have to be good enough, it was all she had. Using her memory of the room and the outlines of chairs surrounding a large oval table, she crouched behind the farthest row of chairs, positioning herself so she could see the door and anyone who entered it.
It seemed peculiar that the door to this room wasn't locked, but she was glad it wasn't, the creature's heavy footsteps passing by the door as it finally caught up to her, seemingly unaware of where she was.
"If I just stay here until morning, I'll be safe." Cassandra told herself, exhaling a sigh of relief as she sat down on the floor, back against the cold wall. The creature couldn't find her in here, she hoped. She begged that it wouldn't find her; its steps leaving the area and then coming back around like it was circling her. Maybe…maybe it was just concentrating on the last place it saw her. "Yes," she thought, "That must be it. Why else would it be…"
"I know you're in here…" the terrible voice drawled outside the door. Cassandra covered her mouth with her hands to stop herself from screaming as it knocked the door open, almost off its hinges with its bare hand, sliding a single claw over the plastic wall switch to turn the dull white lights on overhead.
"You run from a terrifying monster and decide to hide behind a desk? With me between you and the door? That wasn't a good idea, now, was it?" Entona said, disappointed in her prey for not being good at the deadly game she had been forced into.
"What do you want from me?" Cassandra asked from behind the chairs. She was close to tears at the sight of the creature that had murdered her assistant and was now after her.
"Like I told you, I'm going to take your place in the council, and I'm going to use that position to get what I want."
"Which is? If you're going to kill me, I might as well know why."
"What I want is all of that land, and all of those buildings you throw away. My family can use those for its own business." Entona shook her head, "But enough about me. How about you come out from there so I can do what I came here for."
Cassandra slowly stood up, hands in a gesture that displayed she had no weapon on her, that she was harmless to this creature before her, walking around the tables and chairs.
"There's a good little human." Entona purred at her, "Now stay still while I break your bones."
Entona's hand moved with incredible speed to grab Cassandra by the neck, holding her in the air while her monstrous hand squeezed tightly around the woman's throat. Cassandra scratched and scrabbled at the hand, trying to pull herself free. Quickly, her strength began to fade, trying as she might to escape the creature's grasp, she too fell into unconsciousness and even quicker still, the sound of her bones cracking and final breath rattled up from her broken neck to fill the silence. Her eyes turning dull and lifeless in the shining light above her head.
Cassandra's body was not treated with respect after her death by the Slitheen, as it cleared the human's desk with a swipe of her arm and laid her body down to begin the process of turning a human body into a skin suit once more.
More care was put into this work than the last, more effort being taken due to the fact that there was now the potential problem of humans walking in on Entona as she removed the flesh from the body. As a precaution every few minutes, she sniffed at the air to check she was still alone on the councilmembers' floor. It was for the best that none of them knew that they were soon going to be under new management. And she would make sure the other councilmembers knew who was really in charge.
Carving out the body, she was almost ready to start her new position when she felt a strange twinge in her gut; something about this didn't feel right. Perhaps it was guilt about what she had done. No. She knew what guilt felt like and this? It wasn't guilt. She never felt guilt for humans.
No.
Perhaps the woman's role was…too much for her. Cassandra had been much older than the Slitheen herself, and was already known to a large group of people. They would immediately know if something was wrong with their fellow councilmember and then her plan would come crashing down before her eyes. And Cassandra had said that her assistant had been planning to replace her for a while.
Maybe… Maybe she could just stay as Olivia. She'd become quite attached to this persona of hers, and could quite easily replace whatever personality the assistant had with her own and just tell everyone she was the council member now. It wouldn't be too hard to change the documents and update all of their primitive computer systems to say so.
"They would enjoy seeing someone so harsh to them disappear. If I'm nice to them, then they might do things for me." She glanced at the still-closed door, "That would be nice…"
After several minutes that felt like time had stopped to allow her to think things through, she came to a decision. Instead of finishing the skin suit, Entona sat down on the plush office chair that once belonged to Cassandra and began devouring her corpse instead, rich blood running down her mouth. The strange feeling was beginning to disappear under the still-warm mouthfuls of human flesh.
Perhaps she was merely hungry after all, she surmised without much thought, ravenously tearing into the body like her predatory instincts were telling her to do, shoving a handful of organs into her mouth. As she did so, a figure stepped unannounced into the room, unbothered by what they were seeing:
"You changed your mind then?"
Entona looked up from her feast, "What are you doing here? You said you were busy."
The human guise of Tlane Fel Fotch Lyr-Draad Slitheen stood in the middle of the office, arms loosely folded: a man with dark brown skin, green eyes and short curled hair, whose regal finery belied a cynical and hedonistic personality. He leaned on the desk, twisting a fleshy chunk off of the body and eating it as he spoke:
"I did say that I would be watching you. And someone needed to open that door, after all." He told Entona with a modest smile that quickly dropped to a concerned look, "My plans…fell through. I don't want to talk about it but it does mean I'm free for any other endeavors you or any of the others may have."
"I can probably get away with telling the rest of the council that she put me in charge. But I will need an assistant."
"Well I'm not-"
"You said you were free to help."
"I don't do 'assistants'. I'm royalty." Tlane huffed, arrogantly. To which Entona reached across to poke him with a red-stained claw.
"You're not even royalty. You're a con-artist." She said, "You're just really good at it, that's all"
"Touchè, little sister, touchè." He gave a heartfelt laugh, "I suppose I can assist you for a while. But it better not be boring."
"I promise you it won't be. Besides, I have another idea!" Entona's hands slammed down on the desk in excitement as she leaned forward.
"Oh?" Tlane chuckled, curious, "What do you have in mind?"
"How about the rest of the human council?" Entona told him with a starry look, one that he'd seen many times before, and that always came before an idea that was bound to be something. Whether that something was good or not was yet to be seen.
"You want to replace all of the council with our own, do you?" Tlane rested his chin on his hand, "That sounds much more like my style, so to speak." A menacing shadow creeped across his face as he picked away at the exposed tissue in front of him, remembering that there was still a dead body in this room and nobody had said a word.
"You'll help me?" Entona looked at him, with eyes that were practically begging him to stay. He couldn't say no to that, she was the youngest after all — and who was he to stand in the way of her aspirations? Tlane placed his hands on the desk, mirroring his sister in both pose and enthusiasm.
"Of course I will!" he belched, grinning wildly as he dropped all pretence of being human, "So. Let's begin…"