Time For A New Job

Layna returned from Chattanooga with an insatiable hunger. Every scent on her way home made her stomach growl.
 
It had all happened so quickly. Even with her preparations, the trip to Tennessee and back to her basement apartment under the pharmacy in Brooklyn took less than forty-eight hours.
 
On her way home, she took the form of the cab driver for the train ride. Then she took another UberAI back to her father’s pharmacy on the corner of Myrtle Ave and Washington Park. Having been away from her father’s preserved remains for more than a day, she walked quietly down the dark back alleyway and used the service entrance — entering the combination on the door’s padlock and then making her way to her small one bedroom apartment.
 
For all the excitement, Layna’s trip to Chattanooga afforded her no new information about the LFER group responsible for the blackouts the had taken her father’s life. And so, over a bowl of cereal at the table, she ate in the dim light and considered how to locate her next target.
 
Thinking back, Layna remembered the weeks of constant news reports about secret courts that were convened when the IERA finally located the LFER operatives responsible for the attacks on the city. The names of the agents had been kept confidential until a highly publicized leak of Samuel Cominsky’s name gave Layna her first target.
 
It wasn’t very difficult to find him — even in protective custody. Layna shifted into countless forms, using each one to gain a morsel of information on the street, leading her to the motel where Samuel was staying until his permanent residence could be established. Layna used the form of a housekeeper to enter his hotel room and then decapitated him before returning into the housekeeper’s form and leaving the room — in clear view of the security cameras.
 
“I’ll return to the streets,” she thought to herself. But no matter which gang leader or powerful executive’s form she took, her questions led to a dead end. After a week of searching, Layna decided to go directly to the source.
 
“I’ll have to check the records at the IERA,” she said out loud to herself, through bites of another bowl of cereal.
 
After her breakfast of Lucky Charms, Layna opened the jar containing her father’s head, breathed in deeply, and changed into his form. She walked upstairs to the pharmacy, exchanged pleasantries with Smitty as he was resting lazily behind the counter, and then left the store heading toward the park.
 
After enjoying the fresh air, Layna hailed an UberAI and traveled over the bridge into Manhattan. Exiting the vehicle a few blocks away, she found an alleyway from where she could shift into the form of a homeless man. She found some boxes and made a makeshift bed on the sidewalk next to the IERA’s Manhattan office. As employees entered and exited the building, she breathed in their scents and overheard their conversations. Several employees seemed to work in the “records department”. Jennifer Sanders was one such employee. Layna overheard her talking with a coworker about her upcoming vacation over the summer. As they excitedly talked about her plans, Layna followed both employees from a distance and eavesdropped on their conversation. She learned about her coworker-friend, Lucy Creighton and made mental notes about their conversation.
 
Layna followed and watched Jennifer and Lucy for weeks, always in the form of various homeless people. On the bus, on the sidewalk, in the subway, even outside their favorite restaurant.
 
When she felt confident enough, Layna decided to make her first move. She followed Jennifer to her house, in the form of a repairman. Not following at a far enough distance, Jennifer noticed her and smiled nervously.
 
“Can I help you?,” Jennifer asked.
 
Cursing to herself, Layna thought on her feet quickly,
 
“Yes ma’am, I’ve been called out to repair a faulty breaker in your unit. I think we took the same train here. Sorry to give you a scare.”
 
“A faulty breaker? I didn’t report anything…”
 
“Nah, you don’t have to, we can monitor these things from the main office.” Layna lied confidently.
 
“Oh, OK.” Jennifer responded slowly.
 
Jennifer and Layna (in the form of a repairman) walked together down the remainder of the hallway. Layna tried to strike up a conversation, possibly gaining even more information about her work…but all she could think of was the weather. Their awkward conversation about the weather came to an end as they approached the door and Jennifer let them both inside.
 
Layna had this part planned out, having read the floor plans from a recent apartment listing in the building. She would go to the utility room where the breaker box was and…wait. She smelled Jennifer’s movements throughout the apartment. After a few minutes, Jennifer went into the bathroom…a room Layna assumed would contain the sound of screaming.
 
As soon as Jennifer closed the bathroom door, Layna spoke in a loud voice. “Ma’am, the breaker is repaired. I’m going to leave now.”
 
“OK! Thank you!” Jennifer yelled from behind the closed bathroom door.
 
But Layna didn’t leave.
 
Abandoning the form of the repairman, Layna turned into Maven. And then, in an instant, her skin, bones, and organs began to grow and move with undulating pustules until she was no ‘form’ at all. Now slithering across the floor, Layna slid under the door of the bathroom.
 
As her green liquified form appeared under the door, Jennifer Sanders spoke her last words.
 
“What the hell has the repairman done to my plumbing?! Why is there sewage seeping into my…”
 
But her last question was cut short by her own scream.
 
Out from the green puddle on the floor, Layna returned to her grotesque animalistic form, covered in a greenish grey layer of slime.
 
The scream ceased as Layna’s razor sharp arms severed Jennifer’s head from her neck. Layna cradled her in her arms as she fell forward, Jennifer’s lower half still seated on the toilet. With a fluid motion, Layna carried both her head and body into the shower and turned on the water.
 
For a few minutes, she stood in the water, holding Jennifer’s head in her hands while her body lie at the bottom of the shower. Then she placed Jennifer’s head on the floor of the shower as well, allowing some time for the water to wash her of Jennifer’s blood.
 
In the distance, she could hear loud knocking at the door. Then someone yelling, “Jennifer, are you ok?”
 
Layna turned off the shower and stepped out onto the bath mat, blood still splattered on the walls and floor.
 
She turned into Jennifer’s form.
 
“I’m OK! I’m OK,” she yelled with Jennifer’s voice. “Just getting out of the shower!”
 
She found a robe and put it on quickly. Then went to the front door and opened it to see a man walking away.
 
“Hey! I’m sorry about that. I was in the shower and saw an enormous cockroach on the floor of the bathroom. I hate cockroaches…”
 
“Oh, OK.” The man responded. Then smiled, “If you ever need me to kill a cockroach for you, just call. Don’t scream like that.”
 
“OK. Next time.” She said as she smiled and waved. Then she stepped back inside and closed the door.
 
She thought to herself, “That was the easy part.”
 
Layna spent several hours cleaning the bathroom. In the morning, she would go to work at the Records Department of the International Energy Regulatory Agency.