Interlude: Shapeshifter strikes

(??? POV)

"My sister has been talking strangely in my calls all week, she hasn't come for days like she usually does, she refuses to use facetime. For so long, no one was seen leaving her apartment building except this woman whom no one met! Please! You need to start an investigation!"

Officer Reginald looked lazily at the woman across his desk. "sigh" It was supposed to be his lunch break. Even so.

The officer straightened his shoulder and leaned forward on the table, hands folded, giving the woman a serious look. "I understand your concern, madam. We'll visit the compound later today, okay? Unfortunately, if we're denied entry, we'll need a warrant before we can proceed, which may take some time. "

"I understand the policemen. Thank you for your time." She stood stiffly with her wife, picked up her purse and left.

"sigh" Reginald has read enough horror novels to know that this is either going to be extremely boring or ruin his freaking week.

Taking out the communicator, he called his partner. "Oi! McArthur. I have something to get you off your fat ass."

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Officers Reginald and McArthur drove down the road, trees on either side. Earlier that day they had been asked to investigate a small apartment building on behalf of a concerned young woman. Let's hope it was nothing serious and the trip would simply be an easy distraction from more pressing and boring work.

They finally noticed their destination, a modest motel/apartment just outside of town.

Pulling up to the building, the couple got out of their vehicle. "What an ordinary place." McArthur exclaimed. Jaws fluttering on the cops' overweight face. He wasn't wrong.

Yes, it was a time of horror. "The rules of horror movies?" Reginald adjusted the holster.

McArthur answered readily with a smile. "The Rules of Horror Movies."

The two bumped their fists before moving forward. Horror movie rules: never separate, stay away from creepy noises, never turn your back to a dark empty space, punch in the throat. Ever since a particularly nightmarish attack on a galactic criminal several years ago, they've followed those rules religiously. In a relatively small town on a small colony, shit can get creepy fast.

It didn't help that Reginald was a huge horror fan.

Step by step they moved across the wooden terrace. The floorboards creak.

knock knock knock

They waited at the entrance and finally heard the rustling of hurried feet. The door was creaked open by a woman in a conservative dress. "Oh, my policemen! Is anyone in trouble!" She looked at them with her head down, her hand still on the door. A slight smile on her face.

The pair looked at each other. Going for it right away was not a good sign. "Ma'am, we were just hoping to have a look around? Someone was concerned about the tenant."

Reginald felt a chill run down his spine. I could have sworn the woman's eyes went completely black for a split second.... Horror movie rules for sure.

"Oh! No worries. Come in, come in!" The woman ushered them in by the door. The interior of the building was well decorated. Under the polished green and white tiles, a bronze chandelier, through a side door was a spiral staircase.

However, something is wrong. It was completely silent... There were these strange gargoyle decorations on the rails. Insectoid, like something out of HP Lovecraft. Not that Reginald rates, Lovecraftian horror though non-existent is awesome.

'Fuck me.' Reginald had a nice long career, nothing crazy other than a solid nearly three decades. All his instincts and experience told him that shit was screwed up.

He looked his partner in the eyes and nodded slightly, which he easily returned.

A security camera was watching from the wall.

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(Reginald POV )

McArthur took the point as he entered the door that the receptionist told us led upstairs. Unlike the entrance, this room was dirty, nets strewn about the corners and on the handrails of the spiral metal stairs. Although there were no spiders in them, I could see. Most surfaces coated with dust. At the bottom of the stairs was a mysterious stain.

"Who would want to live here?" I asked as I shook a strand of netting from my hand.

"Probably someone who is either desperate or depressed." McArthur shrugged, not bothering to look back. Taking the first creaking step, I was annoyed again that I missed the office for this haunted house shit.

We traveled up the stairs, my hand on the holster the whole time. My hair stood on end. This place was wrong. There was a smell in the air. Something meaty. It's like we're willingly going deeper into the jaws of a freshly fed lion.

Finally completing our ascent, we passed into the given room.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

"Federation Security is ! Got a moment? I just want to talk." We listened to the answer, with open ears.

"munch munch" "sluuurp" "bzzzzz"

Those sounds…. They sent chills up our necks. McArthur looked at me, I looked around him. "Fuck this! Horror movie rules mate. Let's come back with an account and friends." McArthur walked past me without looking back. I listened carefully, the sounds seemed to stop….. "No." Then I too turned and followed my partner.

We went down the stairs much faster than before, without saying a word. Fuck this place. Cannibals? A cult? A dead body? I didn't know, I didn't want to know. I had better things to do today than die as an intro to a horror movie or some shit.

However, when we entered the reception, I froze, looking at the entrance. McArthur shivers next to me.

Specifically, the receptionist stands in front of him with a beaming smile. Feet together, hands on waist. She looked like a real lady.

If it weren't for those heartless eyes.

And the fact that her skin was split open revealing rows of teeth.

The creature just split open revealing a mass of fleshy tentacles and teeth and then it just jumped towards us with a graceful and quick jump and in just a few seconds it just cut McArthur in half.

I tried to reach into the holster but I couldn't because I was frozen in place from fear.

The creature that was the receptionist slowly twisted and approached me with its sharp teeth, and then it started towards me with just one movement.

The creature approached me with a smile and bit me with its unnaturally long teeth, the last thing I felt was the teeth piercing my stomach.

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(Third Person POV)

The second creature was slowly approaching the first creature, its flesh twisted into more and more bloody shapes until it reached it, then the flesh stopped twisting.

"Mistress, what are your orders?" said the second creature.

At the sound of the question the first creature stopped feasting on the meat and stood up in all its terror.

"Send two shifters to replace these two idiots, no one must know about us, on second thought send another changeling to replace the woman who sent these idiots here" the first creature said with a maniacal smile on his face, and then ripped pieces of meat from both of them police officers and handed them over to another creature.