4:56PM Thursday, I'm typing as fast as I can, keen to get this last case closed before the end of the day, keys clicking under my fingers as I hammer out the final sentence, carry out a quick double check then file away.

Case finished with one minute to spare. I begin to log off and get ready to leave, my co-workers around me also begin to pack away as 5pm arrives. 

"See you tomorrow" I tell them as I begin to power walk towards the door. 

"Wait, John." I cringe internally as I hear Jackie's voice but I don't want to be rude or act strange so I casually turn around to face her.

"You're not coming for drinks then?" She asked.

I'd been deliberately avoiding giving a firm answer on whether or not I was joining them for Emily's birthday drinks, as I was not sure how things were going to go, it was not until lunch today I realized I could not put it off any longer.

"Ah no sorry something came up, have fun, oh and happy birthday!" I say to Emily and leave, hopefully not too fast to make them concerned or arouse suspicion, I then powerwalk home, truth is I'm not really John, he's dead. Not that I killed him or anything. He just got very sick one day one never really got better, I slipped into his life just after he passed and as far as the world knows he got better and got on with his life. "Blending" we call it, taking on the appearance of a human and living among them. We can't make original disguise unfortunately we can only swap in with someone else, we just had to be in the right place at the right time for us to move in. Dead men's shoes and all that.

5:12PM I'm at John's driveway, despite the hurry I'm in I see Richard, the neighbour struggling to lift a large box out of his car, he was a very elderly man, with bad knees and a worse back. I can't just leave him to struggle so I go to help. After I help him carry it inside I wipe my brow and notice yellow sweat on my hand, I quickly wipe it on my pants and prey his eyesight is as bad as I suspected it to be.

He offered me coffee and as politely as I could I declined and retreated to the safety of John's house, once inside I lock the door and go about making sure all the blinds where closed, in my haste I almost tripped over the large bag of clay in my kitchen. 

Blending was easy enough for the most part, but every thirty days or so the disguise began to wear off, once I was sure no one could see me from the outside I began to undress. I'd really put this off for too long patches of my skin had begun to turn yellow and becoming damp and mushy, already falling off in places.

I moved to the bathroom, in the centre I'd left a large plastic tub to dispose of my disguise into. Before that I gently remove the green coloured contact lenses, pure black eyes stare at me from the mirror, underneath John's stolen face. I cover up the mirror, I can't bear to look at my true self anymore, I look at the yellow, diseased looking skin on my arm, it was almost falling off on it's own. I dig my fingernails into my forearm and begin to pull it off, chunks of it peel away leaving behind a yellow, goo like substance, it smells like rotten vegetables, I'd not noticed it for years but recently I've come to realize just how gross this all is. 

John's decomposing skin goes into the tub, I striped my arms, my legs, my torso, then finally my face, digging my fingernails under my chin I pull it up over my head, it takes a few tugs before it finally comes off. Turned inside out from the process I let it fall into the plastic tub on top of the rest and get inside the shower. It takes a while to scrub my true body clean, removing the last off the fake skin and the yellow goo it's left behind.

6:50PM I'm finally clean, I covered my body with a dressing gown, trying to not look too much at my true skin, paper white, with dark purple veins just about visible underneath the skin. The worst part of it was my face, I can't stand to look at it anymore it creeps me out, I've had nightmares about it. The downside of blending is after a while you start to see yourself how the humans see you. Something alien, disturbing and unnatural, a monster masquerading as a real person. Stripping my disguise is the forced reminder that I should not be here, and I'm only tolerated as long as I can convince everyone around me I am really John.

8:00PM I'm on the computer, the one thing that's really mine, that I had before taking over John's life is my online presence, social media, Discord, YouTube and other websites under the same alias, I got friends all over the world I did not even have to lie to get. It's the one place I can truly be myself and not roleplay as John, I browse some videos and talk to some of my friends, we're all big Sci-fi fan and occasionally meet up for online gaming. Pale fingers typing away I enjoy the escapism before I have to turn in, I needed to be up early the next day.

5:00AM Friday, I wake up, ready to become John once again, part of the process is I had to spend at least one night as my true self before I can change again, I don't know why, supernatural creatures, we all have our quirks and strange rules to follow. At least I could go out in sunlight.

To change back into John again I use the clay in my kitchen, mixing it with water and the most important ingredient, John himself. Under the floorboards I keep a box of his bones, smashed up and grinded into powder I sprinkle some of it into the mixer. Once ready I begin to spread it over my body, the mixture soon becomes the consistency of real skin, matching John's skin tone, hair grows over his body and face, freckles, scares and his other physical characteristics form.

Once finished all I need is the contact lenses, a disguise so complete even John's own mother can’t tell the difference.

6:00AM I leave the house, I walk for over an hour before throwing away the remains of my old disguise in a dumpster, hopefully far enough from my home, but it's too risky to keep around, it starts to smell quickly.

If there's one thing I can't afford it's suspicion, I think I'm safe from the authorities but wannabe monster hunters are everywhere and it only takes on the right place at the right time to blow my cover. Before I started blending I had a friend, someone like me who had been successfully blending for years. One day, they were gone, and a photo on the dark web had appeared, it was her body, their disguise half on, half peeled off, laying in a shallow ditch with gunshot wounds on her torso. Someone had found her, and they'd killed her.

It was a risky lifestyle but I'm not just doing it for my own benefit, John was a nice guy, he had friends and family that would deeply miss him if they knew he had died. His mother in particular would be devastated if she knew her only child had died.

I hoped some people would understand that, maybe if a human found out what I really was they'd be willing to look the other way, I'm just trying to live life for the both of us, I have no idea if this is what John would have really wanted but since he's dead, and I can't ask him I'll just have to do my best.

9:00AM, Friday I'm back in the office, once again playing the role of John, I log on and my fingers begin to type.

Entry for current Writers Jam, honestly don't think it's my best work I was very busy over the weekend and only really had a couple hours today too really work on it so here we are. I wanted to do a story based on a changeling trying to live as a normal human, with the facade prompt, I think this might be my first attempt at a 1st person narrative, not really a lot of stake in this one I realize, just a narrative of the character doing his disguise change and explaining how he feels, maybe I'll pick this up some time later and try a proper narrative where he's got to try and evade some monster hunters or whatever.

Still I'm glad I did get something in, I really like doing these short story's based on prompts, good luck to everyone else who's entering!