D.N.A: Does Not Assimilate

Swimming harder until she reached the side of the pool, hands were clasped onto the edge and she dragged herself up, and out of the water. Coming out on her hands and knees on the scratchy cement of the pool patio, she rolled over onto her back on the ground and took several deep breaths.

Running came louder.

Closer.

"Shit!" she cursed.

Jumping right back to her feet at the realization that the guards were close at hand, come to recollect the escaped patient, she rung out the water. In the hopes of keeping it from weighing her down. Footsteps came right around the corner, the guards less than a hundred feet away now. Spurred into action as the thought entered her brain, pushing aside any hopes of ringing out the water from her clothes, Niyota immediately started running. Bare feet pounding against the moist green grass of the front lawn, forcing her legs to move faster, she made a direct line to the fence perimeter.

While she lost the majority of the six guards that had made it downstairs to stonewall her escape, too slow to keep up with her, that wasn't the same for all. Only one managed to move fast enough to keep up with her. "Gotcha," he crowed in excitement, bulldozing her to the ground. She yelped in pain as her forehead slammed to the ground, scraping across a rock embedded in the dirt, cutting a deep gash in her temple. Running off the adrenaline, she reacted accordingly, jamming an elbow into her opponent. He fell back cursing and grabbing his face, blood dribbling from his nose. Immediately got right back to her feet, a foot to the chest sending him flying backward, Niyota leaped out of the way of grasping hands again and took off.

As she neared the fence perimeter a couple of minutes later, one step closer to regaining her much-missed freedom, she heard his pounding feet behind her. She kicked up her speed. Fingers closing over the metal wires of the fence, she hissed as a small volt of electricity shot through her, though it wasn't too unbearable. Giving no thought to the fact that she didn't seem to be phased by the electric fence, Niyota pushed those thoughts out and scaled up the side of the fence. Then scrambling up to be perched atop the fence, careful of the barbed wire that covered the top, she looked over her shoulder to see the guard. Less than ten feet, he stood immobile, gaping at her in disbelief. Unable to believe what his eyes saw. Saluting the man, a grin curving up the corner of his mouth at his shock, she jumped.

Landing on the ground fifteen feet below, she rolled down the steep slope on the other side, coming to a stop in the narrow ditch at the bottom. Popping back up to her feet as she stopped moving, brushing off the grass the rolling had collected, she listened to the cursed orders from the other side. Having no doubt that the guard was none too pleased that he'd been bested tonight, by a mere teenager to boot. Boggling all their minds that she had managed to escape the prestigious clinic, when not another soul had ever been able to accomplish such a task. And many had tried. But not a one of them had succeeded, until her.

Dislodging those thoughts before they had the chance to distract her from her goal, which would surely get her caught up, Niyota climbed out of the ditch. Peeking her head up over the top, careful to keep low enough so as not to be noticed by anyone, her gaze scanned from the left, then the right. No one was around. Sighing in relief as she came to this conclusion, Niyota immediately crawled up over the top of the ditch and came to stand on her feet in the middle of the street. Then darting to the other side of the road, she jumped down the slope on the other side, beginning to roll halfway down the steep hill. Popping back to her feet as she reached the bottom of the slope, ass now covered in grass stains and dirt, Niyota raced across the field and into the woods.

Out of sight.

Dredging up the memory of when Detective Gerald had driven her out to the facility when the man had believed she'd calmly accepted her fate. As if. She hadn't calmly accepted nothing, she had merely been waiting for the opportune time when she could escape and have the most chance of success. Her death tonight had been the perfect time. Remembering the direction the man's car had gone, Niyota immediately reversed the direction of her steps, starting towards the NorthEast end of the woods. Skirting around the trees in the dark of night, the moon the only source of light to guide her way, she maneuvered through the woods like an expert. Which she wasn't.

Her legs ached, chest heaving laboriously as a fiery trail burnt down her throat. Grabbing a hold of the bark of a tree as she nearly tripped and fell, a part of her brain urged for her to stop, to take a moment to breathe. Ignoring the voice of that part of her that had always been a little bit of a whiner, Niyota pushed away from the tree after a short pause and forged on. As much as she would've enjoyed taking a break, to give herself the time to breathe and relax for a moment, it was a luxury she couldn't afford. It was too dangerous. The second that these people realized that she had escaped Greenwood grounds, they'd immediately call in Detective Gerald, to appraise him of the situation. Considering she was still the suspect of a breaking and entering case, believed to be trying to steal another's identity, he'd immediately put out an alert. In his estimation she was a danger and needing to capture her before any harm could come to someone, he'd have a search for her. At the soonest opportunity. One that the hospital would gladly assist him in.

To some extent the man was right. She was a danger. Not to people in general, just one specific individual. The face-stealing bitch that had stolen her life, turning a father against his own daughter, unaware of the utter betrayal he'd committed against his child. For her, yes Niyota was a threat. The most dangerous of them all. Deep down she knew that her gut instincts about the girl were right, her mere presence in town was a threat and danger to everyone, especially her father. All the alarm bells had warned her that it was no coincidence that she'd been kidnapped, then her mirror image had taken over her life. Niyota knew that whatever had happened, whoever those ungodly creatures were that had been holding her captive, her doppelganger was a part of it. And if protecting her father and the people that she loved meant getting rid of the danger all of them were blind to, then she'd do it in a heartbeat.

Detective Scott Gerald rode the elevator up to the tenth floor of Greenwood Psychiatric Center, rubbing the thumping at his temples. Popping a couple of the tranquilizers the doctor had prescribed for these headaches, which had grown considerably more frequent of late. Lying his head up against the cool surface of the wall, closing his eyes as he tried to will the pain to go away, he cursed the fates. Or whoever else could be up there. Right now Scott should be at his two- bedroom apartment in town, curled up in bed with his enormous labrador retriever Kylie, catching up on the sleep he'd been missing out on. Was he?

No. Rather than being in bed getting a good night's sleep, he'd been dragged out of bed at nine o'clock at night, on his freaking day off to boot. He growled at the thought. It wasn't often that Captain Morgan gave him a day of, less than usual the last couple of weeks and Scott tried to use that time to his advantage. There would be no telling when the next came. Scott wanted to strangle the life out of the one responsible for dragging him out to the clinic, the last thing on his mind for the day.

Dr. Wenchell.

He was responsible.

Scott had been lounging in bed in his pajamas, beginning to doze off as he watched some action flick on the television, when the phone had rang. In the beginning, he'd been intending to ignore the caller altogether, not wanting to deal with whoever may be on the other end of the call. That wasn't in the cards for him. After about the fifth time of receiving a callback, the caller a bit more determined than he'd been anticipating them to be, Scott had finally answered. "What?" he'd growled.

"We have a situation."

It'd been Ivan Wenchall. One of the various doctors on staff at Greenwood Psychiatric Center, that he'd been doing a lot of business with the last couple of weeks. A month now. His Jane Doe had been hospitalized there a month ago, in order to determine her mental stability, as well as maintain the safety of the Y'Fell family. Though the case had gone cold weeks ago and his captain had pulled him off the case, wanting him to focus his attention on more important matters, he hadn't. Not completely. There was something about her, maybe it was the pain in her face or the ghosts that haunted her eyes, that made it impossible for him to walk away. Scott needed to know that the girl was safe and she could have a normal life of her own again, which wouldn't happen until she'd come to terms with this fantasy.

"I'll be there," he'd promised.

And he was. Now, nearly an hour after he had received the phone call from Dr. Wenchell, he had finally arrived to the clinic fifteen minutes outside of town. All the while trying to figure out what the man needed to talk to him about that was so damned important, that it couldn't have waited until tomorrow. It made no sense. Had the girl made some major breakthrough or something? God, he really hoped so. Scott really hated the tormented expression on her face every time he stared down in her upturned face, which hinted at the trauma she must've suffered. And whatever had happened to her, was bad enough that she had fantasized being some other person, just so she didn't have to face that pain.