D.N.A: Does Not Assimilate

Home.

That was the only thought on her mind as she ran deeper and deeper into the trees. The overwhelming desire to get home, to race into the loving arms of her father. For only then would everything be okay. Once those loving arms came around her, Niyota knew that she would be safe and this would become nothing more than a bad memory. And like all bad things, in time it would fade.

Finally reaching their house on West Adams Street, an old colonial house she had loved at first sight, Niyota began to run towards it. But suddenly she stopped, feeling the weight in her hands, she looked down to find fingers still clutching around the handle of the weapon. A metallic knife with strange etchings on it, fueled by a light that couldn't be possible. Needing to put it away for safekeeping, too scared of what its existence could mean, Niyota carefully hid it underneath the porch. Where she alone would know where to look for it.

Should she need it.

Using the hide-a-key underneath the mat to unlock the front door—having misplaced her own key somewhere—the door slowly came open. Replacing the spare key back underneath the flower pot, should the need for it crop up again, the door was pushed open and she raced inside. “Daddy? Maggie? Is anyone home?”

Silence met her.

Fear took hold of her. “Daddy?” she said louder.

“Niyota,” the rich baritone of her father's voice came.

Sighing in relief at the sound of her father's voice coming from inside of the house, she raced across the floor as he appeared in the doorway. Niyota immediately flung herself into his arms, throwing her own around him, clutching onto him for dear life.

“Thank god you're here,” she breathed into his chest, holding on tight. Luxuriating in the feel of being in his arms again, as she'd never thought to do. “I'd never thought to see you again.”

“Sweetheart, you're shaking,” Charles noted in concern, his arms instinctively wrapping themselves around her, in the hopes of soothing her apparent fear. “Talk to me, Niy. Did something happen?”

“It's a long story,” she whispered.

A very long story she was soon to realize.

Allowing the silence of the house to envelope them, arms growing tighter around her father, she luxuriated in the feeling of his warm embrace. A bittersweet pleasure that Niyota had never thought to experience again when she’d woken up in that deep cavern, held captive by monstrous creatures. Shuddering in horror as the scattered memories washed over her then, Niyota quickly banished the memory before it could take root. None of that mattered now. She was home and in her father's arms and nothing could hurt her.

She was wrong.

“Charles,” a soft voice came from the direction of the doorway right at that moment, interrupting the solitude of the private father/daughter moment. “What's going on?”

“Something's happened to Niyota.”

“No there hasn't,” another said. “I'm fine.”

Niyota instantly froze in the embrace of her father's strong arms as she recognized the voice that had denied his claims. Her voice. Running on autopilot, she slowly released the tight hold she had on her father and turned around to face the one who had spoken with that voice. A voice that didn't belong to them.

Niyota couldn't believe her eyes when she did. Stumbling back at the sight that met her, her jaw dropped open and her eyes widened to the size of saucers, shocked to the very core of her being.

Directly across the living room, standing just inside of the front door, a girl had stepped into the house. Standing at a height of five nine, a thin, willow reed frame that could stand to use a few extra pounds. The mini skirt and halter top only further emphasized an hourglass figure. Hair that had a bluish tint to the black framed a heart shaped face and deep turquoise eyes shined from a tanned complexion.

“What the fuck!”

The girl.

It was her.

Staring at the girl who'd entered the house, a doppelgänger she'd never imagined possible. Niyota found herself tumbling into the past, reliving the moments that led to this point in her life.

***

Hi, I'm Niyota Y'Fell.

I was once normal.

I was once ordinary.

I once had a regular life.

Once I was just like you.

That all changed one night as I made my way back home, only to be abducted by the strange green light streaking across the sky of my small town. A life altering experience for me. And upon escaping captivity at the hands of the most hideous creatures on the face of this planet—or beyond—it was to find out that someone had taken over my life and no one believed my story. My only hope now is to go on the run, and become a fugitive from the law and find a way to expose the truth to the world.

Before it's too late.

It happened on the walk home.

Niyota Y'Fell, a fifteen-year-old girl with blue-black hair that came to delicate shoulders and turquoise eyes shined from a tanned face. She sat on the bleachers at La Monte High School's football field. American History textbook laid out open on her lap, she tried to pay attention to the words on the page rather than what was going on in the field. Hard to do with all the commotion down below, the screaming and grunting and pounding, football uniformed bodies repeatedly slammed into one another.

“Hi, Niy.”

Laying an arm across her lap, right over the history book she hopelessly tried to concentrate on, Niyota glanced up at the warm greeting. A bright smile spread across her face as she saw the other girl come down the bleacher steps, moving right in her direction. “Hey, Steff. What are you doing here? I thought you were busy.”

Steffanie Barklo was a raving beauty with fiery red hair that fell down in waves and eyes the color of jade. As beautiful as she was, she'd never used it to her advantage as some girls did, only becoming a cheerleader because her mother wished her to.

Janet Armstrong Barklo had been on the cheer squad when she'd been in high school too. Fabulously rich and popular, Steff had a sweet and generous nature. Traits of her warm loving father no doubt, kind to everyone she met. Even those construed to be beneath her.

Niyota and her father Charles had recently moved to Shadow Valley—her parent's hometown—ten years ago when they’d first met. Sitting in the sandbox at the town park, barely five years old at the time, she had looked up at as a shadow fell over her and there had been Steffanie.

Smiling down at her, offering Niyota to play with the Barbie dolls that she'd brought along to the park to play with. There had been an instant connection between them then, a bond that developed in one glance, one that hadn't wavered over the years. They'd been friend's ever since.

“Move on over,” Steffanie ordered her gently, then sitting down on the bleachers as the book bag was removed. She leaned back on the bench and legs crossed lady-like. “The same could be said about you,” she immediately countered her demand. “And where is Lance this fine night?”

“Right here,” his thick Latin accent spoke up from off to the side, a teenage boy climbing up over the railing and plopped down on Niyota's other side. “Trying to find out why my friend stood me up, to soil herself with the enemy?”

“To escape social suicide,” Steffanie shot back heatedly.

Okay, Niyota mentally amended her previous thoughts on her. Steffanie was nice to almost everyone she met. Lance Atkins seemed to be the one exception to that golden rule.

Niyota had never understood their instant distaste for one another, that baffled the minds of everyone who knew them. She had thought for sure that her two best buds would get along famously when they met, having a friendship with her in common. Nope. Didn't even come close. From their very first meeting, almost seven years ago now, these two absolutely, positively hated each other on the spot and bickered constantly. About everything.

“Ha! Very funny,” Lance drawled sarcastically with a dramatic roll of his eyes, sending a sideways glance to Niyota beside him. As if to ask her seriously. “You know Niy, I wouldn't get too close to her. I swear the shrew is part python. She might bite you.”

Steffanie hissed like a snake.

“See?” he explained. “She's.....poisonous.”

“I'll show you poisonous,” she warned him.

Shaking her head dejectedly, trying to hold in the laughter that arose as the two of them bickered amongst themselves. Niyota jerked them back onto the bleacher, to keep them from fighting. “You two need to stop. We are fifteen now and you’re almost seventeen,” she directed the last at Lance, he was nearly two years older than the two girls. “Not nine. So start acting like it.”

Lance gave her an expression of mock horror, clapping a hand over his heart. As if her words had wounded him somehow. “How dare you? Speaking such filth on my age.” He sniffled dramatically. “You're never too old to be a child again.”

Niyota rolled her eyes at the man’s antics, working in the hold in the laughter. The man was forever the drama queen.

“And that is why you are still single,” Steffanie retorted scornfully, tilting her chin up in a dignified angel. A haughtiness to her rarely ever exhibited by her, save for when it came to him. “Women like me want a man, not some boy child.”

He arched a brow sarcastically. “Let me let you in on a little secret, honeycakes,” Lance murmured, leaning across Niyota's lap and whispering in her ear. “You are not my type, prom queen. I like to be kissed, not venomized to death.”

“Oohh,” she growled in anger.

He mimicked her expression.

Again Niyota was forced to fight against the hysterical laughter quickly surfacing as she sat there, listening to them go at it. Him. Lance was just too cute by half sometimes. As he had said you never never too old to be a child and he proved this fact quite frequently. Daily even.

To the constant horror and embarrassment of his parents. Lance was an eternal child at heart, which was one of the many things that had first drawn Niyota to him. His perpetual playfulness perfectly balanced out her sometimes too serious outlook on the world and life.

They were two peas in a pod.

Like yen and yang.

“Cut it out you two,” Niyota once again stepped in between them, before the bickering match could escalate any further than it already had. She didn't want to have to deal with the consequences should either of them be allowed to take it further. Sighing in relief when the both of them sat down, letting her know that their perpetual battle was over. “Thank you. And to answer your question, I did not blow you off for Steff. Dad called to let me know I was to have dinner at home, since he's going out of town and will be gone for two weeks.”

“Oh.”

Niyota winced as the quarterback raced to make the touchdown for his team, only to be slammed into and thrown by the linebacker of the opposing side. “Damn, it's only a practice game.” He'd be hurting tomorrow. She’d never understood the boys penchant for enjoying being knocked and slammed around. It baffled her mind. “Since I couldn't go to your house as planned, I decided to come watch Mark before going home.”

“He is her boyfriend,” Steff defended.

He made an obscene hand gesture. “For the moment anyways. Until Mark screws up again and he will eventually, and Niyota sees him for the callous jerk that he is.”

Placing a gentle hand on his leg, Niyota patted his knee. “Come on, Lance. Don't be like that. I know that you don't like the guy, but as Steff said he is my boyfriend and I do care about him. Try to be nice.”

He grunted noncommittally.

Coach Patterson blew loudly on the whistle as the next touchdown was scored, finally, giving a hand signal to the team players. Letting them know that they had a ten minute break, to get a cold drink and catch their breaths before practice resumed. It’d be a late practice tonight. Most likely in the hopes of getting them ready for the game with the Frankfort Panthers next Friday, their arch-rivals.

“Hey, babe,” a player called.

Putting aside the book to spy Mark standing at the railing of the bleachers, she climbed back to her feet and hopped down the benches. Smiling as he removed his helmet then, sweat-soaked brown hair fell down into his face, Niyota approached him. “Hey, yourself. Coach seems to pushing y'all.”

“As he should,” Mark immediately came to the defense of the man, hunter green eyes darkening on her in thought. “If we get our asses in gear and minds focused, we have a good shot at beating the Panthers.”

She snickered, “Spoken like a football player.”

Stepping up on top of the bench, bringing them to the same level, arms came around a tiny waist. “I'm glad you decided to come. I wasn't certain if you would or not.”

“I can't stay long.” Tiny shivers went down her spine as his hot breath fanned the side of her face, long fingers toying with her waist. “My dad has to go out of town for a couple of weeks, so we're having dinner together.”

“At least you came,” he said.

Then leaning forward on his side of the railing, showing little concern for the people that were watching them, his lips touched hers. Sighing in pleasure at the feel of his mouth on hers, her arms instinctively going around his neck, Niyota opened up to his invasion.

Coach blew the whistle.

Pulling back before either of them could deepen the contact between them, having no time for that stuff, Mark laid his head on her forehead. “I have to go.”

“Me too,” she seconded.

“How about I pick you up tomorrow?” Mark asked, prolonging the contact a little farther. “It's been awhile since we've gone out. Just the two of us. We could go out to the movies and have dinner at that nice Italian restaurant that you like so much.”

“Seven,” she agreed. “Don't be late.”

“I won't,” he promised.

Giving her one more kiss, he hopped off of the bench and yanking his helmet back on, Mark jogged back across the football field. Arms braced atop the cool railing, watching him as he reached up to catch up with his teammates, Niyota had to admit that he was right. It had been awhile since they had gone out on a regular date, with only the two of them. Months in fact.

Not since before the beginning of the new school year, three months ago. Mark had been exceptionally focused on the football season this year, spending a lot of his spare time practicing. Though she understood his need to snag a football scholarship, already in his junior year of high school, that left hardly any time for her. Niyota really hadn't been any better than him, working doubly hard on her studies to improve her grades—not that she wasn't already an A student—and horse competitions coming up.

But even as she tried to explain away their preoccupation over the last couple of months, she was aware that wasn't the reason for the distance between them. No, that had started earlier. A month before school ever began. In July Niyota had come back home in high spirits, having spent three weeks in Hawaii with her dad at her Uncle Kyle's hotel resort. She’d gone over to Mark's almost immediately after her arrival, wanting to surprise him with a visit, only to find him making out with Jennie Summers.

That’d been an eye-opener for her, in a huge way. Niyota had immediately broken up with him and hadn't talked to him for the rest of the summer. Only Lance and Steff had been let in on what had happened.

People assumed that Mark would shake it off and jump back into the dating ring, so it'd come as a shock when he didn't. He’d been just as miserable and inconsolable as she'd been, proving he really did care about her. Two months ago Niyota had finally agreed to give him another chance and took him back, to see how it went.

So far good.

Hopefully it lasted.

Finally dragging her gaze away from him long enough to check the time on her cell phone, she cursed under her breath. 7:15. She was late.

Immediately spurred into action at the thought, spinning around, Niyota raced back up the bleacher benches. “I gotta go,” she explained as she gathered up her stuff. “Dad is gonna kill me.”

“He loves you too much,” Lance denied.

“Thanks, Lance.” She kissed his cheek. “I love you, too.”

“Of course,” he said matter-of-factly.

Stuffing all of her books back into the book bag and zipping it up, she gave them both a big hug. Then swinging the strap of her book bag up onto her shoulder, she jumped down the seats and raced down the runway.

Avoiding colliding with some of the other players ' girlfriends, all having to come out to watch their guy in action. Unlike her, they'd stay till the end of practice. Niyota didn't have a choice. When her father wanted her home, that was the end of the discussion. And there would be hell to pay if she thought to defy him.

She never did.

Looping her arm through the other strap as she stepped out of the gates around the field, it swung closed, she raced across the parking lot. A few minutes later she raced down a steep hill, jumped over a ditch, and nearly tripping over a branch on the ground in the process. Hurriedly recollecting herself from the almost fall, Niyota raced across the street and straight into the woods on the other side.

Cutting straight through the local woods to get to her house on the other side, that’d save her a good ten minutes on time. As she charged through the local woods, maneuvering around the trees and ditches and fallen branches, Niyota prayed she wasn't too late. Her father was sure to completely lose it if she was.

Charles Y'Fell was a great man, a damn good father too, but he tended to be a tad bit overbearing and too protective of her at times. Niyota couldn't fault him for that. With her mother gone and his brother living on the opposite side of the world, Niyota was all he had left.

Coming out to stand on a steep hill beyond the woods, almost able to overlook the entire town from where she stood. Only two blocks left to go. Relieved that she wouldn't be nearly as late she'd thought she'd be, Niyota froze as she saw something.

Just off in the distance, dead center of the twin mountain peaks, a strange light glowed in the sky. A luminescent green that almost rippled as it reflected on the snow, an electrical wave of color danced on the horizon.

Immediately Niyota dredged up a memory of when she was five, when her mother had still been alive and her family happy. They'd been living up in Colorado at the time, when on a whim they had loaded up into the car, mama wanting to show her the Aurora lights. It had been the most beautiful thing Niyota had ever seen before or since, that nothing could ever compare to.

This was nothing like that.

This was.....unnatural.

Spooked, something about those lights on the horizon was all wrong, Niyota started to edge down the hill. Suddenly the dancing lights became one straight beam, that shot across the sky and centered on her. Gasping as the cold seeped all the way to her bones, her body went slack and the book bag fell off of her shoulders. Niyota wanted nothing more than to scream out for help and run to the safety of her home, but could do neither. She was frozen where she stood, immobile, as if made from stone.

Growing dizzy and lightheaded as the light grew brighter around her, Niyota moaned out in agony and fell forward. She never made an impact with the ground. As the world began to dim and fade around her, she watched as she was carried over the town, rising higher and higher into the sky, abducted by the strange green light.

Niyota Y'Fell would never be the same.