"Running Away" Written by: ANB

"Alara, Alara where are you?" Tony Dinozzo called out throughout the worn down and abandoned asylum, Alara had been last known to be here, and the team was trying to find her. She was recently apart of the team, did better in field work, and tried every day to keep everyone smiling, whether or not she was really happy. "Alara" Tony called out again as his voice echoed in the dark hallways, he had a flashlight with him, and his team mates were looking around other parts too.

"Alara" Gibbs shouted, Ziva was doing the same thing, and even McGee was there while Abby was doing the computer work, they needed the four of them to block off any exits. Gibbs walked throughout the hallways, he was certain they would find her here, and he started remembering the time when she first joined. Just less than eight months ago…

The director walked down the stairs and up to Gibb's team "After everything miss Grimm has done for us, we decided she can stay, and work with the team on anything you chose, Gibbs" "Sounds good, uh, where did she go?" Gibbs asked looking around, that is until he heard a voice saying "Okay I got the doughnuts and coffee" Alara had gone out to get something for the team knowing she had helped them on this case, just this once, but, they took the bad guy down without killing him this time.

Not killing someone, that was a rare in NCIS…okay not that rare, but, it happened more than you would think really. Alara stopped smiling, she looked confused, which reminded Tony of a little kid, and he started laughing. Gibbs thought she just had left, that she wouldn't return; but, all she did was go get sweets. "Miss Core, you're allowed to stay on the team from now on" the director handed her a badge, but, she couldn't exactly take it

McGee took the coffee, Ziva took the doughnuts, and that made things easier on her to grab the badge. "Wow, cool. Thank you director" the director told her that she was welcome and he walked off to back upstairs knowing it was not his time to be there. Alara hung out with the gang, laughing and talking, and she even got the correct items everyone liked. Alara was smiling then…

Alara was sitting in one of the rooms, hiding as long as she could, and she wasn't sure what was going on, but, she was so tired, and wanted to sleep. "Gotta get up, gotta get up" she mumbled to herself getting out of her hiding spot and yelling help "Heeelp!" however, she knew that was foolish, giving away where she was, she felt a hand behind her, and she dashed off as fast as she could. She hurt so much from being injured, treated as an insane person, and knocked around a lot.

"HELP" she screamed out like any normal person would have in this situation, the only thing was, she wasn't all that normal compared to others, and she had her reasons. Though right now, she couldn't think of anything, anything except for running, surviving, and her team mates. She had bruises and scratches all over, she kept her hand over her left side where she had been barely slashed at by a knife for running, and she was losing a lot of blood since it all began three days ago.

For the past three days she had stayed awake, she refused to sleep, and without her usual clock ticking sound she found comforting to help her sleep, it was easier done. "Alara!" a voice called out, it sounded like Gibbs, but, he was still too far away. His voice was echoing off the halls of the large asylum, that wasn't helpful to her, and she knew someone was coming up behind her as she had stopped.

A hand reached to her shoulder pulling her back, their hand over her mouth, and she had figured it was her attacker. She would have by now flipped them, but, something they whispered to her, made her snap. She was back into action as she turned around hitting them so hard in the stomach about the time that Gibbs and Tony showed up. "Alara" they yelled together to get her attention, she turned around; her eyes were dim, as if they were dull of color.

"Alara, oh good, I'm glad we found you" however, Alara was running on little sleep, low blood, and the thing that her enemy had said. She had to survive, it was the only thing she knew how to do, and right now it was all that mattered. She didn't say a word as she took off running, quite fast for someone in her condition, and even though Gibbs told Tony "I'll get her, you get him" he still couldn't catch up to her. She ran to the roof of the basement of the building and as soon as she entered the room, she freaked.

The whole three days she spent down there was remembered…

She was lying on the hard, marble table, pinned down by metal shackles that she could feel on her wrists and ankles; yet, could not see. Her breathing was normal, she had stayed calm; Alara wasn't one to believe in death, so fearing something she didn't believe in was…well pointless…and she knew that. "What's going on?" she spoke, even though she had a pretty good idea what might happen to her. However, her mind was solely on getting out of the place she was in, she didn't even know where she was.

Her attacker walked over to her, he was old, but, hidden within the shadows, he must have been doing this for awhile if he was fine with it. There was another girl there too, she was trying to scream, but, had tape on her mouth to keep it muffled. "Scream all you want, it just makes it more interesting" the man spoke to the other girl who was screaming, it freaked the other guy out, he had done so many horrible things to her, and yet he wasn't finished.

"Wait! I'm your new victim, leave her alone!" Alara cried out, she was determined to keep this girl as safe as she possibly could, and even to keep her alive. "Oh hehe, you want to get started on you? Alright then, I can work with that, you just got lucky Desirae" Alara's mind clicked when the man spoke to her and the other girl 'Desi?' Alara looked over, dark skin, short dark hair with red mixed in, and somewhat average sized, not small or skinny like herself, nor chubby.

'No, you have got to be kidding me' Alara felt like crying, screaming, and now she had to do something to keep Desirae safe, Desirae was her beset friend growing up, she couldn't just leave her here, or let her die now, even if it meant her life. Alara watched the man walk over to her picking up a blade, this was going to hurt, and she knew it. Somehow she felt as if she couldn't feel it though, sometimes she wondered what things would have been like, if she would have just stayed home. "Let's begin, you have sins, and we'll have to cleanse you of those sins" 'Sins? What's he talking about?' she knew she did bad stuff before, stupid more than bad, but, she wondered what he meant by that "What sin?" she asked not yelling, her spirit was going to flare up soon

"Look at what you did to your family, you don't have them anymore, all over what you did, children are supposed to be a perfect image of their parents. You strayed from that path, don't worry, I'll help you get back on it" the man spoke dragging the blade he had down her left arm, she was going to argue back, however, she felt the pain. She knew what it felt like before, she experimented with depression before, and that is how she became a bad daughter to her family. "Shit" she mumbled cursing at the feeling she couldn't stop.

The man had hit her across her face, causing her face to throb from the pain, and she was hating every moment of this…for hours he tortured her until she stopped cussing, but, she didn't stop because then he would go after Desirae again and she couldn't let that happen. When she almost passed out, the man walked over to Desirae, already starting on her "You fucking bastard, get away from her, she isn't the one who sins, I am, I don't believe in god!" she yelled catching his attention with that last part about her belief.

When he came back over to her, he mumbled something, and then began to torture her. Burning…pain…throbbing…and yet he gave her medicine through a syringe that wouldn't allow her to pass out. Over and over for hours without end, there was only a couple hours she had time to relax when the guy would leave for sleep or food, and he refused to feed them both… "Desi-Chan, I'll get you out of this…" Alara spoke "A-Angie?" "I don't go…yes, it's me" Alara spoke, she had changed her name awhile back after all that had happened and she even though it was all over. No, it wasn't, it wouldn't ever be over, and now she couldn't just leave this world as it was. There was too much to do, too much to care about. "Angie, are you alright?" Desirae asked her, but, she didn't reply back and kept twisting, hurting her wrists…

"D-desi?" she asks in the empty room "Alara, are you alright?" Gibbs asked her from behind, but, she didn't turn around, she fell to her knees screaming out "DESIRAE!" she couldn't remember what happened to her best friend and it hurt her to think her friend was dead, her memory kept flashing back…

"A-angie, I…I am sorry, I can't do this…" Desirae wanted to get back to her mother, but, all the pain was going through she had to do something…Desirae was able to get loose and off the other table, she stumbled over to her friend, Alara, and was able to get her untied "D-desi, go home, my f-friends will be here soon" "I won't leave you Angie" she cried "Desirae if you ever loved your mother at all and if I am your best friend, you will leave, go run, now, I will keep him occupied, just GO!" Alara sat on the table "Please, live, for me" Desirae nodded and took off leaving, the man came back to see both girls were not in the room…however, he left the way Desirae did…she heard a scream…the man grunted…

Somehow, she thought her friend was caught, and she took off to find them…but, she didn't get far, she saw blood on the ground, her friend no where in sight… "DESIRAE!" she screamed out…

"Desirae…" she cried, she had never cried in front of anyone before, no matter who tried to make her cry, even the old man that attacked them both, and she trembled as Gibbs got closer to her as the others came into the room. Something within in her made her want to hate people altogether after everything she had went through. Gibbs put his gun away to his side and walked over to her, carefully, slowly, putting his hands on her shoulders, and kneeling to her level.

She flinched "Come on Alara, it's alright, you're safe" yet she didn't pull away when he said that, though, she knew she would never really be safe from anyone. "Alara, look at me" Gibbs spoke, she didn't look at him, but, she did quickly wrap her arms around him and cried as he held onto her, patting down her messy black hair, smoothing it out as he calmed her.1

(chapter 1, complete)

REVIEW PLEASE!