Dissociative Psyche ✦ J. Riley | ✓ [book 2]

20~ I Was a Different Person

"I can't go back to yesterday because I was a different person then"

~ Lewis Carol, Alice in Wonderland

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After taking a cab to the clinic, Jenna hiked up the two flights of stairs to Dr. Larritate's clinic. It was seven o'clock, just before closing time. Hopefully, he was still here.

"Dr. Larritate?" she peaked through the door, being greeted by an empty waiting room, no receptionist, and flickering light bulbs. Out of the dim room, a voice called out.

"Who is it?" the doctor called.

"It's Jenna, I have some questions," she replied.

"Ah, yes! Come on back to my office, Jenna!" his voice echoed from the back, "Would you mind locking the door behind you? It's a bit of a rough neighbourhood," he said. Jenna thought nothing of it; she flicked the lock on the door and ventured in.

Jake meanwhile jammed down on the gas pedal, swerving in and out of traffic, praying that he'd catch Jenna in time. He should've known the doctor was lying right from the get, his alarm bells should've gone off when the oxycodon came back as medical grade. That slimy doctor knew more then he was letting on.

"There's been an interesting development in the case, Doctor," Jenna wandered down dimly lit hall.

"Oh, really?" Larritate replied.

"Yeah, all of our shooters were doped up on medical grade oxycodon. I was hoping maybe you knew of a list of distributors I could get my hands..." she peaked into his office, surprised to find it empty. She turned around back, hoping to find Larritate coming down around the corner somewhere.

However, as she wandered in, what caught her attention was a stack of files sitting on top of a shredding machine, revved up and ready to go. A file was sitting in the teeth, a good third of it torn off. Inside was an order form for pills and prescription, and one euphemism seemed to stand out the most: 

Semisynthetic Opiods; aka: oxycodon.

"You're shredding prescriptions," that was all the confirmation she needed.

There was suddenly a flicker before her. She looked up at one of the doctor's framed medical degrees, and in the reflection of the glass, she saw Larritate coming up behind her with a scalpel. 

In an immediate reflex, she grabbed the closest thing she could get her hands on -- which happened to be a stapler -- and threw it at him. It bounced off his head and made him tumble, which gave Jenna as large enough gap to jump over him and duck out of the office. He got up and ran after her.

She pushed a pill cart in his path made a mad dash for the door. But she wasn't fast enough. Just as she was about to unlock the door, Larritate came out from behind and took a swing at her. She stumbled back, grabbing onto a clipboard from the reception desk. She fashioned it as a shield, taking careful strides while trying to figure out where the doctor would strike next. 

Jenna raised her arms and brought the clipboard down over his head. She kicked him in the gut, hoping to push him far enough so she could get to the door. But he rose up and took another swing, this time cutting the fabric of her coat. As he raised his arm to take another stab, Jenna grabbed him and pushed him into the reception desk. He knocked her to the side, making her lose her shield in the process. And in that moment of flurry, he brought the scalpel down and stabbed it into her forearm.

At that moment, the door suddenly bursted open, and Jake appeared like a God sent. He took two shots from his gun, and both times nailed the doctor in his chest. The chaos around Jenna suddenly stopped, and she fell down against the desk.