Do it! Do it know, Lisa! Her mind was screaming at her. Taunting her to not be such a coward. She knew she had very little time to do it. Would it even work? Was she strong enough? At least it would take him by surprise. He thought he was in complete control now and maybe he thought right. Lisa wasn´t sure. One part of her knew that she couldn´t live with herself if Keefe and his family died without her trying to stop it. And one part of her just kept thinking, forget them, think of yourself, think of your father. And for gods sake she had tried! And nearly gotten choked because of it. Was that customer service or what! She smiled at her own joke. Smiling when her father and the Keefe´s lives was at stake. Youre losing it, Lisa!
She glanced over at Jackson. He just stared straight ahead, stonefaced. No emotion was to be read in his eyes. He was truly a monster. A heartless, emotionless monster! Or was he really? Was it just a mask? Maybe he needed to have that mask on just to get by every day. Just as she needed to have her "my life is perfect, don´t worry about me" mask to function day by day. When you showed your real emotions people only got uncomfortable.It made her uncomfortable too.
The plane started to decend towards the ground and her time frame to do what was needed was minute by minute shrinking. She would do it. She just needed the right motivation and the pen! She leaned forward in her seat. Moaning loudly so she was sure she got his attention
The pen? Check. She held it tightly in her hand. The blue, soft Frankenstein pen she had stolen. At least it had a sharp point just like all other pens. Hopefully sharp enough to do some damage. The motivation? She was coming up short on that area. He was a monster. He tried to kill her. He was going to kill the Keefe´s. He was threatening to kill her father. Ok, maybe motivation wasn´t really what she was searching for. Courage and something to distract him with. One thing kept popping in to her thoughts over and over again. The only thing that had seemed to give some human reaction from him. Think of that "day"! That horrible day that had dictated how the rest of her life had been now for over two years. All those emotions she was trying to keep bottled up. Anger was one of them. Keep anger and leave all the rest behind, she told herself. Don´t touch the rest.
She sat back up.Trying to take some deep calming breaths without Jackson noticing it. She stared out of the tiny round window. You could see the sunrise. It was something beautiful that she didn´t think fit with her dark, gloomy thoughts. It should be raining.
"It happened two years ago" Her voice sounded eerily loud in the tiny space between them. She quickly glanced back at Jackson. He was staring intently at her now. But his eyes also showed something else. Confusion, concern? She couldn´t really decide.The scene in the bathroom flashed before her eyes.
His thumb was stroking the scar just above her breast. Gently, which was a big contrast to the hand that was around her throat.
"Did someone do this to you?"
His voice sounded odd. She could hear some emotion in it. He sounded like he was trying to control his anger. At the same time he also sounded sad. But maybe she was just imagining things because of the recent lack of oxygen. She stared into his face that was now only inches away from hers. His eyes were searching for the answer, staring right through her. Like he thought that he could force the words from her mouth by sheer willpower. She didn´t want to think about the scar, didn´t want to think of that "someone". She knew what happened when she did. And Jackson´s fingers stroking the scar didn´t do much to better the situation. She didn´t like touching, closeness or the panicky feeling that always followed those two.
"Is that what it is?"
More of that concern. It feelt sincere, but he was probably just toying with her again. He seemed to like that. But God how she wished that he was just being concerned. Then he had at least some humanity in him. Did he expect an honest answer? Then he was truly crazy. She never told anyone, except for her parents. Someone had had to help her when she had been unable to leave her house for two months. But they were the only ones that knew. Jackson just continued staring at her, is hand pressuring a little bit harder around her throath.
"N...No" she choked out while shaking her head. And that´s when he got angry.
He had seemed to care then. But she was desperately trying to convince herself that it was nothing, why did he want to know? Just another mind game. He had watched her for 8 weeks. Was it possible he already knew? She felt her thoughts jumping from one side to the other. She felt soo confused. He had really twisted her mind around. She had to get back on track, to what she was supposed to do.
"In a parking lot. In the middle of the day." She felt herself shudder when she spoke those words. She had been so stupid that day.
She looked at Jackson again. Those piercing clear blue eyes were transfixed on her. At least she had his complete attention now.