When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.
--Helen Keller

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Two years ago, Lisa used to run a mile daily. That routine had come to an abrupt halt after the parking lot incident, but for some reason she'd never taken great notice of it. Not in all that time, not until now, as her lungs burned and her calves throbbed in an effort to stay upright and speeding through the airport.

She hated to admit it, but she was out of shape. With the extra forty or so pounds straddling her back and the intensity with which she'd been sprinting at for the past five minutes, she couldn't keep this up much longer. Lisa's only option was to find a safe haven, somewhere she could hide out and get help before Jackson could catch up to her. It was a given that she'd be punished for her antics, but Lisa was nervous that he'd take out some of his temper on Mel or possibly Tanya, and that was certainly the last thing she wanted. Losing to Jackson, losing again, was not an option.

Mel was crying. Lisa felt trapped; there was no way she could comfort the girl without ceasing her footsteps altogether. Therefore she merely accepted the wails of anguish from the child and the disdainful looks that every single woman in the airport sent her way. Finally, feeling like every single formerly available pocket of air in her body had disappeared, Lisa was forced to stop and slow her pace to a brisk walk.

She was faced with two inflexible choices. Whichever one she chose she would be required to stick with regardless of whether it worked or not. She could find a place to hide and stay there until she was positive that the coast was clear, or seek help from an authority figure in the train station. Of course, neither plan was entirely foolproof. Jackson could find them despite how secure Lisa thought a hiding place to be, or a human source may not believe Lisa's pleas for help and write her off as a crazy woman.

Control-freak that she was, Lisa opted to hide rather than place her trust in a security guard. Basically, the choices were in a restroom (and she had not had positive lavatory experiences in the past) behind a potted plant (and really, how infallible would that be?) or potentially in a janitor's closet, if she could find one quickly enough.

The closet it was, then.

"Mel, please, sweetie," Lisa murmured to the girl, sliding her to an easier—though still not exactly painless—position on her hip. "Calm down. It's going to be alright, okay?"

"S-scared," Mel hiccupped, still sobbing uncontrollably despite Lisa's best efforts to console her (which was no easy feat partnered with continually scanning the station for Jackson).

"I know you're scared, babe," Lisa said, and then, lying, "But there's nothing to be scared of. But you have to be quiet for a minute, okay, so Lisa can think."

Mel rubbed her eyes and nodded miserably. "I miss my mommy."

"I know you do, sweetheart, and I'm sorry. But can you do this for me, for your mommy? Can you be a good girl for a few minutes?"

Mel nodded again and Lisa, finally having visually secured a hiding place, searched the area once more and, finding that it was clear, briskly trotted to a marked door a few meters from where she'd paused. With some stroke of luck, the door was unlocked, and Lisa and Melanie slipped easily inside into a darkened storage room serving the café perpendicular to it.

It was frigidly cold inside the spacious room that Lisa had originally mistaken to be a janitor's closet, and awfully large. That sort of space frightened her with the heightened chance of an intruder, but also intrigued her in that there was more area to hide. As her eyes began to accustom to the darkness, Lisa silently slipped past rows and rows of stacked boxes in pursuit of a worthy hideaway. Letting Mel walk freely, Lisa glided behind a tall line of ominous-looking piled goods and crouched in her newly found hiding place.

Mel whimpered again in the dark, so Lisa pulled the girl closer to her body and squeezed her hand reassuringly. "Melanie, honey," Lisa whispered in her ear, feeling the petrified child trembling in her embrace, "Do you want to play a game?"

Mel sniffled and nodded.

"Okay, here's how you play," Lisa said quietly. "It's called 'Giraffe.' When I say 'Giraffe', the winner is the person who can stay quiet the longest. It's very easy. If you win, you get a prize."

Mel cocked her head at Lisa, curiosity piqued and fear mostly forgotten. "What prize?"

"I don't know," Lisa said. "What would you like?"

"Ice cream."

Lisa smiled, despite knowing that Melanie wouldn't see it, and despite the terror that was currently wracking her body. "Ice cream it is, then. Okay, ready?" Mel nodded again. "One, two, three, giraffe."

The only sounds after that were Mel's uneven, congested breathing and Lisa's anxious inhalations. The silence lasted for what Lisa felt to be about ten minutes, the only disturbance being when a small spider crawled onto Mel's ankle and Lisa had to attempt to brush it away without knocking anything over. Despite that, no words were exchanged and the game continued.

Lisa was beginning to think the coast was clear when suddenly a crack of light spilled into the room, casting an eerie glow over the packages. She pulled Mel closer, hoping beyond hope that it was merely a stock boy. Apparently Mel knew what she needed to do, and it seemed that even her breathing quieted in the tension. Lisa tilted her head a fraction of an inch to the side, and peered out into the room from a gap between two boxes.

The labored breathing and the noise of dress shoes tapping on the linoleum confirmed Lisa's worst fears, and so she covered Mel's eyes with her hand before stealing another look between the boxes. She clapped her other hand over her mouth to hold back a cry of anguish as Jackson slid stealthily about the room, his eyes as alert as a hawk's.

Lisa found herself praying despite her agnostic upbringing. Please, please, God or whoever you are, she said silently, squeezing her eyes shut, Don't let Jackson find us. Please.

Lisa looked down just in time to see another spider, this time larger, inching its way towards Melanie's leg. She didn't dare move her hand to swat it away for fear of attracting Jackson's attention, and just watched as it climbed up her ankle and ascended her leg. Lisa felt Mel's entire body tense and squeezed the girl tighter, silently urging her not to cry out. Giraffe giraffe giraffe…

There was the sound of Jackson's footsteps changing direction, heading back towards the door. Lisa peered from the crack and did see him opening the door. She relaxed slightly when she heard it slam shut and the footsteps ceased and took a breath. Mel wrenched herself from Lisa's gasp and whined loudly, brushing the spider from her calf. Before Lisa could react, boxes were raining down around her and Mel and she leapt to her feet as goods scattered to the floor around her.

There wasn't even time to contemplate the situation or what had brought it about before she was being lifted by her collar and slammed against the wall behind her. Mel screamed and ducked away from the scene as Lisa battled for air.

"Think you're pretty fuckin' smart, do you, Leese?" Jackson hissed into her face, squeezing her throat more tightly. "Think it's intelligent to try and run away from me when I have tabs on your cousin's life?"

"Go….die…" Lisa managed, thrashing her head in an attempt to release herself. Her vision was already dimming, but she desperately searched the room for Mel. Where had she gone?

"I could kill you, Lisa, and not think twice," Jackson threatened in a low growl. "Just give me one reason, one reason not to."

Mel…get help… Lisa felt herself drifting away into what could be a permanent state of unconsciousness, and just as her last hopes for survival disappeared, Jackson released her and she fell brusquely to the floor, landing in a heap. Weakened, she attempted to pick herself back up but saw stars and collapsed again. "Mel…"

There was a muffled noise from near the door, and try as Lisa might to open her eyes and see what had caused the commotion, every effort was in vain as her eyelids throbbed and her damaged body flopped to the floor again. When a tiny, frightened cry penetrated the air, Lisa moaned, desperate to rise, but unable to.

Everything went silent a moment later, and nothing moved spare the thick tears sliding down Lisa's face. She opened her eyes briefly to see Jackson's shoes tapping back across the floor, returning to her, and squeezed her eyes shut in tense anticipation of what was to come. A swift kick connected with her abdomen and the pain was so intense, so excruciating that Lisa couldn't do anything, not even scream. She curled into a ball and tried to catch her breath before another blow, but none came.

Instead, Jackson's cool, infuriated voice pierced her ears when he demanded, "Get up, Leese."

"I…can't…"

"Get up." His tone of voice implied that there was no alternative.

Lisa forced her eyes open, trembling as she attempted to press a flimsy hand to the cold linoleum. She slowly pulled herself to a sitting position before she began to feel herself drifting away again, and as she swayed Jackson emitted a grunt of impatience and grabbed her arm, forcing her to her feet. He shoved her against the wall and she clung to it dizzily, attempting to regain focus and find Melanie.

She watched, transfixed, as Jackson callously scooped Mel's unconscious body from the floor and into his arms, tossing her easily over his shoulder. It seemed so innocent, Mel's body slumped against Jackson's, so unsuspicious, that if Lisa's better judgment hadn't been screaming against it, she would merely have thought the girl was asleep. But she knew different, and she whimpered.

"Jesus Christ, Lisa, she's just sedated," Jackson grunted angrily. "Get over it. Now come on, and if you so much as look at me wrong your cousin is dead."

Grateful that Melanie was not dead, Lisa stumbled to follow Jackson. He grabbed her arm and dragged her effortlessly from the room, making sure that they weren't spotted. Lisa sighed desolately as she realized that in her struggle to escape, she'd succeeded only in leading Jackson to their platform. It was a mere twelve feet from the closet, and they boarded the train less than five minutes after leaving the storage area. Observing Jackson's commands and threats, Lisa stayed close and silent, trying not to cry.

She sat between Melanie and Jackson in a three-seat row, but turned away from Jackson to look out the window as the train began to move. It would have been a momentous moment if the circumstances were different; Lisa had never been on a train before. She began to cry again as the conductor's announcements rolled smoothly over the speakers.

"…hope you enjoyed lovely Jackson, Mississippi. Please sit back and relax on what I anticipate to be a smooth trip to Jackson, Michigan."

Lisa groaned. "You have got to be kidding me."