<div style="text-align: justify;">Melinda couldn't even believe she had had the presence of mind to put her basket in front of her body, and the courage to deny herself to Thomas one more time. The young woman's heart was beating so hard in her chest she feared it would jump out if given the chance. <br/><br/>As Thomas' fist slammed into her basket, Melinda suddenly let go of it, ignoring the mildly valuable items inside, and ran. Even as her feet moved swiftly, trying to put as much of a distance as she possibly could between herself and Thomas, Melinda felt like she was lost. The feeling of her impending doom grew with each step, but Melinda didn't stop. She doubted her own ability to make herself stop, and so she kept on going.<br/><br/>Thomas' voice behind Melinda and the nerve wrecking sound of the knife being sharpened on the stone made the girl trip, in the grip of an irrational fear. 'He is going to gut me like a fish', a little voice in her mind stated. The words Thomas was saying didn't do much to put Melinda's mind at ease. Quite the contrary, actually. "Never!", Melinda replied, still running and running.<br/><br/>She had less than half the knowledge of the area that Thomas possessed, and that was her downfall. As she ran blindly, Melinda found the last thing someone in her situation would like to see. The alley she had entered had been fresh closed, probably by the people who lived in it and didn't want pick pockets coming from the harbor to their street through the passage that led to the river.<br/><br/>As she reached the wall, Melinda started praying to every saint, while making pathetic attempts to climb up and escape.</div>