The night was still young when a woman was brought into the hospital. She was ushered in with a gurney carried by the EMTs, then hurriedly received by the hospital emergency staff.

She was unconscious, her body was battered, her clothes were smeared with brownish color of dirt and blood. There were traces of tears mixed with dirt on her cheeks. She looked pale and lifeless.

Doctors and nurses were busy in reviving her body. There were shouted instructions, and more procedural were done down at the emergency room, before she was hauled  up to a recovery room.

"Has the husband brought in for questioning?"

"God. Are you sure this is domestic abuse? She looked so young."

"You know we got this cases several times a  year, and the cops are putting them on the back burner after all their homicide cases...we should do our best with the evidence."

"These women, I don't get why they waited so long, why they stick around..."

The nurses were whispering, talking after they got back assisting the doctors at the emergency room. They were bagging and labeling all of her belongings, tagging them to her possession. Another was scribbling her status on her already thick hospital files.

She was indeed a regular at that exact hospital, she had been seen by many doctors and advised by several counselors. But all couldn't do anything further as she had refuse and deny all suggestions after all of those emergency visits.  

She was only twenty three, she had married her abusive husband right out of college. And the worst part was that she had been abuse even before the marriage. But she was in love him, as also her husband who would confess to her after every time he ridicule and beat her up.  These instances would happen once and maybe two times every couple months.

But in the past year, she had been coming to the hospital more frequent. And one of the doctor had been checking with other surrounding hospital. That same doctor found out that she had visited different hospitals within months, sometimes just weeks apart.

The doctor would inform her findings to her counselor. Once a police officer was brought into the meeting for assurance, but then she sobbed and trembled and they had to put her under sedation.

She was a broken woman, like many other women in an abusive marriages. But it all changed when one day she decides that she had enough. That day her husband came back home drunk, and beat her up so bad that she took a gun which she has been hiding for months but didn't have the courage to use it.

That was the night she finally pull the trigger, and put a bullet to his brain. Moments later she left the house, then she walk herself bruised and battered until she couldn't take it anymore and fainted on the sidewalk.

She didn't recollect her memory, until the next day when she finally wake up conscious at the clean hospital bed.

"Hey, you're up. Let me get the doctor for you." An older woman in a nurse uniform said softly at her.

She was looking around her room, her brain was busy remembering how she gets there. Up until she remembered about the night she shoot her abusive husband in the head, when he was passed out drunk on their marital bed.

"Good day... Jane, I'm Dr. Rebecca Nelson." The young intern doctor was flipping her chart. Knowing that her patient, was the abused Jane Doe that she has been keeping eye on for the last couple of months.

"How are you feeling today?" she asked kindly, while taking her vitals. The young doctor looked at her, knowing that it was her worst injury ever and that was making her worry.

"Good...I think I'm good... to get back home today." The still pale looking woman answered, with her croaked voice.

"Jane, we've actually met less than a month ago. I know a great shelter place...."

"No..." she said, after sipping the water which the nurse on her side offered earlier.

"I'm good, I just need my clothes and shoes..."

"Well, it's currently in our deposit counter, but nurse Murphy here will get some clean clothes that you can wear. But I still need to observe you for another day. Jane, please reconsider my offer?" the nice doctor patted her hand, trying to reassure her to take her advise.

"I'll think about it."

It wasn't the answer that she was waiting for, but she was still glad that Jane didn't say no. She will have another go in persuading her tomorrow. Maybe even get another police officer, perhaps a woman this time.

But the next day she was gone from the hospital, after she could finally make herself stand up and tried walking around in her room. That early morning she left the hospital before the nurses do their morning rounds. She was cold, but kept on walking and pushing through the cold morning air until she arrived at the nearest bus station.

Finally.

She sighed and quickly walked into the terminal. People would look to her battered face but were being their normal human self, as they ignored her and carry on with their activities.

She went straight to the women's bathroom and went to the second stall from the left. She reached for the little space just behind the toilet. She was scrunching her nose, and holding her breath from the odor while feeling for the key that she taped there. It was a relief when she finds it, then she quickly retreated back with the key and rest her ass to the closed toilet seat. She was trying to get her strength back, before she goes to the station's public locker area.

She could feel her body ache all over, her left arm was bind and was in cast. The doctor said they had to put a pin inside, since she was still healing from the previous injury. They were making sure that it would heal nicely, and that she would not injure that same arm easily. The doctor also said that she should get back for a check up next month.

Then suddenly her mind traveled to her dead husband, and how she had kill him.

I've shot him.
I've killed a man.
I'm a murderer.

Her husband was a wealthy man, who runs a very successful venture. He was ruthless in his job, people feared and admired him at the same time. She knows no body would believe her, if she came forward with her accusations.

Her love for him had vanish the day he made her lost their baby. That was the last straw. The next day after she came back from the hospital, she went to the pawn shop and bought herself a gun with a cash payment.

She had done her research, she had been preparing herself to be on the run. She had been scheming her allowance and putting her cash, and personal belongings in a duffle bag and put them in public lockers at several bus terminals and train stations. She was doing it gradually, as she was doing her daily errands out side the house. She was trying not to evoked her husband's suspicion.

She had also bought a used car and told the shady dealer to keep it under someone else's name, which then she paid extra for. She had been preparing for months until that night finally came and her life was abruptly turned for the worse.

She was on the run, she was homeless, she was all alone.