A little bit dangerous

Chapter 28 : Freedom

The waking was hard, Jane's members were numbed. She began to slowly move, the pain increasing in her body. When she opened her eyes, she was surprised to not be blinded by white lights. It was a warm room. Then, she remembered: the jail, the proposition, the fight, and the victory. She quickly sat, ignoring the pain in her stomach, and looked around. There were a window (with the shutters closed) and a TV. She grabbed the remote control and switched it on.

- "What? Not even a year?" sighed Jane when she saw the date of the day.

Time was so long in jail that she was sure she had stayed at least two years. She dropped the remote control on the floor and turned her head on the right, in direction of the window. She needed to see outside. She quickly took off all the pipes and cables she had on her body, put her feet on the ground, and jumped form the bed. Sadly, her knees gave away under her weight. She miserably fell on the floor. The impact increased the pain. The young girl managed to muffle a cry of pain but curled up.

- "Fuck," exhaled Jane, gritting her teeth.

She took deep breathes with her mouth to decrease the pain. She looked at her legs and saw a plaster cast on her right calf and another one on her left knee. Some memories came back in her mind, she remembered the blade cutting her leg. She crawled on the floor, feeling her ribs stabbing her every time she was moving her right arm, but she was too determined to stop. She took support on the armchair, managed to found strength in her legs, and opened the window with her broken left arm. Why the shutters were closed!? And how was she supposed to open them!? She began to punch it of frustration, she just wanted to see outside, nothing more!

- "Miss Doyle, you're going to hurt you more!" intervened a nurse who was walking in the corridor.

- "OPEN THIS FUCKING SHUTTER!" yelled Jane, still punching it.

- "Get off this armchair!"

The woman wrapped her arms around Jane and tried to pull her away, but the brunette was tough, she was holding firmly the window with her right hand.

- "Ok, ok! If I open the shutter, would you accept to go back in your bed?" proposed the woman.

Jane angrily looked at her with a heavy breath. The nurse took that as a yes. She slowly moved her arms away from Jane and opened the shutters. Jane almost jumped from the window to look outside and feel the air. The nurse grabbed her waist to be sure she wouldn't fall.

- "You are going to aggravate your wounds, please, come with me."

- "Just a minute, I need to breath."

Jane was expecting to see the sun, but the moon was pretty too. It was a warm night, she liked warm nights of June. The young girl felt the nurse's hands on her waist and didn't fight more, she was feeling too dizzy for that. She went back in the bed without looking away of the outside.

- "Let it open," told Jane with her firm tone.

- "I can do that. You haven't seen the world for a while, right?"

- "Yeah, it was long."

- "The doctor will check you. If you are good enough, you'll be free to leave."

- "Where are we?"

- "Georgetown."

- "It's far...I should go now."

- "You can't."

- "I will. I'm free now. I'm fucking free," smirked Jane.

- "Yeah, but you have lots of lesions, you should be careful," told the woman.

- "What kind?"

- "Lots of cuts, more or less deep, except that of in your back which was very deep, you have stitches on it, and on your head. Four broken ribs, your left shoulder was dislocated but now it's better, your left wrist is broken, your left knee twisted, and your right shinbone was cut in two pieces. They put you in a coma to let your wounds heal correctly, don't force on your right leg before it's completely healed, it could break again."

- "That's all?"

- "That's already a lot!"

- "I was expecting worse."

- "Well, I guess you are lucky."

- "Yeah. I guess."

- "One centimeter on the right and your lung was touched."

Jane just nodded. The nurse replaced all the pipes and cables on the brunette before leaving the room to continue her work. When Jane was sent in jail, they asked her to prepare a bag with some of her clothes inside for the moment of her release, and they apparently brought all of it in her room. She searched in the cupboard next to her bed, found some meds, and took off again all the pipes and cables. She had no reason to stay here, she had to leave. She knew her wounds now, it would be easier to walk away. She went to her bag, took off the medical clothes before putting hers, filled her bag with meds, bandages, and more medical stuff, before grabbing clutches and walking in the halls. She just needed to look determined, they would think it was normal. She was really looking in a bad way, they would stop her before she could reach the door, so, every time she was seeing a medical staff, she was hiding in a room, finding more drugs. Her bag was full now. She didn't take the front door, instead, she stole a card of a nurse and went in the underground parking lot. It was empty. She was very lucky. She made a tour in the parking lot to choose the right car. She didn't want a flashy car, but not a too wrecked one, she wanted an ordinary car, the kind of car which wouldn't catch everyone's attention. Like this black tiny car with tinted windows, perfect. Now, she just had to open it. Yep. But how? She had no equipment. By luck, she hid a thick wire in her bag. She took it, slid it in the door, and managed to raise the lock. She proudly smirked, she missed all of this. Once inside, it was just a silly game with cables. The car finally started. She began to roll, passed the ID badge on the security barrier which opened, and finally left the hospital. When they found out she wasn't there anymore, she would be far away. She drove just a few miles; her broken legs weren't making it easy. She parked the car in front of a fast food; before jumping in a bus. She did that all the night, changing her means of transportation, from the bus to taxis by way of hitchhiking. During all her travel to go back home, she realized she had no real home. No one was really waiting for her, she was too angry to see people, she wouldn't see her father, it was the last thing she wanted, she had no safe friends who could welcome her. She wanted to see...nobody. She lost all the excitement she had, all the happiness to be free. Because she wasn't really free.

The sun was slowly appearing in the sky, and Jane finally reached the place she wanted to stay to heal. She paid the taxi and began to walk in those cold and gray corridors. She knocked at the door and waited. After a few seconds, it finally opened.

- "Oh my god! Jane!?" exclaimed Cassandra with a surprised and tired tone. "What are you doing here!? You're not supposed to be in jail!? What happened to you!?"

The black-haired woman let her niece enter the small apartment.

- "I'm free," said Jane. "Don't tell anyone that I'm here, that I'm free, anybody has to know, you don't tell the police, your friends, the neighbors, anybody, ok? If someone asks you where I am, you tell them that I'm in jail, is it clear!?"

- "Uh...why?"

- "I want to make them a surprise."

Cassandra was dazed, she found nothing to answer. Jane limped to her bedroom, slammed her door, opened her shutters and window, and collapsed on her bed. She was so tired that she couldn't even think. Finishing here just confirmed that she was alone.