Chapter 3 Temple Run

When I hit him, he collapsed, God knows I didn't want to kill him. I wanted to help him, so I checked his pulse to see if I could help him in any way. but it was already too late, he was stone dead!

I called 911, I told the 911 operator that a man raped me and wanted to kill me and I tried defending myself, things got ugly and he's dead. yes, I initially wanted to turn myself in, but then I panicked and ran.

I blamed myself for being at the wrong place at the wrong time, I blamed God for allowing that to happen, I blamed everything around me. I wanted to die, I wanted to kill myself before the authority gets to me.

But I thought about so many people who loved me, so I decided to fight and live.

I went to a friend of mine who was a doctor and got myself treated, I couldn't bring myself to tell her the person that violently abused and raped me, so she insisted on involving the authority to arrest the culprit. I ran also.

I guess I was a coward because I kept running, that's all I knew how to do. to run as far as my legs could carry me.

Temple run I guess, I said sounding so childish.

But Patricia pursed her lips and continued. in the midst of this all, I still had hope, I had a feeling that I was going to come out victorious.

I had become a battered and abused woman, but I swore to be a survivor and not a victim.

I knew I had become a murderer and my life had changed forever, I wasn't going to let the miry clay swallow me.

But I had to hide for a while and figure myself out to know what's best for me. I was a fugitive, without money or food and medicine for my wounds.

I reached out to my friend and roommate Roselyn Johnson and begged her to bring me a change of cloth, food, and medicine from my room. and she led the police to my hideout instead, she did it not just for the reward money, but also for the hatred that I didn't know she harbored in her heart against me.

When she came to the uncompleted building empty-handed, I knew something was off, my first instinct was to run, but I couldn't gather the strength to run. I was already tired of running, I mentally prepared myself for the worst.

She told me how she loved Mike, but he only had eyes for a pure untouched girl. He tried to Seduce Mike severely in our house but he said he can't have anything to do with a wild girl that another man had touched that he only goes for Virgins and he doesn't eat the same food twice.

I never knew that I was living with the enemy, if she had warned me, I would have escaped that awful experience but her hatred for me clouded her judgment.

She told me that she was glad I was going to rot in jail because she was tired of living in my shadows and people calling her second best. After all, I was always the best and outshined her everywhere.

That very instant, I was arrested and I watched my beautiful life vanish within a twinkle of an eye.

Gerald was among the team of detectives who first arrived at the crime scene. he was a fresh law graduate.

She coughed. Gerald gently patted her back and gave her water to drink. He rubbed her forehead and said, honey, let me take it from here.

Though am not good at telling stories, I guess I have to help my wife out he said.

I nodded and he continued.

When I first got there, the first thing that got to my mind was that this was self-defense, not murder.

What a rapid imagination you've got, that was the response I got.

Because the person strikes once, just like when you want to shove someone off you, you push once and run, or maybe the person was an experienced killer that she knew how to attack and kill at the first blow.

A lot of theory came up but I knew I had to speak to the lady in question.

the first time I saw Patricia, I made up my mind there and then to defend her.

That was my first case and I was willing to handle it well, I was glad she believed in me and was willing to take the risk.

My only sister, the woman that raised me was constantly beaten, raped, and brutalized by her husband, she never got the courage to leave, I tried to help her but she believed that marriage was for better or worse until that bastard killed her. the pain is not far from home.

That was the reason I became a lawyer, to defend helpless and battered women and Patricia's case was my first case and first victory. speaking of his sister, Gerald's face darkened and he shook his head in grief!

It was a tough war that lasted for months, Patricia cuts in, I was sentenced to twenty years to life imprisonment with hard labor, we appealed the case, fought very hard and I was eventually discharged and acquired.

I fought through all these while heavily pregnant and I eventually gave birth to my twins in prison, I was told that one of the girls died so the only surviving girl was handed over to my family.

The testimonies from the doctor that examined me, the 911 call I made and the three previous victims of Mike Adams paved a way for me but the key instrument was the evidence from the security man.

The security man, Colton, God bless his soul, saved my life.