There is a dim light over the horizon, exotic and red like a jungle.788Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjRxvsBmhAn
Karen isn't above admiring it, she enjoys nature. She stares at it with contempt, though. It is such a fleeting sight, she thinks, and always will be. Nothing can stop a sunset from going away…and the beauties last no more than an hour.788Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZFjlV8ra2m
Regardless, she walks towards it. The dirt road is stretching far, and she has a long way to go to get to her boyfriend's house, but it hasn't stopped her before. He owns a home further down the way, lined with ditches full of pesticides and waste from his vast fields of apples. She's felt disdain towards it before, and has always expressed it, but whoever cares anymore? He says global warming is inevitable, and will happen regardless of pollution and environmental poisoning but she doesn't believe that.788Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡojPZ1FsjmS
Nobody is here to stop the monstrosity. Not so personally, at least, and Karen is a journalist. She takes things personally. It's a dangerous match, and she agrees now. They are too different, and this walk is to make that statement.788Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJRE043iBqW
"Excuse me…can you help?"788Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLQpOYGpLnk
Karen blinks and looks to her right where that voice came from. She stops walking and trails over to the edge, and is…ambiguously surprised to see a young homeless man lying on the side of a ditch looking quite miserable. "Are you alright?" she questions him.788Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHfyXp46yHj
He rubs his eyes and hums thoughtfully. "I've no clue," he replies dryly. "'ve only got a horrible headache and hurt ankle. Care to help me?"788Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvJZ9v1vhor
She eyes him carefully. "How do I know you won't kill or rape me?"788Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFD6IZXhgD0
"Oh, please…why would I?" he mutters. "Murder's boring…and rape is repulsive. Can't you just help a struggling bloke?"788Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7lvzLlus7I
"A bloke? Are you from the UK?"788Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡom5CfAxe2E
He sighs and looks up at her with hazel blue eyes that shine slightly more green in light of the sunset. "I'm stuck in a ditch with a twisted ankle, and you're worried about my nationality?"788Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbUjEsxuGU6
She smiles a little. "Sorry," she apologizes. "I'm just…a little on edge."788Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaW9C8P8l3O
He makes a sound of discontent, and rolls his eyes. "Fine, I'll just walk all by myself then," he grumbles sarcastically as he slowly sits up with a loud and dramatic groan.788Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxU42Secsx8
Karen can't stop a little chuckle as she leans over the edge and reaches out to help him. "Here," she says, "let me help you wake up."788Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgXzO9xe4je
He looks at her strangely. "…What?"788Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSHPblOjNzx
"Hm?"788Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ734iTxo1UQ
"What did you just say?"788Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlycoTYgSi0
"Um…let me help you get up," she repeats.788Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlGHB7xVEWL
"…Oh, now you're helping," he mutters, but he pushes himself out a little as he gets pulled onto the side of the road.788Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRoTF8qHVFP
She almost immediately gasps and jumps in shock and fear at the sight of his ankle, but his hand keeps an astute grip on her arm and she can't back away. His ankle is bloodied, and blue and purple and swollen quite horribly. But that isn't what alarms her to such a state. There is a long and ugly gash that ripped through his same leg, and it is still bleeding…quite heavily.788Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzBz3k0Og85
"I know, right?" He speaks as if the revelation hadn't changed anything. "A bit tedious, really. I'll have to go to a hospital…say, do you have a phone, miss?"788Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ9XS6OvNuL
She looks at him with wide brown eyes, chest heaving as she panted out her shock. "Y-ye—yeah, yeah. Yeah. I-I do…I do…oh, my god…what, what happened?" she stammers out.788Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3GJTZYUgfV
He smiles at her, his eyes watchful as she stares at the wound. "Nothing," he says. "It's just a way to do this."788Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYp8NZB7B8J
"Do wh—do what?" Karen asks skittishly as she finally manages to drag her eyes away from the horror and to him.788Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrGJsAP0kfe
Her eyes don't meet those gentle and sarcastic hazel blue orbs she saw earlier. Instead, they meet the single barrel of a hand gun, and she doesn't have a second longer to process it before her vision blackens as a result of a projectile ripping through her skull.
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