There is a dim light over the horizon, exotic and red like a jungle.919Please respect copyright.PENANAAquaHZYVoK
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.919Please respect copyright.PENANAfUCduBdU9e
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.919Please respect copyright.PENANAaI50SP4Ps3
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.919Please respect copyright.PENANAVzZzBR9ZQL
"Excuse me…can you help?"919Please respect copyright.PENANAxcn31HMv0w
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.919Please respect copyright.PENANA1x3GcW5fWN
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?"919Please respect copyright.PENANAlhDnkc0avv
She eyes him carefully. "How do I know you won't kill or rape me?"919Please respect copyright.PENANASjiVIkNsGn
"Oh, please…why would I?" he mutters. "Murder's boring…and rape is repulsive. Can't you just help a struggling bloke?"919Please respect copyright.PENANA9eYTOSHZQS
"A bloke? Are you from the UK?"919Please respect copyright.PENANA2lYo13HBf4
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?"919Please respect copyright.PENANApGxSr89W2N
She smiles a little. "Sorry," she apologizes. "I'm just…a little on edge."919Please respect copyright.PENANAT06t1GG6BY
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.919Please respect copyright.PENANAuWilGK9TFo
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."919Please respect copyright.PENANAdylwOju1NI
He looks at her strangely. "…What?"919Please respect copyright.PENANA6qDWGR64TE
"Hm?"919Please respect copyright.PENANALnhcFgbdXi
"What did you just say?"919Please respect copyright.PENANAAU3q0qoMbE
"Um…let me help you get up," she repeats.919Please respect copyright.PENANAOlHtQP9DjX
"…Oh, now you're helping," he mutters, but he pushes himself out a little as he gets pulled onto the side of the road.919Please respect copyright.PENANAW85wKiW2a6
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.919Please respect copyright.PENANAKVKvhIFBqM
"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?"919Please respect copyright.PENANA7z55QNWDzS
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.919Please respect copyright.PENANAgQVNwnYS6y
He smiles at her, his eyes watchful as she stares at the wound. "Nothing," he says. "It's just a way to do this."919Please respect copyright.PENANAFcCImd0wtx
"Do wh—do what?" Karen asks skittishly as she finally manages to drag her eyes away from the horror and to him.919Please respect copyright.PENANAbwSRIZdzyc
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.
ns216.73.216.25da2