There is a dim light over the horizon, exotic and red like a jungle.697Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZpPOfI4zV1
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.697Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCQa85S9fnm
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.697Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZjvKJi4CKz
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.697Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjM8QQfOFy6
"Excuse me…can you help?"697Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqcUeRISReN
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.697Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkxYn5CUsu3
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?"697Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi5QC2e9pcz
She eyes him carefully. "How do I know you won't kill or rape me?"697Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6YO7XmBSrM
"Oh, please…why would I?" he mutters. "Murder's boring…and rape is repulsive. Can't you just help a struggling bloke?"697Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMcV77VtU4D
"A bloke? Are you from the UK?"697Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5eQXmzIWxE
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?"697Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH8tfmvEu5e
She smiles a little. "Sorry," she apologizes. "I'm just…a little on edge."697Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaukdoSdP2j
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.697Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKztL51hozp
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."697Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvLxxubexTT
He looks at her strangely. "…What?"697Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaz6zOmALAg
"Hm?"697Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPnWjPgJHO5
"What did you just say?"697Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiHrCQ5n9wY
"Um…let me help you get up," she repeats.697Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmVDZZZmH1l
"…Oh, now you're helping," he mutters, but he pushes himself out a little as he gets pulled onto the side of the road.697Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWcphSKZw4N
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.697Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhar4tp23dn
"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?"697Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZMpb0nTIlJ
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.697Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPia33vIdUu
He smiles at her, his eyes watchful as she stares at the wound. "Nothing," he says. "It's just a way to do this."697Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW03KYOPCYm
"Do wh—do what?" Karen asks skittishly as she finally manages to drag her eyes away from the horror and to him.697Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2I1q3lb5hb
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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