There is a dim light over the horizon, exotic and red like a jungle.785Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtpJQ0B4Nf7
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.785Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPVnTdsedpO
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.785Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWjvHNASYy5
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.785Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEe5NzBuBRG
"Excuse me…can you help?"785Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUGqHL4LQTW
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.785Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP6HTNcVgVw
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?"785Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPAMtoIeDkS
She eyes him carefully. "How do I know you won't kill or rape me?"785Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ2rougJLUG
"Oh, please…why would I?" he mutters. "Murder's boring…and rape is repulsive. Can't you just help a struggling bloke?"785Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj8pGUtsxmf
"A bloke? Are you from the UK?"785Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGtcn4eHjcZ
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?"785Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX9wjLNcxC4
She smiles a little. "Sorry," she apologizes. "I'm just…a little on edge."785Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRfkXC842Ob
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.785Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdcoDx5wwO8
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."785Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIXzJwSDucr
He looks at her strangely. "…What?"785Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfzL57X9xAz
"Hm?"785Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxcFkVDPaP9
"What did you just say?"785Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQmNnI2c7jC
"Um…let me help you get up," she repeats.785Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxOArscYLd2
"…Oh, now you're helping," he mutters, but he pushes himself out a little as he gets pulled onto the side of the road.785Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ52rnQirswi
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.785Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1CMSCAmWZG
"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?"785Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡktaeiEKLzc
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.785Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmTJEq8kE8d
He smiles at her, his eyes watchful as she stares at the wound. "Nothing," he says. "It's just a way to do this."785Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD0cFRry8pH
"Do wh—do what?" Karen asks skittishly as she finally manages to drag her eyes away from the horror and to him.785Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHpxA6B1CcL
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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