There is a dim light over the horizon, exotic and red like a jungle.820Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7cRFQcDhHk
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.820Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvNEYfK8hJ0
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.820Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfZqUKWTX7K
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.820Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHMg7mc5Hzf
"Excuse me…can you help?"820Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcFesSzgeKL
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.820Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXS7wAfSpUO
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?"820Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXti9ZnWzRM
She eyes him carefully. "How do I know you won't kill or rape me?"820Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhmXgiXJ0a6
"Oh, please…why would I?" he mutters. "Murder's boring…and rape is repulsive. Can't you just help a struggling bloke?"820Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1pSdzK0q9z
"A bloke? Are you from the UK?"820Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWhoLcnoMmd
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?"820Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNoGphqohxK
She smiles a little. "Sorry," she apologizes. "I'm just…a little on edge."820Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡepTnez0Od0
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.820Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV7nvqudIfA
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."820Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ78XrqxJKOX
He looks at her strangely. "…What?"820Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUJM1YNa8hd
"Hm?"820Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpR8KCi2S0a
"What did you just say?"820Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKUh31Wgv8x
"Um…let me help you get up," she repeats.820Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpRbQwtQM9c
"…Oh, now you're helping," he mutters, but he pushes himself out a little as he gets pulled onto the side of the road.820Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVsMx7XnmyM
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.820Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1xsbZrHTOY
"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?"820Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5CjSg8loV7
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.820Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfPL6UrivE5
He smiles at her, his eyes watchful as she stares at the wound. "Nothing," he says. "It's just a way to do this."820Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs1sWbRPugE
"Do wh—do what?" Karen asks skittishly as she finally manages to drag her eyes away from the horror and to him.820Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgq4SOt5W1B
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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