There is a dim light over the horizon, exotic and red like a jungle.848Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyv0BK78MWe
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.848Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH68WONVpZD
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.848Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkuvTjl9TlX
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.848Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBgTZqHC67c
"Excuse me…can you help?"848Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeGRP1kBKgg
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.848Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSaIZN343aL
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?"848Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPldc5ELutx
She eyes him carefully. "How do I know you won't kill or rape me?"848Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5F9vg8wQ30
"Oh, please…why would I?" he mutters. "Murder's boring…and rape is repulsive. Can't you just help a struggling bloke?"848Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2JEZfTGVZ9
"A bloke? Are you from the UK?"848Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTcGzOQnjOa
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?"848Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡundek6uFf4
She smiles a little. "Sorry," she apologizes. "I'm just…a little on edge."848Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlNsbJfllpL
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.848Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6KTkGEK1u4
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."848Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaVFc6D7w8i
He looks at her strangely. "…What?"848Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwddVBNqT6y
"Hm?"848Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdXtQBSwRMq
"What did you just say?"848Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs2OsS50u4R
"Um…let me help you get up," she repeats.848Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJFHoH42PKT
"…Oh, now you're helping," he mutters, but he pushes himself out a little as he gets pulled onto the side of the road.848Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0p5jrK8ldF
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.848Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqcSdqocb3p
"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?"848Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEhO4xdDdIn
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.848Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZPISFlVhn9
He smiles at her, his eyes watchful as she stares at the wound. "Nothing," he says. "It's just a way to do this."848Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2mbFOnpaPW
"Do wh—do what?" Karen asks skittishly as she finally manages to drag her eyes away from the horror and to him.848Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmEegkCHrHt
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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