There is a dim light over the horizon, exotic and red like a jungle.882Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0xoLyh7xyq
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.882Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2hCOAZwMm4
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.882Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxq9ZT7zhsh
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.882Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkTWNQAfzgB
"Excuse me…can you help?"882Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKUOj0R2ohb
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.882Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUJHdv7KeO9
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?"882Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbhRo8kj31r
She eyes him carefully. "How do I know you won't kill or rape me?"882Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7ncCSq03h1
"Oh, please…why would I?" he mutters. "Murder's boring…and rape is repulsive. Can't you just help a struggling bloke?"882Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlNTpb1b74e
"A bloke? Are you from the UK?"882Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG8pM722vyX
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?"882Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeg6jvGa9pY
She smiles a little. "Sorry," she apologizes. "I'm just…a little on edge."882Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4cdmOJASnN
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.882Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdbGU9ExwDS
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."882Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDDkHOmQ80t
He looks at her strangely. "…What?"882Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡel91p09w4j
"Hm?"882Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBmPxaklHaJ
"What did you just say?"882Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡO9J3NJS6Ak
"Um…let me help you get up," she repeats.882Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiEzo3hQyp5
"…Oh, now you're helping," he mutters, but he pushes himself out a little as he gets pulled onto the side of the road.882Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4Ue9wVi0qs
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.882Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSZw9rcC2Eu
"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?"882Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIzE1VTkjun
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.882Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdNTDLMgEgw
He smiles at her, his eyes watchful as she stares at the wound. "Nothing," he says. "It's just a way to do this."882Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4YnaTT74Ar
"Do wh—do what?" Karen asks skittishly as she finally manages to drag her eyes away from the horror and to him.882Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoLKBJDwzWu
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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