There is a dim light over the horizon, exotic and red like a jungle.878Please respect copyright.PENANAEP77fQhKyw
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.878Please respect copyright.PENANAQcWD9haxq1
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.878Please respect copyright.PENANAaBB65eMtk6
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.878Please respect copyright.PENANAf3ByshWXZR
"Excuse me…can you help?"878Please respect copyright.PENANArZ6jcKEYTX
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.878Please respect copyright.PENANAqxr6jqopF0
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?"878Please respect copyright.PENANAOJtdy9Q0Hs
She eyes him carefully. "How do I know you won't kill or rape me?"878Please respect copyright.PENANAhfJ5RYChYx
"Oh, please…why would I?" he mutters. "Murder's boring…and rape is repulsive. Can't you just help a struggling bloke?"878Please respect copyright.PENANAwccAvRVpDe
"A bloke? Are you from the UK?"878Please respect copyright.PENANAzZj48f2O6l
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?"878Please respect copyright.PENANAH3cQ23ZZ8Q
She smiles a little. "Sorry," she apologizes. "I'm just…a little on edge."878Please respect copyright.PENANAnoXowFsEgo
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.878Please respect copyright.PENANAIMn3xUUHLM
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."878Please respect copyright.PENANAdVl62H7JvO
He looks at her strangely. "…What?"878Please respect copyright.PENANAJOs5rsCzTZ
"Hm?"878Please respect copyright.PENANAc3ZHC2oLVR
"What did you just say?"878Please respect copyright.PENANAT2aobnR10H
"Um…let me help you get up," she repeats.878Please respect copyright.PENANAikcyGfQ6UZ
"…Oh, now you're helping," he mutters, but he pushes himself out a little as he gets pulled onto the side of the road.878Please respect copyright.PENANAJ1AVon67uF
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.878Please respect copyright.PENANAeU1U19xR4A
"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?"878Please respect copyright.PENANAKD17AKtpJ5
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.878Please respect copyright.PENANAZouhKcOC1D
He smiles at her, his eyes watchful as she stares at the wound. "Nothing," he says. "It's just a way to do this."878Please respect copyright.PENANA5IscVfUfBj
"Do wh—do what?" Karen asks skittishly as she finally manages to drag her eyes away from the horror and to him.878Please respect copyright.PENANAKezKR1lFxF
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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