Sun was awoken from her sleep by a jolt from her shoulder. She instantly sprang awake, adrenaline rushing through her as she reached for her gun.

"Sun! It's me!" Alex called, causing her to freeze for a moment. Her mind was snapped back to reality as she took in her surroundings. Glancing out the window, she saw the sun starting to stretch its fingers up the horizon. She would have been awake within the hour, hadn't Alex waken her up. She finally made eye contact. His eyes were wide and wild with worry.

"What's the matter?" she asked hurriedly, her guard raising.

"It's Jordyn," Alex started. "She's starting to turn." Sun sprang from the bed, rushing from her room to the living room. In the room, she found Jordyn breathing in a labored way. Her hair was coming out in large clumps, leaving her skull bald. Blue veins ran along the bare patches, sticking out of the skin like small rivers. At the base of her neck, laid a golf ball sized growth that pulsed with life. Her skin was turning a slight ashen gray, but still held some pigment to it. She held a noise back as Jordyn's eyes opened, the irises and pupils turning a cloudy white.

"Sun?" she called out pathetically. "Are you there?"

"I'm here," Sun called out, shuffling awkwardly in spot, not sure whether or not it would be safe to approach the girl.

"I know I'm going to turn soon," Jordyn stated, writing uncomfortably on the couch. "Kill me now, while I still am myself." Sun began to nod her head.

"We can't do that," Alex said, kneeling down to be closer to her. Sun clenched her hands, keeping herself from reaching out and pulling him away from the potential threat. Alex was too trusting for her taste. She's still herself. She won't lash out. Not yet. Sun reassured herself mentally. Jordyn's  mouth molded into a frown. She turned towards Alex's voice. She beckoned him closer. As he leaned forward, Sun but her lip harshly, the fresh, metallic taste filling her mouth. All of her instincts screamed to get away from Jordyn now that she was so close to turning into a Blight.

Jordyn whispered something in his ear. Although Sun wasn't able to see Alex's reaction, she could tell he stiffened at the news. Then, unexpectedly, Jordyn's hands wrapped around either side of Alex's face, cupping his cheeks. She pulled his face forward quickly into a kiss. Alex grabbed her shoulders hastily, pushing away in surprise.

"What the hell was that?" he asked in exasperation. 

"A kick start," Jordyn answered cryptically, a small, weak smile gracing her lips. She closed her eyes, sucking in a breath. Alex reached forward awkwardly, running his hand through the remnants of her hair. He cringed as he brought his hand away, a clump of her hair coming with it. He brought his hand down, dropping the hair and sweeping it under the couch. He stood up, moving back to stand next to Sun.

"We need to talk," he said lowly into her ear. She nodded, still looking at the teen they had saved.

"We'll be back, Jordyn," Sun told her. Jordyn made a noise in the back of her throat, opening her blind eyes to stare at the ceiling.

"I know you're leaving to talk about me. You're going to talk about what you want to do with me. Just kill me now. I'm too far gone. Just make it quick. I'm blind, I won't even see it coming. I don't want to be one of them. Save me from that pain. You don't need to feel guilty about it. I want this." Alex and Sun exchanged looks.

"We'll be right back, Jordyn," Alex repeated Sun's words, grabbing her bicep and dragging her out of the room. They stopped in the next room. They faced each other, Sun crossing her arms over her chest as Alex rested his hands on his hips.

"We need to do as she asks," Sun said quietly. Alex's eyes widened in alarm as he looked at her.

"That's murder! How can you kill someone that is still alive? How do you not feel guilt for something like that?" Alex asked incredulously, his voice raising. She stepped forward, her eyes narrowing into a fierce gaze.

"Keep it down, Alex!" she hissed. "Of course I feel guilty about this! She's not even an adult for Christ's sake! And yes, it's murder, but that's the world we live in now. There's no saving people like this. She's too far gone," Sun tried to reason with him. Alex shook his head, a sardonic smile on his face.

"I'm not going to allow you to just kill a human being. We have to at least wait until she's not herself anymore," Alex said, pointing his finger angrily at the ground as he stepped towards her as well. Now that they were closer, Sun was forced to look up at his taller frame, their breaths mingling. After a few moments of staring at each other in silence, she stepped back and glanced away.

"Anger makes you stupid. Stupid gets you killed," Sun muttered out, facing back to him. "Don't let the morals of your past get in the way of the choices you make today." Alex shook his head, not willing to buy along with the point she was making.

They stayed in silence for a while, Sun staring at him with an unwavering gaze. Then the screaming started. The ear-splitting noise caused both of them to flinch at the sound before rushing into the living room. Jordyn was now on the ground, her back arching upwards before she threw herself onto her side. She rolled onto her stomach, her voice a mixture of groaning and screeching. Her toes met the floor, and she crouched in a runner's position, but her knees touching the ground. Her shoulder jerked awkwardly into the air, the bones snapping painfully.

"Just do it!" she screamed, sobs wracking her body as she went through the change. Without hesitation, Sun reached into Alex's waistband, drawing his handgun out. In two quick fires, Sun had shot Jordyn in the head and in the growth on her neck. Sun sucked in a shaky breath, lowering the gun. Jordyn collapsed on the ground, blank eyes staring off towards them. Sun rested the hand gun on the coffee table nearby as she headed towards the girl.

"What the fuck, Sun?" Alex shouted, gesturing his hands to her back. Sun knelt next to the girl. Taking her thumb and pointer finger, she closed Jordyn's eyes. She hung her head as she sighed through her nose.

"She wanted it to go down like that," she said. She looked back at Alex from over her shoulder. "If you were changing into a Blight, into a monster, wouldn't you want someone to end you? Wouldn't you want someone to be kind enough to let you go out of this world as yourself?" She looked back to Jordyn, a few tears releasing themselves from her eyes. She looked back at him. Alex's eyes widened at the shine in her eyes. She stood up, making her way back towards him.

"I would have saved her if I could have," she raised her voice, her tone raw with emotion. She looked off to her side, looking out the window and watching the sun rise. "I would have saved him if I could have," she whispered. Confusion struck Alex hard as he watched his companion. He was curious to ask who 'he' was, but decided against it with the state she was in. He filed the question into the back of his mind, remembering to ask her later when she would open up more.

"We should bury her." He changed the subject. Sun glanced at him before looking down at Jordyn's limp body.

"Yeah," she said softly. "There was a shed out back. There might be something we can use there."

~~~

The sun was nearing its center point in the sky. Despite the cold temperatures, Alex found himself covered in sweat. He rested his hands against the shovel as he looked down at the mound of dirt they had dug and then filled. Sun had disappeared to retrieve their things from the house they had stayed at. Alex squinted his eyes as he looked up, taking in the field they buried her nearby.

"I don't know why you think that your hopes will work out," Alex started off, looking back down at Jordyn's resting spot. "But I hope you knew what you were doing." He glanced back up to see Sun returning with their supplies, something else in hand besides her gun. He straightened considerably, trying to make out what she had. He couldn't see until she was near him that she held a stone roughly the size of a football. Sun smiled sullenly, placing it at the head of the grave. Alex looked at the stone, taking in the small, decorating details of a flower with a butterfly flying off it.

"May you always fly free," he read aloud. Sun came to stand next to Alex.

"I lifted it out of a garden that I was passing," she explained. "I was thinking it would be as close to a headstone for her as we could get." Alex smiled over to Sun, lifting the shovel out of the ground and threw it off into the field.

"I'm sure she would appreciate it," Alex remarked. He grabbed his bag from Sun along with his hand gun. "Let's go."