The look of the girl’s face, illuminated in the harsh, yellow glow of my headlights, dropped a stone into my belly, and I slammed on the brakes. The car came to a screeching halt, and left me looking at her askew, through the far side of my windshield. She shone back, pale white and sickly orange in intervals, as the light of my flasher reflected from her body. Her hair was bunched and dark, hanging in clumps around a dirty, streaked face. Clothes hung in tatters from a slim form that trembled in the enveloping dark.
I reached up to turn off my blinker, and got out of the car.
“Hey, are you okay?” I asked, before really looking at her and noticing her tears. She turned a fraction and I saw the bone-white length of one arm extended with the blade of a knife towards her opposite wrist.
“Whoa,” I breathed out and tingles ran down my neck. “Uh…Can I help? I mean. What…?”
Her face turned into the darkness.
I stepped out from my car, and blurted, “Hey, wait!” She paused in the movement, waiting for me.