Lately, as with everybody else, Magick had been having a bit of trouble. Everybody would come to Magick with their problems, but she wasn�t able to deal with the stress. She had been spending less time on the Internet recently because she didn�t want to hear about everyone�s problems.
Magick also began to suspect that someone was out to get her. Whether it was true or not, she didn�t care. The feeling was always there. She placed Luke�s letter in the mailbox, then walked back inside. She stopped on the front porch, then glanced behind her back. The only thing she saw was her tail. Magick sighed, then walked inside.
�Get ahold of yourself, Magick,� she said quietly. She knew for a fact that she would�ve heard something if somebody was behind her. Being a Snow Leopard, her senses were keen.
Magick went into her bedroom, then closed the door. She flopped herself onto her bed, then began reading Luke�s letter again. After a few minutes, Magick dozed off and was sound asleep. That night she had a strange dream.
Magick found herself looking at Luke, who was lying in a hospital bed. His chest was bandaged, and there was a large, dark bruise on the side of his head. She walked up to him slowly, then he gestured to a chair. Magick pulled the chair up close to his bed, then sat down. She took Luke�s paw, then looked into his eyes as he cleared his throat.
�I only have one thing to say to you,� Luke said hoarsely. �Don�t let him get you like he got me.�
�Don�t let who get me?� Magick said. �Who is the person I�m supposed to be watching out for?�
Luke didn�t respond. His eyes closed, then the monitor next to his bed flat-lined. Magick stared in horror, then stood up quickly. She called frantically to the doctors and nurses, but it seemed that Magick and Luke were alone in the building. Magick looked at Luke, then screamed. His body seemed to be blowing away as if it was made of dust.
Magick sat bolt upright in her bed, sweating heavily and breathing rapidly. Her heart was pounding, and it felt as if it was going to explode from beating so much. She held a paw to her chest, then looked around the room. She was relieved that it had all been a dream. But what did it mean? Who was the person that Luke was referring to? Who was the person that �got Luke and was going to get Magick too?�
Magick pushed off her blanket, then stood up shakily. She walked to the bathroom, then locked the door behind her. She plugged the sink and filled it with cold water, then splashed some on her face. The water dripped off her fur as she pulled a towel off the rack. She dried off her face, then looked at herself in the mirror.
For a moment she thought she saw Bill Gates looking back at her. She gasped and blinked rapidly, backing away from the mirror a few steps. Magick shook her head, then stepped up to the mirror again. The only thing she saw was her own reflection. She took a deep breath, then unlocked the bathroom door and went back to her bedroom.
Magick sat down on the bed, her mind racing. Had she really seen Bill Gates in the mirror, or was it all in her head? She sighed, then laid down and put her head on her pillow. Despite what had happened, she fell asleep a little while later. Luckily, she didn�t have any similar dreams or visions.
Magick woke up the next morning to the soft chirping of her alarm clock. She switched off the alarm, then crawled out of bed. After taking a while to get ready, she picked up her backpack and headed to school. Everybody else was out of school for the summer, but she had signed up for a summer school class. If it had been her choice, she wouldn�t have signed up for the class. Her parents, however, insisted that she did.
Magick sighed as the teacher gave the usual boring lecture. He handed out a bunch of homework, then continued lecturing. Magick quickly raced through the homework and was finished by the time the class period was over. She smiled, because now she wouldn�t have to do any homework at home.
Magick ran home, then dropped her backpack in her bedroom. She went to the computer, then logged onto the Internet. She was surprised to find that Luke hadn�t sent her any offline messages that day. There was usually at least one offline message from him when she logged on. Magick shrugged her shoulders, then checked her E-Mail. There were a few messages from her friends which she replied to, then she logged off.
Three days later Magick got another letter from Luke in the mail. She tossed the rest of the mail on the kitchen table, then ran into her room with the letter. She flopped onto her bed and tore open the envelope, then pulled out the letter that was inside.
When she unfolded the piece of paper, a single rose petal fell out and fell to the floor. Magick picked up the petal, then set it on her bed next to the empty envelope. Magick began reading the letter and was immediately shocked by what she read.
�Dear Magick,
I�m sorry it had to end like this. I�m writing this letter at 4:00 in the morning, and am about to do something that will affect the rest of your life. It won�t affect my life much, because my life is going to end a few minutes after I finish this letter to you. Yes, you�re reading this correctly, Magick. I�m taking my life. As you know, things have been going horribly wrong in my life recently. I can�t deal with it anymore, and it seems that there is only one way out. I�m sorry Magick. I�ll always be thinking of you in the afterlife, and I hope you�ll do the same for me.�
Magick slid to the side of her bed as she read on, setting her feet on the floor. Her jaw dropped in shock as she read the last few sentences. Her paw relaxed involuntarily as she sat there in shock, allowing the paper to slide out and flutter to the floor. Magick took a deep breath and picked up the letter, then read it again.
Magick started to sniffle, her eyes moistening. She placed the rose petal on the page, folded the letter up, then placed it in the envelope and folded the flap shut. Magick sat on the side of the bed, motionless, for five minutes straight before a passing car honked and broke her thought process. She stood up slowly, then placed the letter with the rest of the letters she kept.
Magick sat back down on her bed and began thinking again, and suddenly she remembered the dream. Had it meant something after all? In the dream, Luke had warned Magick not to let him get her like he had gotten Luke. �Who is �him?�� Magick thought. Then Magick remembered what she had seen in the bathroom mirror. Could it be that Bill Gates was out to get her for some reason?
Magick shook her head and stood up. �That�s crazy,� she said out loud. �What did I ever do to Bill Gates? He wouldn�t have a reason to come after me.�
Magick smiled, then looked at the stack of letters on her bookshelf. Her smiled quickly faded as she looked at Luke�s final letter, which was sitting on top of the stack. As she looked at the letter, the thought kept returning to her that Bill Gates was out to get her.
Over the next few days, Magick became increasingly aware of her surroundings. She was always checking over her shoulder, looking out the windows, and hid every time there was a phone call for her. She eventually stopped getting phone calls because everybody thought Magick didn�t want to talk to them. Despite how Magick should�ve felt, she was glad she wasn�t getting any phone calls.
Magick�s parents began noticing Magick�s actions as the days passed as well. She seemed to be overly cautious about everything. Every time one of Magick�s friends showed up at the door Magick would disappear completely. Magick was the only person that knew about her secret hiding place, so nobody could ever find her when she hid there.
One day Magick�s father grabbed her by the arm when she was sneaking around the house. Magick let out a startled scream and whipped around, then calmed down when she realized it was only her father.
�Magick, what�s gotten into you? Lately you�ve been sneaking around as if a ghost was following you.�
Magick didn�t think about what she was doing before she blurted out, �Someone is out to get me! I just know it!�
Magick�s father gave her a quizzical expression, then said, �Magick, nobody is out to get you.�
�You don�t know that!� Magick snapped.
Magick�s father, startled by the tone of Magick�s voice, said, �Nobody has an excuse to be �out to get you� Magick.�
�Dad, you�re an idiot! Someone out there has a reason!�
�Don�t you ever talk to me that way, young lady! Go to your room! I�ll have no more of this nonsense!�
Magick made a frustrated noise, then stomped to her room angrily. She slammed the door shut and locked it, then sat down on her bed roughly. She jumped back up when she thought she heard a noise. She looked around the room rapidly, then wondered if it had been her imagination. She heard another noise, and realized that it was coming from her bed. She got down on her paws, then looked under her bed slowly.
Magick let out a sigh of relief as Sam, the white family cat, meowed at her. He was kneading his claws in the carpet under her bed contentedly, which was the source of the sound that Magick had heard. She reached under her bed, but Sam hissed and swatted at her paw. Magick jumped back in alarm, then sighed.
�Sam, cool it. It�s only me.�
He refused to move. Magick shrugged her shoulders, then laid down on top of her bed. Sam was a stubborn cat sometimes, so she knew that it would be useless to try and move him. She had already been scratched by him numerous times in the past. A few times Magick had given Sam a hiss of her own, causing him to hide under the couch and cower.
Magick giggled at the thought, then unlocked her bedroom door and opened it. Magick got down on her paws by the bed again, then reached under in hope of successfully grabbing Sam. He hissed and swatted again, so Magick decided to use alternative force. She extended her claws and swatted back at Sam, but he still wouldn�t budge.
�Time to bring out the bug guns,� Magick thought.
Magick hissed loudly and bore her teeth, causing Sam to yowl in alarm. He darted out from under her bed and bolted for the door, disappearing quickly. Magick stood up and giggled, then sat down on her bed again.
A few moments later Magick�s mother loudly said, �Magick, did you scare the cat again?�
�It was his own fault!� Magick called to her. �He wouldn�t get out from underneath my bed!�
Magick�s mother said something which Magick couldn�t quite make out, but Magick ignored her. She was right. It was Sam�s own fault. Then it occurred to Magick why Sam didn�t like her.
�Oh well,� Magick said, shrugging her shoulders.
A few days later, Magick was on the Internet again chatting with her friends. She was in the middle of a conversation with a friend when suddenly a new message window popped up, announcing that Magick had an Instant Message.
�Hello, Magick,� the message read.
Magick looked at the screen name, but she had never seen it before. �Who are you?� she typed.
Moments later another message appeared. �Wouldn�t you like to know?�
�Are you stalking me?� Magick typed quickly.
�Maybe I am, maybe I�m not.�
Magick�s eyes went wide, then she quickly logged off Messenger, not paying attention to the sounds that were playing as a result of messages from her friends she had been accidentally ignoring. Magick ran to her room and jumped onto her bed. She heard Sam again, and jumped down in annoyance.
She poked her head under the bed and yelled, �GET OUT!�
The yell was sufficient enough to startle Sam, who had been mostly asleep. He ran out of her room, then Magick locked the door. Magick sat down on her bed, her mind racing. Who had that person been?
Magick�s father, hearing the yell, got up and walked quickly to the bedroom door. He opened the door and nearly tripped over Sam, who ran underneath his bed. A look of anger appeared on his face as he turned around. He walked out of his bedroom and walked quickly to Magick�s. He knocked on her door loudly and waited for a response.
�Go away! I�m not opening the door!� Magick called.
�I don�t know what�s wrong with you, but you had better shape up, and soon! If you don�t, I�m going to send you to boarding school!�
With that, Magick�s father stomped angrily back to his bedroom. The threat had been sufficient, because Magick had heard horror stories about boarding schools. She calmed down, then looked around her room slowly. She laid down on her bed, then yawned. She was asleep within minutes.
A few more days passed, and the incident with the mysterious screen name happened a second and third time. Magick became increasingly convinced each time that someone truly was out to get her. When Magick freaked out after getting the message a third time, her father decided he�d had enough.
He picked up the phone, then dialed a number quickly. Within minutes, a rather plain-looking ambulance arrive in front of their house. Two men in white coats exited the ambulance and walked to the front door of the house.
Magick heard a knock on the front door and jumped. She ran to her bedroom, then locked her door quickly. She backed away from the door, then listened as the front door opened. She heard a brief conversation, but couldn�t understand what they were saying.
Magick heard footsteps approaching her bedroom door, then a knock. �Who is it?� she called out.
�It�s me,� her father answered. �Open the door.�
Magick sighed in relief, then stepped up to the door and unlocked it. �Hi dad, what�s the . . .� Magick trailed off as she opened the door. She backed away in horror as the two men stepped forward. They grabbed her, then held her firmly by the arms. She tried to resist them, but they were much stronger.
�No! You can�t do this!� Magick screamed in protest. �You don�t understand!�
The two men dragged her out to the ambulance, then opened the back door. They put Magick inside and strapped her to a Gurney, then one jumped out and closed the door. Magick�s father lowered his head and listened to Magick�s screams and pleas. Her voice faded as the ambulance pulled away and the sirens came on. A single tear escaped from his eye and traveled down his cheek as he watched the ambulance disappear from view. He would never see her again . . .