Disclaimer: The universe belongs to Marvel Comics. The characters are the story belong to me, Magik, the author.

    September Dawn Mourning was not a normal teenage girl. Everyone thought that she was too quiet, too shy, too...afraid of human contact. It had been years since she had allowed someone to lay a finger on her. At first people linked it with the thought of abuse in the home but September's parents hastily said that she didn't allow them to touch her either.

    The sixteen year old was short and thin with hair that was the color of a golden, autumn leaf. Her great, full gold eyes watched the world with a keen sense of understanding that eluded everyone else.

    September was a mutant. And that hard fact of life had been learned on her fourteenth birthday when she touched her cousin and "saw" herself through his memory. Saw more than herself, saw everything he had ever done, through his eyes.

    The experience had left her so shaken that September locked herself in her room only to discover that the slightest physical contact with inanimate objects had the same result. It was like back-tracking through time using one person or things point of view. And it terrified her.

    Now, two years later, she had gotten it pretty much under control. It was easy not to back-track with inanimate objects because they required effort to access the secrets locked within. Humans, people, were a different story. They had their own wills, their own thoughts, and some even had powers too.

    So September isolated herself in a world without any physical contact. What did she care if everyone at school thought that she was weird. Being know as the "weird girl" was still infinitely better than watching people's lives flicker by in an instant.

    On just another normal day of solitude, September sat in the hall. Her back was pressed against the wall and her powers spun outward, into the wall, tapping it for information and gossip.

    The man was quiet. His footsteps were quiet and he didn't even seem to breathe but he was there. His eyes were hidden behind dark sunglasses and they watched the girl slowly with something quite like contempt.

    "September Dawn Mourning?" he asked and his voice was like the harsh scrape of sandpaper.

    The two, small gold eyes turned to look at him. "That's me," she answered in a voice almost melodic.

    "You are a menace," he commented as he drew a gun from the folds of his suit.

    September shook her head and the locks of hair danced in the air next to her. "No, I'm not."

    "You're a mutant."

    "But I'm not a menace. I don't do anything with my powers. They're useless," she protested.

    The man slowly shook his head. "No. They're dangerous. You're "back-tracking" has the potential to endanger everything."

    "I don't believe you," the girl protested as she got to her feet. Fear washed through her. If only she had a power that would save her, protect her, but, no, she had been "gifted" with the power to see the past through other people's points of view. Despite what this man said, her power was useless like a benign tumor, leave it alone and it'll leave you alone. Only this time the tumor was going to be removed by surgery.

    "You don't need to," the man said and pulled the gun's trigger. There was a flash of blue light and then September's limp body fell to the ground. She hadn't done a thing to anybody yet and she had to be killed. She didn't even know what had hit her.

    With a sigh, the man put away the gun and left the school. Whoever found her would be tricked into thinking that her heart had stopped. But it wasn't the truth and the man didn't know how much longer he could keep living on lies. A little longer, though. Just a little longer. Just until his son was safe. Just until his own mutant child's life was paid for with the blood of others.

End.