Stella Williams, 23, is psychic. She lives in small town outside of Richmond, Virginia. She usually gets visions of things happening to friends or family. Some are good, but most are hurtful events.

On Sunday, October 24, she gets an impulsive vision of a young girl passed out. The girl has auburn hair, emerald green eyes, and is lying on a cold, rock floor. There is a half-empty bottle lying next to her. In the corner of the room is a middle-aged man that looks almost as if he is trying to hide. He has golden yellow eyes that are radiant like the sun. Stella is confused; she knows neither the man nor the girl in the room.

Stella is brought back to the present. She is baffled about why she had this vision. Is it meant to alarm her? Is it a warning? She lets this go and tries to forget about it, but it seems to keep gnawing at her mind.

A little later Stella goes to her job at the local grocery store. A pretty, juvenile girl is stepping up to the cash register. She looks peculiarly familiar. The appearance of this girl matches the one of the girl in her vision. Her name is Lucy Heintz. She is 19 years old and lives with her parents. Lucy looks stressed while putting her items on the conveyor belt, so being sociable, Stella asked what was wrong.

Lucy whispered, “I have this strange feeling that something bad is about to happen. Whether it’s to me or not, I have no idea.”

Stella looked up from ringing up the items and concernedly asked, “Why, what’s been happening?”

She said that a tall, dark man had been following her ever since she left home early that morning.

Stella thought that now would be a good time to tell her about the vision. But not here in the store, too public. So she said, “I get off in 20 minutes and I think I can explain why you’re feeling like that. Meet me at Tea Leaves for coffee.”

Lucy nodded in agreement and went to her car.

When Stella got off of work, she went straight to Tea Leaves and saw Lucy’s car already there. She described to Lucy her vision: “You were in a dark room with no windows, lying down on a cold, hard floor. Your eyes were hardly open; it was as if you were struggling to stay alive. In the shadows was a tall, dark man dressed in black with a mask covering all of his face except for his eyes. They were a stunning yellow. He looked as if he was hiding.” For a while, Lucy was silent. Stella didn’t know whether this was in comprehension or bewilderment.

She finally spoke, “The abandoned gym. It matches your description precisely. You can’t see a soul when the lights are off in that place. But I don’t know anyone with those colored eyes.”

Stella finally came to a conclusion, “Don’t give out any personal information about yourself and try to stay near home as often as possible. Here’s my cell phone number in case you come in contact with trouble. Don’t hesitate to call me if you notice the bizarre man following you again.” They got up to go and went their separate ways.

October 26, about 2 A.M.- Stella is sleeping. She hears her phone ringing and doesn’t recognize the number, so she considers not answering it and just letting it go. But she remembers it could perhaps be Lucy. She gave Lucy her number but didn’t ask for hers in return. Stella answers her phone and fuzzily says hello. The person on the other end of the line is gasping for breath as if they had been running for hours.

Lucy said, in choked words, “The man…he’s here…he’s following me. I went out to get my mom a coffee and he was in line before me. I looked up at him and saw his eyes. I remembered what you said. I ran to the nearest place I could find. Hurry! Come quick! *Click*”

Lucy hung up before Stella could respond. Stella raced out of her bed and threw some shoes on. She sped out the door. It’s pouring outside, but this couldn’t stop her. She didn’t have time to go back inside and get a coat, so she raced to her car. She started it as quick as she could. Seconds later, she realized that Lucy didn’t say where she was. But she said that she went for a coffee, so Stella headed straight for Tea Leaves.

Stella pulled up and noticed that Lucy’s car was still there. Thank goodness! She parked in the nearest spot and ran into Tea Leaves, surprised that it was still open this late. Lucy wasn’t in there. Where else could she be? That’s right! The gym behind it. Stella raced for the ancient, rusty, abandoned gym and found the door slightly ajar. Was she too late? Was the man already there? She heard a shattering scream that was swiftly cut off. She wouldn’t let her mind wander to think about what could have just happened. Stella ran in the door. He was there already. He was covering up a smaller figure with his body. He had found Lucy. The unknown man was blocking her so Stella couldn’t get a full view of Lucy. She heard pleading sobs, obviously Lucy’s. Stella first called 911 and reported the scene and whereabouts of this incident. It was an old gym and it was clearly falling apart. She found a piece of wood on the ground and hit the masked man brutally in the head several times. He didn’t even seem to flinch! Did he have a helmet on? Just her luck. He still loosened his grip on Lucy and her limp body fell to the floor. Stella didn’t see her breathing. With warm tears running down her face, she shook Lucy quite a few times. Stella was so wrapped up in trying to resuscitate poor Lucy that she didn’t even see the masked man slip away unnoticed.

This was terrible! Was this the end of her journey? Poor Lucy. Her lifeless body lay on the chilly gym floor. How did he kill her? She didn’t see him hit her or force her to drink anything. Maybe her vision was wrong. Stella couldn’t think straight. She heard the sirens of the police pull up. She was so panicked that she could barely remember the image of the man to tell the police. Lucy was rushed to the hospital.

A few hours later Stella got a call from the hospital. Lucy was pronounced dead an hour after she arrived. The doctors claimed she had died of lethal injection. What? She didn’t even see the man inject her with anything. In her vision, she saw a bottle next to Lucy. Did the killer plant fake evidence? Again, she broke down in tears.

November 29-It’s now a little over a month since Lucy’s death. Stella decided to turn the television on to try and clear her mind. The five o’clock news was on. On the screen was an image of a mug shot of a man named Thomas Stone. Above, in big letters said “SERIAL KILLER CAUGHT!” Below the picture was a list of information about the man. He had been convicted of first-degree murder fifteen years ago. He had killed five other women in the past. Oh no, his eyes were the same as Lucy’s killer. This wasn’t a common color, so it had to be him. She listened more intently and heard the names of the other women he had killed: Stephanie Patterson, Melanie Steel, Lynn Smith, Jackie Collins, and Brenda Jones. They said he just recently killed another young woman named LUCY HEINTZ! Thank goodness he got caught. He was sentenced to 120 years in prison, though this wasn’t enough.

Even though Stella had just met Lucy, she felt close to her already. She hadn’t told anyone else of her visions except her parents. Lucy wouldn’t be easily forgotten.