She couldn’t believe she was even considering it. It went against everything she believed in as an animal lover. If she’d told herself a few weeks ago that she would be doing this, Amy would’ve been speechless and disgusted. But now it was necessary.

Amy hunched over the computer in the school library. She glanced over her shoulders, making sure no one was spying on her. She hated doing this in public, but she was beginning to wonder if Rover could see her search history. If he’d shut off their screens and taken a picture of himself with her iPad, who knew what he was capable of?

Amy Googled the question, Why do dogs run away?

It had come to her last night, after the chilling conversation with Katie. No one would ever believe it was Rover who was doing all of this, because, well, Rover was a dog. Accidents happen. That’s how the dog had gotten away with making the rats freak out and tripping Dad—he’d made it look like an accident, so there was no reason to suspect him.

Amy had tried to get Rover sent away, and that had backfired. Now he’d declared war. She needed to get rid of him, but she couldn’t be obvious about it.

She had to scare him away somehow. Or convince him it wasn’t worth it to stay.

Or find a way to get him out of the house, and then leave him somewhere he wouldn’t come back from.

A couple of websites immediately came up at the top of the browser featuring lists on the ways household dogs could accidentally die. It made Amy sick to think that these were common enough to force people to write listicles about them.

1. Drowning from falling into pools or wells
2. Poisoned from eating certain foods or medications
3. Electrocuted from chewing wires
4. Hit by a car
5. Choking on small toys or the like
6. Fights with other animals

Amy clicked the window shut. She wasn’t a killer. Even after everything that had happened, the idea of ending a dog’s life made her feel even worse than she did when Rover was staring at her.

But it dawned on her that the people who’d had Rover before hadn’t been killers, either. That’s why they’d left him on the side of the road.

You should do that, too, a voice inside her said.

But she shook that off. There was no way she’d be able to do that on her own. Not if Rover used his powers to resist.

There had to be a way. She wasn’t going to let him attack her family every time they disagreed with him.

Rover had to go.