Alcatraz

Letter 1- N I A L L

11 February 2014

Dear Mr. Malik,

Well, I'm not really sure if you'll actually get this letter-or care enough to read it, for that matter-but I was just writing to you in hopes that you could help me out a bit. Wow, that probably isn't the best way to start off a letter, is it? Sorry, I'm not the best at this kind of thing.

Let's start over, shall we? For starters, my name's Niall. I'm twenty-one and currently attending Uni in hopes of being a Journalist someday. The teachers are shit, but the classes are all right, I suppose. Anyway, enough with the rambling. The reason I'm writing you is because I've been given the task of researching an important historical figure. I wanted to do my project on someone that would be of interest to me and I thought "hey, why not you?". And that sounded incredibly stupid, didn't it? Oh well, it's not as though you'll read this letter anyway.

In case you do happen to see this letter, however, I'm wishing on my lucky stars that you'll be able to help me. You see, I'm currently failing one of my Journalism classes-not that I'm stupid or anything, I just can't find it in myself to care about turning in papers on topics I've no interest in, you know?

You're probably wondering how you fit into this whole mess, aren't you? Well, I'll admit I've done my fair share of research on you and your life (in a totally non-creepy way, I swear!), but so far, I've not been able to find any interviews with you or anything at all that gives me your perspective on the events of your life. That's a bit unfair, don't you think? I mean, the world knows only about what the media wants them to know. The juicy parts of the stories that frame you as a bad man. What I'm interested in, though, is hearing your side of the story. I don't believe that you're all bad, Zayn. May I call you that? Let me know.

I hope to hear back from you; I'd really like to turn this assignment into something special.

Thanks man,

Niall.