Secrets of Pen

"I hope you understand now how serious this situation is."

I sat as I continued staring at the monitor as it flashed Lake Allison's face. He is genius but cruel, if there is a way to put it that simply. The underground world knows him as the Key and he is famous for being a thief, but not the Robinhood kind.

"How did he get the pen?" Buck asked.

Hann cleared his throat. "That night, when you saw me leaving, I was really just passing by then I saw two men running after that girl. I wanted to help. But I came too late. When I got there, all three of them were dead. Then somebody was searching something on the girl. I hid for my own safety but then I saw the pen from where I was hiding, I think somebody dropped it while running."

"No, I think she purposely throw it away." We both looked at Buck when he spoke again. "She throw it away."

"How do you know?"

"Pen must have felt she was in danger, so she made a move herself."

Buck was doing it again. He was speaking about the pen as if it could breath, as if it was alive.

Hann hesitated but then he continued. "I didn't know why I picked that pen up, but I had a feeling that I should so I did. I waited until the man left and then I skated away, and that was when you saw me. I went home. I thought it was just nothing of a pen, until I got a call from Lake Allison himself. He told me he'd buy the pen from me."

"That simple?"

"No." Hann shook his head. "I realized then that the pen must have amount to something, so I searched for it. I thought if I should sell it, it should be for good for something. But I found nothing about it. Instead, I found you." Then he looked at Buck. "I was about to go look for you when Lake Allison got me cornered. I went blank then the next that I could remember, I was sitting on a tunnel waiting for the train to hit me. But I got lucky."

"How did he know about the pen?"

"You are asking the wrong question, Sin." Buck stood up. "The question should be what he needs it for. Hearing about him, it must not be for a good cause."

"What do you mean?"

Buck just looked at me but then he said nothing. He gave out a deep sigh. "I think this is getting more and more complicated now. Pen is in danger, and so are we."

"What is this about the pen, really?" I just looked at Hann. I have no way of answering him since I got nothing about the pen.

"There is a world outside the world you know. I already told you about the Keepers. You saw them, and you know they are real. In there, money does not count for anything. Only the sin does. The Finders will go for the sinners, their sins would be scaled by the Weighters, they would get punished accordingly on the orders of the Punishers, and the Keepers have the responsibility of securing they stay on their place. That place is in chaos now, the Architect is failing. And the only key to go their is Pen. That is why we must get her."

"Is she a girl or something?"

Buck looked at Hann. I just kept quite. This is news to me. But somehow, it feels familiar.

"Pen is a she. And we need to have her before the Seventh Heaven closes eternally."