text: Zack looked at the demon girl as Addie flew past him and got slammed against the wall like she was a pillow. She morphed back into her human self as she slid down the wall. Addie didn’t look so hot; you could tell that several of her ribs were broken, she had a busted lip, and was coughing up blood. Zack had to tap into the pen’s powers to save her even though he would have to give up being human. It was a bad course of action but he didn’t have another plan and wouldn’t be able to make one in time for Addie’s sake. Zack’s eyes darken as his fingernails grew out like he was Wolverine. Zack turned to the others, “We have to help her!” Zack exclaimed as he rushed over to Addie. Cody, Liz, and Simon pulled out their pens and looked around for cover. Cody, Liz, and Simon started to use the floor as paper, but before they could start to writing,, the white wolf howled, and a blue mist rose from the floor broads. Liz and Tina saw their father, in the flesh, standing in front of them along with Artie and Ethan. Cody and Simon stared, wide-eyed at their mother, who had passed away six years ago. Dan and Maddie saw their families, the ones the killed welcoming them back with open arms as if they had just had a little fight and they were still alive. Harper saw Angel and Lason in one piece. When Damian, Zack, Krystal, and Katrienna looked around the hallway, the only humans there were the gang, Addie, and the wolf girl. Black ink figures stood in front of them like sirens, trying to get them to come towards them. Zack looked back at them, “GET THE PENS!” Damian bolted to Liz and picked up the Pen of Character. Krystal went for Simon’s pen. When Krystal took the pen it moped into a sword. Katrienna tried to get Cody’s but he was surrounded by the ink monsters, making it impossible for her to get near him. While the other worked on trying to get the pens, Zack went full beast mode on the white wolf while Addie tried to catch her breath... The white wolf’s fur was now bloody and big chunks of it laid scattered around her body. Zack stood over the corpse while the others tried to help Addie to her feet. Addie started to take the pens back, but then stopped in midthought. She looked up to Liz, Cody, Harper, Dan, Simon, and Maddie with glass-like eyes, “I think we should break the remaining pens so they can’t fall into the wrong hands,” she said looking towards Zack as she continued, “Let me have the Devil’s pen so I can be bound to it, so I can fight my own battle.” Zack quickly replied, glaring at the others so they wouldn’t say anything and keeping his eyes away from Addie, “It was destroyed when you vanished.” Addie nodded but didn’t say anything else. Tina spoke up, “Um, I’m bonded to the pen of death, but is there a way that it can be undone?” Addie shook her head, “Each pen is different; each one has its own soul and power. If it was the devil’s pen, for example, it would be easy to remove from a that I created, but if it was me or someone else it would take a while. Unfortunately, death is permanent.” Addie turned to the others, “Would any of you like to be the bridge between the pens?” Simon was the first one to step forward, then Dan and Harper. Adaline smiled, “Good, now there’s a pen in each world.” Cody looked at Addie, “What about the Forgotten’s pen?” Addie sighed, “She still needs a home and wants to keep her memories locked away, so the pen will stay with her.” Adaline looked to the others, “Let’s go home.” ... Zack smiled as the final bell rang, letting everyone know that summer had begun. It had been two weeks since everyone had gotten back to their own world and life was getting back to normal. Adaline had been accepted into a high school writing workshop for the summer, leaving with a big smile and hopes to try to cheer Tina up and find Ethan, who didn’t pass on. Zack knew lying to Addie about the devil’s pen was dumb but he didn’t want her to worry about him. He had gotten pretty good at hiding the red eyes, but some days he looked like a corpse; his eyes would be sunken in and he would be paler than heck, but when people asked him about it he would just say that he was under the weather. He had gotten used to seeing horns on his shadow and seeing the demon girl everywhere, but he didn’t know what to do. Then the idea hit him; Tina might be able to help him. Little did he know that a new adventure just around the corner... The tree stood alone on the hill that looked out to the sea. This tree had seen it all; love, lies, betrayal, and death. It stood over children playing in the grass, brothers at war with one another, lovers that now are one, and the tree stood strong yet always alone, ‘til one night when a girl about 15 carved her name into its bark. The girl’s tears hit the ground as the tree stood shakily above the girl’s head. The girl made a necklace out of rope, and the tree bowed its branches. The girl hung as the tree shakes in the wind. The wind blew through the branches making a silent cry for the loss of life. Let us have mercy on the crying soul. As the tree looked out to the sea, a boy about 15 came with flowers. The tree stood still as if in shock. The boy visited the tree every day. As the years passed, the boy grew and went to fight another nation. The tree stood alone for five years until a family came by to lay the boy at rest. But loyal still they held right as men of righteousness like the boy to fight and die for the banner of their country. And how can man die better than facing fearful odds, for the ashes of his fathers, and the temples of his gods? The town’s folk named the tree “The Weeping Tree”, for it had seen pain and loss. This tree now looks out to the sea in hope of a better world. In the tree’s world, a land of prosperity that will escape the eye of a stranger, the cry for a homely proverb is unyielding. Many have broken faith because of the unholy wars. A girl’s voice started to sing as the wind picked up. The tree stood five feet away from two women. Both young and beautiful, yet one better than the other. “BANG”. The singing stopped as one woman fell to the ground. Man is the only animal that kills for the sheer joy of it. Blood is spilled and yet the tree lives. The blood of mankind cries out from the ground. As it once was in Egypt. “And there was a great cry in Egypt for there was not a house where someone was not dead,” says the prophet. This tree longs for the light but it is surrounded by darkness. The wind carries the cries of children who fear dark while men fear the light. As the prophet John has written,“ in this is the judgment: the light has come into the world and people love the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come into the light lest his works should be exposed.” This tree needs light just as the children need it. Children like trees planted by streams of water that yield fruit in its season and their leaves do not wither away and all that they do they prosper. When I was a child; I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I responded like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. But in the eyes of a child, the greatest of all things is love. That heart of a dream that once sang in the tree’s life, died as the reckoning of man takes the dreamers among the wicked. Can’t we dream the tree’s dream of a better world where death cannot reach the children of love? What a dream it would be, the dreamer’s dream of hope. The tree dreamed a beautiful dream. The dream was about a garden where children played among the flowers and war was no more. Weeds don’t have dwellings among the garden. It wanted to live in the dream but it looks out to a nightmare that can’t be controlled. The sea grew ill and the sky turned evil. The tree’s world grew ill as the tree lived. The sky sent demons that wiped out the land and made the land shook in fear. Man gave birds armor, the sky demons, and the sea illness. Men of evil made the tree’s world take a turn for the worst. The prophet has written, “So will Babylon, the great city will be thrown down with violence, and will be found no more. And all the nations were deceived by your society and there was found the blood of the prophets and the saints and all who have been slain on Earth.” The earth grew weaker. A curse on nature cast by men of evil has descended upon the world. Listen all, to the tree’s story. Will you hear the despair of the affected? Will you strengthen their hearts? Will you incline your ear to do justice for the fatherless and the oppressed so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more? Darkness has fallen in paradise, and children cry out from their villages that lay in ruin due to man’s hate. The living need more prayers than darkness... A grim reaper sat beneath the tree, reading her lover’s last poem as she stood looking out to the sea. Tina read the Tree’s story many times since she had taken the book from the library from Wonderland but still felt empty. Addie said that Ethan deserves a second chance at life but didn’t know how to bring him back...