Something has happened outside of our apartment, the cops are investigating Holt's apartment. Apparently Lukas has collapsed.

Mom and some other neighbors are discussing the situation in the hallway in quiet whispers.

Catching brief statements from the police, "Not so suspicious causes."

"I heard he had an allergic reaction," whispers one of the neighbors.

An allergic reaction?

"How did he die?" I ask the neighbor. She gives me a look, ever since we moved in Wendy thinks I am a little odd. She turns her head to my Mom, and then back at me.

"I heard he choked to death," Wendy, the apartment scout, an older woman, with three cats, lives alone, and I only know her because she often likes to talk to my Mom about infidelity, and other neighborly affairs. Choked to death, like? That's just - coincidence, right?

"Quentin, how about you go inside?" Mom knows when I've stayed out my welcome with the neighbors. They think I am a little weird, but that's simply because I have an interest outside of the norm. I won't argue.

Choke, allergic reaction, like? Heading back into our apartment. Like, what was written? That's silly. Stuff like that doesn't happen in the real world, does it? Did I do that? Or? What's different and new, the pen? Maybe. It's circumstances are odd, and unusual, but there is no such thing as magical pens? Slipping back into my bedroom. The journal, maybe? Or maybe I did it just from the power of thought? No. It also just could be coincidence?

While the neighbors all gossip outside, I guess the only way to figure it out would be - to figure it out? The scientific method, is there even a scientific method for this? To test the Pen theory, I'll have a control Pen. And to test the Journal theory, I'll have a control Journal. That seems the best. Now to find someone who deserves to die.

The internet is good for that. I'll find someone really bad. A quick search about arrested people who have done something violent.

Let's see. Opening the search bar: Recent murders. No. Recent arrest will probably have better results.

Five in the major news and one is a current ongoing case. Hayes Bentley, arrested for sexual assault and battery of woman he picked up at a bar. Seems the court is considering giving him a lighter sentence which proponents are arguing against. And another is Vincent Suthers, arrested for attempted robbery of a cash register in a gas station. Both are from Oakside.

Well, as much as I don't care for Vincent Suthers actions, I think that people would be happy if Hayes Bentley died. I think to prove whether it is the journal, or whether or not it is the pen. I'll write in the journal underneath Lukas' karma, with a regular pen, and in the new journal with the bin pen. Oh I need to find a control person, just in case it's my own thoughts that willed Lukas dead.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Here we go. A Micheal Thomas, arrested for raping his coworker. Well, I'll just think about wishing him to die. I wonder how I would like him to die. Since he's already going to jail, I think it would be best if they got into an accident on the way to prison. And died, while everybody else lived.

So, Vincent Suthers. Oh! There is a video on Youtube. Many of them are titled Idiot Robber Fails, Ultimate Criminal Fails. So, he's just a bumbling fool.

[https://i.ibb.co/5czCR8p/strip1.jpg]

What is the best way for someone who is already getting ridiculed to die? Maybe he slips down some steps, in the courthouse, breaking his neck.

[https://i.ibb.co/5ksQXxn/strip2-1.jpg]

Now onto Hayes Bentley. He doesn't seem to be too nice of a man and his case is being covered quite extensively on the news. It's garnered attention because despite his string of sexaul assaults and battery to women, some criticize the light sentence he's getting is due to the fact that he may have connections to the police department as a relative. Though the court denies that is even the case.

People are asking him to be put into prison for life, while the court wants to give him fifteen. Someone like that is protected by the law, despite the outpouring of objections. Looking at the pen I discovered today, a part of me hopes that it is special. But the skeptic inside of me is telling me Lukas' death is merely a coincidence. I'll write in a fresh journal with the mysterious pen.

Putting the Mysterious Pen to the paper.

Someone like Hayes is the type of person who thinks they can go do something terrible to people because he knows he can get away with it. I mean clearly he is. It's very clear the court is in his favor despite the way that he treats people. Stalking frightened, inebriated women home, and taking advantage of them while they are drunk.

That is obviously a crime, and obviously a punishable offense. These are the types of people I hate the most. They remind me of how cruel the world can be, when people who don't deserve to die, die in the cruelest of ways, and the people like Hayes get to get away with doing terrible things. I think he deserves to suffer. Suffer the way he made other people suffer. He needs to die in a painful way. One that is grueling. One that will make him confess his cruelty and beg for mercy at the end of the day.

What would be that? Looking online won't help me. I think it has to come from within. Something - accidental. Even if I wished him to be poisoned to death, that would probably make people suspicious of each other. But it couldn't be something too nice. What are some of the most common ways to die? Well, according to this data, it would be a heart attack, followed by cancer.

Maybe.

That will work.

[https://i.ibb.co/5kBQxL5/Side-Beg-1.png]

"Quinn," Mom has returned.

-in my bedroom, I am finishing something up," I respond.

"That's okay sweetheart," Mom sounds like she's smiling reassuringly to me through her tone, "How about I order a pizza for dinner tonight?"

"Only if we can afford it,"

Back to it. Hayes Bentley, you're going to face your own karma now.