In Control

by dusk
 Prologue

He had slowly been going insane.

Ever since he found out the truth- the truth he loved so much.

Things had been going downhill since then. He needed someone to talk to, but the others

were already too far gone.

He was alone.

“It’s such a nice day outside, don’t you think, Finn?” Star pointed out. The sun was

beginning to set, and the fresh, crisp fall air felt divine.

“Well, yeah. It is a good day to take a walk after all!” Star smiled, and he tried his best to

smile back. Inside, he still felt uncertainty. Although the moment felt nice, there was too much

going on for him to handle. Finn just wanted to get home to his palace and relax.

It had been a long day for him, especially because of his subjects. Finn never thought it

would get so bad that he’d have to lie to satisfy them. After all, he did hold the virtue of Truth… it

was hard to believe he could stoop so low…

maybe even take a nice nap. Why, oh why did he decide to go on this walk with Star? The answer

was to make himself look fine. A lie. Just like all of the ones he had been telling the cookies who

wanted to know the truth.

Apparently, if the truth was bad, it wasn’t good enough for them. So Finn had to resort to

false truths. And this was turning into the new normal for him. What was he becoming?

As they entered the kingdom, a whiff of a harsh, ashy stench blew into Finn’s nose. He

wrinkled his face and took a glance at Star, who seemed to be frozen in shock.

“Star? Are you okay?” Finn tensed up. In front of his eyes was reddish-orange and black.

Something was on fire.

And that something was his kingdom.

Without hesitation, he dashed into the open fire. “EVERYONE, OUT!” Finn screeched. He

was more scared for his subjects’ lives than his own.

“Finn, what are you doing-” Star yelled. Finn replied, but his voice was drowned out by

the screaming of the kingdom’s residents.

Finn could barely breathe- he was coughing, gasping for air, and every small whiff that

wasn’t smoke was a blessing. Everything will be fine, he thought. I’ll get out of here safely, he told

himself.

He was lying to himself again.

His face was burning. Finn felt a pain unlike anything he had ever felt before—it was

truly terrifying. Then the fire got to his eyes. He howled in pain and dropped to the ground,

fanning his face aggressively. He managed to put the fire out, but he could barely see. The fire had

nearly blinded him.

“FINN, WATCH OUT!” a voice screamed. Out of the corner of his eye that he could see out

of, a flash of a large piece of architecture fell toward him—a pillar. And an all-too familiar face

stood there smirking, one hand near the pillar, the other holding a match.

The last thing Finn saw was the face of his best friend.
 Chapter One

Bus rides were always the most calming parts of my day. School was always so hectic,

boring, and easy. Plus, everyone hated me there. (Except for Gloria. But I wasn’t “supposed” to be

talking to her. At all. My dad forbade it. I didn’t care, though.)

Life at home was certainly not calming either. (Well, I preferred referring to it as my

dad’s apartment because there was no way that I could ever feel at home there.) My father was a

corrupt Beast. He had turned evil and insane after some… events. And he was very abusive.

A curse invented by the faeries was cast on him and the other four Beasts to prevent them

from physically harming anyone. That didn’t stop my dad, though. He would abuse me in other

ways: hitting me with things, taking away the crutches I couldn’t walk without, forcing water

down my throat (I had a very peculiar allergy, so I could only drink milk, juice, and milk-based

coffee), and neglecting me in all sorts of ways. So many ways that I can’t count them on my

fingers.

So, bus rides were a moment of relief. I would always lean against the window listening to

music with the secret earbuds that my mom got me for my birthday. Then the bus would reach

Gloria’s house, and she would come sit by me. We’d talk and talk and talk on and on about

everything going on and what awful things our fathers did to us this time. Gloria was in the same

boat as me; her dad was also a Beast, and he got her older brother to hit her for him.

“Alden. Alden. Hello? ALDEN. Answer me this instant, young man!”

my music.

“Oh, hey, Gloria!” I smiled at her. She was my best friend and girlfriend, but my dad

hated her since her father betrayed mine by burning his kingdom to a crisp. We would always

fake arguments when anywhere near each other around our parents. My dad took away my food

for three days just for talking to her when he first found out.

I brushed back my black hair, moved my crutches, and scooted closer to the window so

Gloria could take a seat. I noticed there was a new bruise on her arm. Before I could ask her

anything, she looked at me. “Carlos beat me up again. I got a B in math. Dad didn’t like it.”

“Oh, goddesses,” I muttered, “how bad is it?”

She sighed. “It’s okay. Might grab an ice pack from the nurse before I head to first hour.” I

put my hand on her shoulder to comfort her.

“Alden- no need to comfort me. You have it much worse than I do; I should be the one

comforting you.” Sadly, Gloria was right. The indirect physical abuse and obvious favoritism in

her family were grains of sand compared to the sea of abuse from my father.

I pushed up my glasses and looked at her. “True, true.” I checked my phone calendar.

“Oh! Look! Today marks two years til my mom is legally allowed to file for custody!”

Gloria smirked. “Two more years until I can see you without your dad punishing me as

well.” I laughed. She playfully flicked me. Ouch.

especially since it was one of the few things he let me do to ease boredom. He didn’t know that I

enjoyed it.

The bus bounced along the winding road to the middle school. Gloria and I were in eighth

grade; we’d be heading to high school at the end of the year. Everyone else was excited for

summer break. Everyone but us two. We’d be at home for two months with our fathers.

Our fathers, however, weren’t the only Beasts, although they were arguably the worst

ones. There were three others, and they all had kids as well. We had made friends with their

children. We were very close, a nice friend group.

Dave’s mother was the beast of Apathy, or emotionlessness. She would always scold him

for absolutely no reason, but wouldn’t abuse him or anything. He was very… well, as Gloria

called him, “EMO! EMO! EMOOOO!” and didn’t talk very much. He also didn’t seem to physically

be able to smile or laugh, which was odd.

Lily was Dave’s sister, as their parents were married. It was funny because Lily lived with

her father, the Beast of Silence, whom you could obviously tell Dave took after. Her father was

very harsh, cold, and blunt. Sometimes he would push her around with his sword, but that was

pretty much it. Lily had odd white hair and was very shy. She was also an avid grass toucher, and

Gloria didn’t like that.

Holly, the other member of our group, had the Beast of Sloth as her mother. Holly was

spoiled rotten, somehow, while her mother either bedrotted or went out to the garden that she

wasn’t allowed to enter. She was bright, bubbly, daring, protective, and ecstatic. She was also

very obnoxious at times- once at the lunch table, she chugged 8 boxes of apple juice in a row.
Gloria challenged that she could do better, but passed out on the floor amid the challenge and had

to go to the nurse’s office.

Gloria’s father was the Beast of Destruction, and he seemed pretty mad about not being

able to harm people, especially her. She had originally been adopted as a baby, only to be

something her father could use to take his anger out on after his wife died in a tragic accident, but

then the curse was placed. So instead, he used Gloria’s older brother, Carlos, to beat her up for

him. Carlos hated her, too.

And lastly, my father. The Beast of Deceit, or as I like to call him, the Beast of alcoholism

and gambling addiction. He was plain awful. Smacking me with things, throwing empty beer

bottles at me, taking away the crutches I needed to aid me with my osteoporosis, neglecting me,

and so much more. He hated me so much, mainly because I reminded him of his “past self.” I

didn’t even know what he meant by that, but he said it way too much.

My dad didn’t mind me talking to the other three; it was mainly Gloria he hated. He

needed to understand she was nothing like her dad.

The bus rolled to a stop at the school, and Gloria helped me get off, making sure I didn’t

hurt myself trying to do so. We successfully left the bus, and we headed up toward the school.

The door-opening bell rang, and Gloria and I headed towards the band room, the one

place we could escape reality AND bullying. Kids at our school were jerks, especially to me. I was

a four-in-one perfect target: nerdy, disabled, mentally challenged, and in an awful home

situation.
 We sat down in our corner, and I sighed. The band room air always hit different, and I

had no idea how. Even Gloria, someone who loved to disagree with people, agreed with me. Our

band room was huge. I played the alto saxophone while Gloria played the trumpet. Gloria

wanted to play clarinet, but her dad forced her into playing trumpet because it was a family

tradition, apparently. I rented an alto from the school because my dad didn’t know I was in band

and would strangle me if he found out. How didn’t he know? Well, he was never present for

anything, didn’t show up to any parent-teacher conferences, didn’t ask about my school

activities, and never questioned if I stayed at school late, although if it was uncalled for, he

punished me.

I was first chair in the band, called “phenomenal” by the band director. Even other band

members feared me. Sadly, I was never able to participate in marching band due to my disability.

Our other friends were in band too; Lily played the clarinet, Dave the trombone, and

Holly was a percussionist. But band wasn’t what brought us five together.

It was the first day of sixth grade, and I was standing in the lunch line timidly after

practically the entire school had pushed me around and picked on me. I was scared that I

wouldn’t be able to find a lunch table and would be stuck sitting with some annoying jerks who

would use me to do their bidding. I can remember that my crutch accidentally bumped into the

girl in front of me.

“How dare,” she playfully said and looked at me. I could recall feeling terrified until she

told me, “No need to be scared. I’m not going to be mean to you. Most of the time. What’s your

name?”

“A-Alden…” I stuttered out.

We continued to talk for the rest of the time in the lunch line, and after we got our food,

she grabbed my tray for me.

“Now, we find a table. Great,” I sighed. Gloria and I had ended up searching the entire

cafeteria, asking every friend group whether we could sit with them. Every single table said no.

There was only one left, the one we were scared of. The table of the most popular girl in

school and her two friends, who also looked scary. We headed toward the table with caution.

“Can we sit here?” I gave them a wary smile. The popular girl’s face lit up.

“Of course!” she exclaimed. “This table was getting a bit boring, anyway… What are your

names? My name’s Holly! Them…” she pointed to the girl with white hair and then to the boy in

dark clothes, “That’s Lily, and that’s Dave. They’re siblings. I know. Shocking, right?” Gloria was

practically gaping at the fact.

We then proceeded to have a conversation on what type of mystery meat the school

chicken was made of, and rambled on and on about our teachers until lunch was finished. Every

day, Gloria and I would sit at that table, and slowly, we became a group. It ended up being pretty

funny how all of our parents were Beasts, but we didn’t question it. Maybe it was fate that we all

met…

Thinking back to that time brought happiness to my heart. It wasn’t very often that I was

happy.
 Lily was playing on a whole different level of high notes when we got to our corner. She

smiled and waved, and I did the same back. I began to pick at the stickers that I had used to

decorate my crutches with—a nervous habit of mine. I had too many of those.

Gloria looked me in the eyes. “What are you nervous about this time, Alden?”

“Oh, uh, the math test in first hour. I’m scared I’ll miss a question-” She silenced me.

“Nonsense. Alden, you have NEVER gotten a math question wrong. It’s scary how you

haven’t, but that only proves my point. I’ve told you this a million times, and I’ll tell you it a

million more: STOP. OVERTHINKING.”

“Yes, yes, fine, I will.” I sighed.

I couldn’t help but overthink everything, though. Especially since my dad would wring

my neck for anything less than a 100. Even though it wasn’t even a problem for me, you know,

with my insane nerdiness and all.

It seemed like I had superhuman knowledge; that could be a side effect of being the child

of a past Virtue and a Guardian. I was rather special. In both ways.

Gloria didn’t have anything like that, though, but she was adopted, so she wasn’t even

directly related to either her father or Carlos.

She didn’t even have immortality.

Children of immortals were VERY likely to inherit their parents’ immortality. I didn’t,

however. Such a shame, especially considering my condition and my father.

I wish he were the mortal one.

Sometimes, my impulses told me to steal his Soul Jam and push him out the window of

our fourth-floor apartment. Even Gloria agreed with that.

I’d probably be cooked before I could, though. And I was WAY too weak as well. So I

never did. I just submitted to his will.