The castle was massive—walls taller than Villain Academy. Greenery stretched across the land, growing past the hills that disappeared over the horizon.

"Enough of the scenic tour," Archer piped.

"What?" I turned and something sharp pierced my head.

A short gasped escaped from my lips, body crashing onto the boat seat.

The beast inside of me rattled against its cage as it harshly whispered the same words over and over:

Traitor, traitor, traitor.

The blackness cupped me in its hand, putting me in deep slumber until a strong force shook my body, the dark peeling back its fingers to reveal a solid whiteness.

I blinked back, the white light stabbing my eyes.

Then a tang hit my tongue as I tasted a bitter, metallic liquid, it soaking my lips.

Blood, my beast murmured.

I wiggled my hands, nails grazing the bare ground. Groaning, I shielded a hand on my face and failed to see anything but the white room.

"We had to disinfect you," spoke Lance.

"What a pity. I was really attached to my germs." I faintly grinned up at him, and saw Archer glaring me down. "How's it going, sugar plum?"

"I can't believe I trusted you."

"Trust?" I winced. "Such a strong word." I moved my legs, sitting upright. "Say, how did you come to the conclusion that I backstabbed you?" Slowly, I pushed off to secure a good two feet on the ground. Burning pain shot up my back, and I stood a little hunched as I continued. "I'm awfully interested in how your idiotic brains could make up such a thing."

Archer laughed, Lance even chuckling a bit. "You think we'd tell you? After what just happened?"

I gave them my own little laugh before making a run, but Archer swung a club out from behind his back.

My teeth went numb, the wood cracking my lips open and the floor suddenly was much colder than I thought. My arms trembled to lift my weight and a heel dug into my neck, pressing me on the floor.

"Don't get up until I say so," Archer hissed.

My lips pressed against the tiles and I tried to look up, finding the jeans of a familiar friend. "Why can't we just mop the floor with your face?" I snorted. "Oh wait—I don't think you could fit in the corners."

He ground his boot into my neck and I cried out, hands crawling for anything.

"You lied to me," he hissed and released the boot off. He grabbed me by the hair and I screamed, his force dragging me up to his chest.

I still managed to smile through trembling lips. "Funny how we met this way and now we're going to end this way too."

"End?" he asked. He bitterly laughed. "Who said anything about ending you? No, no, Vhalerie. We're not going to kill you. Not at all. We're going to do something—what do you like to call it?" He snapped his fingers in brilliance. "Right. Fun. Yes, we're going to do something really fun. And it's gonna hurt. Really bad."

I swallowed cry and stared straight into his eyes. I dug up my last mechanism of defense, it crawling out of me in a sickening way: I smiled. "My favourite kind of game."

He narrowed his gaze and punched me in the stomach. The wind escaped from my breath and I choked on air, pain erupting from my ribs.

"Hella adorbs," I said sickly and spat on him.

Blood sprayed across his face and I heard the boys wince behind him. I smiled up with red twice and laughed, and kept laughing until he socked another punch into my stomach.

"Maybe I should repeat myself. Heroes are gods. We keep peace on this God forsaken land and villains corrupt everything that lives and breathes. You may not know it yet but your ancestors destroyed our world and will do it again if we don't do something."

The darkness was winning the fight and I tried my best to fight back one last time. I propped my elbows up and saw amazement flash over Archer's eyes. "You have it all wrong, Mister," I repeated. "We're no different. Gods are the monsters."

Then the darkness swallowed me up again.

+++

A cold metal grasped my wrists and I wrenched away in terror, eyes darting to the handcuffs. "Archer! I don't like this joke!" I thrashed and twisted on the bed and a chuckle rumbled behind me. "Not funny."

"Really?" Archer said. "I thought you treated everything as a joke."

"Archer!" I screamed and tried to claw my one free hand at him. He laughed, and I saw his mask had returned—the black eyeshadow covering over both their eyes.

Hells Bells, all three of the boys had the makeup on.

"Never knew Halloween was in August," I said with a smirk.

"It's school time," Lance said.

"And uniform day," Price added.

"You don't expect me to change, do you?" I asked, staring down at my night gown they had forced me to change into.

And lemme tell you, waking up handcuffed to your enemy's bed in a night gown wasn't how I liked to spend my Monday mornings. Especially when you were on a completely different island.

"What the actual hell?!" I shook the cuffs, the metal clanging against the bedframe.

"Of course not. That would be torture, right?" He smirked and grabbed my face between one of his hands.

"Don't touch me!" I furiously spat.

He pinched my cheeks with this thumb and forefinger, forcing me to come closer. "Hold still, sugar pie. Close your eyes."

As much as I wanted to scream and yank, his strength over me won and I pleaded for the beast to help.

But nothing rattled inside of the cage. Nothing moved in my mind. Silence filled the emptiness and suddenly—for the first time—I was alone.

Where did my beast go? This didn't make sense.

Archer painted a black stripe across my eyes; imprinting the symbol of the heroes with a crude smile. "There."

"She almost looks like one of us," Lance said with a laugh.

"You're almost attractive." Archer dropped his hand, giving the paint sponge back to Price. "Don't even try to remove it. Only a hero can take it off."

"You're sick!" I leaped forward, the handcuff catching me back and I jerked in outrage.

"And for the finishing touches." Archer clamped a familiar metal bracelet to my wrist.

"No, no." It was the same prison bracelet they put on Roger. "You're kidding! Steel isn't even my colour!"

"Isn't that too bad, sweetie," Archer mocked and dangled the keys in front of my face. "Now be a good girl and don't do anything stupid. One wrong move and the poison of that bracelet will be injected into your bones, killing you in seconds."

I swallowed down my nerves. "I hear ya, loud and clear." The tension off my wrists was relaxing and I breathed a sigh of relief. "That's better." I kindly continued, "So could one of you sweet tarts tell me what the hell is going on before I rip one of your throats out?"

Price shared a grin with Lance and I frowned between them. "Guys..." I began, carefully looking around the room. "Where are we?" Another empty bed was across from the one I was on and two dressers sat on the other side of the room.

Archer placed his hand on my head and I flinched before he started stroking my hair. "Don't worry, sweetheart. We thought it's time we flipped the tables."

Lance's hand pushed me from the lower back and Price opened the door. Archer unlocked my handcuffs, the metal bracelet still tightly wrapped around my waist. A cold metal pressed into my lower back, a soft nip at my ear forcing me to flinch.

"One wrong move, Vhal and bang!" I felt him smile against my neck and the cold metal slipped off of me, it hiding back in his jacket.

Price opened the door wider for us to step out, and I winced at the natural light that broke through the ceiling. The hallway surfaces were all windows, basking everyone in the heat of the summer sun.

I cringed. "Ew. Sun light." Blinking several times to fight off the strong rays, I added, "Why is it so bright? Gheesh!"

They started steering me through the hall, my vision slowly returning. I shrugged the boys off, their hands dropping from my arms as we walked out of the girl dorms.

The females stared and whispered, their eyes covered in black makeup as well. "Thank Satan you guys don't wear capes. Wouldn't want to be embarrassed on my first day."

They stared at the boys behind me and then at me and then at the boys again. I ate up the attention, winking and smiling back in what I hoped was in the creepiest way.

The boys noticed this and shoved me to walk faster. A loud laugh burst from my mouth and Archer discreetly jabbed me in the side. "Don't be so loud," the hero hissed.

"Aw, cupcake," I said with a pout. "What's fun without being a little loud?"

Price sucked in a breath and patted my shoulder. "I do not think you are going to find this fun." They guided me out the doors and through a garden, hedges forcing the path to be narrow.

"Why not? I find fun in everything," I simply said.

They pushed me out of the garden and the rest of the teens walked up the stairs to the castle made out of glass. The words built into the glass seemed bigger in my eyes and I stumbled back, bumping into Archer's chest.

"No! No fucking way!" I whirled around in outrage. "You can't do this!"

He grinned and pushed me forward with the rest of my enemies. "It was time you see our side of things."

The words HERO HIGH were bolted in gold across the front of the school.

I gulped, never being so close to so many monsters. One villain in a school full of heroes.

"Are you insane?!" I hissed.

"Not as much as you," Archer said.

We stalked up the stairs, my eyes following the steps only. The last thing I needed was to look into their eyes.

Why would that matter, Vhal? Their eyes are your eyes now.

I brushed my finger against the corner of eye, glimpsing down and failing to see the dye smudge.

I was dressed as one of them.

Unlike in Villain Academy where the floors were occasionally stained in blood, here at the academy, the spotless white tiles glittered when you walked across. Lockers weren't covered in profanity and spray paint, but were untarnished and new looking.

The people wore smiles with their masks, in their cliques and attitudes.

One girl even opened the entrance door for me.

"What are you doing?" I snapped.

"Helping you out," she said with a cheery smile.

Hells Bells.

They were being... I shivered. Nice.

"Get me outta here!" I hissed, but Archer pushed me to continue up the stairs.

I tried to cut a corner and Archer's hand yanked my arm back, steering me in this specific direction.

"Awe, you're not going anywhere, sweetheart," he drew out with a tinge of amusement.

I swallowed hard, wanting to keep my head up yet it was so hard without having people look at me.

I glimpsed around for a mili-fucking-second and too many eyes laid over me so I rested my gaze on the ground the entire time.

"Bathroom," I rasped when I suddenly felt lightheaded.

"What did you say?" asked Price.

"She said bathroom," Lance replied.

Archer growled and dragged me over to a familiar sign: the female washroom: the one thing I understood ever since I got there.

"You got fifty seconds," he demanded and practically threw me in.

I stumbled through the doors, not wasting any time if it meant getting away from them. Taking a quick scan under all the stalls, I released a long breath and glanced up.

I nearly screamed, my hand slapping over my mouth before it could escape.

The black dye was thick as night and felt sick as day. Hero mask over a villain face.

I looked awful.

No beast. No Vhalerie-tastic persona.

I looked wrong.

It felt wrong.

It ALL FELT WRONG.

Being at the bottom, letting them walk all over me.

Rage pumped through my blood and I slammed both hands on the ceramic sink.

When you were stuck at the bottom, sometimes you have to take the piece above you in order for the top to fall.

Archer may be the King here.

But as a Queen gone rouge, this villain was going to steal back her crown—no matter if it came from the good side or bad side.

As I began to make a clearer sense of the world, the lines seemed to get more blurry; they blended enough for me to realize if I wanted to live, I'd have to be half good.

And half bad.

+++

Woohooo!

I'm on a roll.

Sorta.

Anyway, I'm going to be following everyone who can fill in this quick survey for me about how they like Wattpad. 

 If you're interested, private message me and I'll send the link.

*Back to the story*

So Vhalerie is afraid of people staring? Oh no!

*Also, do you go on tumblr? If so, what blogs do you recommend I follow? Because I've been thinking about getting into the tumblr world*

Please vote! :)

Comment your favourite part of Christmas below! :) I love baking gingerbread houses and ugly sweaters and buying the pumpkin spice lattes at Starbucks and doing dances like such: 

See you later! Just gonna go before this whole chapter turns into a massive story told by gifs...

Buh-bye.

Wait. 

Xx 8tracks/ Twister King

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