The Master of the World

Chapter One

The trio has been friends since around age six. Elena and Travis have known each other their whole lives. Their mothers even grew up together. 

Except for Aiden's family. He grew up with his parents in California; they were so rich that they had multiple acres of land, and lived in a huge mansion. His parents and himself had strong ties to the royal family, the king especially. 

When Aiden turned five, however, his father died, unbeknownst at the time to them how. His mother couldn't keep up with the bills for long. So, by the time Aiden had turned six, they were living in Centreville, Illinois, the poorest city in all of the United States. 

The two were welcomed by Elena, Travis, their siblings, and their mothers (their fathers worked for the king). The three children became friends, and they were inseparable. This is where their story begins.

October 31, 1981, Halloween:

Elena, Travis, and Aiden were taking their little siblings "trick or treating." Though it wasn't really trick or treating since it was only five pm. Elena and Aiden had snuck out earlier to sprinkle out candy and treats around the neighborhood that the youngsters would find. 

Their older siblings seemed to think that they had better things to do but still promised to catch up with them in a bit. "I remember when we used to go out trick or treating each Halloween with all our school friends," Said Elena, brushing a lock of her brown hair away from her face.

"Yeah, I miss the old days. We got to do so much fun stuff when we were little. Now it's kind of getting boring, don't you think? I mean, aside from the parties." Asked Aiden. 

Elena rolled her eyes, of course, Aiden went to almost every party almost every night, even when they had school the next day, probably to hook up with a girl or five, maybe do it with one of them, then come back drunk as ever the next morning.

"I don't know. I mean, I think I like this more because now that we have little siblings, we're the ones who get to arrange all this fun stuff. It's kind of like when we were little; our moms would get us our costumes and decorate the house. Oh! Christmas was the best! I remember one year Travis' mom gathered all the neighborhood kids on Christmas Eve and we baked cookies and watched a movie with pizza and snacks," Elena said. "The best past was snuggling up with Poppy," She added with a smile.

"Uh, Poppy?" Aiden asked with a frown.

"Travis' cat, dummy."

"Oh, yea. Travis' cat," He replied hesitantly.

Elena stopped, looked at him with a raised eyebrow, and said, "Yeah, the ginger-colored one. With the faded stripes." She paused. "Gaah, never mind." 

Aiden ignored the whole part about the cat. "That was fun, now that I look back at it. Actually, come to think about it, Travis' mom used to arrange little gatherings for us all the time. Oh, remember those brownies she used to make on our birthdays, those were the best. They were so chocolaty and fudgy and warm and yummy, they were amazing. Wonder why she stopped making them."

"Aiden."

"Do you think she'll make 'em tonight?"

"Aiden where's—"

"Or maybe she already did. Let's go check and see if—"

"Aiden SHUT THE EFFING HELL UP! WHERE ARE TRAVIS AND THE KIDS?!"

"They're right he—"

"NO, THEY AREN'T! WE LOST THE KIDS! WHERE IS Travis?"

"Elena, chill. It's probably one of Travis' stupid jokes or something."

"Come on, we need to find them!" Elena started dragging Aiden towards the way they came.

"Ow, ow! Lena, I can walk on my own. Let go!"

"Then hurry up, idiot!"

They slowly started running towards Elena's house, which is where they started their little trick or treat party. They finally spotted Travis and the kids huddled around the curb on something on the ground.

"Travis? What's going on? You just left without saying anything!" Shouted Elena.

"What's that?" Aiden asked nodding towards the circle of kids. Anna and William were walking towards them, their hands linked.

Travis looked up at Elena. "Remember that story your mom used to read to us a long time ago about the man who found riddles and got to all thirteen fruits and vegetables with the magical powers. He got to all of 'em and became so powerful and was known as the Master of The World?"

"What's going on? Everything okay?" Asked William, who arrived with Anna by his side.

Elena stared at him for a moment, and then at Travis, who held up a piece of folded paper, which looked really old. Aiden was looking from Travis to Elena to the piece of paper, he was going to ask what they were talking about but one more glance at the look on Elena's face told him to wait. 

Then, all of a sudden, Elena broke into a fit of laughter. Travis started to frown then finally stood up to face her.

"It's one of the riddles," He said.