Conquest

October 8th, 1998 marked the series premiere of Cherry Love-Fitzgerald's favorite TV show, "The Super Bachelor?" Her father asked her as he shifted in his brown reclinable leather chair inside of his warm living room. Cherry was only 11 years old and she had fallen in love with reality shows.

"Yeah dad, it's about these girls trying to compete for a superhero's love." She said jumping up and down in front of her TV as her brown hair bounced.

"Woah, a superhero! Do you want to become a hero?" Her father replied.

"I want to become a hero's wife! Like MJ Lane in comics." She said smiling as the smell of booze hit her while her father chugged down a bottle of beer. He stopped after he noticed her small frame staring at him.

"Do you want a sip?" Her father handed her his bottle. She took a sip and dropped the bottle. Her face grimaced and contorted while her neck retracted. The bottle fell on the ground and the beer flowed out toward her father.

She gasped. "Dad I'm so sorry."

"Relax Cherry. I can always buy another." He got out of his chair and picked up the bottle, "There's still a little more left in there, do you want the rest?"

She nodded her head, grabbed the bottle out of her dad's hands and attempted to chug it. While drinking it she had to take several breaks and coughed while doing it, but she finished the rest and set it down on their floor. She wiped her mouth as she continued to watch her favorite show. This would eventually become tradition for her and her father. Every new episode of The Super Bachelor, always ended with Cherry drunkenly saying, "I knew she was going to get picked! I can win this if I tried you know."

Her father would always be passed out.

Cherry had turned 21 on the 20th of March. On her 21st birthday she vowed to not drink until she got onto the special 10 year anniversary episode of The Super Bachelor. However on June 13th, 2008, she walked into a bar with nothing but herself and a glass of milk. She wore a silk black dress, black sneakers, red lipstick, and had recently dyed her head red. As she walked through the musty bar with dry air that carried the scent of tobacco and dried scat. There were many men inside the bar, all of which wearing leather jackets or dirty business jackets.

She sat down at a counter, stared at her glass of milk and whimpered.

"You alright little lady?" A man standing next to her asked. His breath carried a repulsive stench that was a concoction of booze, rotten cheese, and blood.

"No," she responded to the man without looking at him.

"What's the issue? Did your girlies leave you alone?"

She sighed, smiled, and turned to the man. She saw his brown beard filled with dust, and food particles. He was bald. "My boyfriend of 5 years just broke up with me."

"Awww I remember when my boyfriend broke up with me. Go on tell, what did that shit head do?"

"He cheated on me with a whore. Some dumb big breasted superhero. He's been doing it for fucking years. And I literally only found out about it because he decided to fuck her at my house. MY HOUSE? I go on vacation with my whole family and I trust him to watch over the house, just for him to fuck her there. He probably pretended like he was living the high-life in there. What an idiot? His fucking excuse. My god, his fucking excuse. Get this. He sat me down, and said. Cherry with all your talks about becoming some hero's wife I could never be your husband, since I'm not a superhero! It was a childish dream of mine and he took it seriously? I rather him tell me, that superhero pussy just hit different."

The man rubbed her shoulder, "I hear you darling. Men are the worst. When my boyfriend fucked a dog I knew that he was the worst person to ever get back with."

"You got back with him?"

"That's besides the point. When men turn out to be the shittiest people, I love drowning my sorrows in drinks. Each sip is a fuck you to that motherfucker, which is a whole other boyfriend I could get into."

Cherry gripped her glass of milk and threw it at the ground. The bar erupted into screams, "Yeah fuck that cocksucker!"

"Mr. Bartender! Give me a large glass of vodka." She placed her hand on the man's hand as the bartender prepared her drink. "I fucking hate Jason!" The man screamed, "Yeah fuck Jason. I fucking hate him! I hope he rots in the bitter pits of hell."

The bartender placed the drink in front of Cherry. She picked it up and drank it. She woke up several hours later. Her head weighed heavy as she tried lifting it off the wooden polish top counter of the bar. Her eyes were closed shut. She could barely force them open. "Augh," she groaned as she tried looking around the bar. She held her head up with her hand as she used her other hand to try and feel for the area around her. "I haven't moved at all."

"It's dark isn't it."

Cherry twisted her head around, "Who said that?" Her eyes darted across the room, she could only make out the outline of shapes that looked like fallen Jenga pieces to her.

"Who? You can't even see me without some artificial light source. And to think they say humans conquered the night. Tell me Cherry, do you think humans conquered the night?"

"What the fuck are you talking about." Cherry got up from her seat and felt an oozing warm liquid grace her pale skin. She screamed as the lights suddenly turned on.

Cherry had stepped into a sea of blood. Bodies of dismembered men with missing limbs, broken arms, shattered legs, missing teeth, and broken noses laid on the ground in positions that only Olympic contortionists could ever achieve. Cherry's breathing became heavy, as she watched a male child jump from body to body. The child had an early 19th century American sailor's uniform on, it was pure white. Yet despite him jumping on bodies and causing the sea of blood to splash blood onto him, his clothes remained clean. He made his way to Cherry, who slowly backed onto the chair she was sitting on.

She looked away as she screamed, "Get away from me! Please! Don't hurt me."

"Hurt you? I would never hurt you Cherry," the child said. "The only thing that can hurt you is the Apocalypse."

"How do you know my name!" Cherry looked at the child who stared at her with no eyes.

"I am the Horseman of Conquest. In the coming years the world will come to an end-"

"Stop! Stop! I can't even focus right now. All these people are dead, what happened?" Her breath became heavier, each seemed to crush her heart as tears squeezed out of her. She began rocking in her seat and sucking her thumb. "Did, did I do this? Did you do this?"

"They did this to themselves. Your power allows you to influence emotions correct? It's not your fault that all these people had so much built up rage."

"But I felt the rage. They felt my rage."

"You've yet to conquer your emotions, yet you sit here and tell me that it was your rage that influenced them?"

Cherry closed her eyes, "I can't do this. I'm done. My father is going to have to watch The Super Bachelor with me through the phone."

"We can change that."

Cherry opened her eyes. "What do you mean?"

"I am the Horseman of Conquest. If you become my Avatar, you will eventually be able to utilize my ability while I enhance your own ability. We can conquer the police and anyone who ever tries to stop us. You'll even be able to conquer a hero's heart. Why influence emotions when you can create them?"

Cherry took her thumb out of her mouth and stopped rocking herself. "How can I trust you?"

*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*

"Police. Open up!" A man with a scruffy voice yelled through the front door of the bar.

Cherry dropped down to the sea of blood, "I can create emotions in people?" She asked looking down at the Conquest.

"Only if you accept my offer and stop the apocalypse." He responded extending his arm out to her with an open hand.

"Then yes, I accept." She said as she shook hands with him.