War

*DING A-RING*

Kevin walked through the heavy glass door of his favorite bakery. He only wore green shorts and he was drenched in sweat. It dripped onto the wooden floors as the smell of baked goods and evaporating sweat collided.

"Kevin! You look like you've ran a marathon." A young woman behind the register of the bakery said. She was short with brown hair and extremely skinny. She wore a baker's cap, green t-shirt and a white apron with pink flowers on it.

"Are you just going to stare at pastries again or are you going to actually order?" She asked as Kevin staggered over to the register. He scowled over the pastries behind the glass container next to the register.

"Can you bake a chocolate cake?"

"Like a whole one?"

"A whole one."

"It'll be 24.99. We'll bake it fresh, but it will take some time. Are you paying with cash or with card."

"Can you put it on a tab?"

The woman looked at him with a raised brow, "We don't do tabs here. You know this."

"Charlette," He paused. Took a look around the bakery and the beaming sun that peered through the windows. "I think I'm going to kill myself." Kevin's breathing became heavy.

Charlette paused. Took a look at Kevin and with a trembling hand she covered her mouth, her eyes grew, "Huh?"

The day was July 20th, 2009. Kevin Gu was 17 years old. His birthday was in a week. Last year, in 2008, for his birthday his father took him out to see his mother's grave for the first time since she had died 6 years prior. The day was cold for a July, the sky was gray and the taste of rain conquered the air. Kevin and his father stood in front of his mother's grave and prayed to her.

After the prayer his father would stroke his rough messy beard, take off his cap to reveal his bald head, fall to his knees, shed a single tear, then get up to slap Kevin.

Kevin could take it.

"Remind me again of why your mum died."

"Heart disease. She was overweight." Kevin replied rubbing his cheek at the same place his father slapped him.

"That's right. She also had diabetes. She was a walking radioactive plant that secreted sugar with each earthquake harboring step she ever made. I loved her Kevin. She's my first love, and I warned her against all this crap. Now look at her. Maybe now, all of that fat has been eaten by maggots. Kevin you are my last love, I don't want you to end up like her. You're only 16 years old, but you can get so much better."

"I can already bench 240, how much better can I get? I don't even have a combat-based power."

Kevin's father slapped him.

"Don't talk back to me like that! An ability is an ability. Don't waste your talents worrying about what kind of ability you don't have."

Kevin stared at him, his face unmoved, his heart racing. His mind imagined himself like Private Pyle from Full Metal Jacket, his favorite movie, and his father sergeant Hartman. He imagined himself in his bathroom, dying his hair green like he always wanted. Standing on the toilet lid, while leaning over his sink. His dad would be knocking on the door telling him to get out. He would use his ability to teleport the revolver he had in his bedside drawer. He would open the bathroom door and shoot.

"Kevin."

"Yes Dad?"

"What do you want to be when you grow up?"

Kevin remained silent.

"It's not that stupid open grill chef thing is it? You know you'll never be Ramsay. Bloody hell, it is isn't it. With that body of yours I won't be surprised if you become a olympic athlete. You love running why don't you pursue it more?"

"I'll pursue it Dad."

"Will ya?"

"I will."

"I was joking. I'll be using cash." Kevin said to Charlette in response to her reaction. He took out a 20 dollar bill and a 10 dollar bill and handed it to her. "I meant like the run I was just on makes me want to kill myself."

"Oh," Charlette responded taking the money from him. "Just wait here, don't do anything crazy." Charlette yelled to the kitchen, "One Chocolate Cake." She turned back and leaned against the counter. Her hazel eyes affixed onto his eyes. "Do you still play those War games?"

"What? Oh. The shooters I play. Yeah I do."

"My brother gave me his console since he's gone off to college. I don't know much about these games." Charlette chuckled, "Uh, can you help me set everything up later? Then maybe we can play games?" She brushed her long hair to the side.

"Yeah, of course."

They didn't talk for the remainder of the time Kevin was there, he was stuck in his own head. He imagined himself eating the chocolate cake, his father would never allow it, he would beat him to death for doing so. Kevin could take it.

"I hope you shop with us again!"

Kevin left the bakery holding the chocolate cake in his sweaty hands. As he walked through the streets of Spoliero, he made his way to the city's piers. It was quiet, both his mind and the world around him. He walked past a playground, a movie theater, a barbershop, and a restaurant named, "The Restaurant." Once he made it to the piers, he walked to the edge of one of the piers. He sat down, and hung his legs over the clear blue waters. He hummed and swayed his body to the soft winds. He raised his hand, and summoned a knife that was hidden underneath his bed to his hand.

He set the chocolate cake to the side of him, opened it, then sliced into 16 pieces. He then through the knife into the ocean. Afterwards he took out a cassette tape and began playing a song. "One Beer" by MF DOOM, as the song played he nodded his head and took a slice of cake. It took 4 bites to eat a single slice.

"This one is for you mom. For baking me that vanilla frosted cupcake. The raisin cookie. The pie. The apple pie. The cherry pie. For introducing me to fruits. For the green grapes. The pastas. The ramen. Sushi. Steak. Chicken wings. Chocolate-chip waffles. Soda. I just wish that I could have lived to share my first drink with you." Kevin was down to his last slice of cake. He stretched his hand out and summoned the revolver he had inside his bedside drawer. He brought it to his head as he began crying. Chocolate dripped from the corners of his mouth. His hands trembling. He put his finger onto the trigger.

"Attention!" A deep female voice yelled behind Kevin. His heart raced as he noticed what he was doing, he dropped the revolver and stood up, wiping away at some of the chocolate smeared across his face. He turned around to face a woman with no eyes. She had no shirt nor a bra. From what he could tell no actual pants either. She wore a loin cloth made of deer skin, had iridescent black hair long enough to touch the ground despite her standing at what Kevin could assume to be seven feet tall.

"Who are you?" Kevin asked as he tried not to stare at her breasts.

"I am the Horseman of War. I want you to be my Avatar."

"Your Avatar?"

"Yes. There is an Apocalypse coming, and we must stop it at all costs or the world is gone forever."

Kevin paused. He smiled and was about to respond, "No," but he remembered in that moment as he glanced around, he saw the last slice of chocolate cake. He thought that Charlette should have a slice with him. "If the world is ending," he responded to the War, "Why choose me? I'm a loser. I have little to no friends. I'm a bully. I don't even work out for self improvement or anything positive like the internet said I should have. I work out because I'm scared. I'm not going to be good at this job of saving the world."

"Kevin Gu, may I present you with an inquiry?" War said.

Kevin nodded his head.

"Are wars won by the first battle?"

Kevin shook his head.

"So why play with the idea of surrender so early into the war? Life has just begun for you. With my power I'll forge you into the ultimate soldier. Like Cincinnatus you shall return to your humble beginnings after this war. I ask you another question Kevin. When the Romans lost 150 warships to a storm how did the Romans respond."

Kevin smiled, he picked up the last slice of his chocolate cake and ate it in a single bite. He wiped away his tears, "They simply rebuilt it."