The New Horsemen

by Nikolai Swartz

  Seth strained his eyes, trying to determine if what he was seeing was correct when something grabbed him from behind. He spun around, raising his hands in preparation to block the attack that he was almost certain was coming his way, only to find his confused and frightened aunt standing behind him, and the plate of food that she was holding now scattered across the bedroom floor.

  She let out an air of despair, left the room and returned with a broom moments later. She started sweeping the food up while he peeked through the opening in the curtains, noticing that the shadow was no longer there and the tree once again resembled its natural shape. When he looked back to see his aunt sobbing as she tried to manoeuvre the broom. Placing his one hand on her shoulder, he gently took the broom from her and led her to the bed to sit down, while he continued to sweep up the mess.

  “I miss her a lot, you know” she said, now with all the blood filling her cheeks that complimented her short red hair, “We grew up together and sometimes I forget that she’s gone. Sometimes I still think that I should give her a call to see how she’s doing. That’s when it hits me the worst. I didn’t get a chance to get to know your dad that well, but he seemed like a nice person. You know that she always spoke about you… about how smart you are… about how much she loves you”

  Seth stopped sweeping and watched her… she hadn’t been the same since his parents died. Neither had he for that matter. He felt genuinely bad for her.

  Her voice turned to a very angry yet hurt tone, “Nobody’s blaming you for anything…” she raised her voice, “In fact, we feel that nobody has suffered from this more than you have. You have to talk about your emotions. Tell us how you feel. We can’t help you if you don’t speak to us. To lose your parents and then lose your love… just tell us that you are hurting”

  Seth couldn’t look at her. Nobody had seen him cry since his girlfriend’s funeral. He made sure of that, but this moment was getting to him. He could feel the warmth in his cheeks and his eyes swelling. So he avoided eye contact and instead watched the open bedroom door.

  “Say something… please…” she continued as her husband stopped just outside the door, not wanting to intrude on the conversation, “Tell us that you’re hurting… tell us that you miss them...” she stared at him, waiting for a response, but got nothing, “We know that you miss them… we just want to help”

  His uncle finally stepped into the room and helped her back out of the room, “Honey, let him deal with it however he needs to… if he needs our help, he will come to us”

  That night Seth’s dreams were invaded by shadowy figures. With each flashing figure, his eyelids shook frantically. He was moving around so much that his blankets were mostly on the floor next to the bed.

  His t-shirt that he usually sleeps in was also in a pile on the floor. Despite the chilled night, he had taken off his top in his sleep due to the perspiration. The chilled wind howled passed his half open window, playing with the curtains and rattling to unsteady cupboard door.

  The images got more vivid as his nightmares continued. His girlfriend that he lost less than a year after his parents haunted his dreams. She beckoned him to come to her through the shadows, but he couldn’t move. In the blink of an eye, she morphed into Charon. Her now abnormally long arms stretched through the dark and reached for his throat. It was so vivid, that for a moment he couldn’t breathe.

  Seth shot up right in his bed. ‘It was just a dream…’ he thought to himself. He rubbed his eyes softly when he noticed it…

  … a figure standing at the foot of his bed.

  He squinted, trying to make out the shape through the dark of the night, when the reflection off of the sword that the man was carrying flashed across his eyes. He quickly rolled out of bed as the sword came down, slashing his bedsheets and his mattress.

  The sword swung back at him, and he raised his forearm to block the attack, when the blade ricocheted off of a piece of metal that latched onto Seth’s arm to form a gauntlet. Seth narrowly dodged a few more strikes, buying himself enough time as the pieces of liquid metal formed the armour on his body. The pieces slammed into him as he dodged the swipes, slices and stabs. With each dodge, another piece of armour took its place, and finally his moon shaped sword.

  A light from a passing car filled his bedroom, revealing the white armour with gold trimmings. He knew immediately that he was looking at the man that killed Faith. He was looking at Justice.

  Death ran at the man, swinging his blade wildly, but Justice ducked underneath it with the kind of grace of a man that was expecting the attack. Justice stood upright with his side to the dark horsemen, raising a single hand, he launched an endless barrage of lightning bolts from his fingertips.

  Death crossed his forearms in front of his face as the waves of electricity struck varies parts of his body, causing him to stumble back with each successful strike. Those that did not meet the target tore through the wall behind him as if the house were made of a flimsy cardboard. Each cracking bolt left tennis ball sized holes in the wall as the windows exploded, showering shards of glass everywhere. The lights lit up the entire neighbourhood and car alarms in the area roared in frustration. The final, biggest and loudest bolt hit Death square in the chest and sent him flying straight through the wall behind him and down to the grass in the backyard.

  He stumbled to his feet with charred armour… the electricity having drained all the energy out of him. He limped over to his weapon that landed a few meters away from him, but before he had a chance to pick it up, he looked up to notice Justice leaping over his head and landing behind him.

  Death quickly grabbed his sword and swung around, swinging his sword with the momentum of his spin, but it met the Justice’ blade. Justice grabbed the blade and pulled Death in, before delivering a powerful clotheline that caused the young horseman to backflip and land half on his stomach and side. Justice quickly delivered a punt-like kick to Death’s ribs, causing him to roll a few feet away.

  It felt like something was broken, as every breath that he took hurt. He finally managed to get to his feet, staring at his weapon lying on the floor just a few inches away from him. But he knew that in the condition that he was in, he wouldn’t be able to pick it up, let alone get to it on time. So, he stood there and watched the very calm Justice standing confidently in front of him.

  “Two down…” Justice said in a raspy voice. A flash of light filled the air emanating from Justice, leaving Death blinded. When his surrounding slowly became visible again, Justice was gone. Before he could react, a blade pierced his back and out through his chest.

  With a gasp, he wrapped his hands around the tip that poked out through his chest, trying to remove it but it withdrew as quickly as it had appeared. Death stood still… in shock at what had just happened. With a gulp, he finally dropped to his knees. Drawing from the last bit of energy he had left, Victor raised his hand to the wall of the house. His horse appeared from the wall, as if it were intangible. The horse leaped over the kneeling horseman with ease before charging at Justice… but the deranged horseman flicked his hand, summoning a whip completely composed of lightning that struck the shoulder of the horse. The impact caused the horse to explode into millions of particles of dust that surrounded the two warriors in a black whirlwind.

  Death watched in awe as his aggressor appeared through the blinding black dust. Justice stood calmly before raising his sword once more. He stabbed Death through the chest once more and quickly withdrew the sword, allowing the teenager to finally fall over.

  The black tornado stopped as quickly as it had started, with the particles dropping where they had stopped.

  With no armour, Seth’s lifeless body laid on the cold grass. His long hair had returned to its original black colour and he was back to being just in his boxer shorts. There were no visible injuries on his body as he finally took his last breath.

  A screech from Seth’s bedroom caught Justice’s attention. He looked up and saw the boy’s aunt and uncle standing
at the giant hole that had formed as a result of their battle.

  The corner of his mouth rolled up, knowing that they were unable to see him. He walked away from the scene deliberately.

  CHAPTER 12 – THE PUPPETEER

  A very indifferent Justice stood on a rooftop, staring across the sea of lights that filled the night sky above the city. The roads were relatively empty, with a random car passing by every now and then.

  He looked straight ahead, just over the edge where a ball of electrical energy began to form violently. It was the size of a human body but appeared to be unstable as sparks spewed out of it in all directions. The light emanating from the orb lit up the entire rooftop, but was so bright that it drained the colour from everything nearby.

  “Is it done?” a distorted, disembodied voice came from the glowing ball of energy.

  Indifferent, Justice replied with a, “Yes…” in his heavy, dreary voice, “Only Conquest remains…”

  “And what about War…?”

  “Your plan can still work… despite his foolish decision”

  “Good… Then we can destroy him together”

  “No!” Justice exclaimed, now becoming visibly angered at the disembodied voice, “You will not lay a finger on any of them… this is my vengeance and only I get to kill them”

  Justice raised his hand and the energy zoomed into his grasp. Sparks of electricity spurting from the gaps between his fingers. He crushed the ball causing jolts to fly around the immediate area, bouncing off of the nearby buildings. With the sound of a dying engine, the lights in the immediate area switched off. Soon other areas began switching off like a ripple effect from his location.

  CHAPTER 13 – TOLL

  Warren couldn’t explain it… the feeling of dread that built up at the bottom of his stomach. It was so intense that he felt like he could puke at any moment. To make matters worse, he found himself standing across the street from Seth’s house, just staring at the red lights mockingly dance across the walls.

  He couldn’t understand what had brought him here at this hour, but he knew that it was intense enough to force him to sneak out of the house through his window in order to get here. Despite the time, people were scattered across the street in small groups. He knew it was almost midnight, but he needed to be here.

  Watching in horror as the police and paramedics finally appeared from behind the house, pushing a stretcher. There was a body on the gurney, but it was entirely covered with a cloth, though the size of the body sent a sinking feeling through his chest. He could barely blink as he watched them push Seth’s body into the back of the ambulance. He needed no further confirmation as to what that feeling was that was haunting him.

  “So you felt it too?”

  Warren turned around to find Victor standing beside him. The jock too could hardly look away from the red and white van across the street.

  Warren paused. He couldn’t understand what that feeling was, “I don’t know”

  “But you’re here…”

  “Yes… and I can’t explain why…” A silence fell as they heard Seth’s aunt crying hysterically in the shoulder of her husband. Warren walked away, leaving Victor on his own to watch as the ambulance drove off.

  “Admit it…” Victor said as he jogged after Warren, “You felt it too… you felt his death…”

  Warren stopped and spun around, “I want nothing to do with this anymore, okay. It’s getting too dangerous. People are dying”

  “This is who we are…” Victor continued, “You heard what the sisters said… this is our destiny”

  “Our destiny is to be killed by a crazed lunatic that wants vengeance for a past life that we have no memory of ever having…”

  “What changed…?” Victor asked in a lowered voice, “ We were supposed to do this together”

  Warren didn’t respond. He flipped up the hood of his jacket and walked into the dark of the cold night.

  Not wanting to go directly home, Warren decided that he wanted to see if Kimberly was awake. He went to the yard and climbed up the tree in the yard. She was sitting at her desk, reading through what he could only assume to be school books. Her room was still pretty much the same as he remembered it. There were posters of boy bands and male singers across the pink and peach walls. Nothing seemed to have any specific order or pattern. They appear to have just been put up at random, with some posters overlapping others. Her bedspread was mainly pink, with what appeared to be tribal patterns across it.

  He tapped on her window lightly, causing her to startle. Smiling when she noticed that it was him, she opened her window and let him climb through.

  “What are you doing here?” She asked as she helped him through the narrow open window.

  “I wanted to see you”

  “That’s so sweet… so you came all the way from your house here just because you wanted to see me”

  “Well… kind of…”

  “What does that mean?”

  “I came from Seth’s house”

  “At this time?” she peaked at her bedside clock, noticing that it was almost midnight.

  “He’s gone…” he waited a second to analyse her confusion, “Someone killed him”

  Kimberley gasped, “Are you sure?”

  “Yes…” Warren sat down on her bed, “And I needed to see you”

  “Do they know what happened to him?”

  “I don’t think so… the ambulance just pulled away moments ago”

  Kimberley remembered their conversation on the field and his reluctance to answer any of her questions. He was now resting his elbows on his knees, watching a single spot on her carpeted floor. She knelt down in front of him and cupped his hands, “Do you know what happened to him?” she lowered her head to try and meet his eyes, but he looked away quickly, not wanting to reveal anything.

  Warren couldn’t answer her but he couldn’t bring himself to lie to her either. So he stood up and went to stand at the dresser that was littered with perfume bottles and makeup items.

  “You need to go to the police… they can help” she again walked over to him, again trying to maintain eye contact.

  He looked at her. She was standing so close that he could smell the cherry scented perfume that she was wearing. He was powerless to stop himself… so he leaned in close… and much to his surprise, she did not pull away. He could feel her warm breath on his lips.

  Then it happened. Their lips met. It was soft… it was sweet. She pulled in close. And though he was younger than her, she was slightly shorter than him.

  For that one moment, Warren felt at peace. He felt calm though his heart was racing. He couldn’t believe that this was happening.

  They finally pulled away from each other, “What took you so long?” she whispered.

  “I wasn’t sure if you wanted to… you know… because of HIM” he put extra effort and thought into the last word.

  She giggled, “I thought you’d be bothered by the age difference”

  Everything fell quiet, and for a moment, he forgot about the time, about the two kids that have been murdered, about the police bothering him… but most of all, he forgot about Justice.

  “I should be getting home before my parents find out that I have escaped”

  “You make it sound like you’re in prison”

  “Well, they have me under strict curfew since I am a suspect in the Faith’s case and a possible arsonist”

  “Arsonist…?” she repeated

  “I may have accidently, maybe, possibly set my room on fire… by accident of course”

  “By accident…?” She repeated.

  “It’s difficult to explain” he said calmly.

  “Well…” she responded, finally unwrapping her arms from around him, “You might be surprised by how understanding I can be”

  He wanted nothing more than to just tell her the truth, but he knew he couldn’t. He knew that even if she did believe him, knowing could put her in danger.

  “Did you an
d Victor get yourselves involved in some kind of mafia?” she continued after a moment of silence, “… or maybe a cult?”

  “Something like that…” he said, “I really wish I could tell you” he apologised, “But I need you to understand that there’s good reason why I can’t. As soon as everything blows over, I promise that I will tell you everything that you want to know. For now, I just need you to trust that Victor and I are doing the right thing”

  “Okay…” she responded with defeat evident in her voice, “I will trust you… for now”

  “I should go…” He said calmly, heading back to the open window, “I’ll see you at school tomorrow”