The Horsemen

Hey, I went crazy over this story and just HAD to get it out there. I will be posting more of 'Free at Last' soon. If any of you guys know my writing you know I get obsessed with one thing for awhile, write about it, and then move on. Well this is just the next obsession in the chain. I wanted to let you know that if you go to my Biography page I usually post updates on what's going on and when I'll be posting stuff. So if you're wondering when more stuff is going to come out then just check there. Thank you to my editor gbc5452, he did as much writing as editing in this story and I couldn't have done it without him :)

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A portal of fire opened in the middle of the large wheat field. It crackled and sparked with lightning and fire for a moment before the first figure emerged through the large tear in the world. The white horse's hooves crashed to the ground. Instantly the wheat bent the slightest bit, bowing at the large white horse and its rider. The rider looked out at his surroundings and he gave a quiet snort, unimpressed.

The portal cracked and sparked more as the second figure jumped through. The horse's deep brown coat could very easily be mistaken for the fiery red many assumed it was. The ground under the horses hooves burned and smoldered, leaving a burn mark the shape of a horse's hoof on the earth. The rider looked at his companion and then out at his own surroundings much like the first had done. They both turned to watch as the third figure jumped through the portal.

The ground beneath the black horse's hooves began to decay and rot. Turning a sickly green color and crumbling with the trio's weight. The black horses tossed its head and snorted in irritation at the new surroundings. None of the riders turned as the fourth rider jumped through the portal. Which closed immediately after the horses tail left the sparkling red hole in the world.

The fourth horse could not be called white. White was a bright prideful color. This horse was pale, much like the ash after a fire has been put out. It's rider, unlike the others, did not have flesh covering its face. Where the pale flesh to match the horse should be, was only bone and empty eye sockets. Though it had no eyes it still looked around at it's surroundings as it's horse stamped at the ground beneath his feet. The ground beneath the pale horse's hooves instantly died. They looked as if they had been picked years ago. Only their roots still lay solid in the ground, which was as dry as the plants themselves.

"Remember, we are here on business." The pale rider said.

"What business could we possibly have here, Death?" The black horse kicked the ground beneath it while his rider spoke.

"We have business everywhere, Famine." The red rider spoke.

"You know nothing of our current affairs, War." The black rider turned his mount to face War.

"I know more than you do." War spoke.

"Quiet." The white rider interrupted their bickering.

"Thank you, Conquest." Death looked out across the wheat field.

"I cannot stand their arguing anymore than you can." Conquest chuckled.

"He started it." War said quietly. He now noticed the cluster of lights in the distance; A town.

"What year is this?" Conquest asked.

"Somewhere in the new millennium. Early. Ten or so years. "

"How did you guess, War?" Death turned it's bony head to face it's companion.

"This is one of my favorite pieces in time. Much of my work has spread in this century."

"As has mine." Death laughed.

"Don't we always work as a pair?" War smiled.

"That we do."

"Anyways, if you two are done talking. What is our business here?" Conquest moved his horse between the two to get their attention.

"My dear friends, we are here on vacation of course." The term 'friends' was used loosely.

"Vacation? Death, Famine, War, and Conquest...they do not take vacations." Famine joined the conversation.

"Why not?" Death turned it's skeletal head to the side.

"Because, we are needed. Especially you Death. What? While we're on vacation no one will die? You want to make the human race immortal for a few days? Yes that sounds like a good idea." Famine rolled his eyes.

"I can keep up on my work and still have a little fun. You should be able to as well." Death said coolly.

"It's not like you really do much, this day in age anyway." War came in.

"Quiet! I do plenty!" Famine snapped. The other three riders chuckled. Even Conquest.

"Sure you do. How long do we have?" War turned to Death.

"Long enough. As long as you keep up on your jobs we can hang around this dump of a town and wreak some havoc." Death looked back at the town.

"As long as none of us end up like that damned Mephistopheles. You three did hear what he did, didn't you?" Famine spoke.

"Fell in love with a human. Disgusting." Death spat on the ground, which turned to dust the moment it's spit landed on the earth.

"Gave up his immortality and all of his power for some human male." Conquest shook his head.

"What a moron, choosing humanity of all things. Don't you agree War?" The four riders looked at War who had said nothing.

"Yes. An idiotic choice indeed." War stared longingly at the distant lights.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jason filled out the last of the paperwork for the day. He sighed and threw down the pen and put the folders away before standing and trying to rush out of the office before anyone gave him another case. He loved being a social worker but when he had started, paperwork wasn't what he had in mind. Sure he got to help a lot of people but there was an equal, if not larger, amount of paperwork involved.

"Heading home Jason?" One of his coworker friends asked as he finished his own paperwork.

"Yup, you?"

"Definitely. Happy Friday!" His friend laughed.

"TGIF, tell the wife and kids I said hello."

"Will do, tell your wife and- oh wait I forgot you refuse to settle down." He chuckled.

"I just haven't found the right person yet." Jason rolled his eyes. Most of his coworkers didn't know he was gay.

"Well instead of going home, why don't you go look? Come to the bar with us tonight."

"Eh, I don't know, Mac."

"Please? You'll have fun. It's just a few of the guys." Mac said. Jason sighed.

"Okay fine, what time?"

"Yes! Nine, you know where." Jason did indeed know where considering they only ever went to one bar in the whole town.

"Okay, see you then." Jason left the office and began walking home. It wasn't a large town so the walk was short. He arrived at his farm house on the edge of a wheat field and took off his jacket before micro waving a frozen pizza. He sat down to eat his food as he thought;

'What the hell am I going to wear?'

~~~~~~~~~~

"What the hell are we going to wear?" War asked suddenly. As they walked through the field.

"What do you mean?"

"We're in a different time now. Our current attire wont do." War gestured at their armor.

"So true." Death dismounted it's horse, who tossed his head at the loss of the weight. The other three followed Death and used one of their many capabilities to change their appearance.

"You like?" War spun in a circle. The tight leather pants he wore showed off his ass, and the long coat reached his thighs. He kept the coat open to reveal the tight shirt he wore underneath.

"Perfect. Other than one thing." Conquest stepped up to him, making a pair of slick glasses appear in his hands. He slipped them over War's eyes to cover the glowing red iris that would have given him away.

"Thank you." War adjusted the glasses to fit perfectly. The rest of the riders made their own outfit, complete with flesh for Death.

Conquest went old fashioned cowboy. With the hat, jeans, and boots. His sandy blonde hair was mostly covered by his hat, and glasses protected his completely white eyes. Famine went Goth, with heavy black makeup, black pants and shirt, and piercings to match. He too used glasses to hide his completely black eyes. And Death kept it simple with a male human form, a button down shirt and a pair of blue jeans. And of course, the glasses to hide his new pale green eyes.

"Now we have fun." Conquest smiled.

"Stay." All four of them said at once. The horses did as they were told and waited in the middle of the field for the troublesome riders to return.

~~~~~~~~~~~

After an hour of trying to find something to wear, Jason finally decided on a brown silk shirt and khaki pants. The shirt matched his eyes and his hair.

"Here we go." He sighed as he grabbed his keys as he walked out of the door.

"Jason you made it!" Mac shouted the second Jason set foot in the bar.

"Hey." Jason waved to all of the men he recognized from work. The men sat and drank, talking about their families and those who weren't married talked about getting laid. Jason looked around the bar as the group of men continued to prattle on about women. He heard the bell on the door jingle and saw the most beautiful man walk in. He wore a dark pair of sunglasses and leather pants that hugged all the right muscles beautifully. The black boots he wore clicked on the wood floor of the bar, making a delicious echo. His black hair was spiked and had red tips. It was impossible to tell how old he was. Jason then noticed the three men walking around him, all wearing the same dark sunglasses.

"Jason?" Mac's voice brought him out of his trance.

"What?"

"What are you staring at man?" Mac looked towards the door but the men were gone. They now sat at a table of the bar.

"Them." Jason pointed.

"They look kind of weird. What's with the sunglasses at night?" One of the other men at the table started singing the song.

"Shut up man." Mac laughed and went back to their conversation. Jason couldn't stop staring at the man. He seemed to talk quietly with his friend but suddenly turned to look at Jason. He gave a crooked smile and waved at him with only his fingers. Jason blushed and turned back down to his drink.

"What are you doing War?" Famine snapped War away from the man staring at him.

"Just playing with the mortals." War shrugged. Conquest swallowed a shot.

"I'm going to go play too." He said, and walked off to a table full of ladies who had been giggling and staring at the group since they walked in.

"I'm with him." Death stood and walked over to Conquest and the women.

"What are your plans this evening?" War turned to Famine.

"I don't know." Famine shrugged and walked off.

"Always the runt of the litter." War chuckled as he watched Famine walk away. He looked back at the table where the man was sitting and saw he was no longer sitting there. Curious he looked around the bar.

"Hey." The man suddenly sat at his table.

"Hello." War smiled.

"I didn't mean to be rude, by staring." The man blushed.

"It's alright." War liked the mans deep voice. Melodic and soft, yet manly and firm.

"What's your name?" The man took a gulp of his beer.

"War." He answered without thinking.

"What a weird name. No offense."

"It's short for Warren." War lied.

"Ah, I'm Jason." Jason held out his hand. War looked at the hand and kept his own where it was. Jason looked uncomfortable and sat his hand down.

"I haven't seen you around town before."

"I'm just visiting." War smiled.

"With your friends?"

"Huh?"

"Those three guys you were with." Jason nodded towards Conquest and Death at the table of women.

"They're more like brothers. But yes."

"You four don't really look alike."

"Half brothers." War shrugged.

"Oh. I always wanted a brother, only child." Jason smiled.

"It's not as much fun as it looks." War laughed. Which caught the attention of all of his 'half brothers'. Conquest stood and made his way towards War. With Death close behind.

"Hey." Jason waved at them.

"What are you doing?" Conquest ignored Jason.

"Having fun, like you said." War shrugged.

"Excuse us." Death pulled War up from the table. The skin around War's arm turned black and began to crack.

"Let go of me." War pulled his arm away. It healed quickly, and no one noticed, but it still was an uncomfortable sensation.

"What do you think you're doing?" Conquest snapped.

"I'm having fun." War repeated.

"With a guy?" Death chimed in.

"Why not?"

"I didn't know you were into guys." Conquest said.

"I'm not 'into' anyone. I'm here for the same reasons you guys are." War grabbed a beer that someone was carrying over to a friend brushing his hand across theirs in the process. The person glared at him before walking over to their table and talking to their friends.

"Well it doesn't look like it." Death said.

"It doesn't?" War turned his head to the side. A moment after he said that, the group behind him got louder.

"Sid? Are you alright?" The man who War had stolen the beer from was staring off into space. His friends snapped their fingers in front of him and shook his shoulder.

"Sid?" Suddenly Sid came out of his trance and glared at one of his friends angrily. He picked up a beer and with no hesitation smashed it into his friends head. Immediately some men came to pull him out of the bar as he bit and kicked them the whole way.

"See? Fun." War returned to his table.

"Damn I wonder what that was about?" Jason looked at the guy who was walking out of the bar, his friends talking about taking him to the hospital for the bits of glass in his face.

"Don't know." War shrugged.

"Everything okay?" Jason asked, nodding towards Conquest and Famine who had returned to the table of girls, but were keeping an eye on War.

"Everything's fine." War gave a smile and sipped his stolen beer.

~~~~~~~~~

"Jesus would you look at this?" Mac said the next day.

"What?" Jason leaned over his shoulder to look at the news paper he was holding.

"Last night, at the bar. You saw that guy that freaked out and tried to kill his friend right?"

"Yeah, he just hit him with the pitcher of beer and started beating the crap out of him."

"Yeah, well, that's not all that happened. A few blocks from the bar, some guy tried to rape a girl. Kept screaming something about conquering her even when the cops arrested him. And after that, some guy broke into a hardware store and killed himself, get this, with a nail gun." Mac said.

"What?" Jason shouted, squeezing in closer to see the headlines.

"Yeah, and all the food in an entire street started rotting, for no reason. It just started getting all moldy and shit." Mac said, showing Jason the picture of the grocery store, filled with rotten food and rats.

"I wonder what the fuck that's all about."

"Cops are saying it's a gas leak or something, that it's making people delusional or some bull crap." Mac shrugged and continued reading.

"Weird. I didn't feel any different last night, did you?"

"No. The guys didn't feel any different either."

"Don't you think if it was a gas leak, everyone would be effected?" Jason said.

"I guess." Mac shrugged.

~~~~~~~~~~~

"We made the front page boys." Conquest smiled. The other three men came over to look at the newspaper.

"One day and we already make the papers. We still got it." Death laughed.

"Kiss of Death yeah?" War laughed as he read the article about the woman committing suicide. He recognized her as one of the women at the bar.

"Yup. What about you? I don't see any news about that guy you were talking with killing anyone." Death grabbed the paper from Conquest and began flipping through the pages looking for a story.

"I didn't touch him yet." War said. The three other horsemen looked up at him.

"What do you mean you didn't touch him, YET?" Conquest stood up.

"I don't know, I just didn't feel like it."

"You always feel like it." Famine said, from the run down couch in the abandoned barn.

"Quiet." War snapped.

"You've lost your touch, admit it." Famine stood up and stepped towards War.

"I said, be quiet!" War drew his large sword from the holster his horse carried.

"Make me!" Famine drew the large double headed ax that he kept.

"Both of you stop it." Conquest stood.

"You're useless! Maybe back in the day you were important, but now?" The weapons clashed together and sparks flew.

"Stop it!" Death's scythe separated the two.

"You two are acting like children. War, kill the human. Famine, stop sucking." Conquest snapped. Death and War chuckled as Famine glared at the three of them.

"Now come on. We must get ready. We have a party to go to." Death smiled.

~~~~~~

"Jason, are you coming to the new years party tonight?" Mac asked.

"I was thinking about it." Jason said.

"What about that guy you were talking to at the bar the other night? You should invite him." Mac said.

"I didn't get his number, But- wait how did you know I was gay?" Jason asked.

"I've always know." Mac shrugged.

"Why didn't you ever say anything?" Jason asked.

"I figured I would let you come out when you're ready."

"And what happened to that idea?" Jason laughed.

"I got bored." Mac shrugged.

"Great job, Mac. Yeah I'll be there." Jason laughed.

"Fantastic. See you there." Mac said. Jason laughed and shook his head. Since he started working with Mac he had been afraid to come out. He never knew how people would react. He had only had a few boyfriends in the past, and none of them had been out.

'I guess I just held onto their fear.' Jason shrugged as he looked at one of his cases.

~~~~~~~~~

"Jason! Have a drink, man." Mac handed him a drink.

"Thanks, lots of people."

"Indeed, and now, we find you a man!" Mac said as he shoved Jason towards a small blonde man.

"Hey, you must be Jason. Mac has told me a lot about you." Jason glared at Mac over the young man's head and tried to make awkward small talk. It was obvious the younger man was interested in Jason, but Jason could only think of the man he had talked to last night.

"Hey." Jason turned to see where the voice came from.

"Hey, you're the guy from the bar! Warren right?"

"Call me War."

"Alright, War."

"Jason right?" War asked, even though he knew he could never forget him.

"Yeah. Are your brothers here?"

"Somewhere." War shrugged.

"Nice. So, uh, what do you do for a living?" Jason asked, he wasn't used to being nervous around guys. He tried to make small talk as best he could.

"I uh... I'm involved in the military."

"Oh, really?" Jason shifted back and forth.

"Yeah, not a problem is it?" War raised an eyebrow.

"Well, I don't exactly agree with war, I'm a social worker. Peace, love and all that jazz." Jason laughed. "But I promise I wont hold it against you. So you travel a lot?"

"A bunch."

"That's so cool. I've always wanted to travel." Jason shrugged.

"Do you like what you do?" War asked.

"Yeah, I love helping people. Especially the kids. I was adopted and I always wanted to help people who have been through similar situations." Jason smiled.

"That's good that you love what you do." War smiled. Jason noticed he wore gloves now.

"Whats with the gloves? It's not that cold out." Jason laughed.

"Yeah, uh, bad circulation." War shrugged. Jason was about to say something when a scream interrupted him.

"What the fuck?" A mans voice was heard. Everyone turn towards the yelling people at the food table.

"There's roaches in the food!" Someone else shouted.

"There's rats too." A man said, moving to the side to show a plate of food covered with rats. Several groans and grumbles of disgust were heard.

"Gross," Jason said, "Glad I didn't eat any of the food." He laughed.

"Yeah..." War seemed distracted.

"Something wrong? Besides the pests in the food?" Jason laughed.

"No." War looked around the room. Finally his eyes stopped. Jason saw his brothers in the corner. They laughed and one seemed quite pleased with himself.