Five Horsemen of the Apocalypse

1

  The man in front of her was no human, that much she could see. He was sickly pale. Too pale. He wore a mask to cover his face and his robes were like nothing she had ever seen before, tattered, but falling in all the right places. To top it all off, his godlike presence was unimaginable. As he stood, he was far away, but he loomed over her in a way that made her heart beat faster. His eyes widened momentarily in what she assumed was surprise, but then he squinted as he observed her from afar.

  "Didn't I just kill you?" He asked, quirking a brow as he searched her face.

  "You what?" She asked, her own eyes widening in shock.

  The person that stood in front of her drew closer, observing her like she was some experiment. She didn't enjoy it and if she didn't know any better, she would've struck the person to make them stop.

  "I remember you! Depression, right? Started slow but then spread? How did you die? I planned on watching, but you must've gone sooner than I expected." He tsked in disappointment, shaking his head quickly.

Beomgyu had people. Hell, how could he do it all? Seven billion people in the world, and we was just one person, be it an inter-dimensional horseman of the apocalypse. He had more responsibility than just sitting around, infecting humans all day. Occasionally, he did get the chance to infect humans and he loved it. This project was one that had been in the making for a long while. He started sowing the seeds of doubt in her mind when she was young and he watched them grow as she did. It was quite enjoyable. He didn't realize how close she was to the brink.

"How... you..." she stumbled, lost for words. She examined herself for the first time. Her new garments, her skin, toned as it normally was.

  "You really just gave up, didn't you? You aren't that strong. I expected you to last longer," he shrugged, gracefully falling back to his seat. He rest his elbow on the arm of his lavish sofa, allowing his head to laze to the side.

"You know nothing," the woman growled at him, teeth clenched in rage and embarrassment and shame.

"Oh, sweetheart, that's where you're wrong. I know everything," he chuckled cockily, giving the shocked and angered woman a smirk.

"Who are you?" She asked, her voice wavering slightly in her attempted confidence.

"Pestilence, at your service," he greeted, nodding his head in a gentle bow. "One of the five horsemen of the apocalypse."

"There are only four," she corrected, almost questioning.

"That's where you humans are wrong. There's five. Pestilence," he paused, pointing to himself, "Famine, War, Death, and Conquest."

"I've never heard of five," she refuted.

"Sad that humans aren't all knowing creatures," he tsked, shaking his head gently. He turned his attention away from the mortal, as if she no longer interested him. His screen faded to black before flashing on once again, the image of the mortal's deceased body filling the screen. He relished in the glory of the image, sighing as he drank in the satisfying sight. The mortal behind him felt the air slip from her lungs and her eyes stung with a dryness she couldn't combat. She couldn't look away. The smirk grew on the face of the horseman of the apocalypse as the door was unlocked, the landlord entering her apartment.

  "Watch," Beomgyu told the mortal behind him, as if she had already looked away, despite her inability to close her eyes. "This is the best part." He leaned forward in genuine interest.

  The landlord entered, calling her name, looking around the living room and kitchen, freezing when she came upon the rotting corpse, ID still laying in the lax hand, a putrid smell emanating from it.

"Boom. Spread. Humans are so easy," he chuckled, removing the scene from the screen.

"How..." she paused, seemingly rethinking her question. "How long have I been here?" She asked. It only felt like a few minutes, but the horrifying image of her body made her believe that it had been longer.

"I dunno," Beomgyu shrugged, checking his wrist, faking a wristwatch esque motion. "Couple minutes."

"How-" she started.

"You really think time moves the same here? That'd be so insufferable," he guffawed, looking at her in pure disbelief.

"Why am I here?" She asked, stepping forward, challenging him.

"To hell if I know," he shrugged again, just as nonchalant as if she weren't there.

"Well then why don't you focus on getting me out of here?" She asked, taking another step closer.

"Sounds like a damn hassle," he scoffed, sitting in his seat again, the large viewing screen in front of him flashing bright again as he observed people going about their daily lives.

  "You-"

  "Yeah yeah, human morals, blah blah, just let me do my job," he groaned, waving her off with a quick roll of his eyes that she wasn't able to see.

  She watched as he tried too hard to pay no attention to her, allowing her to stand behind him and observe things that she should not be seeing. He controlled the screen in front of him with controls that didn't exist in the human world. They were hard to understand for anyone other than someone who had been trained to use them, like Beomgyu.

  She wanted to believe that this was a dream. She wanted to pinch her arm and wake up and go back to her monotonous 9-5 and pretend this never happened. In a futile attempt to awaken herself, she reached to her wrist and pinched, squeezing a bead-like material. Along with that pinch came a wave of pain so excruciating that it sent her to her knees, unable to keep her knees from buckling. 

  "For the love of all that is good and holy, can't I just finish todays work?" Beomgyu asked, swivelling around in his chair to be greeting with the mortal on the floor, writhing in an inexplicable pain. "The hell did you do?"

   She didn't answer. It felt as if every single cell in her body was crying out for her to stop whatever she was doing, even though she already had. It was like pressing on a bruise or an open wound, except the pain didn't stop at the site of the wound.

  "It's a good thing you're already dead," he mumbled turning to face his screen again, ignoring the mortal. He sighed, beginning to leave instructions for those who would do his work while he took a break. Sad that even gods needed rest. Not that he was a god per se. When he finished, he stood abruptly and approached the mortal, looming over her for a moment, relishing in his superiority before grabbing her hand and pulling her to her feet. She was shaky with fear, the pain having dissolved. She was scared that any movement might bring back the pain that sent her to her knees.

  "Look at you, working your way up the ladder. It's your first day here and you already get to meet Conquest," he scoffed, rolling his eyes, leading her into a dark hallway towards the one who would find a way to solve her predicament.