Revelation

97

Ninety-seven. That number glided in and out of Bernard's mind for the entire day. Ninety-seven. Ninety-seven. Ninety-seven. It didn't even feel like a number anymore.

Ninety-seven people had died after the events of earlier that morning. Thirty-eight in the church, twenty-four in the birthday party, and thirty-five in the hospital, including Ellyas' mother.

Bernard hadn't seen Ellyas since that morning. She wasn't answering her phone.

The city of Toronto was at a shock. Never before had such a thing happened in the city's history. Ninety-seven. Bernard was in the middle of watching Obama's statement, condemning the men responsible, when his phone vibrated.

Thinking it may be Ellyas, Bernard eagerly checked his phone. It was another email.

Bernard was about to angrily toss the phone away, but he realized something. Something huge. How could he have not realized this before?

Every email came after an attack.

He quickly opened the email.

"When He broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, "Come." I looked, and behold, a black horse; and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, "A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; but do not damage the oil and the wine." - Revelation, 5-6

He now realized there was clearly something connected between the emails and the murders. But he couldn't see what it was exactly. They were all cited with "Revelation" at the end. Thinking about searching that up on Google, his phone began to ring. It was a private number.

He picked it up, and said, "Hello?"

A smooth and soft, yet deep voice answered, "It's too late," and hung up.

Bernard looked back at the phone in shock. Who was that? Too late for what? And then it dawned on him, like ice being shoved down his throat.

It was the killer.

Bernard ran over to his computer and started typing "Revelation".

The results definitely had to do with religion, maybe the Bible?

He found the Wikipedia article, and kept scrolling, sifting through the information, looking for anything to do with seals, living creatures, horses; anything mentioned in the emails.

Four living creatures; was that it? He clicked on the link and read through the entire article, but that didn't seem to match anything about the murders.

He went back to the original article and scrolled until he found another four: Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

He clicked, and read it out loud.

"The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, as described in the blah blah," he read impatiently. "which summons four beings that ride out on white, red, black, and pale horses," he trailed off.

Horses. This is it! But what does it mean?

He kept reading.

"The four riders are often seen symbolizing Conquest, or Pestilence, War, Famine, and Death."

He thought to himself. Pestilence? That was disease or something... Then he realized.

The injections... nine dead from various injected viruses... toxic gas at the hospital.

He got a chill. War?

The shooting of that man. The bar fight. Thirty-nine people killing each other.

He was growing more and more uncomfortable as the pieces started to fit together. Famine?

Starvation, once with the man, then with the family. The poisoned food.

His next realization echoed with the pounding of his heart. The final horseman...

His phone vibrated once again. It was another email.

He opened it with his shaky hands. In this final message, these words appeared.

"When the Lamb broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, "Come." I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death."