THE FOUR HORSEMEN - PART 4 (The Final chapter)

A smile breaks out on Death's face as Abjection quietly glides in on her tendrils, followed by their sister Carnival. They're tall, like their brothers, but Abjection is the oldest, and makes the siblings behave. Carnival is the most mischievous of them all and playfully pounces on Conquest-she's a big girl, all fleshy bulges and throaty laughter. Her brother calls for War to help him since she's already got him pinned to the ground, but Abjection throws out more warning tendrils to make them stop the horseplay. The colors of her robe change from grey to green to black as she glides towards the open door, followed eagerly by Death and the others. She is the connection between them and the world, between the self and other, and even the Fates cannot bind or harm her in any way. It was by her guile alone that the brothers escaped to this place, this sacred space where they could become something more than those dreaded mythological horsemen. They had painted the grotesque visions with which their mothers had tortured them, tinged with the echo of Carnival's laughter and sticky slime that stained the places where Abjection had been. The brothers couldn't wait to show the patrons below those beautiful nightmares. After all, the apocalypse was coming. Oh yes, as surely as the sun rose every morning over the horizon, it would happen. But exactly how-that was the question to which they had few answers, only a vague uneasy feeling that perhaps it was coming sooner than they had thought.

- Nancy Hightower, 2011