The Adventures of Emily Tual: Revelations Book Three

On Nature Street, people had their guns out and were hiding on their porches. They were ready to defend themselves. They had heard explosions and people screaming. No one was on the street for fear of what was happening. Their families were hiding in the houses. None of them knew what was going on exactly but they all knew that whatever it was, it wasn’t good.

Josh, Audrey’s father, was on his porch with his hunting rifle in his hands. He couldn’t see where the street was physically but he had lived there long enough that he knew where it was in the fog. There was another loud explosion in the distance. He tightened his grip on his rifle. He was relieved that he and his wife had sent Audrey off to camp for the week. It meant one less person to worry about. He just hoped that whatever this was ended before his wife and he was to go pick up their daughter.

His ears then perked up as he heard what sounded like horses galloping. Since it was getting louder, Josh had a feeling that they were galloping onto Nature Street. He stayed as quiet as he could. He noticed that the horses were the only ones making the noise. No doubt the rest of the street had heard the galloping and knew that whatever was going on had come onto their street. He held his breath as the horses got louder and louder until they just stopped without warning. Josh waited until he heard people walking. He realized that whoever was riding the horses had gotten off of the horses and were now walking. But where were they walking to?

That was when three figures came out of fog right onto Josh’s porch. The first one was in black armor and he had a red sword. The second person was in green armor. He had a crossbow in his hands. The last one, a female by the looks of things, was wearing yellow armor. She had a weighing scale in her hand that was broken. Before Josh could say anything or even fire off a shot, the one with the crossbow raised her crossbow and fired an arrow into Josh’s heart. Josh fell back against the wall and slumped. His rifle went off as it hit the wall. People began shouting and the three Horsemen of the Apocalypse could hear guns being fired in their direction.

The Horseman of War looked at the Horseman of Pestilence and the Horseman of Famine. “Keep them away.” He ordered. The two Horsemen of the Apocalypse nodded and marched off into the fog. A few minutes later, horses galloping could be heard. The Horseman of War waited a few seconds before he kicked the door in and marched into the house. He looked around. He knew that the woman was in the house. According to Anthony, the two adults rarely left each other. He heard movement upstairs. This really was too easy.

He marched up the stairs and looked around. The noise had come from one of the bedrooms. He raised his sword up and it caught fire. He heard movement again. It came from the room ahead of him. He marched towards it, scratching the wall, making the wall catch fire. There would be no survivors here in the house except for him. He kicked the door open at the end of the hallway. There was no one in the room. He noticed that the windows were closed. There was no way the woman could have escaped. She had to be in the room still. He went to the closet and threw the door open. There was no one in there, just a lot of clothes.

He heard something move under the bed. He turned around and looked at the bed. The woman had to be under the bed. He went to the bed and slashed the bed across the middle, catching it on fire. The burning bed fell in the middle. There was a horrible crunching noise and blood slowly seeped out from under the bed. The Horseman of War kicked part of the bed out of the way to make sure the woman was dead for sure. Josh’s wife was laying under the bed. She was clearly dead. The bed in the middle had gone into her stomach.

The Horseman of War’s blade went out and he sheathed it. The job was done. The parents were dead and the house was burning. There was no way that anyone would be able to pin this on him. He marched out of the bedroom and down the hall to the stairs, the fire spreading behind him.

Outside the house, people could smell something burning. The sound of a horse whinnying before galloping away was heard and the fog seemed to disappear slowly. “Fire!” Someone shouted. “There’s a fire at Mr. and Mrs. Tangen’s home!” People ran to the nearby hoses to try to put out the fire but none of them were working for some reason. The water wouldn’t come out even with the handles turned all the way. The fire was spreading very quickly and consumed the house within seconds.

On a high hill over the city, the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse watched the smoke rising from the burning house. It was an unnatural black and rising high. There was another large pillar of smoke rising from the prison center that the Horseman of War had attacked. There were smaller fires across the city from the cars that had been thrown out of the way. The sounds of sirens were louder than traffic on the highway which had slowed down greatly. Behind the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the prison busses were burning. The Black Hands weren’t there. They had abandoned the busses and had gotten into black SUVs before disappearing. The busses burning were to make sure that no evidence could be found of the Black Hands.

The Horseman of War disappeared and Derdrom appeared. He was smiling wickedly as he looked down at the fires in the city. “War.” He said. “War has come to New Philadelphia.” He turned to the three Horsemen of the Apocalypse. “With the Magician gone across the sea to explain to the Master about what had happened last night, I am taking leadership of the remaining Black Hands that are nearby.” He told the three. “Which includes you three as well.” He knew that none of the three would challenge him. Not even the Horseman of Death. They needed someone to lead them since the Darkness was still gone and the Man with the German Accent had to go report his failure. Derdrom was the second oldest there. It only made sense that he led them.

Derdrom smiled when he saw that the Horsemen of the Apocalypse weren’t offering any resistance. He would finally do what the Man with the German Accent had failed to do. He was about to change back into the Horseman of War when a man in a black suit appeared. He had short cropped black hair and red eyes. He smiled when he saw the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

“This in a nice surprise.” The man in the black suit said. “And here I was thinking that the Horsemen of the Apocalypse had gone into hiding for good.” He laughed a little.

Derdrom’s smile vanished. This Black Hand had just ruined his day. “What brings you here Josiah?” He demanded. How dare this Black Hand show up and ruin everything. Especially after what Derdrom had done to prove that he belonged as the new right hand to the Darkness since the Man with the German Accent had disappeared after the ritual had failed to bring back the Darkness. No doubt Josiah was here to take control of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse for the Darkness. Well, Derdrom wasn’t about to give up his chance at being the right hand to this Black Hand.

Josiah smiled. He knew that Derdrom didn’t trust him. That was fine by him. He didn’t trust the Horsemen of the Apocalypse either. “Is that any way to treat me?” He asked Derdrom before looking at the other three Horsemen of the Apocalypse. “Considering that it was I who gave you the Intel on the parents that you just killed?”

Derdrom felt the other Horsemen of the Apocalypse looking at him. He hadn’t told them that he had gotten the information from a Black Hand and not from his magic. He had been hoping to keep that a secret since he didn’t even know who the Black Hand was that had sent him the message to attack the parents. He cleared his throat. “That was you?” He asked. He didn’t trust Josiah to be telling the truth but the Black Hand had known that they had gone there to kill the parents.

Josiah nodded. “I was told to give you that from my employer.” He told Derdrom. With the Man with the German Accent out of the picture, Anthony, Josiah’s employer, had ordered Josiah to give the information to Derdrom. “My employer wants to meet you.” Josiah continued. “All four of you. He has very important information that he wants you all to have.” He smiled. He knew that Derdrom would have to agree to this meeting or risk getting replaced as the Horseman of War by the other three Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Derdrom glared at Josiah. “Why did your employer want us to attack the two?” He demanded. He didn’t like being used. He served the Darkness willingly but he didn’t like being given orders by others. “Why didn’t he have you do the attack?” It didn’t make sense.

Josiah went up to Derdrom. “My employer could have had me do it but,” He snapped his fingers and a drone flew towards them. Derdrom’s eyes widened. They had been recorded by a drone. “My employer wanted to see how well the Horsemen of the Apocalypse did on their own before recruiting you all.” Josiah could see that Derdrom was curious. “Now that the Magician is gone, there is a power grab for the right hand position to the Darkness. My employer wants it but he wants as many supporters and allies as possible.” Josiah explained. “What better way than by showing what the Horsemen of the Apocalypse are capable of and that they’re aligned with him in his mission to bring back the Darkness?”

Derdrom realized that Josiah had a point. That was what they all wanted. To have the Darkness rise up to power once more. He wondered though why Josiah’s employer wanted to have the right hand position and what did attacking two random adults in New Philadelphia have to do with his mission to get the right hand position? He looked towards the city. It was still full of sirens going off and smoke rising from the city. “What does this city and the two adults have to do with your employer?” He asked Josiah. Did the Black Hand know why his employer had targeted the two adults?

Josiah joined him and smiled. “My dear Derdrom.” He said, making Derdrom flinch which was rare for the Horseman of War. “My employer is bringing the fight to New Philadelphia.” He looked towards the city. “He’ll tell you more about it but only if you four come to meet him.”

Derdrom thought about it. He really did want to meet Josiah’s employer. After everything happening at the manor and the camp, a change of scenery would be nice. “Where are we going to meet your employer?” He asked.

Josiah smiled and his eyes glowed red. Anthony would be very pleased. “In his manor of course.” He answered. The four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and him disappeared in columns of fire.