You would have expected the sky to burn,
The ground to shake and the stars go out,
But they didn't, it was a normal day.
And that's what scared me the most.
Plague mounted his horse first,
And raced through the crowds faster than light.
He smiled with crooked teeth,
Laughing as he brushed as many shoulders as he could.
All he contacted grew frail and sickly,
And soon most everyone had felt his touch.
He was gone as fast as he came,
Leaving desolation in his wake.
Death watched.
Famine rode second, slower than his brother.
He looked older, his eyes carrying wisdom that Plague lacked.
While the healthy tended the plagued, he rode slowly.
He waited for them to look away, then plucked their crops from the ground.
He waited for them to notice, and reveled in their panic.
He waited for them to use the last of their scraps, and chuckled in their desperation.
Then he rode away slowly, task complete, a wrinkled smile on his chin.
Death watched.
War rode fast, but unlike his brothers
He chose only a few targets:
A queen on her throne
A man, beloved by all
A politician, whom all relied on.
Through his thick beard, he whispered
And pointed fingers.
Then, the muscular horseman simply watched
As his words turned to weapons
And weapons turned to bloodshed.
And like his brothers, he turned and trotted away
When there were simply no longer enough people to manipulate.
Death watched,
And finally, he mounted his pale steed.
He strutted slowly through the fields
Of groaning men and starving women.
He stopped at each person, reaching down
Lifting their souls from their bodies.
He smiled, but it was not a smile of cruelty.
It was like a parent, lifting
Their crying child from the ground
His ride was the longest,
Making sure not to miss a single being,
Until not a single soul resided inside a body.
He stood amidst the corpses, smiling
Proud of his brothers work.
Proud of liberating these souls
From the depressing prison that is
Their life.
The man, tall and thin,
Turned to me.
I gasped, unaware that was a thing he could do.
"I've been studying you, young one
You cut yourself from people
To keep Plague's finger from brushing you.
You watched your food
To keep Famine from plucking it away.
You hid yourself away, saving yourself
From the rabid men, led by War's words.
You were smart, yet so incredibly foolish."
I frown, and retort,
"Is it so wrong to want to live?"
The man, tall and firm,
Smiled, and spoke,
"To live is to love one.
To live is to ache for one.
To live is to wake each day,
Eager for both, for only with those
Can you be whole.
My boy, you saved your existence
But your life?
You ended that the second you stepped away."
Tears trickled down my face.
I covered my ears, ears that would never again hear
The laughter of a loved one.
I covered my ears, desperate to block
His many truths.
I turned and ran, ran and fell,
Onto arms that would never again feel embrace.
I sobbed, knowing full well that no one
Would ever again tell me, "It's okay."
Death stood over me, and reached out.
I looked over the fields of corpses
And the cities turned silent.
I looked at the pale horseman,
Through tear welled eyes,
And took his hand.
