by Lauren Wood
He heard mumbles of voices and they were getting closer. He knew from being here before that there was only one way down into the basement. Coming down those stairs would be their ultimate mistake. He took a deep breath and kept his eyes open, because closing them for a second could mean the difference between failure and success.
Lila knew that things were going to get loud and had her hands over her ears in case it was going to sound like some kind of rock concert out of control. She was getting older and was getting sensitive to loud noises. She was even in need of glasses, but there was no way that those in the flesh trade were going to let her show that kind of flaw. They would rather let her see things fuzzy than to give her the comfort of once again seeing things clear and concise. “I feel like I’ve been unable to sleep for a week. I know that it has only been less than 24 hours, but a lot has happened in that time. It reminds me of that show 24 that has these insane sequences of action that doesn’t seem real. I guess you don’t know, until you have to deal with the same type of thing in real life.”
“I’m guessing that Blake is not going to come up anytime soon. I told him not to underestimate you, but he said that he had that handled. I told him that he needed the full force of the horsemen to take care of you and the bitch permanently. He actually deluded himself into thinking that he could talk you into laying down your arms and taking your medicine like a good little boy.” Lionel was the horseman of pestilence. He was very proficient with biological warfare. He had a certain surprise ready in a canister and was about to give Jordan more to chew on than just a regular barrage of bullets. Once the canister broke, the smallpox inside would attack just about anything. Lionel and the horsemen had already had their inoculations and were immune to the effects of such a weapon.
“I think that Blake knew that I was never going to give up easily. He probably did think that he was going to be able to finish this, but his death is not something that is going to weigh heavily on my conscience. He was here to kill me and it was either die at his hands or kill him myself. I don’t think that there’s any reason why we should stand on ceremony. Give me your best shot and I implore you to make it count. If you don’t kill me, then I will have no choice. You will have to join your brother in the afterlife.” Jordan had the gun poised and ready to fire. He didn’t like Lionel and he was certain that he didn’t come without his own special gift. He had seen him in action enough times to know that there were other weapons besides guns that could be used to make a very poignant statement.
“You have to know that there’s no way for you to get out of here without finding one of us standing in your way. You taking out one out of four still leaves three that is vying for your head on a platter.” Lionel looked like death with his albino complexion and hairless body. He had suffered when he was a child against various ailments and had come out looking a little worse for wear. “Jordan, don’t say that I didn’t warn you. If you thought for a moment that you were going to get close to Jamison, then you really have lost what is left of your mind.” Lionel had the canister in his hands. He lobbed it underhand into the room. He didn’t know that Lila had somehow seen something coming and decided to intercept.
Lila was holding the canister, but in her haste, she had inadvertently toppled the bottle of tequila that was used to prevent infection in the bullet wound in Jordan’s shoulder. The crash of the glass to the floor was a little louder than the canister, but it would serve to make Lionel think that the task had been completed.
The horsemen would stay out of the basement, until Jordan was either dead or needing a way to get air into his polluted lungs. The horsemen of war namely Joseph was outside in a nearby car with a sharpshooter stance waiting for Jordan to emerge through the glass of the basement. He was ready to strike him down dead with one shot and that was the kind of satisfaction that made his loins rampant and ready to take the innocence of some young fresh faced college kid. He did like them young, but not young enough to be considered jail bait. He had a certain charm that had the women dripping off of his arm and lying in his bed afterwards smoking a cigarette and looking a little ashamed by their actions.
Jordan used a mirror with a long metal stick connecting to it to look out the window. He saw Joseph with his head down and the gun slipping through the opening in the window of his black sedan. They were going by the same rule book that they had used in the past. They had forgotten that he was a part of their crew at one time. He didn’t last more than a couple of months before realizing that he was better off alone. That was a couple of years ago and maybe they had lost sight of the fact that he had already been well accustomed to the way that they worked.
Lila was taking deep breaths and looking at this canister and knowing that it was supposed to end this. Dying this way was not something that she would wish on her worst enemy. She had no doubt that the biological weapon would be something that was able to make them suffer and die in agony.
“Lila that was pretty quick thinking. I was waiting for him to do that, but I thought that he would give me some kind of fair warning. We’re definitely going to have to make this sound good. I don’t know exactly what is in the canister, but I’ve been witness to what he has done in the past. He’ll want us to be screaming and we should give it another minute, before we give them exactly what he thinks is going to happen. We need to really sell this and I can’t stress that more than I have already. Lionel gets a sexual thrill from hearing somebody die in this way.” Jordan was burning inside with not only desire for the woman that he loved, but for the chance to put the horsemen where they belonged. They had run rough shot for too long and it was time that somebody took them out of the equation.
Lila could feel that feeling deep inside. When he called her by name, she felt like it was the sweetest sound and that she was standing on holy ground. “I think that I can work with those parameters. Like you said, we really do need to sell this and make him believe that what he has accomplished is something that will give him that sexual feeling.” “I don’t know how anybody could feel anything sexual from killing someone, but there are a lot of sick freaks out there. I’m sure in some way that Jordan himself enjoys what he does. How can I love a man like that?”
“I’ve got the matches and you’ve got the gasoline to make this a burning fire that they will never be able to contain. I think that they may have taken this a little too far. They are going to learn the hard way that killing me is not exactly easy. If one of them survives, then he’ll know that I have left my mark. Let’s give them something that they haven’t heard before.” They looked at each other and then they started to play act, as if somebody was dying. They imagined themselves burning from the inside out and their screams echoed throughout the house and a few yards out onto the street.
They put on a show for Lionel, so that he would hear every word. They also put on the same show for Joseph sitting in his car looking through the viewfinder and seeing them both screaming and holding their head like they were feeling like it was going to explode off their shoulders. They both fell onto their knees. To put an extra spin on it, Jordan pounded his head into the floor, before rising up with blood streaming down his nose.
Thinking that it was safe to enter, Lionel the horsemen of pestilence and Timothy the horsemen of famine decided that it was time to go in and clean up the mess that they made. Timothy wanted to have the time to torture them and to feed on their fear, until they were dying with that scream caught in their throat. He stayed behind thinking ahead and not allowing himself to fall victim to any kind of trap.
Lionel opened the door and ran down the stairs in a mad rush to see his work come to life. In his haste, he forgot the first rule. The first thing that he saw was the canister unbroken. He glanced down at the broken bottle of. He lifted his head to see that Jordan was right there with gun in hand.
Chapter 2
Jordan waited, until the last possible moment and then he sprung up like a jack in the box from behind the couch. The look of surprise and
shock on Lionel’s face was absolutely priceless. He didn’t give him a chance to react, as he leveled him with the gun and fired those bullets into his body. He watched as he flailed like that of some puppet being pulled by the strings. The bullets went everywhere. He heard the sound of footsteps and somebody making the sound of being struck by an errant bullet.
Lila was back behind the bar holding her ears and closing her eyes. She didn’t want to see the carnage that was taking place. The glass of the basement window shattered.
Lila stayed exactly where she was. She could only hope that Jordan had things well in hand. She had saved them from a fate worse than death and it gave her a sense of purpose to know that she was here to protect the things that she cared about most of all. “If I wasn’t here, then he would have died for sure. There’s no way that he’s going to admit that I was helpful, but I think that I have already seen that in his eyes. I have to say that fighting alongside him has opened my eyes to how I have buried my head in the sand all these years. They made me complacent, but deep down I was still the survivor. I just needed somebody like him to coax it back out to where I could use it in the best way possible.”
Jordan leaped over the couch and jumped over the body of Lionel. He knew that Timothy was there somewhere and the trail of blood leading upstairs made him smile to think that he had injured him. He was hoping that it was a detriment to his mortality. It wasn’t enough to lay him on the stairs, but it had certainly given him a trail to follow. He didn’t hesitate, but he did move cautiously and kept his head on a swivel the entire time that he was moving up the stairs. The horseman of war was outside and the bullet that he had fired through the window of the basement had barely missed them by a fraction of an inch.
Jordan grabbed for the railing and came up into the kitchen to see that the trail of blood led into living room. He walked with confidence, until he was looking at Timothy dragging his sorry leg across the floor behind him. It was a useless piece of his anatomy and he would be better off cutting it off and using some kind of crutch or artificial limb to get away from the man that had a one track mind.
Timothy looked over his shoulder with his short dark hair matted to his forehead. “We don’t know each other very well, Jordan. I replaced the last horseman of famine. I think that you might be a little delusional into thinking that killing all of us is going to get rid of the horsemen. There are many incarnations and when one of us falls, another one is soon to replace them.” Timothy had his gun in his waistband with his hand on the butt ready to turn and fire with no emotional connection whatsoever. Like all the horsemen, they were wearing black trench coats that made them look like they were the devils personal assistant to bring new souls down into purgatory.
“I really don’t care if all of you are replaced. I’m just more concerned with the two of you at the moment. You made a mistake of coming downstairs. I thought that you were better than that. Lionel has always been the impulsive. He gets too caught up in that feeling. He doesn’t take into consideration that not all of his plans are going to work out the way that he wants them to. Your leg doesn’t look very good and I would say that I accidentally hit the femoral artery. You need emergency surgery and I could let you go, but I don’t see how that is going to help me.” Jordan knew that Timothy was not exactly a lame duck. He had always been one step ahead. He had to assume that he had one more trick up his sleeve. They only worked together once, but it was enough.
Lila had come looking for Jordan. She probably should’ve stayed downstairs where it was safe, but she couldn’t look at the cold dead eyes of both bodies that were left behind. The blood was everywhere and she felt like she was a part of some Jackson Pollock painting that had gone awry. “I want to make him feel better, but I can’t do that with these horsemen coming after us like they are. I was his addictive fix and I think that we were both the same in that way. I need him more than life itself and I don’t know, but I hope that we will walk away from this. I know the Jamison is never going to stop and that means his death and the death of his kids are a foregone conclusion.” She noticed that there was a shadow coming through the door and she grabbed the only thing that she could find.
The horsemen of war Joseph had decided to come in and lend a hand. He couldn’t believe that he had missed, but he was not going to beat himself up over it. These things happen. The sun in his eyes had caused him to slip the targeting scope an inch out of focus. He should have backed down and waited for the right time, but his finger was already pressing on the trigger. There was no taking it back.
He came through the door and he walked a few steps, before something leaped onto his back. There was a pain that cut off his oxygen and made him breathe with something of a wheeze. That pain continued to strike over and over again. There was a dainty female hand on his chin and he soon found his legs buckling out from underneath him. He couldn’t stand it anymore and the color in his face had all, but drained. There was no denying that he had allowed himself to be taken.
Lila was possessed and couldn’t stop stabbing this man, until she didn’t have the energy to lift the knife anymore. It fell from her grip and landed on the cold linoleum floor. It stained the checkered pattern of white and black with smears that were not exactly easy to wipe away. She lay there with the knife lying beside the body and knowing that there was no way that anybody could survive that kind of savage attack. She had lost control and didn’t want to give up having the upper hand. “I didn’t think that I had it in me, but I lost control for a moment. I could only see red and that translated into my body becoming a lethal weapon. I used that knife to fillet him and I doubt very seriously that he died quickly. He probably felt every single blade stroke.”
Lila looked down at the blood on her hands and she felt sick. It had nothing do with the pregnancy. That would come in time, but it was still a long ways away from happening. She felt like she wanted to throw up, but she kept it down with the bile still burning within her stomach.
Crawling over to the door leading out of the kitchen, she snuck a peek to see that Jordan was standing with gun drawn and waiting to take care of business. She wanted to believe that the man could change, but she’d seen too much in her life to think that that was even possible. There were very few instances where anybody could change the color of their spots. Everything that they were was ingrained into them. It was hard to change those things that made you what you were.
Her hand began to search the body of Timothy. She found a gun lying underneath him with the safety off. She handled the weapon and it felt like it was a part of her anatomy. It was an extension of her arm and she could see why somebody would feel that they had the power in their hand by wielding something like this. She didn’t know much about the weapon, except for what Jordan had taught her. She managed to release the clip and check to see that it was completely loaded and ready to be used in the most extreme way possible.
“You have to know that this doesn’t end well for you, Jordan. Jamison is not the kind of man that is going to lie back and let you ride off into the sunset. This can’t be much of a surprise to you and maybe you have already thought about that.” Timothy had is eyes on a mirror that showed him exactly what he wanted to see. He saw Jordan in profile with the gun drawn and ready to use it. Knowing exactly where he was made it easier for Timothy to conjure up some sort of reaction to what had already happened.
“You don’t know what the love of a good woman does to you. During one of your drunken binges, you admitted to all of us that you have never found the one that would make you think that anything was possible. You thought that people were fooling themselves into thinking that they were happy. I actually believed you at one time, but that was until Lila. She showed me that there has to be a better way and that I’ve only been making it possible for somebody to come around and take my place. We’re both feeling that age creeping up on us. It’s just a matter of time before we find ourselves playing second fiddle to some young up and coming cocksure bastard.” Jordan w
as not the type of man anymore that would shoot a man in the back. He could only wait until Timothy decided to do something.
Timothy was not the only one that was using the mirror to his advantage. Jordan saw the gun and took a slow deep breath with his finger on the trigger. It wasn’t going to be long before the ticking of the clock was not the only thing that would be heard in this enclosed space.
“Love has always been for fools. I thought they you were able to avoid those kinds of trappings. I guess if it could happen to you, it could happen to anybody. I’ve always been about the next available body. All the horsemen have been trained from the very beginning to deny themselves love in any form. It makes us a honed a weapon that is hard for anybody to overcome. You do know that Joseph is going to come for you. He might be already in the house.” Timothy was using whatever he could to make some sort of distraction. He saw the Jordan wasn’t biting or even flickering from his concentration. He was losing a lot of blood and he was sure that Jordan was right about cutting into his femoral artery with one of his bullets.
Jordan could see that Timothy was swaying back and forth like some kind of drunken man after last call. His shoulders had fallen forward and he looked ready to call it quits. It wasn’t like Timothy had anything left to lose and that made him a very dangerous man. He was already dying and taking Jordan with him was probably foremost on his mind.
“Love is the best thing that has ever happened to me. I didn’t know if I was capable of such an emotion. We’ve both been living with that cold and empty bed for too long. The feeling of reaching out in the middle of the night to find nobody there is not a pleasant one. I don’t want that kind of life anymore and I don’t know why others like us haven’t thought about this in the past. The steamy way that we look at each other is better than any call girl worth her salt. They are only holes to be filled, when the only hole that really needs filling is the one that’s in our heart.”
