(short story by Sheila Renee Parker)
In the shadowy recesses of the cosmic abyss, a malevolent force, born of ancient nightmares, stirred with a hunger for chaos. Unseen by mortal eyes, this malevolence coalesced into a dark entity known as the Harbinger. Its presence sent shivers through the fabric of reality, heralding an impending doom.
As the Harbinger unleashed its sinister power, the very essence of terror coagulated into four grotesque forms—the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Pestilence, a wretched amalgamation of decay and disease; War, a monstrous embodiment of carnage and destruction; Famine, a skeletal figure draped in hunger and desolation; and Death, a spectral reaper wielding a scythe that thirsted for the souls of the living.
With a blood-curdling scream that echoed through the cosmos, the Horsemen came to life, their malevolent eyes reflecting the abyss within. The Harbinger bound them to its will, commanding them to ride forth upon the astral winds and unleash a torrent of horror upon the realms of existence.
Pestilence spread a virulent plague that withered life to its very core, leaving barren landscapes and desolate cities in its wake. War swung its colossal sword, unleashing a cataclysmic conflict that consumed entire civilizations in a frenzied maelstrom of violence and despair. Famine cast a cursed shadow, draining the life force from all living things, turning once-thriving lands into ashen wastelands.
And then came Death, the harbinger of ultimate darkness. Its skeletal steed galloped relentlessly, and with each stride, the fabric of reality unraveled. Souls were torn from their mortal vessels, and a symphony of anguished wails echoed in the void.
As the Four Horsemen rode together, the apocalyptic storm they unleashed devoured worlds and extinguished stars. The cosmic tapestry of existence tore asunder, revealing the gnashing maw of oblivion. The Harbinger reveled in the chaos, watching as the universe succumbed to the grotesque ballet of destruction.
The birth of the Four Horsemen marked the onset of an unrelenting apocalypse, a nightmare from which there was no awakening. The cosmic horrors they wrought left no corner of the cosmos untouched, and the screams of the dying echoed into the eternal abyss, swallowed by the void that now reigned supreme.
