Winter Holiday 2025
folder
Original - Misc › General
Rating:
Adult
Chapters:
3
Views:
212
Reviews:
2
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Category:
Original - Misc › General
Rating:
Adult
Chapters:
3
Views:
212
Reviews:
2
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
These are works of fiction. Any resemblance of characters to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. The Author holds exclusive rights to this work. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited.
Insidious
Sometimes a perfect day comes with terms and conditions. Idle wishes can be overheard.
Tags:(Violence)(Mindcontrol)
A dark stain on the horizon began to spread the barest tinge of cold.
Amato frowned.
"Therion. You dirty liar."
His vacation was supposed to be perfect. A raging sea with frothing waves and dark clouds over head.
"Would it be too much to ask? A tropical Christmas in peace? A solemn prayer to the universe?"
He wanted to tan with natural sun. The wish left his balmed lips.
Not that he'd repeat this. Amato felt his thoughts turn to home. He wanted home, Or was that word a person that happened to be there?
Home... Such a peculiar word. He'd been ashamed of his poverty, of his beaten up truck. His mood soured like it always did.
The world outside wasn't better outside his small town it was just elsewhere... And she... She was one hell of a woman. She had made his truck shudder and rock. Made him feel... Big.
It hadn't ended so much as put on hold.... He tried to remember why... His eyes unfocused. like water on oil. It hurt to remember like an old sore he kept picking at refusing to let it heal. He refused to forget. He could not break the fetter.
His head throbbed.
She wouldn't remember him... that seditious thought slipped in and broke his focus.
Amato picked up the remote. Her name was not an I. Surely, He would eventually find that letter. It was torn from his grasp. He blinked as his eyes focused once more. What had he'd been thinking? It couldn't have been anything of consequence.
Right? But it wasn't his voice, not his thought and it was a lie. Amato fought as it pushed him deep down. A passenger once more.
He turned on the news and hummed.
He sighed in relief.
"Oh!'
A happy exclamation. The storm was clearing pushed by some unexpected windfall.
"What an unexpected act of splendiferous providence!"
His phone buzzed. Therion Conglomerate beckoned. She came out of nowhere. Amato knew she'd call on his vacation. He cursed the day he came to work early.
How such a company came out of nowhere and absorbed it wholesale he knew not. Suddenly he was her secretary indefinitely
"Yes. Chief Executive Officer?"
He'd prefer to be pummeled. Disquieting, like a lion on the prowl. She'd just shown up in a rubied pantsuit. One day.
"When can you be back in the office? That storm is upgrading and I can get a private jet out there in a matter of minutes."
He was a secretary but she seemed to have concluded he was HER personal secretary.
He worked for Quintus Pharmaceutical or well had. Amato in truth still hadn't understood what exactly happened. Therion came out of nowhere like a rabid honey badger. Quintus Pharmaceuticals had been content with its business to business.
"I know. What an act of-" He thought for a word that would annoy her.
"Providence." He smirked "the storm is heading else where." He hadn't been able to contact any of the higher ups.
He could feel her disappointment in the silence. "I can come get you."
"I'm taking my vacation days all of them. Its been submitted months ago!"
"I'll come to you."
The head of the conglomerate bade and hung up. "What?!" Amato stood up. His stomach knotted.
A warm southern wind. Continued to shove the dark clouds away.
"Eggnog Martini?"
The server asked warmly. "No Wine, for sure."
As the sun began to climb. The sun kissed his cheeks both sets as he laid languid on his side.
The sand gently warmed by the glorious tropical sun.
An equine screech. As horses raced by playfully.
The beach was thankfully bare of people.
"How would you like your eggs?"
The server kept his eyes on Amato's face.
"Scrambled. Butter no oil."
Amato as Amato accept the eggnog martini. He took a sip.
"With another Eggnog." There in the distant a large private jet was incoming upon this private abode. Billionaire likely.
Amato rolled his eyes. Turns out there was a thing as too much money and it wasn't just the Trillionaire. Billionaires were insufferable.
After the first million, Amato ceased to believe in coincidence..
Now the million dollar question. Is why did they come? One did not come to the tropics on Christmas Day. Without purpose. He'd done it sowly to get away from someone... And nobody else was worthy of his attention much less presence.
Except... except Amato knew that to be a lie. For a moment, he could just barely remember a face, a name that annoyingly escaped his grasp.
"I shall have your order ready soon."
The server bade.
"Ah!' He shook his head. Call the Massuer! My back needs attention."
Oh he said the words but it wasn't him. Not really. Not when he was in the passenger seat.
It was not a K. The trick he learned to survive this nightmare was to know when to tune in and when to let his bondage autopilot. Sometimes he didn't care for the autopilot.
He'd guessed correctly. He did not care the harm the struggle caused. He would either worry himself to death against the bars of his inner prison and be crushed to death or he would eventually tear free.
An equine screeched ear piercing and loud. Ejected into the driver's seat as he rolled off his towel just moments before a colt crashed atop. Where'd he'd just been.
The colt and him looked at one another in mutual confusion. Distantly he'd heard the beat and the colt was legs up.
"You have to be careful not to lose your footing."
Amato bade as he was covered in sand. His eggnog splattered on wet beach sand. He let the martini glass drop from his fingers in dissatisfaction. He felt the sea breeze on his nude skin.
The sun kissed his flesh warmly. Amato looked at the sheepish black colt who rolled to his side.
Amato saw the world reflected by the equine eye. His head began to throb. It blinked and shook itself but allowed him to touch his muzzle in wonder before charging off playfully.
His server returned without his meal or eggnog.
"You are being requested."
The server stated in apology.
"By who?" Amato demanded.
"By the owner of the island."
They looked at one another uncomfortable as the server handed him a fresh towel.
His eggs laid steaming with fresh eggnog on the table.
Amato purposefully spread legs.
"To what do I owe, such a... Invitation? Careless don't you think?"
The man didn't blink.
"Situations change."
Electric blue eyes beheld him and did not blink.
"Oh?"
Amato folded his hands under his chin.
"Mind elaborating a bit?"
"Eat and be merry."
Amato would resolutely refuse to touch his meal. He did not spook easy but he was going to get off the island as soon a physically able.
The man in a suit was a little to... Off. A little too perfect.
The man's features bordered on uncanny.
As he followed the man's hands to his eggs.
"What could I have possibly done to warrant such attention?"
Amato boldly exclaimed.
"I know you are a Fifth Son." Was the response.
Two could play this game.
"I don't eat faerie food." Amato retorted.
The man stilled a statue for a moment.
"Old Fae? No not likely. That iron allergy is so detrimental to your lieges. As though they would know the meaning of hard work! To work until even stubborn metal bows."
No reaction.
"Changeling?"
Amato questioned again. The man had electric blue eyes in a dark suit that could either be black or so deep blue as to make no difference. Neither old nor young with no visible hair and no clear ethnicity.
The man held up a hand.
"We need not be enemies Fifth Son."
"You are not the sort to be stoked by idle whimsy. You hide in plain sight isn't that right? Dare I say few of your employees know? Founder and owner of Quintus Pharmaceuticals?"
Amato felt a grimace he suppressed.
"Newly.. Ex-Owner. Well informed you seem to be." Amato retorted.
And here he thought his precautions were excessive... he was gonna have to fix that.
"Therion." The man said as he studied him with those inhuman eyes.
Amato flinched and put his hands down. He'd listen if nothing else.
"Insidious a rapid rise is it not? What became of the board and the CEO?"
The man asked. Amato told the truth.
"I don't know. "
Only two people in his company knew the truth of his front.
The CEO and the Head of Board.
One or both decided to be Judas for he had forbidden it even to be written down. Secretary was a unassuming title from where he could watch from a safe distance. Companies were more reliable than individual customers.
"You think them dead." The statement was blunt from the man.
"Who are you?" Amato asked.
"I am not of Danu's Get. I personally don't like the underground." The man stated amused. "In anycase, The age of the gods has long since ended." Vestigial remnants one and all. Pay to them no heed. Nor worship Hm.."
"You may call me Mr. Blue. I am no Conqueror Worm."
"Are you a Messenger?" Mr.Blue looked at him in amusement.
"My name is not Michael."
Mr.Blue laughed and the lights flickered.
"He is not an amenable sort. Should you see him Flee. For the time of talking is over. A helpful tip for free. It might even save your life. Dear Hunter."
"Sweet Hunter."
"I will not treat with a Demon." Amato retorted.
Mr.Blue broke out in a fit of laughter. "It would be amusing if it wasn't so pathetic. Locusts."
Mr.Blue rubbed his eyes of tears.
"You have amused me greatly kith. Stay with me this Christmas I insist. But I fear we have digressed."
Mr.Blue reluctantly returned.
"Would you like some Wine? No? Pity. I have fine vintage."
Mr. Blue shrugged. "No matter."
"Back to the matter at hand. Therion Conglomerate." Mr. Blue continued to shrewdly look at him like he was an exotic pet.
"She is coming."
Amato admitted.
"Is that so." Mr.Blue seemed surprised.
"I think, she suspects the truth."
"A she? Are you certain?"
"Not at all."
Amato informed.
"Whatever she truly is. She showed up a while ago. Not more than couple months. Rubies and a red pantsuit."
"It was a business to business company. Companies turned out to be more rewarding than individual customers. Bulk orders make it easy. You see." Amato stated.
"I am aware of the hunter ecosystem."
Mr.Blue stated.
"The backbone, the heavy lifting as it is phrased. Fifth sons hang back but give the glory to their siblings. Without the Fifth Sons many more would be naught but maggot feast"
"I am quite aware that hunter orgs get significant discounts and that you received generous compensation in return."
"You don't sound opposed." Amato stated lightly surprised that this strange being would seemingly approve of his work.
"There are quite a few dark corners upon our world."
Mr.Blue stated noncommittally. "What care have I? To whom those sirened by shallow graves?"
"Curiosity isn't a sin. But overindulgence is most certainly a vice." Mr.Blue smiled.
"There are many things that dwell upon our world. Is not Man entitled to the rights of his Dominion? Let Man keep what he has claimed!"
Amato didn't know how to feel about that.
"Are you implying that the supernatural are afraid of Man? Even though many of them prey on them?" Amato queried back in wonder.
"Fascinating."
Mr.Blue stared at him at though those artificially bright electric blue eyes peered through him.
"What is?"
Amato felt self-conscious for a moment. Those eyes bored clear through him.
"Come. Let us enjoy ourselves this Christmas. Eight hours of sunlight."
"She is coming."
Amato repeated. Mr.Blue smiled.
"She can certainly test that theory at her own prerogative." Amato shuddered with the finality with which it was spoke.
Mr.Blue kept him in sight.
Clearly Mr.Blue was not human. That much he knew. That much he felt.
Certainly, Amato dressed succinctly. An ugly Christmas sweat and jeans. Amato could probably attempt to escape. He'd rather not risk his pilots and staff though. It was a strange time to have morals but he'd held them all the same.
"You are certainly hungry yet you will not eat. I've the honor of ordering you a salad.
"Oil and Vinegar?", "Ranch?" "Based on your preferences -" Amato felt his stomach grumble.
"No oil, I'll take the homemade buttermilk ranch.... Thank you for your consideration." Politeness was the difference between life and death.
"Its not enchanted. One does not live by bread alone." Mr.Blue Asserted.
Amato looked suspiciously at it.
"You wound me." Mr.Blue said faux offended. "Die mad." Amato replied.
"Idle wishes could be the cause of much mischief. But all you wanted was a perfect day!" Mr.Blue's smile was The Cheshire Cat incarnate.
Amato swallowed with the realization he was the birdie in the cage with nowhere to run.
A mischievous grin by an inhuman thing did not portend good things.
Mr. Blue's fingers slid on the table happily.
"I can hear you. The REAL you."
"Shouldn't you be on Mars or perusing the stolen riches on Venus's Cloud City?" Amato quipped.
Mr.Blue sat across him chuckled and the lights flickered noticeably.
"The letter you seem to be looking for is." Mr. Blue held his silence dramatic.
"J."
The throbbing in Amato's head began. Like fingers on a chalkboard only he could hear.
"I don't know what you talking about."
Amato began. Mr.Blue continued.
"You see. You skipped right over humble J."
Mr.Blue sat back and began to sip his own eggnog.
"Your Yoke, Your bondage is quite... Novel but impressive. You play with chemicals at an industrial scale when you'd rather be home. They stole the welcome toil of soil and the rearing of animals from you. Patient you are that I must admit."
Mr.Blue sipped his eggnog.
"Quiet, you have always been. Which makes you the worst of the lot."
"I know complicit rage when I see it. I can taste the festering spite seeping up. Like a lead roman pipe forgotten in the watertable."
"I'm curious to see who has earned your ire."
Mr.Blue sat opposite to him as he slathered his salad. He took a bite and looked thoughtful for a moment. Those electric blue bored into him and Amato felt naked.
"Beginning to slack, beginning to fray."
"But to answer your question my dear little sweet hunter. Dear Hunter of the things that lay in the dark."
"Mr.Gray committed a sin unsanctioned in 2210. A most grievous transgression that demands a most heavy consequence.
"We do not forget."
"I do not forgive."
"Someone has to watch dear Man's old cradle. Why should it not be me? Shall Mr.Red? Bah! Man would begone within days!"
Amato felt the dull beginning of a migraine begin to twitch.
"Why are are you telling me this. Mr.Blue." Amato asked as the world grew uncomfortably bright
Mr.Blue took a few bites he enjoyed.
"Why not?" Mr.Blue challenged.
"For no matter how far Man may reach. No matter how many stars they pass and worlds they touch. They will never outpace us. Will never outreach us."
For a moment.
Amato saw what laid beneath Mr.Blue. He stared into those electrical blues. As his Migraine took him out faster than a sniper shot.
The phone buzzed and Mr. Blue thought amused that turned to a thoughtful beginning of a frown.
Mr. Blue went around the table and slipped his hand around it.
The smell of electrical components melted and burned as Mr.Blue as deftly crushed it. Plastics and metal protested as electricity arced in futility for just a moment.
He was beyond such frivolous toys.
To those at the Summit of the world. Much was naught but children's toys.
He returned to his eggnog as he stared up. Idle he called for someone to clean up the mess and then he looked up.
Sloppy.
Just sloppy. Unforgivable.
A modified satellite? A blue light began to focus.
No.
No. That would not do.
Not at all. Not on Christmas. One must respect The One Who Had Other Plans.
Mr.Blue put his hands together.
For to be upon the mountain was to be alone... Or nearly.
Mr.Blue had no intention of allowing interference.
He was beyond sword and steel, beyond sorcery and other expressions of power. Beyond armies and wars. For he was higher reaching than the skies themselves.
APEX: ἼκαÏος!
Space debris slammed into it from flecks of paint to micrometeorites.
Tearing through its hull. A screw pierced through vital systems.
Screaming metal as friction from the atmosphere plunged it into the sea as debris.
Mr.Blue enjoyed his eggnog. The satellite's destruction was such it was nothing but scrap fit for a junkyard.
"Sir. It is urgent."
A cautious voice rang from his reluctant Lieutenant butler.
"There had better be."
"The Eveningstar has called."
Mr.Blue's lips tightened and he held back a curse.
"Fine. I'll take the call."
He didn't want to leave the room. This was precisely the time. Something happened.
Mr.Blue hesitated.
"Damn it."
He took one last look as he left Amato in the room alone.
Sun kissed warmth of the equator's day shone wholesome and pure.
For a moment Amato began to stir. His baby blue eyes began to focus.
He wasn't alone.
The sound of a horse munching next to his ear brought him to wakefulness. The absurdity of a black colt eating his salad. Amato was clearly dreaming.
"Do Not Be Afraid."
It was a server right down to the professional suited uniform of the island.
"Of What?"
Amato looked around as the colt finished his salad and began licking the gilded bowl clean of the dressing. The colt shook its mane and trotted off.
Amato's dimly felt a profound sense of disquiet.
"Who are you?"
He asked softly. The server's face was serene, beatific. It was also utterly terrifying in countenance for there was nothing human. He had faced many things in the dark of the world and horribly many of them could hold a veneer of humanity at least at first. This one did not bother to pretend.
"My name is not important. You are not dreaming Amato."
His voice butter rich, and ocean deep.
S-Surely. You have a name." Amato lightly.
"It does not hold relevance at present." The server retorted.
... "Do I know you?" Amato asked.
"Come now, has the joy of your bondage. So readily made you forget?"
Amato frowned at the server's pronouncement.
"I don't know what you are saying."
Amato's heard the hollowness in his voice and he didn't understand why.
"While it is true the Creator has given me the ability to lie. Only mortals seem able to truly appreciate it. But at present I am not lying. I can prove it if you wish. Should you consider the consequence worth it. "
"You will find no comfort in it." The server bade simply.
"I don't believe you."
Amato stated. As soon as he said the words he realized it was a mistake. For he'd been given an out and he had ignored it.
"You are one who stood before the throne"
The Server bade and let a brief respite. Amato's inner self bucked in knowing trepidation. The shackles of his entombment shattered. The Autopilot perished.
The evergreen reverberation of that voice of reality's creator. His prohibition. Ever present. ever yawning, never dying. TOUCH NOT THE OIL AND THE WINE.
His vision clouded with tears.
A timeless moment of scouring. Never fading. Amato's lip quivered and his voice died in wordless lament. As he shook like a leaf in a maelstrom as sweat dribbled down his back.
"You heard The Voice of God."
The sever bade reverently.
Amato felt something buckle deep inside.
He blubbered wordlessly for awhile. Slack and wretched in his chair. Something large and black hid the server from view and he buried his face in the mane of the colt. Whose neck hugged him in a way only horse could.
Amato roughly, softly found his voice again. His nerves sang raw. Like he'd been skinned and plastered with salt.
He could not bear to see such a being.
"You are quite cruel. You know that? Accursed Eveningstar."
The server remained unphased.
"Our Creator hears all prayers. O Quiet Horseman. Even yours. Entrapped and entombed as you were" The messenger bade.
"You have my permission to hate me. To hold me in contempt and curdle my name with curses. As so many of earth and heaven oft does."
"To you I offer you a Sincerely Merry Christmas." A ragged cackle emerged from Amato's lips.
"You are the one who can be anywhere and anyone on Earth or Heaven. Eveningstar."
He bite back the curse on his lips. He would not give the angel of paranoia the satisfaction of being right.
"You have a blessed and fruitful Christmas Day."
Amato managed to get it out.
"You are not here for niceties. Not one of your brethren would ever bother to check upon us. Not without cause. Not without purpose."
Amato's own voice answered back.
"Yet, here I am. Your observation is thus flawed."
Amato hated hearing the coyness creep in his voice. "Is thus incorrect. As novelty biased as it is."
"What do you want?" Amato felt tired, felt exhausted.
"None may know the day or the hour but God himself."
His own voice affirmed in whisper that slide like ice down his back and drifted in his mind.
"You were the only one unaccounted for."
Amato heard his tongue click. "Naughty, Naughty."
"Do the others know? That you alone among them can hear The Voice of God unfiltered?"
Amato grit his teeth despite himself.
Well two could play the game of secrets.
"Do the other angels know it is you who keep the fallen host impotently infighting?" Amato countered.
An amused clap and a chuckle. Amato hated that it was his own.
"Its nice to be appreciated. Horseman."
"You're blackmailing me." Amato stated. His own voice perfectly replicated responded in a pout.
"Come now, Don't be boring. Amato. We unsheathed the hidden waters and watched the old world drown."
"We're basically the best of friends "
Amato heard his voice turn serious.
"Those who seek to delay it. May bring it forth. Those who seek to bring it forth may delay it. Be it a thousand years. Or a couple billion." Amato disliked how seamless his own voice was.
Amato rubbed his face reassuringly in the mane of his colt. Before he jerked in acknowledgement.
"You think someone is attempting to jumpstart the apocalypse?"
Amato heard the smile in his voice.
"I know so."
The pregnant silence was terrible on its own.
"The others has been relocated... Safely. It is your turn."
"I was already going to leave."
The angel clapped joyously.
"Good Boy. Good Boy." The angel exclaimed with his voice a perfect mirror.
Amato had no reason to lie. "My interest lie elsewhere. New Haven." He remembered her face but dimly.
"I sincerely hope you find what you're looking for."
The messenger said. "You know what Eveningstar? Its Christmas. You may have this face, this visage. This form. After I get done with my perfect day. It is after all. A perfect day for riding."
Amato amended.
"Of course, My dear Amato. Of course. Shall I give thee back to Blue Death? For that is his name. The attempted Thanotomacy. It was quite something! Even surpassing the titanomacy itself! These Deaths know well the art of war. Breathtaking was their ascendant conflict!"
"Would it be imposing to ask?" Amato asked. "I changed my mind. I tire of conversation and I'm beginning to fear Mr.Blue loves the sound of his own voice."
"Let's make a wager. I bet he will notice." Eveningstar said with their voice.
Amato snorted. "Sonofabitch. I'll wager he doesn't. Just act like you have a Migraine."
"You're on"
They said in perfect sync. Amato stared at himself and clasped his hand and brought him close, the whisper on his ear. So tender, so quiet that Amato knew it wasn't safe to be heard.
"Nephilim."
Amato was glad to walk upon the beach sand.
He affectionately scratched the nibbling black colt at his side. He wondered softly.
Should he mourn? It might have been a lie born of enchantment. But... Perhaps there was truth in that saying of loving one's chains?
Had he been imprisoned so long... That a part of him wanted that lie?
"Forgive me. I can't even remember your name. All I know, is it starts with J."
She was one hell of a woman.
Rocked his truck, towered over him. A king without his bough. Was worse than even a pauper.
"Who did this to me? To us? WHY?!"
He demanded. His rage was volcanic and it made him sick. How it simmered. How it steeped and lingered. The colt huffed and snorted in his face. The colt screeched. For a moment the waves trembled.
"Yes. I know Fallow. It is poison. How dare they sicken us so. They must be punished... And punished... Severely."
A mortal's life was priceless. And this theft of their time together was unconscionable as to be sin itself. They had earned his personal lasting enmity and his attention. Most Unwise.
On the horizon came distant surging clouds. A storm was brewing as the sun began to set. It would arrive precisely as the sun slipped below the tropical horizon.
"Thank you."
He would be grateful. To... HIM.
"All Prayers are heard huh? When you speak at last I will not forget."
Distant thunder rolled.
"My influence shall not fester here." That as a horseman he promised. It was minor thing but one did not spite good service.
When the trumpets at last sounded at the end of the pre apocalyptic era. He would but touch this island briefly and he would remember.
He rubbed his mount's neck.
"Whatever the Eveningstar has planned I will not be party to!"
"Let us ride together!"
Fallow his black coated colt nodded and curled its foreleg as a step. Amato easily swung climbed over and he was where he should be.
Atop his mount.
His clenched and the world grew quiet. Not the sound of natural silence. A noiselessness that could only result from recognizing that it wasn't safe to be heard. Famine and Fallow looked at one another. As even the waves grew languid. The ocean moved or rather as he recognized. Something beneath it.
Moved.
They weren't the cause. It came from the east. For a moment he thought it had to be a periscope of a submarine. A jutting black spike had erupted from the oceanic water. A disturbing scent turned the air foul.
It could not be fierce Leviathan. That which dwelled in the deep.
The water exploded upwards white as the briney deep struggled to conceal the lumbering mountain jutting upwards, Ever higher. The sheets of salt water at last failed to shroud what bubbled up from the dark abyssal depths.
Terrible and proud as only a living blasphemy could. The salted sheets cascading off its lumbering form.
Another spike and then another as it lanced upwards til it was crowned terrible by those dark clouds. Lightning arced revealing the blasphemous abominable amalgamation in dissonant flashes.
The Ten Horned Thing.
Leonine seven mouths opened wide. As its formidable plantigrade feet of nonretractable claws. That had surely gouged the lightless depths in its passage. Startling whales and whatever Kaiju laid beneath the waves.
Famine knew well that it would sense him soon.
He knew it was looking for him but it would not find him. Fallow and him went sideways. Parallel and adjacent. He slid from the world. Unmoored and free of earthly tie.
Perhaps in time he would visit that dead world of red and even the cities amid the clouds of Venus.
For now.
Now, there was but one destination.
The shriek of battle unceasing met the moans of the relentless dead crashing upon battlements and fortifications and languished afield of trenches that stretched to the horizon. In the distance, artillery and tank fire rang echoing off the endless hills.
One by one they all uprose. A ceaseless horde measured in billions. A sea of the dead and grasping hands.
At first one turned and issued a soulless measured groan. A ripple through the vast clustered shambling march as the closest shuddered, stilled from their endless march.
"Get out of my way."
Famine rasped. With a cry of inert soil.
Fallow kicked out, bones shattered as Fallow began to trample towards the distant din of gunfire.
Directionless the horde of multitudes swayed for a moment then the shambling plague slowly began to amble after.
The shadow of the black rider.