Rev. 6:8

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Credit~ To the Author 

"And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see." – Revelations 6:7

I may be insane, but I feel I should write this down while I still have the chance. I'm locked in my apartment, and I've barricaded the door, but I know I won't be safe here. I just have to try to get this crazy goddamn story straight in the time that I have left. Before he comes for me.

I need to back up some. I'm Josh. Hi. Three days ago I was a normal person, with a normal car, normal apartment, normal life. I worked a desk job for Golden Image LLC. Stupid name, right? We were a small image consulting firm, specializing in political appearance management. In other words, when a politician fucked something up and fell out of favor he would come to us, and we'd make the public forget how shitty he was at his job. And recently what with the war and these Midwest droughts, business was going great. It was dull work, but it kept the bills paid, so I didn't complain. Much.

And then all this started just a few days ago, specifically while I was riding the bus to work, like I always do. It's about a thirty minute commute to the office, and sure it smells funny, but I've always loved watching the other passengers. You never see a cross section of Americana quite as interesting as when you're on the public transportation system. Anyway, that was when I saw him for the first time.

At first it didn't seem that unusual. I was just sitting there ignoring the urine smell, looking at the other passengers. Man With the Ponytail, Mullet Woman, and Mr. 'I Don't Need to Wear a Shirt in Public' were all present. The driver had his typical thousand yard stare, and seated towards the back there was a woman who was a regular like me. I don't know where she rode the bus to, but she was on it almost every day at the same times as me. I remember she looked a little under the weather that morning. Her hair was disheveled, her eyes watery, and I saw about a million tissues overflowing from the massive floral handbag she always carried. But, hey, it was flu season. I didn't think anything of it other than to remind myself to use some hand sanitizer once I was off the bus.

What did catch my eye however, was the man standing in the row behind her. He was wearing a black suit, and I mean it was all black. Black jacket, black shirt, black shoes, black leather gloves, neat black hair, irises so black they were indistinguishable from the pupils... The only thing that wasn't black about him was the pale, sallow skin on his face and neck, which was white as a corpse. And this guy just stood there, staring at the woman with the floral handbag. It wasn't the normal bus pervert leer, but a simple, steady gaze of what could have been mild curiosity that was somehow more disturbing than any sexual advance.

Despite not being the object of his unsettling attentions, I think I was more freaked out than the woman. She was ignoring him like a champ, and for that matter so was everyone else on board, so eventually I followed their lead. Mr. Black was definitely a creepy character, but I'd seen worse. Welcome to public transportation.

Work was pretty typical. Eight hours of familiar monotony in your average mid-American office, complete with artificial ferns and buzzing fluorescents. The only breaks from normality were that we were all a little disorganized that day, since Dave the receptionist was out sick, and me getting a random text from Sean, an old friend from college who I had deliberately lost touch with. "u seen the news?" Weird question. The answer was no, I hadn't watched the news since the war broke out, and I didn't particularly want to have a discussion about it during work, so I deleted the message without answering.

The other big event of the day was during lunch my friend Michael from accounting talked me into finally asking out Rachael the cute new girl after work. I'd been keeping an eye on her for a while, but it was time to make my move, so once the shift ended I gathered my courage and "bumped into" her as she was headed out the door.

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