The Four

I was sitting on my usual park bench on a Saturday evening when a pregnant woman in a hoodie rushed towards me from behind and sat by my side. She was covered in sweat and wheezing her lungs out.

“Are you okay?”

“Is there anyone coming this way?” she asked.

“What?” I looked around and saw no one approaching us. “No one,” I said.

The woman released a heavy sigh and wiped her face. “Thank god… I don’t have any energy left to run.”

I was concerned. “Who’s chasing you?”

“My husband. I’m running away from him.”

My mind raced back to my childhood: my mom took me away from my abusive father when I was five. We travelled across the country and, thankfully, haven’t seen or heard from him since. I asked the woman when she was due; the date was just a week away, and she was going to have quadruplets, all girls.

Relating to her and her children, I asked the woman if she had a place to go. She said she had no idea yet, and that she had no living relatives. I told her she could stay with me for as long as she liked since I lived alone. The woman was shocked at first but accepted my offer. She introduced herself as Selene; I helped her settle in that same evening.

Selene and I soon became close friends. I helped her find a remote job at the same company I worked for by the time she had fully recovered. Her daughters bonded well with me over time. I became their Aunt Lara. I never pushed Selene to talk about her past, but she described her husband as “inhuman” and “evil incarnate”. I didn’t press the matter any further.

Selene later asked me if I would be her children’s guardian, just in case something were to happen to her. I couldn’t decline her request. I promised her I would keep them safe no matter what.

One day, I picked the girls up from primary school because Selene was feeling under the weather and needed to buy some medicine. However, by the time the girls and I arrived home, she was still out. I called her a couple of times, but she didn’t answer. She called me back fifteen minutes later and said she was on the run from her husband again.

“Don’t worry, I’ll call the police,” I said.

“No, that will only make it easier for him to find you and the children,” Selene said. “He’s evil, Lara—pure evil!” She suddenly went silent.

“Selene?”

“He sees me!” Selene cried. “Tell the girls I love them!”

The call ended there. I tried calling her back, but her phone was off. I didn’t know what to do. Would the children be in danger if I went to the cops? Was her husband someone influential? I was lost. The only thing I could do was trust Selene’s words and keep my promise as her children’s guardian. Days passed as I waited for her return, hoping she was safe. Those days turned to months, and before I knew it, I had lost hope of her safe return.

Two years passed. The girls were much smarter than the average child their age and skipped a couple of grades to quickly rise to the higher classes. But while they showed such creative flair, they were also very vindictive. Although they would never start any arguments or fights, they would often seek revenge on a more severe scale, with each of them following similar patterns.

Mia would resort to violence and get into fistfights, Vicky would challenge other children to games and make sure they got hurt in the process to ensure that she was the only one who could emerge triumphant. Leia would not resort to violence, but instead dispose of other children’s food or destroy their belongings. Mori would not resort to any such tactics, nor be even remotely violent, but somehow, everyone was scared of her more than the other three. Many children said her presence alone was suffocating.

I made it a point to talk to them regularly about their problems and even channelled a psychiatrist to help them get through their anger management issues. One day, I received a letter from someone called Alana who I had never heard of, but when I opened the letter, I found that it was actually from Selene. It was an explanation of her predicament, just in case she was caught by her husband.

Dear Lara,

If you’re reading this, then it’s most likely that I’m dead. My husband was the Spirit of Chaos, and I was chosen against my will to bear his children: the Four Horsewomen of the Apocalypse—one of War, one of Conquest, one of Famine, and one of Death…

She went on to explain her past and how she was finally able to break free from him all those years ago. I was in tears by the time I was done reading. I realised then why the girls were having such a difficult time regulating their emotions, but it didn’t change how much I cared for them. It didn’t change my promise to Selene either. Whether they were the bringers of the end was not set in stone; I was their aunt, and I would not give up on them.