THE FOUR HORSEMEN

 

   JOHN DOMAN is a blacksmith in the Wild West town of Justice.  He is also an alcoholic who is slowly losing control of his addiction.  His wife PANDORA tries to help him, but John slips further away, both mentally and physically.  Their struggle is exacerbated by the pressures of a local landowner, DESMOND LISBANE, who is buying up the town and bringing in the railroad and wants to build the station on their land.

  John and Pandora make a final attempt to reconnect with each other, but John witnesses a murder, for which he is framed, sentenced to death, and hanged.  Or is he?  That night, John is visited in his bedroom by the DEVIL, A.K.A. the STRANGER, who appears not only as various evil characters over time, but as the red, pointy-eared, long-tailed, hoof-footed devil.  At this point, John’s addiction has completely taken over, and the lines between hallucination and reality blur beyond distinction. 

  One by one, John is attacked by the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, sent by the Devil.  However, he cannot tell the difference between each horseman and someone he knows in town.  For example, the town doctor appears as Pestilence, the First Horseman.  The Second Horseman, War, is the local arms merchant.  A farmer is Famine, the Third Horseman, and Death...?

  John’s dark condition, violent mood swings, and his refusal to listen to Lisbane’s offer eventually push Pandora to leave him for Lisbane.  Then, when John’s house and business mysteriously burn down, he has no choice but to leave town.

  John wanders aimlessly through the desert, suffering both the intense pain of alcohol withdrawal and the desert heat until he encounters an elderly Chinese man building a railroad that doesn’t seem to go anywhere.  The older man helps John dry out and teaches him how to be strong.  Then he sends John back to confront his last remaining demon:  Lisbane.

  In the final battle, John defeats Lisbane - who is revealed as Death, the Fourth Horseman - and his henchmen and wins back Pandora.  They leave town together, thinking one day they might return.

  Then John wakes up in bed screaming, in a cold sweat, in his house, with Pandora next to him.  It all seems like a dream, but neither John nor Pandora notice the faint wisps of smoke rising from the floor at the end of the bed...rising from two cloven hoof prints where the Devil/Stranger once stood.