As I stood in the middle of the arena, the sun scorched my already raw skin. I was back. The crowd boomed around me it was like they could smell my fear. Today I would be fighting another Gladiator, yesterday it was the lions turn but I beat them. My love for my children and wife is the only thing that is keeping me here, fighting.
As I walked around the crowd got louder and louder they knew what was coming and so did I. I made my way up to the mound which I believed would be my final resting place maybe today maybe tomorrow no one knew. The other gladiator, a favourite of Augustus himself was coming through the tunnel. This was not going to be a fair fight, he was armed with; a shield, a whip and a spear. I was armed with nothing but a shield and my love. He stepped up and faced me this was where it began. We circled each other and then he jabbed me as if to say "what are you?" well after this it was all for the blood. I thrust me shield up to his face. I felt the crack of his helmet against the cold metal of the round object that I was wielding. This seem to anger him he retaliated by whipping the bare surface of my back. My breath caught in my throat a guttural sound came from within in me it sounded like a wounded animal but then I realised through the haze of my pain I was the one screaming. The crowd roared from behind me, I could almost imagine the emperor deciding my fate from up there on his balcony away from the stench of the bloodied earth.
I fought without a care as I thought this would be the last time seeing this world and the sky. When I heard the crowd again they were booing, I turned to look at the emperor and he had his thumb raised to the sky. I turned to see my opponent laying face down in the brown sand and around him his helmet and weapons. I realised what I had done. I felt the irons being clamped back around my ankles and wrists and remember being lead back through the tunnel into the belly of the arena. After that everything goes dark…