The Secret Journal of Alexander
Couples: Alexander/ Hephaestion
Plot: When a accident happened at the Istanbul Archaeology Museum lovers found a journal that Alexander had written himself. What surprises did the lovers find in the journal and what troubles will the journal cause in real life for the lovers?
Warning: guy on guy, violence, torture (in later chapters)
"Where are you going?" Thomas yelled after his lover as he ran toward a room near the end of the building. Thomas cursed as he pushed people out of his way as he chased after his lover. The day started well, they awoke in their hotel room to hear that the choir performance that they were supposed to be performing in was cancelled. They were surprised more when they heard their teacher saying that they have the whole day to do whatever they wanted to do. Thomas was thrilled having thoughts about their hotel room and them spending all day there. Of course poor Thomas was not going to given that chance because his lover had other ideas.
"Let's go to the Istanbul Archaeology Museum." He whispered into Thomas's ear as he pulled out a map out of his large backpack and started trying to locate where the museum was compared to their hotel room.
"Why would you want to go to some stupid museum?" Thomas moaned as he followed his lover out to the street where he watched his lover struggling to pull over a cab. He just had to laugh about how mad his lover was getting. Finally a cab pulled over and Thomas got into the cab pulling his lover with him.
"Where to?" The cab driver asked speaking English pretty well for being Turkish.
"The Istanbul Archaeology Museum." Thomas said. It was a pretty nice drive, taking only thirty minutes to get to the great museum. Thomas paid the cab driver as they stepped out of the cab and stared at the giant museum.
They had spent the whole day at the museum staring at the history of old eastern history and the Enameled Kiosk part of the giant museum. The couple was happy walking throughout the rooms staring at all the old history that they had the pleasure just to stare at until they heard that the museum was going to close in thirty minutes. That was when Thomas's lover started to run throughout the museum as fast as his legs could carry him.
"Justin, please slow down. Let me catch up to you." Thomas screamed to his lover but his lover kept on running not even once glancing back toward Thomas. Finally Justin turned a corner and then just disappeared. Thomas looked about; the hallway was nearly empty which was not surprising since the museum was closing.
"Justin?" He yelled out in the empty hallway.
"Justin?" He screamed again this time with more force. He waited for a reply but received none. Finally he turned another corner and says a sign "main building. Exhibits: Alexander's Sarcophagus, Sarcophagus of the Crying Women…" Thomas didn't even have to read anymore for he already knew where Justin was already. He moved throughout the giant building looking at all the cool artifacts from the doomed time period. Finally he saw the sarcophagus. He moved closer to it seeing his boyfriend on his knees in front of the decaying corpse. Justin looked memorized as he stared at the glass sarcophagus, running his hands over the bottom of the glass sarcophagus.
"What are you doing?" Thomas whispered to his lover as he stepped near him. Justin jumped slightly before looking at his boyfriend and smiled.
"Isn't it amazing?" He asked in a whisper looking at the great figure that was once thought a god, once thought immortal.
"It is just a body." Thomas said as he pushed his lover to his feet once more.
"It is just a body? Jesus, Thomas, do you know who this is?" Justin asked still smiling at the sarcophagus.
"This is the sarcophagus of the great Alexander who destroyed more lives then any other kings managed before him." Thomas said not missing the gasp that came out of Justin's mouth.
"How could you insult such an inspiring person such as Alexander?" Justin asked his lover surprised that Thomas didn't seem to care about all that Alexander accomplished.
"What was so inspiring about a killer, Justin?" Thomas replied looking at the coffin was no extra respect then any other coffin he had passed in this large museum.
"He was a dreamer, Thomas. He had a dream that he was determined to fulfill. And he was so close to accomplishing his goal, how many more people could say that?"
"Hitler." Thomas immediately replied which was partly true. Hitler had a dream to have a utopia with people who he determined was superior. He entrapped millions of people all across parts of Europe, the Middle East, Germany, and parts of Russia. He didn't capture every person that he felt was not superior but he was close to getting his wish, if only America didn't go into WWII, Hitler would have still been alive and what would have became of the world then?
"Are you really going to compare Alexander to Hitler?" Justin asked his lover very seriously.
"Why shouldn't I? I mean technically they did kill those who didn't obey them; they still endangered millions of lives for their own wealth and wants. Both their fathers were harsh to their sons. Did you know that Hitler was whipped almost every single day? And Alexander was rumored to have been beaten by his father. And there is so much more that you can compare them to, their stupidly causing them to lose their dreams, oh how they kept pursuing their dreams even if it would harm their love ones, maybe that neither of them trusted a lot of people." Thomas said looking at his boyfriend square in his face.
"You have no right to compare a cold-blooded killer to Alexander the great. He accomplished more than Hitler could even have imagined. How dare you think you can disrespect him so much!"
"Oh my god Justin Deman, shut up please. He is dead; he had been died for at least five generations. We have never met Alexander and never will. For all we know he could have been a bastard or a rapist or a sadist. For all we know he could have been a really mean and nasty person. Don't think because you read some history books about him and saw a movie about his life that was a gentle hero who was kind to most. Justin, he was a king and no kings could be kind. Being kind in those days was a sign of weakness, it means that anyone should be able to kill him even a woman. He would not put himself in that danger, for all he ever wanted to do was expand his empire, and he never harm the expansion of his empire."
"But…he…maybe he wasn't kind to everyone but he was kind to Hephaestion." Justin said quietly.
"Oh, of course he was kind to Hephaestion, his best friend and possibly lover, bah, bah, bah. You don't believe that shit do you? That Hephaestion was really Alexander's lover?" Thomas asked jokingly.
"Of course I believe that. Why shouldn't I?" Justin asked now staring at his boyfriend with sharp anger in his face.
"I just don't think that Alexander could love someone and then marry a woman, Roxanne? I know that I could never marry a woman and still be madly in love with you. It would possibly kill me." Thomas said looking at a Greek statue beside the coffin.
"He had to protect his heritage; he was a king after all." Justin said his anger raising.
"Okay fine, so Alexander married Roxanne so they will have a baby to protect his heritage. How about his little bed-slave? Did he need a bed-slave to protect his heritage?" Thomas asked his boyfriend touching the statue of some wealth.
"It was expected that a king would have some bed-slaves. It didn't mean that he loved him." Justin growled.
"Please, Alexander probably got bored with Hephaestion and went for someone fresher, someone new." Thomas said to Justin.
"How can you say such a thing about lovers? Alexander loved Hephaestion, I mean he must have."
"Oh come off it, Justin. Hephaestion was just a friend who when Alexander needed it he became Alexander's whore. They had no love for each other; there is not any proof to support your love theory at all. Admit it Alexander was nothing more but a king who wanted more than he should have been able to have. He paid the price with not only his life but the life of his wife and child and of course his 'lover' Hephaestion. Alexander's dreams had caused just a misery. And what happened to his great empire? It collapsed. So they all died for nothing but a dream that in the end didn't account for anything. So tell me Justin, why do you find him to be someone to admire, someone to look up to?" Thomas said before he felt a sting and fell backward, taking the statue with him. The statue broke and made a harsh loud noise that caused both boys to jump startled. While Thomas pushed himself up wiping the blood from his nose Justin saw something in the midst of the broken statue. It was a very, very old book. Justin pushed past his boyfriend and picked up the book looking at the Greek writing. Oh god did he wish he knew Greek. The boys heard yelling coming toward the room and Justin threw the book into the backpack and started running to another door dragging his angry boyfriend with him. They opened the door to find themselves in a backroom of some sort with all kinds of artifacts.
The boys made their way though the storage room and found another door was amazingly led to the outside. Who in their right mind would have an exit door in the middle of a storage room? Justin breathed a sigh of relief as he realized that no one had caught them. He smiled sheepishly at his boyfriend only to see him frowning rudely in reply.
"You punched me." Thomas said his eyes wet from tears he was determined not to shed.
"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to hit you. I swear to god I didn't mean to." Justin said wrapping his arms around Thomas who didn't move at Justin's movement.
"You should have controlled yourself." Thomas said then.
"You shouldn't diss Alexander." Justin replied pulling his boyfriend tighter to him.
"Why does a dead person mean so much to you anyways?" Thomas asked his boyfriend but received no reply from his lover as he led them back to the street and mentioned a cab to pull over all the time forgetting the stolen book in his backpack. The couple drove back to the hotel in complete silence, Thomas still mad at his lover for punching him and Justin mad at Thomas for saying such negative things about such a great person as Alexander. When they got back into the hotel room they still didn't speak to each other as Thomas headed off to the bathroom to take a shower and Justin threw his backpack on the floor and flipped on the television trying to find any television show in English, god did he hate going to foreign places. Finally he tried setting English subtitles mildly surprised that there were English subtitles. So there he was in Turkey watching Friends in Turkish and subtitled English.
Twenty minutes later Thomas stepped out of the bathroom still looking mad and didn't even look at Justin before heading toward the door.
"Hey, where are you going?" Justin asked Thomas immediately standing up.
"I'm going down to the hotel's diner to get some dinner."
"Great, do you want me…?" The door shut immediately cutting Justin off. Shit, Thomas is being so fucking rude. Justin kicked the bathroom door before he headed back to his bed as he continued to watch friends. The television show calmed Justin down as he forgot the fight that Thomas and he had endured earlier that day. Justin felt kind of foolish punching Thomas when Thomas really didn't do anything really that bad. But god, he felt such hatred when his lover diss someone who he looked up to since he heard his name. He was more surprised when he found out that Alexander was gay, like Justin. Alexander was the reason he found the courage to come out to his friends and family and how he found the courage to ask out his best friend Thomas. God, oh long ago was that…they must have been thirteen, so ten years now. Thomas didn't understand that without Alexander and Hephaestion they would be no Justin and Thomas. Didn't Thomas know how much he longed to be like Alexander, how he longed to be as important and as powerful as Alexander was. Alexander was everything Justin ever wanted to become, and he knew that Alexander was perfect for a king. And he also knows that Alexander did love Hephaestion, he would swear his own love on it.
Justin's thoughts darkened his mood again before something on the television caught his attention. It was the museum they had visited earlier; there was a newscast about the broken statue. Justin read the subtitles with interest.
'It is just released that a statue that was found in Alexander the great tomb was broken earlier today in The Istanbul Archaeology Museum. We have a positive picture of the possible robbers. The police are informed of the picture and are already looking for the two possible robbers.'
Justin stared at the screen in fear as he dropped the remote and ran after his boyfriend leaving his socks, shoes, and pants still in the room. He ran down to the restaurant finding Thomas sitting by himself moodily. Justin ran up to Thomas and pulled him up immediately as Thomas glared at him and asked him what the hell he was doing.
"They have our picture." Jerry whispered to Thomas.
"What? What are you talking about?" Thomas asked him asking his waiter for the bill.
"The people from the museum. They know we broke the statue." Jerry whispered to him.
"Oh, what do you think they will do to us?" Thomas asked with little trace of fear in his voice.
"I don't know but I think that tomorrow we should stay in the hotel." Jerry said to him.
"All we did was break a statue, how much harm can that cause?" Thomas said and Jerry decided not to say anything. Someone from their college saw the couple and decided to force herself into their conversation.
"What are you guys talking about?" She asked them and they both looked at her in fright,
"Jesus, Shelly. Do you think you can stop sneaking up on us like that?" Thomas asked as he held his heart.
"Sorry, guys. But, I can tell that something is going on and I want to know what." She said looking at the two lovers.
"Okay, you know the Istanbul Archaeology Museum?" Jerry asked her.
"Of course I do. Why?" She asked the couple who looked around nervously.
"We got in a little fight and broke a statue." Jerry asked as Shelly gasped at the couple.
"What, oh my god, what happened next?" She asked.
"We ran. We ran as fast as we possibly could." Thomas said in a lowered voice.
"While, at least you guys are safe now." She said.
"Yeah, listen I'm going to pay the bill now. Then we will head back to the room." Thomas said as he got up to pay the bill.
"Listen Shelly. I found something that you can help me with. When the statue broke I found a very old book. The book is written in Greek. I'm wondering if you could…" Jerry said before he was cut off my Shelly, "You don't even have to ask. Show me the book."
End of the first chapter.
Historical notes: It is said that Ptolemy I, replaced Alexander's sarcophagus with a glass one, and melted the original down in order to strike emergency gold issues of his coinage. Also it is still a debate if the sarcophagus is actually Alexander or another of the warriors and kings from that time period but the sarcophagus is located at the Istanbul Archaeology Museum.