CHAPTER ONE

Friday, January 13th

I felt crushed and suffocated in the sea of bodies, the music thumping so loudly I could feel it more than I could hear it. College parties were a lot different to high school parties I found. I pushed my way through the bodies, hearing whistles, cheers, I felt people touching me in inapropriate places; anything to say that they touched Miley Stewart, they acted like they didn't care, but they did. College - even though I was with my best friend, Lilly - was a huge mistake. I was asked for more pictures and autographs my first day of classes than at my high school graduation, and it hadn't stopped. Lilly and I had different classes, she always thought I was exagerating, I just wished I'd stayed in Paris instead of coming to Stanford. Once I was outside I was accosted by drunk students and non-students alike. I walked to the edge of the property and down the street a little ways, away from the Fraternity house and I sat down on the curb of the road with a sigh. I'd come because Lilly insisted I needed a good party night after my boyfriend Jesse broke up with me for some girl he met on the road. Another cheater. Another loser, I don't know what it is about me that attracts losers; Jesee, Jake, Travis, that creep Ralphie... Aaron was actually a nice boy, probably the better of my dates, just a sweet boy who trusted so easilly and was a Momma's boy, the spark just wasn't there with him. Back to the losers; Austin, Connor was nice at first but he turned out to be a jerk as well,, Johnny Collins, Rico, Trey Harris, Willis wasn't a jerk but it was humiliating to find out he was 11, Josh Woods... I just can't find a good guy. Sometimes I think it would be better if I stopped dating guys alltogether. Except I don't like girls... Maybe I should just stop dating and become, like, asexual or something.

I took out my phone, just for something to do and I felt eyes on me, I looked around, but I couldn't see anything except the beautiful full moon, I had the sudden urge so I snapped a picture with my Z-phone and set it as my background. I sighed again and texted Lilly that I was going back to our dorm room. I don't know why, but I e-mailed the picture of the moon to myself and opened it on my laptop, enlarging it to full screen. I gasped when I looked at it. I enlarge it more, zooming in on a particular dark spot. No. Nope. It wasn't my imagination.

There was a person, a tiny little grainy man. He had broad shoulders, dark, slightly curly hair, and he was turned away, facing down, brooding. I don't know who it was or how the Hell he got into my picture of the moon, but it was kind of creepy. I shook my head, I was just imagining it, I decreased the picture back to normal and saved it to the computer before I shut it and went to get ready for bed. There was no way a man could be in that picture of the moon, it was directly of the moon, my eyes were just tricking me.

After a scalding hot shower to relax my aching muscles I settled into my bed opposite Lilly's and let myself slowly slip into sleep. Sleep was never a safe place for me; nightmares (everyone has nightmares, right) except mine haunted me almost every night of my teen years. Nightmares of my Hannah secret getting out and multiple over-lapping, replaying scenes of what would happen after that. Tonight I didn't dream about that, or being chased by rabid fans, or stalked by paparazzi, or the re-occuring nightmare of a stalker breaking into my dormroom and doing unmentionable things to me; tonight I dreamt about a man. A man I had never seen before with soft brown eyes, slightly curled, short black hair. Drool-worthy muscles, he was shirtless, loose hanging dirty white pants. And two swords, he had a sword in each hand, his bare chest was glistening with sweat and there were cuts and scraps all over him.

Another man was on the dirt ground in front of him, on his knees, his head bowed. The man looked over to someone in the crowds screaming for blood and murder; another man held up his hand in a fist with his thumb out on the side and slowly turned it. The crowd screamed as he thumb went down and the man with soft brown eyes let out war cry and both his swords moved in unison. I winced internally when the man on the grounds body went limp, blood spurted and his head rolled. The one with the brown eyes took a couple of shakey steps back and held his hands up in triumph. As he turned to adress the whole screaming crowd I saw his back and winced again; the other warrior had gotten in a good shot at his back, leaving a long, deep cut from the top of his right should down diagonally to the top of his pants. It was bleeding and as he made another turn he dropped to his knees and people came out, dragging the body away, and some helping the man out of the arena.

I felt my body running forward when he was out of the arena and I was at his side. I cupped a hand to his cheek as he was laid down on his back and carried away. They shouldn't have put him on his back. The next scene and I was next to the man again, he was on his stomach and his back was covered with some sort of salve and make-shift bandages. I knelt nex to him and stroked his cheek, his eyes fluttering under my touch.

"Does it hurt?" I heard myself ask and he blinked several times and smiled a little.

"I feel no pain in your company." He replied and I felt myself smile.

"I have heard words, Shane, Dominus wants you to fight in the Primus." I'd been spying during my orders. "Please don't do it?"

"I must fight for us, Milenia, the coin I will make if I win will buy our freedom." Shane said, reaching up and holding his hand over mine.

"What if you don't win?" The thought hurt and I could barely whisper it, the thought of Shane not winning, what that would mean.

"I laid coin aside for our freedom, you find it and you gain your freedom." I felt my heart freeze at the thought, he thought I could continue to live if he died?

"Lucas!" Batiatus entered the room, his gran cloths billowing around him. "You, fetch the champion water." He dismissed me and I quickly got up and hurried off, not fast enough. "A spectacular fight, the Primus is in our grasp, champion of all of Capua, the whores will line up to suck your cock." The thought sickened me; if he keeps fighting, if he doesn't win, a touch other than mine on his cock. I hurried back with a jug of water. Batiatus and Domina called him Lucas, his Roman name, but he was Shane, he'd always been Shane to me and he always would be. Dominus shot me a look before he left and I carefully helped Shane drink some water.

"Milenia." His voice was soft and scratchy. "Promise, promise on our love you will be free if I do not win the Primus."

"Promise you will win the Primus and we can go free together." I told him in response. I leaned in to kiss him.

That's when I jolted awake with a gasp. What the Hell was that? That wasn't like any of my other dreams. I rubbed my eyes and looked around tiredly, it was almost sunrise and Lilly still wasn't back from the party. I whined tiredly and rolled over, snuggling under my blankets and trying to go back to sleep. But, I couldn't, that dream kept haunting me, what was it about? Who was that guy? Why was I dreaming about being in ancient times with some guy I didn't even know? His eyes, though, when I was looking into them at his bedside, they were so intense, so full of love and emotion. It hit my Soul.

I sighed and got out of bed, I guess I wouldn't be sleeping any more. Luckilly for me I didn't have any classes today so I was free to sit in my dorm with my guitar and see where the music took me. At around nine Lilly came back and crashed on top of her bed smelling of alcohole and sex without a word. I looked over at her and shook my head; ever since we'd been talking about college Lilly had been dead set on Stanford, I'd given up a Speilberg and Tom Cruise movie to be at Stanford with her, she was still my best friend, but she'd changed, I don't think she was going to make it to her second semester at this rate. I'd applied to Juilliard, I'd gotten into Juilliard - even before the world knew I was Hannah Montana - and I came to Stanford to be with Lilly and all she did was party, or at least that's what it felt like.

"I'm gonna go visit Dad." I told Lilly even though she was already passed out, she grunted in response and I shook my head and hurried to get ready, grabbing my keys and leaving. In my car at the start of a two-hour drive I turned the radio on, then I switched the radio off; I listened to my own music enough.

Milenia. My name in the dream was Milenia. I don't know what it was, I think it was a dream, but it felt so real; I actually felt like I was in love with that Shane guy, my dream mind knew his back story, I knew how we met. It felt too real for a dream, but there was no way it was real. But, I just couldn't get that look in his eyes out of my head. I slowly pulled into the driveway in Malibu and punched in my code for the gate, driving up to stop right outside the front of the house. I looked up at the house; it wasn't the house I grew up in in Crowley Corners, and it wasn't the house we lived in for six years when we moved to California, but a lot had happened here, and it was home. I switched my car off and got out.

"Dad!" I called as I walked inside. The house was just the same as I left and I smiled a little, running my fingers across the familiar walls. "Lori!" Lori was my old high school nurse who was now dating my Dad, despite the fact that when he started dating again after Mom died I was really upset I'd tried to set them up and I was happy for them; Lori was really nice and her and Dad were really great together. Dad was really serious about her.

"Hey, Bud!" Dad looked surprised as he came in from outside. "What're you doin' here?"

"Just thought I'd visit." I shrugged, walking over to hug him.

"What about classes?"

"Not today." I denied, following him outside. "Hey, Lori." I smiled

"Oh, hey, Miley." Lori smiled and Dad smiled too, he really does care about her. "What brings you here?"

"Just visiting; I'm gonna go see Blue Jeans." I gestured to the stables. When I got there Blue Jeans neighed and I smiled, rubbing his nose and grabbing a carrot from him from the carrot barrel. "How you doin', boy?" I asked and he snorted and rubbed his nose against me, making me giggle. "Yeah, I missed you too, Blue." I kissed his nose and he walked away a little, back to his breakfast. I walked over to the pictures of me and him I'd set up on the wall so he wouldn't forget me and looked at them. The first one was when I first got him when I was four. I only came up to just under his nose, but I had my arms around his neck, hugging him tightly. I frowned as I looked closer; there was a man in the background of the photo, I never paid it any attention before, but it was the same turned away, head down, brooding figure that I imagined in the picture of the moon. I took the picture down and looked at it more closely, I definately wasn't imagining it this time.. "You know who this is, Blue Jeans? Hmm?" I asked softly, showing him the picture; the man had black, short, slightly curled hair, he was wearing dark jeans, a white shirt and a black suit jacket. I sighed and shook my head, I was reading too much into everything. I moved to put the picture back and I glanced at the next one; me when I was six on the old stage in town at Crowley. I had a microphone in my hands and I was smiling happily, but the thing that caught my eye was in the back of the picture, off to the side of the stage was the man again, barely visible thanks to a support beam holding up the stage, a support beam he was in fact leaning against.

Okay, the picture of the moon I could have hullucinated, the one of me and Blue Jeans could have been a trick of my eyes if I wasn't still holding, but this was starting to get weird. I moved to the next picture on the wall; I'd chosen these onese because they felt right, now it was starting to feel creepy. The next one I was fourteen and it was the last day of summer before I started high school, I was on the beach with an arm around each of Lilly and Oliver's necks and we were all smiling. And off in the background, seemingly stand on the water was that man again; in exactly the same clothes, and looking exactly the same despite almost 11 years having passed. I didn't bother checking any of the others, I grabbed the three I'd already seen and went back to the house.

"Dad!" I yelled again as I entered, he was sitting in the living room with Lori.

"Slow your horses, Mile, I'm right here." Dad said and I took the pictures over to him, I had to make sure I wasn't hullucinating. "What's the matter?"

"What do you see here?" I place all three pictures on the coffee table and Dad glanced at them.

"Awe, you were a cute little girl." Lori observed, but I kept my eyes on Dad.

"They're the pictures you left for Blue Jeans, Miley." He was starting to sound concerned. I shook my head, if he didn't see it then I was going insane.

"Look closer." I insisted, kneeling down to point out the man in the first picture. "Who's that?" Dad looked closer, picking up the frame to get a better look, a thoughtful frown forming. "And here. And eleven years later." I pointed him out in each picture. Exactly the same, brooding, the exact same outfit, half turned away, his head down. "You see him right?" I had to know.

"I see him." Dad confirmed, now frowning completely.

Okay, I've decided, if I don't get at least 5 reviews for this chapter then this one is going to be discontinued and I'm going to focus entirely on PD and it's sequel Queen Diaries. If I do get the 5 reviews I'll be tag-teaming them as in every first chapter will PD/QD and every second chapter will Eternity.

Review please :D

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