So, um, I wrote a oneshot based off of the courthouse scene in Julius Caesar? And I hadn't even finished reading the play, but this idea came to me and I wrote it down. And a couple of my friends begged me not to write fanfiction for a Shakespeare play, of all things...
I wrote it anyway. And it's been sitting around for a while, so I figured I'd post it, because it's not getting any better sitting in a dusty corner of my hard drive. At least if I post it I can learn whether anyone thinks it makes sense.
Disclaimer: because though I usually don't use disclaimers, I do feel inclined to point out that while I do not own Julius Caesar, neither does anyone else, including William Shakespeare, because they didn't have copyright laws in the Elizabethan age.
Mark Antony stepped into the alley one street over from Caius Cassius' house.
He had shaken the man's hand that morning. Caius Ligarius, Decius Brutus, Metellus Cimber, Tebonius, Cinna, Casca, Cassius…and Brutus.
Brutus.
Antony had shaken all of their hands, stained as they were with Caesar's blood. He had called them friends, had rejected Caesar in front of them, had told them he would support them in their mutiny.
And now, he reflected as he slipped into the courtyard of Cassius' house, each man would be repaid in kind for his treason.
Antony entered Cassius' bedroom with catlike tread and stood for a moment, looking down at the sleeping man. Cassius stirred in his sleep, as though sensing a malevolent presence.
It was fitting, really, Antony mused as he pulled Cassius' pillow over the man's face. They would call it irony. To fight so hard for his day of glory, only to be found the very next day, suffocated in his own pillows.
Antony waited until the struggles stopped and pressed his hand against Cassius' neck, ensuring that no blood flowed there. This was the first of his missions, the first part of his silent oath.
He was tempted to leave a calling card. To slide his knife between Cassius' ribs and smear a handprint on the wall.
In another age he might have done it. But here, he could not allow anything to stand in the way of the vow he had made when he shook their hands.
Antony slipped from Cassius' mausoleum, noting how the sky had begun to lighten. Caius Ligarius would have to wait until the next night. He would fall from the high window in his house, Antony decided, and be impaled on the unfortunately placed fence just below. Brutus would be left for last, knowing that his death was coming and that it could not be prevented.
Antony entered his own house and peered in every room before concealing his night clothing beneath the floor.
They had killed Caesar, and in return, Antony was going to kill them all.