Chapter 14 Rome
Max
July 21st, 2017
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
All alone again. In a forest where the trees are leafless, ash rains like snow, and the grass is black as coal. I'm here again in the same place as my purgatorial nightmare I had on the plane to Vancouver. Now I'm having another one. Damn these grim visions. Why here? Why now?
As I move my head around the charred woods, I see my doe again staring back at me to grasp my attention and lure me to whatever I must see next. I follow the doe again as it prances off into the distance as always. Every day, whenever I think of this doe, my spirit creature must always be attempting to show me my destiny. As it always has since the day I first saw the Arcadian storm in Mr. Jefferson's classroom. What could the doe want to show me this time? The end of the war and the fate of everyone after it? Including mine?
When I start following the doe again, I'm walking through levitating shadows emerging out of the ground like smoke. Like the dementors from Harry Potter. It makes me cold to just casually jog through the shadows, but I do it anyway. And when I do, I hear voices amongst the shadows. Voices I recognize that whisper to my ears.
"I see you, Max Caulfield. Don't even think about leaving here…"
"The fever…the rage…the powerlessness…is harmony not preferable to tragedy?"
"So fearless…you get off on this, don't you…cheating death…"
"If it were up to me…I would've stayed dead by now…"
"Max…I'm in a nightmare and I can't wake up…"
"Watch out, Max…he wants to hurt you next…"
"It just isn't worth it, Max…let this one go…"
"Max…I'll always be with you…"
"I need you in on this…don't waste it…"
"You are weak…undisciplined…cowering behind walls…"
I recognize pretty much every one of these voices. Jefferson, Crosby, Joanna, Rachel, Kate, Nathan, Alex, Ares, and Chloe. Echoes of the past haunting my present and destroying my future. But I knew my nightmare didn't end here.
I open my diary to see pages of drawn images of me and Chloe kissing. As I kissed her in the drawing, Chloe's body was drawn in a way that made her clothes and skin deteriorating and disintegrating into particles of ash and dust from the back of her body. There was handing on the drawing that read: Everything you know will vanish. Everyone you love will disappear. Everything and everyone will burn until their skins decay into ashes. Only you and half of humanity will ever exist. It will be your last goodbye, traveler.
I see text messages on my phone that read more disturbing messages from my friends and foes.
Chloe: You know what's worse than being abandoned by your best friend for five years? Being abandoned again over a cousin you never told me about! You must love Alex more than me, don't you? Why even bother saving me for a happy life together?
Chloe: Go to hell, Maxine. I hope Ares beheads you. I wish I were dead too.
Rachel: Why do I bother resurrecting you if you're not gonna take my advice for Chloe? You shoulda let me die Portland like I wanted to. Fuck Los Angeles. And fuck the Santa Monica dream.
Alex: Sorry, Max. But you're mine now and you're not going anywhere with anyone else. You're stuck with me forever and ever!
Alex: Tell Chloe to go fuck herself in hell.
Ares: Dread it.
Ares: Run from it.
Ares: Destiny still arrives.
Ares: Yours will arrive soon enough, Maxine.
I continue onward into the misty woods to see my spirit animal standing in the middle of skeletal bodies lying on the grass and trees. All you are wearing the clothes of everyone I knew and were here in my last nightmare. The skeletons all belonged to the bodies of my parents, Rachel's parents, Joyce and David, Frank and Rachel, Cayce and Kristine, Fernando, Kristen, Warren, Kate, Victoria, Bryan, Alex, and Chloe. Their own remains wearing their own clothes. This was more brutal than my last nightmare. They all laid dead in the place from my other nightmare.
When I approach Chloe's skeletal remains, I collapse on my knees in horror. There is her butterflying standing on her skull and then I hear Chloe's voice whisper in my ears again.
"You could've saved us," she whispers. "Why didn't you do more?"
What am I seeing? Is this what was going to happen to all of us in the end including me? I know one thing's for sure. Two out of three of my end-of-the-world visions have come true before. And now it would appear this could all come true if I don't stop it.
Then I hear the sound of a roar around me. I turn my head forward away from Chloe's remains to see Ares and his pet dragon before me. There is also the crow sitting on his shoulder too. Ares walks to the side to reveal my skeletal remains with a sword impaled through my ribs. Along with my spirit doe cooing down on it. My mind is about to be fucked in any second now. Then I see the moon from my last nightmare too. And this time, I see three moons instead of one. All of them humming like whales with mouths and arms like jellyfish. Preparing to feast on the environment around me. What the fuck is going on?!
And before I could awake for this horrid vision, my doe prances away and my corpse goes up in flames. Then everyone else's skeletal remains spark in flames. And then finally, Ares's dragon raises the jaws and shoots fire right from the flammable breath. Lighting me on fire just as soon as my vision shoots to black.
Max – Age 21 (POV)
Rachel – Age 22
Bryan – Age 52
July 21st, 2017
8:08 AM
Rome, Italy
Colosseum
I jerk my eyes awake and I'm back on the bus. Bryan had finally come to a stop where we could ditch the public vehicle for good. I could see Alex standing next to my seat waking me up.
"End of the line, cousin," she said. "We're here."
Frank and Rachel were also still on the bus while Kristen and Fernand were back at the hospital we dropped them off at. Kristen stayed behind to wait for Fernando during his surgery while the rest of us continued our search at the Colosseum. When I look at my window, Bryan had parked the bus somewhere in the markets that was just next door to the Colosseum. This is where we get off.
The five of us get off the bus as it's parked. Casually and subtly making it look and not stolen even though it is. And there it was. The Colosseum of Rome just a few clicks ahead of us. All we had to do was cut through the crowd in markets and we'll be getting our Reality Shard before we knew it.
"Alright," I said. "There's our Colosseum."
"You really think that Reality Shard's gonna be sitting between the middle of this goddamn market and that Colosseum?"
"Oh yeah, that'd be crazy."
Bryan scoffed.
"But we've seen crazy before," I said.
"That we have," said Bryan.
Taking a glance at the crowd in the markets from the lot we parked the bus at made me think it would be too convoluted for us to be walking down to a single destination all at once. Perhaps we could split up into two different locations. After all, we couldn't take any chances with ConDef still behind our necks. Since Ares, Alkaline, and Joanna now knew where the Reality Shard was, thanks to Fernando's hypnosis from the Mind Shard, we had little time to lose.
"Okay," I said. "We can't take any chances with ConDef still behind us. I say we split up in pairs. Rachel, Bryan, the two of you and I can make way for the Colosseum. Alex, you go with Frank to the Ludus Magnus and check if there's anything there."
"The Ludus Whatus?" Frank asked.
"The Ludus Magnus," said Alex. "It's the remains of a training facility that was used for ancient gladiators as well as knights during Arthur's day and the British/American army during Ezra's conquest in the first world war."
"Rachel, I'm asking you as a friend," I said. "You with me?"
"I'm with you, Max," replied Rachel. "Till the very end. As long as you know what're doing."
"Alright, then. Break."
The five of us part ways as Alex goes with Frank to the Ludus Magnus and Bryan, Rachel, and I walk down to the Colosseum through the markets. In the middle of the crowd, we could see a passport international center where people were lined up to get their passports checked in. This was going to be a nightmare for us whenever we got back to my country.
"Yeesh," said Bryan. "We have that to look forward to when we get back to the states."
"Could be worse," I said. "Could be Arstotzka."
"Ew. Don't even remind me."
"You did not just say Arstotzka," said Rachel.
"Sure did," I said.
Visiting Italy here minds me of a time Chloe and her family took a vacation here. At least in another reality prior to that Wednesday and Thursday I spent in it. I always wondered if I had done anything different with Alex in that reality I let William breathe other than writing more to Chloe. Maybe Alex wasn't shot in that sewer in that timestream? I guess I'll never find out and never will. And frankly, I'll never want to.
Amongst the Italian crowd, I spotted two horned cows/bulls attached to a wagon they were pulling. The cows weren't moving, so I took my chance to pet them for a second with ease.
"Hiya guys," I said. "Seen any Reality Shards around here?"
"Hey, Max," said Bryan.
"Sorry, he's so impatient."
Then Bryan accidentally bumped into an Italian lady carrying a basket of grapefruit. She had dropped her basket and her fruit fell on the ground.
"Oh, hell," said Bryan. "I am sorry. I – here, lemme help you."
Bryan and Rachel helped the lady with her grapefruit. I could rewind to be kind, but nowadays I never waste it on a thing like this. I pick the last fruit that fell on the ground for the woman with the basket as she nods for a thank you. No telling if she spoke English.
"My mistake," said Bryan.
"I apologize for my uncle," I said. "I haven't fed him in a while."
"Come se avessi bisogno di questo oggi (As if I needed this today)," said the woman in Italian.
"Stai attento (Take care)," said Rachel in Italian.
"You see the way she looked at me," said Bryan.
"You are delusional," I laughed.
"I don't think so."
"Well, why don't you invite her back for some spicy bread?"
We keep walking through the crowd after my uncle hit on the Italian woman. I see a man at an antique stand selling some really snazzy wants for a living. Maybe I'd get one for Alex. I walk to the stand to see the man and spoke with him to ask what he was selling. Then I see a compass that looked like something out of the World War I era. Probably from Ezra's time.
"Wowser," I said. "This is something out of Ezra's era. Where did you get this?"
"Ah, friend," said the Italian man who actually spoke English well. "That is a very unique item. I'll give you a discount. Five hundred euros."
"C'mon, are you kidding? I don't even know if it's real. Give you fifty bucks for it."
"Four hundred euros. And it's real. Had other buyers interested in that piece."
"C'mon, man. Two hundred. Okay? That's all I have on me."
"I cannot possibly part with it for less than three hundred. That is my final offer."
"Alright, I'll take it. Three hundred."
"Max, really?" Bryan asked.
"Done," said the man at the counter.
I actually had a lot more euros on me for whatever we needed to purchase in Italy, but I never wanted to blow half of it for one compass. But I did it for Alex. Not for me. I give the man the money and I take the compass as a gift. A souvenir for our visit.
"You see that?" I asked Bryan. "That's how you haggle."
Bryan laughed.
"If you say so," he said.
"Chloe and I did a lot of haggling back home," said Rachel. "It didn't always end well for us."
As Rachel, Bryan, and I continued walking across the crowd, there was a lady carrying a basket of apples for sale. Calling out to everyone you wanted to buy one.
"Apples!" She shouted. "Buy my fresh apples! Only fifteen euros! Ma'am! Won't you try an apple? Best apples on the market!"
The lady was calling out to me and I thought it wouldn't hurt to have an apple. I haven't eaten a thing since yesterday.
"Don't mind if I do," I said.
I hand the lady over the euros and I take the apple.
"Ah, thank you very much, ma'am!" She thanked. "Enjoy your apple! And tell your friends!"
She was pretty cocky for a nice woman selling apples. I took a bit of my apple and caught up with my uncle and Rachel.
The next thing I spot in the markets is a man sitting around with a lemur on his shoulder. I've never seen too often in my life. It was kind of cute. I walked to the man with the lemur to pet it.
"Hey there, little guy," I cooed. "How you doin'?"
I touch the lemur's fur with my fingers over its shoulder. The man sitting down didn't seem to mind. He looked homeless and silent. I suppose he didn't mind.
"Hey, you like that," I said. "Huh?"
"Max," said Bryan. "Colosseum."
"But, Bryan, c'mon. It's a lemur! C'mon. Come say hi."
Bryan scoffed.
"That's alright," he said.
"So cute," I chuckled.
As soon as I start walking again with the others, the lemur followed me and climbed over my shoulder.
"Whoa, hey!" I startle. "Hey, Bryan, look who's back!"
Then out of nowhere, the lemur snatched apple out my hand, took it for himself, and ran off.
"Hey!" I laughed. "He stole my apple."
Bryan laughed.
"Can't trust anyone these days," he said.
"Hey, you know what," I said. "After this is over and done with, I'm gonna get a dog."
"Hey," said Rachel. "We come out of this in one piece, I'll buy you the damn dog."
"Can I name it Rachel?"
Rachel laughed.
"Sure," she said.
Bryan spotted a shirt racket in the markets and pulled one out to see if I'd want one. It was a shirt that matched his. And one too big for me to wear.
"Hey, Max," he said. "Want me to buy you one of these?"
"Bryan," I said. "You got to be crazy to wear a shirt like that."
"Ha. Crazy handsome."
Continuing across the crowd, we can smell something cooking. The three of us were walking into a café of sorts. The food smelled good and made me hungry. Maybe I could go for some real food besides an apple today?
"Oh, man," said Rachel. "Something smells really good."
I walked over to where the food was being made and someone was cooking chicken in a frying pan over an oven. Delicious.
"Mm," I said. "She's right. Does smell good."
After excusing more people through the crowd and towards the end, we finally reach the Colosseum in front of our eyes. With a long line of people awaiting entry for tours. Blocking the front entrance in. That's a bummer.
"Hey, here we go," I said. "But there's a long line ahead. I guess we're gonna have to sneak in."
"Discreetly," said Bryan.
"Implied by the use of the word 'sneak', Bryan."
"Ah."
"Hey, check it out," said Rachel. Pointing to a way in. "That fence over there is broken."
My uncle and I walk over to where Rachel stood and pointed and she was right. The only discreet way in past the line and away from security.
"Hey, Bryan," I said. "Think we can squeeze through there."
"That'll work," said Bryan. "Jesus, this colosseum's huge."
"You gonna be okay in there?"
"You keep your pace. I'll keep mine."
"Yeah, well, at least you got a great view, right?"