*Struts onto the stage wearing a glittering gold tunic and an olive branch crown*

LOL. Why am I like this.

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P.S- THIS SONG IS #FADE AF.

***

"Are you okay?" I asked Alexandru, as we stepped away from each other.

"Yes," he said and raked his fingers through his hair. "I am sorry you had to witness that." Although he seemed to already have collected himself, he had a fading red mark from his father's hand on his face. "I truly had thought he would stay in the city tonight."

"I wish I could have done something to stop him."

He evaded my eyes as he lowered to the ground to dunk his hands into the pool and rinse his face with cold water. "I thank you for your care, but it is not your position to stop him."

"It's not right how he treats you. I can tell you work hard to impress him. You deserve so much more."

"He is only looking out for me," Alexandru said, wiping his hand over his face one last time before pushing his hair back off his forehead. "I made a poor decision, I know better."

"None of this is your fault. The way he treats you...it's not your fault."

"It is not about fault. It is about discipline and control. I do not expect you or anyone else to understand. But know I would have never survived this long if not for my father's hard hand."

He strode past me, and I followed him. In the kitchen, there were now two servants that appeared to be preparing food.

I felt so pained to hear him talking this way, excusing his father's behavior after the fact, but I didn't know what to say, when he didn't see it for himself. When this was just a memory trapped in time and I had no idea if what I said would even make a difference.

"Picture the strongest fighter you know," Alexandru said, turning toward me. The strike of his father's hand was now a diminished mark on his cheek. "They had to be kicked while they were down to rise up to their greatness."

A chill raked through me. Death had said those exact words to me in our training, but now, after all that I had witnessed and been through, I finally understood them.

"How long have you and this Remus fight been enemies?" I asked.

"Two years. You speak to me so casually after my father spoke of witches and daemons."

"Because I've encountered my fair share of them."

Alexandru stilled. He looked up at me and stood to his towering height, as if suddenly understanding something. "You are a hunter."

"No, I'm not a hunter. I just..." I thought of a possible answer to this endless fable I was creating for myself. "I travel a lot. And I read books."

"You read books of daemons?"

He really had a way to make anything sound insulting.

"Where I come from, they're called demons," I said.

"Yes, where you come from, this mysterious place that you will not name. You are simply are the most untrustworthy person I have ever met."

"That's weird, you did call me a trusted friend to your father..."

"I only said that to save your life," he emphasized. "We are not friends, we are passing strangers."

I wasn't sure why he even felt the need to clarify that to me, but then I remembered Malphas' last words to him. "Fine, we are passing strangers. Whatever makes you feel nice and detached from me so you can wipe my memory, right?"

His scowl turned quickly into a glare. "Normal people, normal people, do not react like you are right now. Not after what my father spoke of and not after my lack of denial of everything he said. The truth is, my leg was not just pinned beneath a chariot. It shattered completely beneath the weight of the wheel, and I had to lift it off of me by myself. Days later, I was walking perfectly fine. It does not stop there. My strength surpasses any human man you have encountered. I am so strong I have to be mindful of it, or I could a crush a person's hand with the slightest movement. And you are right, I can move fast. You could blink and I would vanish."

That's exactly what I'm afraid of.

"Would you like a trophy?" I asked sarcastically, and his golden eyebrows went up. "I haven't run out that door. I'm not planning on it, either. I told you, I'm looking for somebody, and that's all that truly matters to me. Your secrets are safe with me. Honestly, I don't care about what you are."

Alexandru ran his hand over his jaw. "Well, I don't have time to look for your person. Your time is wasted here, so it is better you forget you ever met me."

He stepped toward me with his hand outstretched and a sudden burst of fear made me step away from him.

"Are you just going to listen to everything your father says for the rest of your life?" I demanded of him.

He looked as though I had slapped him and formed another welt on his cheek. "Believe me, this life is not what I want. But I have been told it is my destiny by thousands in Rome. One day, I will look back at all of this as an honor."

I gazed at him steadily. "I doubt you will."

"Then so be it," he replied. "As my father has made it clear tonight, I have no control over the gladiating games."

"You won't be his pawn forever," I said, wanting nothing more than to cheer him up with hope. "One day, you will be free from all of this, free from him–"

"How do you know?" Alexandru exploded, and my heart clenched. His eyes were gleaming with wetness, and I could see the tremble in his face as he desperately tried to keep it together. "Whatever I am, I still have humanity in me. My father has none. He is empty and cold. I can break, while he is unyielding. If you do not fear me, then you should fear my father. You should want to forget him, so he forgets you."

I wished there was a way for me to make this right. To make him feel like he was still in control, but all I didn't know what to say.

"Tomorrow, I will wipe your memory of this," Alexandru promised, "and you will start fresh on your journey to find your friend. Be grateful for this. It is a gift to forget."

The anger his casual statement had caused me made my blood boil. "I'm not going to let you erase my memories."

He gave a sad smile. "As if you could stop me."

After a long moment of silence and Alexandru looking out over the pool where his father had departed. Suddenly, my stomach gave a great embarrassing gurgle of hunger.

Alexandru turned his head to me with a sigh. "Supper will be ready soon. Are you hungry?"

I kept staring out into the pool with my arms crossed over my chest.

"You're angry," he said, stepping closer to me.

I turned my whole body away from him. Of course, I was fucking angry!

Alexandru growled something crude under his breath. I could hear his heavy steps as he strode out of the courtyard. "Women."

In the silence of the courtyard, my stomach burbled again with hunger. As angry as I was that he planned on wiping my memory, I was absolutely famished. So, I did eventually leave the courtyard to find him in the house.

Now I sat down on a cushioned couch-like bench in the Crucellio's fancy dining room.

In front of me was a wooden table decorated lavishly with flowers and plates. Three sides of the table had matching cushioned couches like mine, while one side was open with no bench. I realized it was for the servants to place our food down, as two older women with matching tunics presented our food.

 
Once again, I didn't know what to expect from this era with dinner, but I now knew for the well-off people like the Cruscellio's, a feast was provided. Chicken and what I expected was duck with various sauces. Cabbage, legumes, freshly baked breads, grapes, cheese, and various little trays of items had me mentally drooling. But I was so dehydrated that the large vase of water was the first thing I reached for, as I filled up my glass and chugged it down.

Alexandru lay on the bench perpendicular to mine, so that we each had our own seating area. I realized he had laid down with legs stretched out in front of him and his hand behind his head in a lounging position. In this position, he picked food from the table, including a chicken leg which he polished off using his hands. He licked his finger clean and reached for bread and cheese, when he caught me in his peripheral watching him.

"Feel free to relax," he said with a lazy smile.

I felt my face heat up. I guess sitting upright in a chair wasn't how they did it around here. Shrugging, I piled my plate with chicken, vegetables, cheese, and bread, and lay down on the couch to devour it. I hadn't realized just how hungry I'd been until I started eating.

We ate in silence a majority of the meal. Everything tasted so flavorful, so real, and I was so surprised that it actually appeared to be nourishing me too. I finished off two plates of food when I hit a dead-end and thought I might explode with delicious food.

Alexandru tossed another chicken bone onto the growing pile on one of the many plates in front of him, before sitting up with a groan, like he was just as full as I was. He put his fist to his mouth, and I could tell he tried to suppress the belch that rose up his throat but failed.

"Nice one," I muttered, even though I had planned on not talking to him.

His tanned cheeks grew rosy. "Sorry, I did not eat much today." He wiped his hands and mouth on a cloth and poured two glasses for wine. He offered me the one of the glasses.

"I don't drink wine." I thought to myself that Death would have known this. He'd even gone out of his way once to fill a wine glass with grape juice as an inside joke. To think that I actually thought things were complicated back then was a depressing thought.

"More for me." Alexandru shrugged, before pouring my wine into his glass, before taking a large sip. "How do you relax, if not with wine?"

"I don't even remember the last time I was relaxed."

"Is it because of your friend?" he wondered. "The one who has lost their way?"

I nodded, although technically, the lack of relaxation on my end had begun much earlier than Death falling through that portal. It really started the day that I met him. Every day from then on had been filled with drama and high-stress situations.

"This friend," Alexandru said carefully, swishing his wine around in his glass, "are they a man?"

"Yes," I said, feeling my heart pound a little faster.

He lifted his chin. "You are married to him."

I burst into laughter, choking a little on the piece of fig in my mouth. "Married? I'm too young to be––" Looking up at him and his puzzled expression. Right. Definitely wasn't too young to get married in this era. "I mean, I'm not the type to get married..."

"You do not want to marry?"

"Not now," I repeated,

He nodded and seemed to look away from me, before he expressed some sort of judgement.

"Can't I just not want to marry?" I asked.

"Marriage is a duty to preserve one's family. I am surprised your father has not found you a match. Though, you do appear to be preoccupied, finding your...friend."

I narrowed my eyes at him. Judgmental bastard even back then.

He sipped at his wine, but I could see he was hiding a smile.

"If I didn't any better," I said with a spiteful grin, "I'd say you sounded a little jealous of this friend."

"Jealous? I do not know you." He set his glass down. "Nor am I looking for a wife anytime soon."

"You really have to look?" I drummed my fingers on the table. "I'm sure women throw themselves at you to get your attention."

He raked his hand through his hair. "More like drown in a river to get my attention."

I laughed and reached for a piece of bread to nibble on. "Don't act like you aren't enjoying my company. Even if you don't trust me think I'm a dirty prostitute witch."

He choked a little on his wine and cleared his throat. "I never said such a thing."

"You didn't have to. You wear your judgment on your face, Alexandru." He looked startled that I was being so straightforward with him. "Now tell me why."

He arched a golden brow. "Well, I did find you in the river wearing trousers and an unusual tunic with scarce materials. Your family has not chosen a suitable partner for you. You are young, and you are attractive––I assume from a middle social class––but you do not wish to marry. I find it to be very...abnormal."

"Abnormal?"

His eyes grew a little shifty and he cleared his throat again. "When a woman of your..." He reformed his words and I hoped Romeo's magical gum could keep up. "I am curious..." He wiped his hand over his mouth, and I could tell he was hiding a smile. "No, it is not right to ask..."

"Spit it out."

"Did you tarnish your reputation? Is that why you...are on the run?"

"What makes you think that is any of your business?" I fired back, wanting some of the heat taken off of me. Or at least the weight of those intense, exotic eyes of his.

He rubbed the back of his neck. "I am just trying to understand why you were in that river, or why our paths have crossed, and why you keep lying to me. It is too dark for you to travel, so you should stay here overnight. I would feel much more comfortable knowing a little more truth from you."

"Then ask me about me as a person, not if I still have my virginity. How is that supposed to make me feel safe with you tonight?"

The truth was, I did feel safe with Alexandru, and I trusted him from the first moment I met him. I just wanted to see him squirm a little for his sneaky Death-like prying.

"I am sorry," Alexandru said, so mortified that he even turned pale. "I did not mean to make you feel unsafe in that way." He stood abruptly with shame in his face. "I will leave you alone the rest of the night and sleep in the barn."

"No need to be melodramatic," I said with a smile, satisfied by his guilt. I grabbed one of the desert pastries as I stood, ripping off a piece with my teeth. As I chewed, I noticed the dirt and crud stuck under my nails. "Got any soap around here?"

***

I dumped another bucket of water over my head, the scented water washing away the layer of the river water stench. The water was cooler than I was used to in a bath or shower, but not uncomfortably cold. I was just so happy to finally get clean that I hardly cared or thought about how hygienic this whole thing was.

Working the bar of soap between my hands, I lathered up my body, taking in the mosaic walls of the Cruscellio bathhouse.

The water had smelled and looked clean enough. I figured this bath was about as luxurious and close to modern baths as it got in a person's home.

I looked down at the bottom of the pool and wiggled my toes. The bottom was pleasantly warmer, and I wondered if there was something underneath it that kept the water at a higher temperature.

"My eyes are covered."

I jumped with a startled yelp, pressing against the wall of the pool. Alexandru entered with a makeshift cloth blindfold and an arm over the blindfold and carried a basket in his hand. His shin bumped into a chair as he came closer, and he cursed.

I had to put a hand over my mouth not to laugh, but it only made me laugh harder.

His head turned toward my laugh and made his way closer. When his bare feet touched a small puddle of water on the rim of the tub, he placed the basket down.

"Here," he said, and then he turned around, blindfold, arm over the eyes, and all. "I forgot to give you oils. I would have had a servant do this, but I like to give them time away when it is just me here."

"It's okay, I know you mean well." I stared at the curved tool. "What exactly am I supposed to do with tool?"

He reached out to feel what I was talking about. "Scrape the oil off your body." He said this like it was obvious, and suddenly it dawned on me how horrible my toilet experience might be. There was just no way they had toilet paper.

Alexandru left the bathroom, and I finished washing until the water ran clear from my hair. I dried off with a wool towel and padded across the tiled floor to my backpack for another clean pair of undies. Then I slipped on the clean plain tunic he had given me.

I tried to work my fingers through the knots in my long black hair. But it wasn't enough, so I did some more digging through Romeo's backpack

"Brush, brush, brush...come on..."

No brush. But I did find deodorant.

I spread a generous amount of it on my armpits. "Oh, thank you, lordy."

Toweling my hair, I realized my one ear was clogged and bent my head to the side, hitting my skull a few times to clear some water out. As I straightened, my ears seemed to ring ever-so-slightly.

The hair at the back of my neck rose.

And suddenly, I knew I wasn't alone.

"Faith..."

I spun around fast, my heart slamming into my ribs as I looked frantically around the empty room. Every one of my nerves remained on edge. I knew what I'd heard. My eyes landed on the bathing pool. Something told me to walk forward, so I did, I edged toward the bath and the murky water, my pulse pounding uncontrollably as I peered inside...

I hand landed on my shoulder.

I spun around and almost screamed.

"Alexandru," I gasped, the tall, Blonde gladiator of a man stood directly behind me. So close, that it was astonishing I hadn't even heard him breathe. "You scared the shit out of me!"

He smelled like some mild scented oil and his skin was still damp. I realized he had also taken a bath in the room beside me. He wore another plain tunic, and his blonde hair was wet and darker because of it, brushed back from his face. The sun was also setting, darkening the room, and his mismatched eyes, in a way that almost made him look a little sinister.

"I am sorry," he said, and then he handed me a comb. "I thought you might need this."

"Thanks," I said sarcastically.

Just say I have a bird's nest in my hair, why don't you?

When I tried to work the comb along my ends first, my hands were shaking so hard that I dropped it. Alexandru's hand shot out, and he caught it instantly.

"Catlike reflexes, huh?" I joked.

"You have no idea," he muttered, and looked down at the comb in his large hand. He took a step closer to me, his eyes flicking up as he did so, a little mischievous and unflinching against mine. He slowly walked out of my line of vision to stand behind me, the heat of his body driving my temperature to a fever. When his fingers gently pushed my hair to lay on my back, I felt his touch throughout my whole body.

"What are you doing?"

"I thought you might want help brushing your hair."

A smile edged my mouth. "Thank you."

He was careful not hurt me as he sectioned off my hair and combed at ends. When he hit a difficult knot, he rubbed some oil between his hands from my basket to work it through the section with his fingers. For such a large, masculine man with hands that could probably crush a man's face, he had a gentle, patient touch. I hoped he was so experienced because of his own wild golden mane and not from other girls.

"You are very unusual," Alexandru said, which was pretty much the last thing I wanted to hear after getting jealous over Death's past girlfriends. "I have never seen my father spare a mortal like he did this evening. You evaded a gruesome ending."

"Now I'm mortal to you? I thought I was an evil witch?"

"Even evil witches have humanity in them." The comb worked clean through the length of my hair. "They have a soul, too. Yours is bright, but I cannot tell if it is good."

I turned slightly over my shoulder, watching him like a hawk as strode away from me, picking something off the mantel by the door. The sun must have begun to set, because the room was slowly plunging into darkness that cast a shadow over his broad back. He turned, holding a small ceramic discus in his hand with a pinched opening and a wick sticking out of it. I realized it was an oil lamp, as the wick suddenly lit aflame without any touch.

His eyes flicked up to mine as the flame growing in the lamp, the vertical pupils in his eyes tightening into thinner slits.

"I have not hidden my eyes from you from the moment we met," he said in a low, but accusatory tone. "I normally wear an illusion to mask it, but I forgot to. You have not showed the slightest fear or even mentioned it. Do you deny this? Or do you cross paths with men with eyes of a cat often?"

"You have given me no reason to fear you."

"Then believe me, you have put your blind trust in a monster."

My throat trembled as I spoke. "You are no monster, Alexandru." Not yet, the thought echoed in my head. Although suddenly, I wasn't so sure.

Alexandru looked as if he wanted to say more, but instead turned and walked out of the bathing room. I knew by now to follow him when he did that. The room was immaculately clean and looked untouched without a single wrinkle in the plain wool comforter across the bed against the wall. My backpack was resting on the floor beside the bed.

"You can sleep in here in the guest room," he said curtly, nodding to the room. I could tell he was upset with me as he set the oil lamp down on the dresser by the door.

"What I told you is the truth," I whispered. "I am looking for someone. I would never tell anyone your secrets. I just can't tell you anything else, or I fear his life will be endangered."

Alexandru's head tipped back slightly as I spoke. After a long, intense moment, he drew in a deep breath.

"I believe you," he said.

The tension in my body eased up. "I thought, maybe, you could help me in another way with my...journey. But I do appreciate your generosity." I gave a mirthless laugh. "Even if you plan on wiping my memory tomorrow, which is still a little screwed up."

Alexandru leaned against the wall beside the door with a tired smirk. "I will not be wiping your memory."

"Oh?" I folded my arms over my chest, meandering closer to him. "And when did you decide that? Were you just going to let me sweat it out?"

"Someone recently pointed out to me I follow my father's every command, but she was clearly wrong." He gave a half shrug, that smirk growing. "Besides, a twofaced witch of your size is no true threat to me, or to my father."

The toe of my bare foot dragged against the wooden floor as I took another slow step toward him, until he had to angle his neck down to look at me. "Spoken like a man who could one day get cut down to his knees by a woman," I teased.

His gaze raked over me, those full lips quirking up on one side. "Mm..." He shook his head with a chuckle, everting his attention elsewhere. "Definitely not by you. Not in a thousand years."

"What about two thousand?" I asked in a quiet voice.

His face snapped closed with a dull, hard appearance, and he said nothing. I feared I had disturbed this realm again, by how his arms looked slacked like a broken solider at his sides. But then I saw his eyes, how they yearned with a spellbinding desire that crossed into me like a bridge drawn between us.

"I should go," he whispered.

I pushed onto my tippy toes and kissed his cheek. He stood stone still like a corpse, but his skin was warm to the touch, sparking heat outward into my own body.

His hand tightly clasped my waist, keeping me there, and our gazes connected in a fierce moment. His eyes shadowed with a dark appetite under the flickering light of the oil lamp. For a moment, I imagined it was Death trapped behind that starved look. I shuddered as his lips slowly came down and tasted mine. Such a soft, tender kiss had rocked me back into a time I'd felt so devastated, so wronged, that I could barely breathe. My shut eyes welled with tears, and I imagined the reminiscence of what once was seeming to mend together to show me what I sought to save––

He drew back. Our breaths panting over each other's. My hand was resting on his racing heart, the bittersweet reminder of this memory feigning life and of knife that had plunged both our hearts.

Another backwards stride. My hand slid away from him. I almost feel the gears of his mind clicking around, half of him masked by the shades of black looming in the hallway, while I stood by the waning light, with archway between us like a threshold of time. I trembled with the hopeful thought that he remembered and lifted the lamp to see his face.

The light flickered over his dull expression. That strange blank mask had returned, raking an eerie sensation down my spine.

"Sleep well," Alexandru said.

I watched in quiet horror as he retreated down the hallway and turned into another room.

My spark of hope had once again smothered in an instant, just like the mighty but confined flame in the oil lamp.
***

JSFJWEOIJFOIWEIJOFWIOEFJIOEWIOJFIOEJWFIOJWEFWOI!!!

SCREAM "CUPCAKE" AND "YIKES DADDY DEATH" IF YOU WANT MORE!!

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