How Am I Gonna Be An Optimist About This?

Quintus

  I woke up to the sound of my mother singing quietly by the hearth. She’d been doing that more often since the ground had been shaking more often. It was a quiet song honoring the Gods. Soothsayers had been saying that the end was coming. They always did, but now everyone had felt the ground move and seen the tremors destroy their pots and vases. My mother had always been superstitious.  I walked out of my room into the main area and watched my mother singing for a moment. Her eyes were closed, her hair loose and flowing. She wore her sleep tunic, not even bothering to change before honoring the Gods. She was a beautiful singer. 

My sister was also awake. She was kneeling by the altar, praying directly to the Gods.  I couldn’t hear her whispers but  I knew her well enough to know the recent events in the city had shaken her. She was adorned in jewelry from her betrothed and wearing a beautiful tunic. Her hair was pinned up so she must’ve been planning to go out.  I knelt by her and said a quick prayer, more out of habit than any fear. The ground shook every now and then, and while it was more frequent as of late,  I knew it was normal. Still, extra prayers couldn’t hurt.

I changed out of my sleep tunic and left the house. My father was already out as it was late in the morning and he got up with the sun. The day was warm as it always was in Pompeii. The city was beautiful and  I had always loved staying here.  I had heard of places where it got very cold during the year and water fell to the ground as snow instead of rain. Those that had been to those places boasted of how lovely the trees looked covered in the snow and how they stayed warm with expensive furs.  I didn’t envy them. This weather was beautiful and  I wouldn’t ask for anything else. 

I got to the market and merely looked around for a moment. It was always very busy, shopkeepers yelling about their products, customers bustling about, children playing while their fathers shopped.  I loved it.  I felt at once a part of the society and anonymous in it. The air from the nearby sea kept it from feeling too warm even with all the bodies rushing to and fro.  I walked down the streets for a little while, idly looking at the wares of the shops. 

Suddenly,  I was pulled into an alleyway. It was Marcus. 

Marcus

I tried to kiss Quintus but he put a hand over my mouth and gave me his Look. We’d had this conversation before but  I still tried it everytime.  I wanted to kiss him as soon as  I saw him, damn the consequences. He knew better, as always, and kept me in line as we walked to the gardens. 

When we were finally alone,  I got to kiss him. It was always enjoyable to know that he felt the same way  I did, to feel it. Then, we were interrupted by the ground shaking. 

I pulled back and looked at Quintus for a moment before asking, “Do you think we should be concerned?”

He thought this over and said, “No,  I don’t think so. The ground has been shaking for weeks now and nothing has been damaged apart from a few precious vases.”  I laughed at that and returned to kissing him. 

Only a handful of minutes later, the ground shook again, more violently this time. Worried,  I pulled back and said, “That one was large and it hasn’t been that long since the last one. Twice within the hour is not good.”

Quintus kissed my cheek and reassured me, “It’s fine, Marcus. This has been happening for a while.”

“No, listen to me,”  I started, much more serious than him, “The soothsayers have been saying that the city is going to be destroyed.  I don’t believe that all soothsayers are real but all of them saying the same thing along with the ground literally shaking can’t be good.”

That sobered him up. He looked away before saying, “My mother and sister have been praying more. They say the Gods are angry with us.”

“What would they have to be angry about?”  I asked before the thought crossed my mind of what we were doing before the ground shook.  I dismissed that thought quickly.

“My mother says that people aren’t honoring the Gods enough but  I don’t know.” He looked at me, his brows furrowed, and  I had the urge to kiss the tension off his face. 

Then, the ground shook a third time. 

Quintus said, “Alright, we should go check on our families.”

“Can we go check on my dad first? He’s in the market so he’ll be the closest.” 

“Of course. My father is probably near there as well.” 

So we ran down to the market, silently deciding to stay together the whole time. 

Quintus

The market was in chaos. Everyone was trying to grab their things and loved ones.  I could tell that some people were simply trying to secure their wares and make sure their stalls stood, while others were trying to leave. The soothsayers were yelling and shrieking, saying the end was nigh. Marcus and  I couldn’t find our fathers.  I could tell Marcus was starting to panic. 

Then the ground shook again. People started screaming louder. They looked up at Mount Vesuvius, the mountain that our city was built around. It had exploded. My head throbbed with the pain of the noise. Smoke rose up quickly from the top of it like a fire with too much kindling.  I stood and watched, shaking with my mouth agape. People ran all around me, but all  I could do was watch, my ears ringing. Someone knocked into me and  I fell to the ground. Instantly, there were feet all over me, stomping on my arms, my legs, my stomach.  I was in so much pain and  I was starting to regain my hearing so  I could hear the screams of mothers, the wails of children. 

Marcus

When Quintus went down,  I immediately grabbed his arm to try to pull him up. He’d frozen when the mountain exploded and was being trampled by the terrified crowd.  I managed to pull him out from under the crowd onto a nearby stoop that no one occupied. There was no way we could escape in all this chaos. Quintus was covered in blood and bruises. He was crying softly and  I cradled him in my arms. He was scared and so was  I. Who cared if someone saw us? The mountain had just exploded. The world was ending.  I just wanted him to be alright. 

The sky went dark and snow started to fall.  I knew it wasn’t snow though. It was dark and the air was warm and thick.  I could feel it filling up my lungs as  I breathed. Quintus was curled up into my side as he cried.  I rubbed his back, knowing there was exactly nothing  I could say or do to make this better. 

The people that were left in the marketplace had stopped running around. Instead they stumbled and fell to the ground as they inhaled more of the smoke and not-snow. Some of them fell and stopped moving. All  I could hear was coughing and crying. My nose was full of the smell of death. We were covered in the dark not-snow but we were far too sluggish and tired to even brush it off. How angry must the Gods have been to sentence us to this slow and painful death? What did we do to deserve this? What could anyone have done to deserve this?

We were buried alive while  I held Quintus. He’d stopped crying, too tired to muster tears, the air too full for him to even take breaths to sob.  I held him as best as  I could. We died like that, Quintus curled into my side. 

Quintus

We never knew if our family had survived. They didn’t. We never even found them to say goodbye. We had each other in our last moments, at least. We didn’t know about the pyroclastic flow that would sweep through the city and kill anyone who had survived the ash. We didn’t know that some people had gotten out, only to die later due to the ash filling their lungs. We didn’t know any of that.

We couldn’t have imagined that our bodies would be so well preserved that archaeologists would be studying them 2000 years later. We couldn’t have imagined what the world would be like then. We couldn’t have imagined that our bodies would be fused together. We couldn't have imagined that when they found us they called us “The Lovers” even after they found out we were both men. We would have no idea.