When In Rome

A short story from Tales from the City of Xangsburgh.

Tom ran onto the raisers, looked around and then, after not spotting her, ran around down the steps and out around until he came across the steps leading to the other side of the stands, still not spotting her. He was filled with anguish at himself for losing her. He dropped to his knees and through his arms into the air and screamed, “EMILY!” His voice echoed off the ancient stone and back around several times. Other tourists were looking at him.

“TOM!” echoed a lovely voice. He looked around, and there was Emily, on the other side of the Coliseum.

Tom stood up and ran down the steps he had just run up. He looked back and saw Emily do the same. He continued running until he was at ground level. He was ten feet from the street.

Just then, the ground started to shake slightly, then shake harder. he saw people starting to run for their lives as the pillar in front of him began to crumble and break away. Tom started running as a slab of ancient stone landed where he had been a few seconds before.

Tom saw the stairs leading down into the maze of corridors that used to be under the Coliseum floor and darted for it.

He saw the grass on the floor and knew that he was safe for now.

“TOM!” he heard Emily shout. He could tell from the way it sounded that she, too, was in the maze of corridors.

“EMILY!” he screamed as he ran towards the center.

He could see the pillars all crumbling and falling as the earthquake tore the ancient Amphitheater apart. Cracks were forming all along the walls of the maze corridors. Tom knew he had to find Emily, fast.

He ran into the maze, and was getting spun around by the confusing twists and turns.

They screamed each other’s names at the same time, and he stopped. Turned around. And saw that she had heard it, too. They had been standing at opposite ends of the main corridor that runs straight through to maze.

They made a dart towards each other and they both knew that they might not reach other, but they also knew that they had to try, at all costs.

Everything seemed to be in slow motion. Boulders from the top of the Coliseum were crashing all around them. The cracks in the walls of the corridors were wrapping around all the way.

They were within reach of each other. Their fingers were touching as the as the walls around them gave way.

They crashed into each other in an eternal embrace as the ancient stone enveloped them.

Author's Note

this will likely be expanded upon before it's published. Also, when I wrote this I hadn't actually seen a map of the Coliseum, so I didn't know It' layout, so it may not be represented accurately in this story.