A Sky of Fire and Blood

The suffocating fever of a thousand bodies wafted through the air. Baking the cobbled walls fringing the marketplace and mingling with the sun’s equally searing touch. Low to the ground, where a forest of glimmering silk togas towered over him, Cassius shifted from left to right foot in a joyous jig he couldn’t explain. The sun was glaring, scorching his bare feet, and the thin cord bearing his tray of wares was gouging into his neck painfully. But the bustling quality of the market was overpowering.

The sent of fine wine and rich fruits tickled Cassius’s nostrils as he darted from market goer to market goer. A charming smile and he had a person’s full attention. Sure he was selling the same product as most meek farm boys, but who could deny such a sweet and charismatic child. One shake of his thick brown curls and the glorious sound of metal clinking in his coin bowl pleased his ears. It had been less than a few hours since he pranced boldly into the ally, and already the deep wooden bowl was brimming with gold and silver. A stark contrast to the now near-empty boxes of olives and grapes that had weighed down the wooden slab tremendously but a few hours ago.

With spindly fingers, Cassius gripped the bowl of precious metals. Then rushed back through the market place in search of his sister. Soon enough, the flash of Gaia’s white tunic caught his eye, and he raced to tap her on the shoulder.

“Salva sister!” he shouted eagerly. Gaia jumped at the sound, sending the contents of her tray clattering to the floor. She grunted in annoyance then rolled up the leaves of her sagging tunic to gather her wares.

“You idiot! I won’t be able to sell these now.”

“Sorry I didn’t mean to,”

“You never mean to, yet you always do,” Cassius fell silent. His sister turned to gather the merger handful of silver she’d collected. A thick crimson line was branded over the protruding bones of her neck. The ruffly twisted twin of her tray had rubbed the tender skin raw.

There was a time when selling their father’s produce had been solely Gaia’s role in the family. She had been too frail to tend to their sprawling mountainside farm. So this market had been her domain. All until Cassius had learned to walk and talk and adamantly followed her down Vesuvius craggy slopes into the glorious city of Pompeii. He’d been a hit with the esteemed locals, and now was the sole earner of the family, much to Gaia’s distaste.

Cassius hurriedly transferred both their earnings into a leather pouch. Before bending down beside Gaia picking at the soggy mush of grape smushed into the cracks of the cobbled ally.

“It’s fine Cass I’ll pick this up. Wouldn’t want anyone to stain their toga now would we,” she looked wistfully at a group of young women giggling as they crossed before them. Their golden hair and fine silken clothing fluttered in the two children’s faces. A taunting reminder that they were nothing but peasants.

Cassius nodded silently and began to stand when a deep reverberating rumble swept through the city. Yelps of fear spread like wildfire. Cassius held tight to Gaia. Her arms encircled him through the quake. Seconds felt like minutes until the shaking stopped as abruptly as it had begun. People lay strewn over the floor in a sea of rich multi-color fabrics. Blood pouring relentlessly from the more unfortunate victims. Swirling with the thick concoctions of oils and juices that had lined the stalls.

“Gaia! Gaia are you alright!” Her pale arm fell limply from around Cassius’s shoulders, she pushed herself to her feet. A grim nod followed. Cassius knew what she was thinking. Another quake, after so long without their relentless cruelty, the gods had plagued them with another tremor. In the distance, wisps of smoke rose from the basin of Mount Vesuvius’s peak. A warning sign some speculated. The gods of earth and fire threatening to send the world up in fire and smoke if they were not appeased.

Already, as he took his sister’s hand through the plethora of disorientated people, he could spot older men and women praying and leaving offerings to the ground. It was useless, Cassius decided, for people to place such hope in their efforts. If the gods wanted them dead, then so be it.

“G?” Gaia glanced down at her little brother. The towering walls of marble buildings were flying by quickly now as they raced back home.

“Yes, brother?”

“Do you think we’re going to die?”

“Eventually,”

“You know that’s not what I meant,” Gaia said nothing. With each minute they marched their practiced route home she could feel the panic rising in her throat. What if their dad was hurt, what if the tremor had damaged the farm or worse mothers burial tree. The last quakes had taken months to recover from, and they weren’t even the worst she suspected the gods could produce.

One foot in front of the other. One step closer to home. Not long now.

The earth turned on its head. An invisible giant was stomping through the city. Its heavy footfalls sending the ground into the sky and buildings that touched the sky into the ground.

Cassius stumbled back and shoved Gaia to the side as a mammoth brick smashed into the ground beside them. The two children were painted red. They clutched each other, shuffling into a corner as Pluto ripped away from hell to take Venus’s patron city.

Through smarting eyes, Cassius saw a man struck down by a flying rock. His last words were barely audible.

“The mountain burns, its blood burns, hell is here!” Sure enough beneath the plume of grey ash, a thick liquid of fire burned its way down the mountain. Curling tighter into a screaming Gaia darkness fell. Ash blanketed the sun’s face. Winter rushed in to accept the invitation, sweeping the deadly powder of the mountain into Cassius’s lungs. The only light to see was the flashes of burning rock mutilating the city and the agonizing fire Cassius felt sure was burning through his lungs and skin.

Gaia held his hand and pressed her face into the crook of his neck, unable to bear the sight. As death set into Cassius’s bones, he gave the Venusian sky one last glance. Smears of red like blood shone through dark clouds. He both burned and froze. Each sensation blending into the other and stabbing at his heart. Cassius lent back his eyes open to the sky. Lain to death under a sky of fire and blood.