Even in the late afternoon the heat was unbearable. The only respite from the scorching sunlight was provided by sparsely placed trees in Caius’s garden. Both me and Cesar didn’t even feel like talking to each other, too occupied with drinking water and fanning ourselves. Through a little archway on the side of the wall, we could see a bit of Rome, with the colosseum towering over everything. Since I’ve traveled to the city it’s changed a bit again, now there were odd slim towers sticking out of the ground in some places, along the streets. They looked like elongated light poles, without the light at the top.
The whole city also seemed to change layout every time there was a storm, yet no one else commented on those shifts and everyone went along with their lives as always. I tried talking with Rufus about it, but he looked at me as if I was an idiot and asked if I wanted to see a doctor. Whatever was happening, that weird merge of modern and past Rome didn’t seem like it was to stop any time soon. And it didn’t look like it affected anyone.
The corpses were a bit different though. They always caused a lot of commotion and after a couple of weeks, there were special teams among the guards dedicated only to searching for those people in and around the city, each time lightning strikes. It was a sad sight, but it kept happening and people soon stopped questioning even that. They were being buried with proper ceremony, even though nobody knew who they were.
As if reading my mind, Cesar spoke up, breaking the silence for the first time since we got home: “Do you think we knew any of them? I mean… Most seem to have rather modern clothing on.”
I looked at him. He was also staring out into the city, as if I wasn’t even there. “Well… I did hear about a couple of people who were found in melted armor. So I think the spread is too big”
“Spread?” He still didn’t look at me.
“Yeah, like… Well. Any of them could be from any time it seems, so the chance they are from our time is rather… Slim.”
“And it’s even slimmer that we knew any of them.” He shook his head slowly, taking another sip of water.
That was the end of our conversation, leaving both of us in silence, listening to the sporadic muffled conversation or animal sound. And it would stay this way probably until late night, if Caius didn’t finally appear in the house. Seeing his face made my heart rush again and I could barely keep my face straight. Or rather - I almost kept my face straight, because Caius laughed and asked what I was smiling about.
“Oh you know, you weren’t home all day! I was getting worried!” I admitted, lying only a bit.
“You don’t have to worry, I was with Nerva all day.” He seemed to blush a bit, which peaked my interest. But I didn’t ask about it.
“Sounds fun. What were you guys doing?”
“Just talking and walking and stuff.” He avoided eye contact with me. Or maybe I was just oversensitive.
“What stuff?” Is what my intrusive brain wanted to say but was very effectively silenced by a thunderstrike which caused all three of us to turn around and look at the city. It took us a second to find the source of the noise. Which was clearly marked by dark smoke rising from one of the markets.
“Um… that doesn’t seem good.” Sighed Caius, looking up at the darkening sky. It was cloudless.
***
We got to the area in about fifteen minutes. The scorch mark had the characteristic shape of other spots where people landed and the air was filled with electricity and the smell of burned flesh. But there was no corpse, leading us to believe that this was another one of the survivors.
The three of us looked at each other, unsure what to do next. Unfortunately we didn’t come to any decision before the guards arrived, securing the area and not letting any civilian get closer. That meant the end of our investigation, but the beginning of the search. The person who just got transported to Rome must have been somewhere close to the landing mark. “They are probably confused and most likely hurt, so they couldn’t have gotten far.” Noticed Caius.
Both me and Cesar agreed, and each of us went in a different direction. Looking for someone who seemed out of place, either by their behavior or the burnt clothes. Even though it was evening, the market seemed to be full of people, most of which were probably attracted by the noise. It made traversing the area extremely hard, and checking out everyone in the crowd even harder, seemingly impossible.
It wasn’t easy for us to find each other either, when after about thirty minutes each of us separately decided to call off the search. It made no sense to continue when the night sky started glimmering above us with thousands of stars, plunging the area into almost complete darkness.
“Well that was a waste of time.” Sighed Caius, sitting next to me and Cezar, on the steps to some building which looked awfully like a modern police station, complete with a couple of posters for some comedy show.
„Yeah, but now we know they at least aren’t that injured if they were able to get away on their own.”
„Yeah, that’s a relief.” Cezar sighed, covering himself a bit. „It’s kind of cold already, maybe we should get going.”
Caius nodded, prompting everyone to stand up, groaning. All the walking made my legs hurt, but I didn’t complain. And after we checked the area one more time, the group directed their steps towards the city outskirts.
We didn’t go far, when a stray cat ran out onto the road before us. It looked scared and quickly disappeared into the night, but the alley from which it escaped had peaked our interest, with a smell of smoke coming from it. I looked at Caius, this could mean one of two things.
„Maybe it’s another lightning strike?” Wondered Cezar.
„Or maybe just someone burnt something?” Sighed Caius, visibly not wanting to investigate the weird smell coming from the dark alleyway.
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„Whatever it is, it was scary enough to frighten a cat. We should check it out.”
Caius didn’t fight with me, and quickly followed, as Cezar and I disappeared into the shadowy alley.
The scent of smoke kept getting stronger and stronger. And as we got closer to the source of it, the more my heart sped up. It wasn’t wood or a pie that was burning. What I felt was clearly burning plastic, and that meant that the person we were looking for could be close by. Cezar gave me a quick look, asking if I felt what he did and confirming that what attacked my nose was indeed not from this time.
The alley was longer than we expected, forcing us to run quite a bit. Because of its uniform and more tunnel-like structure it allowed the smoke and scent to travel far and lead us here.
And here before us was a blackened spot on the ground, but not from the lightning strike, lacking the familiar pattern. It was the remains of a bonfire, with pieces of broken furniture laying around which must have been used as kindling. In the very center of it jumped around a fading flame, eating on the loose threads of a shirt and a pair of pants. Both of which burnt too much to distinguish their color or material.
What laid on the side was much more interesting however. A fake leather purse, half burnt by the fire, with dark and foul smelling smoke rising from it in streaks.
„It’s empty.” Sighed Caius, now even more disappointed. I patted his back.
„You smell this?” I asked, although the way he scrunched his nose should have been enough of an answer. „It's the smell of burnt plastic, a substance we use a lot in my time. And that means that whoever got here must have been from my century. Or at least somewhat close to it.” His face lit up for a moment, only to freeze in an expression of surprise.
He yelled, causing both me and Cezar to whip around towards where he was looking. Someone was there, a short childlike silhouette mashed with the shadows thanks to their dark clothing. But the moment we noticed them, they took off running.
The three of us were too tired to keep up for long and soon the trail grew cold.
„Shit, we lost them.” Cursed Caius, kicking a stone.
„And did you notice what they held?” Asked Cezar. I shook my head, not knowing what he was referring to. „It was a half opened bag. Which means that they put something in hastily.”
Both me and Caius looked puzzled.
„Don’t you realize? We interrupted them taking something from the bonfire!”
I looked at my friend, he was right.
„So whatever they were trying to burn…”
„Must be with the black clothed person.” I finished Caius’s sentence.
For a moment the three of us stood looking at each other, hyped about the prospect of this discovery. And until Caius spoke up - everything seemed to be going great.
„So… anyone has an idea how to look for the thief?”
We murmured a bit but no one came up with any concrete ideas, leaving our moods on an all time low.
“I suppose we should get going then, right?” Caius looked at me for an opinion. But I was deep in thought and it took me a bit to notice the question.
“Well… Yeah. Nothing to be gained here. Might as well return home and maybe look for them tomorrow?”
“I had some plans tomorrow…” Caius’s tone made me look at him. He seemed very upset, and his lips were in a position characteristic of when he was thinking of something intensively. He was probably trying to fit ‘looking for a thief’ into his busy schedule for thursday.
“Plans?” I scolded myself for asking about that, it was obviously personal or else he would tell me. I think.
“Well yeah… Me and Nerva wanted to go out. I mean, we haven’t done that in a while and it just seemed like a good idea and…”
“You go, we can deal with this.” Said Cesar.
I wanted Caius to go with us. I still had some questions I wanted to ask and keeping him close to me would make it easier. Or at least that’s what I thought.
“Are you sure?” No, I’m not.
“Yeah, don’t worry man, we will figure this out!” Said my mouth instead.
“Okay, that’s great, if you need me for anything though - I’m sure Octavia will figure out where we are.” We laughed a bit, internally realizing that he was right, she would indeed be able to stalk any of us out in a couple of minutes.
“Well if Octavia is so good, maybe we should ask her for help with locating this new arrival?” Asked Cesar, making me and Caius snort at first, but then we both looked at each other. He wasn’t avoiding my eyes this time.
“This… might actually work. Why didn’t we think of that?” His face reflected that he was thinking intensively again.
“Wait, are you serious?” I knew Octavia knew a lot but to find someone without a name or face known?
“Yeah! I mean… if anything - it won’t hurt to try.”
Both me and Cesar agreed with him, soon directing our steps towards her house. We didn’t go far though, when I felt someone’s eyes on me. I quickly looked around, stopping. The golden swirl behind me disappeared instantly, a trick of a light, or maybe someone carrying a precious object? I quickly joined up with the rest of the group.
***
“Well that sounds impossible.” Octavia shook her head, after listening to us. “I mean, I could ask around but there is no guarantee.” She disappeared inside her house, ordering us to wait for her.
Caius seemed discouraged by the news. He didn't say much in the next fifteen minutes. His face lit up however, when Octavia returned with something in her hand.
“Okay so I talked with my thief friend and he mentioned the rumors of a blonde, extremely pale woman seen in the market. She had Roman clothes on but there were weird scorch marks on the back of her neck. It was like half an hour after the lightning bolt hit so he thought she might have already found the clothes to disguise herself, but wasn’t able to clean up. He also mentioned that a group of dumbasses was trying to capture him.”
“Wait, are you friends with thieves?” Caius asked, concerned.
"He also found a couple of items in a small makeshift bonfire."
"Are we not gonna address the thieves issue? I'm a son of the officer of the law." He talked a bit quieter, almost whispering.
“You got the info you wanted, didn’t you? Be happy they don’t want to get back for the chase thing.” Octavia crossed her arms, staring him down. “Here, have this too. Should help you find her.”
Caius took the small pouch from her hand and unwrapped it. Showing what it contained to me and Cesar. It was money. Dollars to be exact. With the date printed as ‘2029’.
“So we were right.” Whispered Cesar. “That’s money from my time.” He explained to our Roman friends.
Both me and my dark haired friend nodded slowly. “Well that confirms that she exists, and is a blonde white woman in Rome.”
I smiled to myself. “The search suddenly doesn’t seem as hard, does it?”
“I think it’s going to be even easier.” Commented Caius, taking out one last item from the pouch, which got entangled with the material. It looked like an ID card.
“Oh god.” Cesar’s eyes were completely locked on the small plate. It was mostly melted because she tried to get rid of it in a fire, but by a stroke of luck the photo was preserved. My new friend from the future looked pale, leaving the rest of us confused why this green eyed woman with a ponytail terrified him so much. And this confusion would be further fueled by his sudden escape from the house.