Despite what Rufus and Caius thought, there was a thunderstorm that night, rain poured from the heavens from midnight till dawn and bolts of lightning hit the dry ground from time to time. It caused a couple of fires but no one got hurt and in the end, the night passed normally, aside from one incident.

Around what felt like 3AM, an especially bright streak of light cut through the clouds like a shining blade with a roar of an entire army. It woke me up instantly, despite my somewhat strong sleep. It felt far too close, almost like right outside my window. It made me worried, I didn’t even know if there were lightning guards in the first century, so I had the need to get up and check if everything was okay.

Despite the rumble that strike caused, the house seemed to be asleep. Filled only with the sound of rain and a loud noise of Rufus’s snoring. Lucia trully was a saint to endure such a torture-worthy cacophony, but I suppose people can get used to even worse conditions. Another white scar tore up the night sky, as I looked through the kitchen window, right at the little plaza which was used by every family in the building as a meeting and relaxation spot.

Quickly, I opened the door leading out to the staircase and left, masking the noise with yet another thunderclap. The stairs led me down and outside. I must have gotten lucky because by the time I reached the entrance, the rain had stopped almost completely. I went out on the wet grass and looked around in the darkness of the night.

At first I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, but when my eyes got adjusted to the lack of light I saw a dark streak of smoke, rising from the direction of the hills, not far from the house. I decided to investigate.

The grass was slippery, and I had a couple of close instances of almost falling down, but eventually I peeked from behind a layer of trees separating the houses and the fields. I saw a dark, still smoking, circular spot on the ground, right in the same place where I appeared a month ago. I felt shivers going up my spine and someone’s eyes on me. Involuntarily shaking I turned around, trying to find who or what was looking at me but the area around me was empty.

I whipped around when I heard a splash of water behind me. There they or… it was. I saw only a sliver of some humanoid presence disappear into the shadows of the houses of our small neighborhood. I didn’t try chasing it and instead quickly made my way home, no longer feeling watched.

I made sure to lock the doors properly and surprisingly - fell asleep pretty quickly, almost forgetting the encounter.

***

“This is probably the best thing I've ever eaten!” Announced Octavia, munching down on a slice of pizza, burning her tongue in the process.

We were sitting on the patio of Nerva’s house. He was the most rich out of our group, so his place was often picked as our hangout spot. His parents were also pretty chill with those evening events, as long as we promised to not drink too much wine or break anything too valuable.

There were five of us: Nerva and Caius were sitting on a small marble table, with Octavia currently bouncing in place in the middle of the small paved area, with a hot piece of pizza sticking out of her mouth. Marius stood next to me, leaning on a pillar, and I was putting in a second pizza into a bread oven. I was glad to remember how to make it, even though I wasn’t the best at baking and it came out a bit charred, everyone instantly fell in love with the new snack, which should have been invented almost a millennium later.

“And how do you call it again, Nero?” asked Nerva in between blowing at his second piece, to get it to a somewhat edible temperature. He was a dark,tall, lean man with green eyes and curly hair. His quite impressive musculature was usually well hidden behind long sleeved tunics he wore, to the point where both of us looked almost identical in that aspect at times. But with how he was sitting currently, with his arms exposed - the hours of training were clearly visible. He was a workout nut, and if it wasn’t for his genes he’d be probably less slender and more bodybuilder-like.

“It’s-a pizz-a.” Said Marius. He sounded almost as if he was mocking the Italian accent, which wasn't a thing yet. He was the quietest from the whole group, short, with messy hair and light skin. He used some makeup to make his eyes appear darker, and generally preferred being alone, but his best friend - Octavia - always took him with her, to not let him become too antisocial. He was the funniest from the entire group, but also the most prone to acts of unreasonable stupidity which he called “bravery”. If there was any trouble, it was most likely the doing of Marius.

“You really have the memory of a bee.” Commented Octavia, absentmindedly spilling some tomato sauce on her clothes. She was the shortest, with me being about a head and a bit taller than her. She was always cheerful and somehow knew everything that was happening in the city. She was well informed about everyone’s dating status and their personal lives, sometimes more than the parties involved. She didn’t overuse that weird power however, and resorted to merely ‘signaling’ to others close to her, what she thought by slight smiles or glances. She also apparently loved pizza.

“Weren’t bees the working kind?” Asked Nerva, making a crawling gesture with his fingers.

“Maybe, but I’ve not yet seen the same bee twice.” Answered Octavia, causing a very confused expression on Nerva’s face.

“She means they forget faces and don’t attack you.” Said quietly Marius.

“And how does she know that?” Inquired Caius.

“I know things.” Answered the girl in a lower tone with an innocent smile, somehow making me shiver. “Oh also my uncle is a beekeeper and he says they totally wouldn’t remember how to get home if it wasn’t for the smell.”

“Neither would I.” Joked Nerva, taking a sip of wine and touching his nose.

“Wine doesn’t smell that strong,” Marius shook his head, “I’m sure what your expert nose is following are the dozens of perfumes in your bedside chest.” Caius choked on the wine, giggling, causing Nerva to look at him heartbroken.

“Oh come on, it's not that many! At least I don’t stink like a gladiator.”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Oh you call me stinky?” Caius put away his wine and grabbed his friend’s head, pushing it towards his armpits. “I’m the freshest there is! Our Emperor Nero himself would envy you right now!”

Weirdly enough, I envied him right now.

“Ew you are disgusting!” Nerva tried to push the young man away, but both of them were more or less matched in strength. “Do you even wash yourself?”

“Yes yes! Suffocate him!” Octavia cheered him on, herself pushing on her friend, to make it harder for him to get from the chokehold.

“I surrender! I surrender!” Yelled the green-eyed man finally.

“Say I smell amazing!” Laughed Caius, not letting go.

“You smell like smoke!”

This confused Caius and made him loosen his grip on Nerva’s head. Everyone inhaled the air, it did smell a bit like smoke. “The pizza!” I yelled, turning around. The iron doors to the bread oven were a bit hard to open but with help from Marius, we got the second Pizza out. It was also slightly charred, but nobody minded that and our little party stretched far into the night.

***

“I’ve heard they found more corpses.” Said Octavia with a grim expression.

We were looking at the stars in Nerva's garden. There was no sign of any clouds or storms taking place last night. Octavia and Marius sat on a blanket and ate dates, me, Caius and Nerva layed on the grass, staring at the lights high up in the sky.

“Why do you always ruin the mood?” Sighed Marius.

“I’ve heard one of them had three eyes.” Responded Nerva, causing the rest of the group to get quiet to a whisper.

“I really don’t think they are just travelers who stayed up during the thunderstorms.” Continued Octavia, with Caius nodding in agreement.

“So what then? Gods? Something from the stars? Don’t be ridiculous.” Fought Marius.

I felt the eyes of Caius on me.

“Oh, right…” Said the woman, probably noticing my home-mate’s reaction. “I’m not implying that this might be related to how you got here but… is this related to how you got here?”

Of course Octavia heard the story, she was more effective than literal Emperor’s spies. I tensed up, unsure what to say. Caius came to the rescue.

“I mean… All of the bodies they found were well… Just that, bodies, and Nero…”

“Wait, what do you mean?” Nerva sat up. “What does this have to do with Nero? Isn’t he just a son of one of your father’s associates?”

He didn’t answer.

That’s when we heard the noise of a breaking branch. Someone was near.

“Halo? Who are you? This is a private residence!” Yelled the green-eyed man, standing up and looking around. Quickly the rest of the group followed him.

“Why do you look so worried?” I asked. He squinted at me with suspicion in his eyes, but soon responded.

“I overheard a guard talking with my dad today. He said to be careful because they found another burned circle in the ground, but no body.”

“That sounds an awful lot like normal lightning striking the ground.”

“maybe, but it was out in a field, and I heard that the places people were found in had a specific shape.”

“And they suspect that someone got hit by the lightning and didn’t report it? That does NOT explain why it worries you.” Marius crossed the hands on his chest.

“Oh god you are so closed minded for a gay.” Commented Octavia, prompting Marius to explain (second time this day) that he was in fact straight. “Yeah sure… Anyway - They think that those people might not be from here.”

“Well everyone knew that.” Answered Caius, definitely more relaxed than before.

“We don’t mean not from Rome, we mean off this world.” Nerva stood next to Octavia, he looked at us, frowning.

“Yeah, of course, the gods sent their disciples and burnt them as a welcome here. Come on, don’t be ridiculous! This is ridiculous, right? Guys?” He looked from me and Caius to the other two, waiting for any of us to speak up. But we all stayed silent. “You’ve gone mad!” He proclaimed, looking at the skies. “Did Minerva took your minds away?” He grabbed his face, sighing deeply.

“Look, we know this sounds ridiculous.” Caius took his turn. “But how else do you explain random people appearing?”

“Slaves, refugees, travelers?” Marius counted on his fingers, but before he could say the fourth option, he froze. “Guys… Behind you.”

We turned around and saw something disappear in the shadows. Could it have been the thing I saw that night? Was there another person just like me? Were they a threat? Thousands thoughts appeared in my head, all questions stayed without the answer however, as our pursuit was cut short by us bumping into two sentries, going back to their guard-house.

“Hello, what are you doing, running out so late?” Asked the taller one, she seemed somewhat familiar, but I couldn’t recognise her in the dim moonlight. Although the voice sounded almost like…

“Aquilla! Thank gods you’re here. We saw something or… someone.” Caius greeted the two guards and quickly explained what we saw. To our disappointment, and my relief, they said that no one passed them. “Are you sure? We saw it running this way.”

“Sorry man, it’s our job to look, you know? You probably saw some animal and it hid in the severs or something like that. Octavia, you should stop freaking them out with your stories.” Aquilla shook her head disapprovingly. “Besides, you should really be going home, I was talking to your dad, Caius, he expressed worry about your whereabouts.”

Caius visibly lost all excitement, so did all of us. Whatever we saw could have lead me to some way to leave this place. If it also wasn’t of this world.

“Okay, We’ll be going.” Sighed Nerva.

“Oh don’t give me that, you don’t want to be mugged do you?” The other guard finally spoke, she also had feminine voice, but I couldn’t see her face at all under the helmet. “You can search for demons tomorrow, when the sun gets up. I’m sure it will be easier than in this darkness.” She laughed a bit, finally rushing the five of us home. They went with Nerva, Octavia and Marius who lived in the same direction, leaving me and Caius to go back on our own.

“Nero?” He asked finally, breaking the silence between us.

“Yeah?” I tensed up, expecting him to ask for an explanation.

“I know it’s probably painful to talk about but… If you want to, if you need to, you know where to find me.” He looked at me, smiling slightly.

“I… Thanks.” I smiled back at my friend. “I’m glad it was you and Rufus who found me.”

Nerva laughed in response, “yeah I know, we are pretty cool!” I bumped him in the arm.

“I’m being serious!”

“So am I!” He smiled once more and turned back.

A minute later we finally reached it, my new home.