Vesuvius

2020

I thought gardening was supposed to be relaxing. This isn’t very relaxing.

I slowly watered my dying plants as I gazed upon the city from my perch on the slope. Down below, the street markets were bustling with people, all trying to avoid the scorching heat by keeping to the shadows of the amphitheaters and arches. It was just another Saturday afternoon in the prosperous city of Pompeii. As per usual, I kept to myself, spending the day trying - and failing - to figure out how to keep my vegetables alive, which for some reason hadn’t been going very well lately. To be fair, I didn’t choose to start gardening because I was good at it, mostly because there wasn’t much else to do and because it let me stretch out my legs, which weren’t getting any younger. I stared down at the soil, and sighed. My cucumbers were dead, my carrots were barely hanging on and my peppers were smaller than my pinky finger. If I can't even take care of plants, it’s a wonder I was ever able to raise a child on my own.

I laid my watering pot on the dirt, and went back inside. There wasn’t much I could do for the plants besides water them, unless there was something I was missing, which wouldn't be very hard to believe, considering my lack of gardening skills. I took off my hat (most people didn’t wear hats, but I always liked them. It took asking 11 people and going to eight shops in three different marketplaces to find one) and laid it on the table next to the small painting of me and my daughter, Aelia...

“Cassius, get out!”

Sirius’ words were still ringing in my head. Normally while walking down the street leading to my home, I was always in a cheery and joyful mood. But not today, at least not yet. Considering Sirius’ nonexistent patience and his pure hatred for my being, I’m surprised it took so long for him to fire me. Of course, if it were anyone else besides me, he would’ve shrugged it off without a thought. It wasn’t because I was late for work five times in a month, or that I forgot to bring him his grapes yesterday, I knew that. It was because I reminded him of his failures, and how humiliated he was when I caught him embezzling money from our building sales. Ever since then, he would stop at nothing to make me miserable.

I kept my head down, buried in my bitter thoughts as I strolled past the fruit stalls, performers and merchants which usually would catch my attention.

“Cassius! Cassssiuuus!”

While I was busy daydreaming (although it was more like reliving a nightmare), I didn’t hear my friend Felix calling out to me from his antique stand on the side of the road. I scurried over to him, dodging a few chariots and almost bumping into a tourist carrying her weight’s worth in aubergines on the way there.

“What’s up? You don’t look very happy.” Felix remarked.

“Well, I finally got fired from Augustus Architecture.”

“Let me guess, Sirius finally got you?”

“Yup.” I sighed. “He’s been looking for an excuse to fire me for months.”

He jumped out of his stall and tossed an apple at me. I caught it and started munching on it as we both walked down the street.

“So what are you going to do now?” Felix asked.

“I don’t know yet. I mean it’s not like Augustus is the only architecture business in Pompeii, I’m sure I could find another job.” I answered.

“I hope so. Sirius will probably do everything in his power to keep you from getting another job.” Felix suggested, a far cry from his usual optimism.

“Yeah, well-” My reply was cut short by a shriek coming from one of the alleyways to the side of the street. I peered down the alleyway and turned to Felix: “What was that?”

“I don’t know. It sounded like a kid.” We both jogged down the narrow path, squeezing between two close buildings. This part of Pompeii is much less aesthetic than the other, more well-known areas of grand arches and vast amounts of tourism. This part of the city is dirty and uninviting, cracks crisscrossing the walls and old doors hanging off their wooden hinges. We

ignored the orange dirt caked on our sandals as we tried to follow the screams. We heard another screech from around a building, so we turned a corner.

“Thank the gods we’re still young enough for this.” I huffed as we dashed down the road.

I don’t know why we were chasing after random, screams, but ever since I was a child, I always had an innate urge to help whoever was in need, and it must have rubbed off on Felix over the years. We passed another building and saw a small child lying in a pile of trash, with two teenagers looking down on her and laughing.

“Get up, little brat!” The teenagers teased as they shoved her back into the dirt and garbage.

“Hey, leave her alone!” I shouted. Felix caught up with me, huffing and puffing, and managed to get out a “Yeah, leave h-” before he bent over in a fit of coughing.

“Why should we listen to you, old man?” One of the teenagers shot back.

“Because I can have the cohortes urbanae over here in 30 seconds if you don’t get out of here right now.” I countered.

“Whatever.” The other teenager said before they both turned around and ran away. Felix straightened back up and muttered: “These are sad times when 30 is considered old.” I chuckled and watched the teenagers disappear behind a building.

“You weren’t actually going to call the urbanae, were you?” Felix inquired.

“Of course not. I doubt they would listen to me, much less care about two trouble-making teenagers."

I walked over to the girl, who was still curled up on the ground, and offered her my hand.

“Are you okay?” I asked gently.

The girl nodded slowly, took my hand and stood up. She was probably about six or seven and had brown hair and big blue eyes. Felix and I both kneeled down, and I said: “What’s your name?”

“A-Aelia…” She stuttered.

“Nice to meet you, Aelia. My name is Cassius.”

Pulling my head out of the clouds. I looked down and realized I was holding the picture of me and Aelia in my hands. With a content sigh, I put the photo back down on it’s resting place - upright against the flower pot.

I looked up at the sky and wondered how that little girl I met 18 years ago had grown up so fast right before my eyes. Now, she was a strong and capable woman, and any day now would be giving birth to her own child. Even though she was adopted, it didn’t make me any less proud.

But this wouldn’t just be the birth of my grandchild, this would be the first time that I would actually be there for the birth of my child - or in this case grandchild - since I only met my daughter when she was seven years old. I was more excited than I ever knew I could be, but also more nervous than I thought was possible. If I was feeling this way, I could only imagine what

Aelia was feeling right now.

At least not everything changed since then. I still have Felix (whose antique stall somehow has managed to not run out of business yet), and Sirius somehow wound up as my boss again. Oh, I forgot to mention, he still hates my guts. I thought I would never have to see him again after I retired four years ago, but I knew deep down that that would be too good to be true. The only way the government would keep paying me was if I became a part-time architectural supervisor.

Basically, every few weeks I have to go somewhere to observe and supervise an architectural project. Sometimes it can be very interesting and almost fun. For example when we went to that enormous aqueduct right outside of the city, which was nearly 60 cubits high! Most people probably wouldn’t find it very interesting, but as someone who has been an architect for so long, I think it’s pure genius. But sometimes the projects are dull and boring, like when we go to a construction site where some new houses are being built. Of course, it’s all made worse because Sirius leads my supervising group.

Suddenly, there was a knock at my door. “Coming!” I said, as I got up from my chair, knees creaking. I opened the door, and saw… nothing. Or at least, no one. I looked down, and there on my doorstep was a letter. I grunted in frustration as I bent down to pick it up. I mean, putting a leaf of wood on the ground isn’t the best idea. The letter must have been from Aelia. Her servant is so shy, he always leaves… oh my gods. Aelia. The baby. I snatched the letter from my doorstep, peeling it open before stepping back inside.

It was from Aelia, and it said: “They say it won’t be long now. Come quick! Love, Aelia.”

For half a second, my heart jumped up high, higher than the tallest arch, taller than Vesuvius itself. Then I remembered something, and my heart fell all the way back down, plunging through the Earth into the depths of the underworld.

I threw the letter on the table and groaned, so loud it spooked the birds nesting on the tree outside. I had one of those architecture projects today, in 15 minutes actually. The worst part is it wasn’t even an important one, just a new shrine up on the hill, but I knew there was no way in hell Sirius would let me skip it.

I can’t believe it. Of all the days for a stupid new project I didn’t care about whatsoever, it had to be today. I knew Sirius wouldn’t care that I needed to be somewhere else today, but I had to try to reason with him. I put my hat back on, tucked the letter in the belt of my tunic and went out the front door.

It was a warm sunny day, a bright contrast to how I was feeling inside. The last time I was this depressed while walking down the street outside my house was 18 years ago, right before I met Aelia.

I decided to make a quick detour to Felix’s shop, because he always seemed to brighten my mood. When I got there, Felix was busy squabbling with someone else that was also inside his stall.

“No, the candles are supposed to go here!” Felix shouted.

“Why in The name of Pluto would you put it there? It could burn down the whole shop! Don’t you think I’d know a thing or two about my shop being destroyed?”

“Well, that’s where I’ve put the candles for nearly 25 years so I don’t think It’ll be much of a problem.”

“Suit yourself.”

“Hey!” Felix called out when he saw me walking towards him.

“Hey.” I replied glumly, leaning against the stall.

“I know that look. What did Sirius do to you now?”

“It’s a long story. Who’s your friend?”

“Oh, right. This is Linus. His shop got destroyed yesterday by a landslide, so I’m letting him work here for now.”

“Huh. I haven’t heard of any landslides lately. Or ever, for that matter.” I started.

“Yeah well, he must be one of the unlucky ones.” Felix proposed. “So, tell me about that long story of yours.”

“Right. Well, Aelia’s baby is due any time now.” I started.

“Oh right, the baby! Wait, then why are you wasting your time here talking to me?” Felix yapped as his friend Linus started dusting some old lamps with a hairbrush.

“Well, I have one of those architecture supervision projects in 10 minutes.”

“Oh god, Sirius has really done you in this time, huh?”

“Yeah, so I’m going to Sirius now to try to explain that I have to be at Aelia’s house.”

“Well good luck with that.” Felix said before turning back around to wrestle the hairbrush away from Linus, who was now polishing his sandals with it. I chuckled as I took off to go find Sirius, but not before I was distracted by a scream from across the street.

“Landslide!” A woman exclaimed from across the street. My head swiveled up towards the mountain, and sure enough, there was an immense amount of rubble and mud, hurtling down the slope.

“Holy mother of Jupiter, it’s happening again!” Linus shouted, and bolted out of Felix’s shop, knocking over a few wooden chairs and clocks for good measure.

I tried to measure the trajectory of the landslide (I was an architect for 26 years, I’m good with angles) and it seemed to be heading straight towards a group of tourists in one of the marketplaces.

“Come on, Felix!” I yelled as I started bolting towards the tourists. Felix tailed me, puffing as we ran, bringing back memories of the good old days.

“Humor me this. Why are we running towards the giant wave of literal mountain instead of away from it?” Felix asked.

“Because people are in trouble!” I responded.

“But people are always in trouble!” He complained.

We finally got to the marketplace, which the landslide was seconds away from demolishing. We both cleared the merchants and tourists who hadn’t already fled, and everyone seemed to be safe until I saw one small boy whose foot was stuck in the mud that had consumed the store.

“Felix, help me!” I sprinted over to the boy and started pulling him out of the mud, which felt like quicksand. Felix grabbed the boy’s right arm, then turned around to all the people behind us and shouted: “What are you doing just standing there? Come on and pull!”

Everyone grabbed the boy and started pulling him out of the glue like mud, and we yanked him out right before the rubble crashed on the spot where he was just a second ago. The mountain wasn’t done though, and just as everyone got up and was dusting themselves off, more rocks came tumbling down the slope. Felix and I quickly cleared the area before we were flattened like bugs under tons of rock.

“You know, the whole saving people and running into imminent danger thing was all fine and cool when we were 30, but now it’s just plain crazy.” Felix remarked.

“Yeah well, hopefully that’s enough running and destruction for today.”

If only.

People were still screaming, escaping from falling buildings and calling for help when a deep tremor shook the Earth, a horrible sensation that brought me straight back to the stone-splitting earthquake 17 years ago.

“It’s okay, don’t worry. We’ll be fine.”

That’s what I kept telling Aelia, but did I really believe that myself? The ground was still shaking, and part of our roof had caved in. Aelia and I were hiding under the table at the side of the room, and we seemed to be the only ones that were still inside our homes. All we could hear was the rumbling of the Earth and the screams of people outside.

I had one hand on the leg of the table, and the other hand protecting Aelia’s neck. All I could think about was the last year that I had spent with Aelia, and how that could be the last and only year I’d ever get to spend with her. She had grown a good three inches since I met her, and she seemed to be getting bigger by the day. Before I rescued her from the streets, I never really wanted children, and I knew I might already have been too old to have any. That had all changed when I met Aelia.

But I couldn’t afford to be thinking about the past right now. Right now, we were both huddled under a table during an earthquake, Aelia leaning against me and trying not to whimper. Right now, she needed me.

For just a moment, the shaking stopped, and in that moment, I picked up Aelia and bolted out the front door. I ran into the street, where the ground was littered with debris, and everyone was screaming and running for their lives. I followed the people, who seemed to be running towards the city limits, to escape the falling buildings. I looked up on the hill, and the Shrine of Jupiter was in ruins.

We all kept running, before I noticed that a building up ahead was tilting towards the street, it’s support beams all cracked. As an architect, I knew what that meant.

“Stop! Everyone stop!” I shouted. Some people listened to me and slowed down, while others didn’t stop sprinting. In a few seconds, the building came down with a great crash. I covered Aelia’s eyes as the building flattened a dozen people, and even more screams ensued. We dashed through an alleyway into a different street and kept running.

After about 20 minutes, Aelia and I, along with another group of people made it to the edge of the city, where it was mostly rivers and grassland. I put Aelia down, and then lied down on the grass, adrenaline still pumping through my veins. Aelia laid down next to me, and hugged me.

That was the first time she hugged me, really hugged me. Like a daughter would hug a father.

Pompeii had finally recovered from that disaster 17 years ago, and now everything was being destroyed once again. The familiar sound of screaming filled my ears. Everyone could barely stand up straight, and the city was crumbling all around us.

I told myself that the city was more prepared this time, that the buildings that had been rebuilt after the last earthquake should be more shock proof, but I don’t know who I was kidding, there was no way we were prepared for another earthquake.

“Get to open space, far away from any tall structures!” I shouted, but my voice wasn’t what it used to be, and virtually nobody heard me amidst the crashing. There was dust everywhere, obscuring my vision. People were stumbling around, not sure what to do. Most of the people were either young children when the last earthquake happened, or they weren’t even in Pompeii at that time. I grabbed Felix’s arm, and we both careened towards the middle of the road for safety. The sensible thing would be to get under a table, but that wasn’t really an option right now.

I heard more screams coming from across the street. It was coming from a building that was on the verge of collapsing. All of its doorways were blocked by rubble. Felix and I both realized that the only way anyone in that building could get out was if someone pushed away the rubble from the outside. We both looked at each other, and a sense of understanding passed between us.

“Fine, let’s do it.” Felix said.

We both ran towards the crumbling building and started removing the huge pieces of rubble from the doorway.

“Hey!” I shouted, hoping the people stuck inside could hear us. “Move the rubble from the other side!” I heard the people on the other side of the doorway pushing and shoving at the rubble until finally, we managed to wiggle some of it away. I peeked through the hole we made, and what I saw were three helpless faces, all of them covered in dirt and dust. One of them was a little boy, blood running down his cheek. The sight of those helpless people made me push at the rock even harder.

Felix and I both wrapped our arms around the rock and tugged as hard as we could to free the poor people trapped inside. The rock shifted, dust floating down onto our hair, and with a final tug, the rubble came loose and tumbled down to the ground. The people inside cheered with what breath they had left and stumbled out onto the street, where the chaos had not diminished at all.

“Cassius...” Felix said slowly, raising his finger and pointing to something behind me. “I think I found the source of our problem.” I turned around to where he was pointing, and my heart skipped a beat. It was Vesuvius. It was smoking. Dark, ominous smoke slowly drifting up toward the heavens.

“No, that’s not possible.” I stammered.

“I mean, it would explain the landslides, and the earthquakes.”

“But Vesuvius has been dormant for… forever!” As I said that, another thought occurred to me that only confirmed what Felix had just said. My vegetables only just started dying these past few days, and I remember that once while in a carriage, I had read a tablet that explained warning signs of an earthquake. One of those signs was dying vegetation. Another tremor swept

through the city, stone cracking and rubble tumbling down buildings in its wake.

I shook off the thought and turned back to Felix. “Felix, you take the people and get them to safety, I’ll go see if there is anyone left in these buildings!” I shouted over the sound of destruction.

“Okay, but don’t do anything stupid without me!” Felix yelled back as he gathered the survivors from the wreckage.

“You know me.”

“Yeah, I do. That’s why I said it.” After that, Felix and the small crowd of people turned around and ran for the city borders.

I sighed heavily. Felix thought I was staying behind to find other survivors amidst the debris, but that wasn’t the only reason. I didn’t want to leave the city yet because, when I saw that little boy’s sad, desperate face, it reminded me of Aelia. She was in labor, and she said it herself, the baby would be coming any moment now.

I turned to face the gargantuan volcano which was smoking heavily now, clouding the sky with ash. With one final rumble, the mountain finally burst open, spewing forth hellfire. The entire city of Pompeii froze in place and starred as the sky turned black and burning lava propelled itself down the mountain, decimating everything in its path. Chunks of the mountain ablaze with magma soared through the air and onto the town below, exploding on impact. Once again, the city was filled with screams as the people who were left bolted for the outskirts of the city, shouting some despicable things as they tried to dodge the raining ash and the torrent of lava bombs.

At that moment, I might have been the only person left in the city who was not solely focused on getting the hell out of there. The only thing, or person I was thinking about was Aelia and how much I hoped that she was safe. I ran at a speed I haven’t run since I was 30 years old, dashing past the destruction and leaping over the gaping holes in the ground. Adrenaline was

flowing through my body like the water in the tunnels of an aqueduct. Even though the city was in ruins, I still knew every corner of it like the back of my hand. That’s the kind of sense of direction you get from living in the same city your entire life. The stores, restaurants and shrines I’ve walked past a thousand times without a second thought were now all destroyed. All the culture and community built over centuries full of life, gone. Burned to the ground, leaving nothing behind but ash and bodies.

I was so distracted, I almost didn’t notice a red hot chunk of rock the size of a carriage hurtling through the sky, heading straight towards me. I sprinted to my left and dove out of the way, scrambling to get behind a boulder. The magma ball crash landed onto the street where I was just standing, sending dust and lava in every direction. One small drop of lava splattered onto my leg, and although the drop was smaller than my fingernail, it felt like my whole body was being burned alive. My vision turned red as I howled and screamed, my hand fumbling around, trying to find something to swipe the lava off my leg. I grabbed a nearby plank of wood, and used it to scoop the lava off my calf, which now had a red hot scorch mark seared into it. I tossed the plank of wood aside, which had been burnt to a crisp as soon as the lava had touched it. I looked at my

leg, which was now a mess of dirt, blood and burnt flesh. I wiped some of the ash and tears off my face as I tried to stand up, groaning every inch of the way.

I finally got up on my feet, leaning against a boulder for support. I looked around me, at the burning pandemonium that hadn’t slowed down at all, the carnage that was spanning far and wide as far as the eye could see. I stood up straight, and gazed at the monstrous mountain that had seemed so friendly for as long as anyone could remember, but was now wreaking havoc across the once beautiful city that was Pompeii.

The mountain itself was now much smaller in size, as the peak had been obliterated by the explosion. Lava was now pouring down the mountainside, consuming trees, buildings and anything that got in its way. About 100 cubits further down the slope was my house, and the upsurge of lava wasn't getting any further away from it.

I had lived in that house ever since I had been in Pompeii, ever since I was 19 years old. I’ve had decades of memories in that house. Good, bad, happy, sad. The first time I got my dream job - being an architect, the first time I made a friend, the first time I took in Aelia. All those memories in that house, and now I watched, helpless, as the wave of lava devoured everything, the house I spent most of my days in, the garden where I spent hours trying to grow vegetables, the front door that I brought Aelia through when I first rescued her from the streets. All gone, disintegrated, leaving no evidence of what stood there just a few moments ago.

I gulped, like I had just realized what this disaster was capable of doing, what it was capable of taking away from me. I took a deep breath, and trekked on through the barren wasteland. The only thing that made me keep on limping through this hellish landscape was remembering that I had to get to Aelia. I had just lost my house, but I had not yet lost my home.

As I staggered past a marketplace which was now practically unrecognizable due to the thick layer of ash blanketing it, I heard a voice from under the remains of one of the restaurants.

“Cassius, help!” cried the voice. I ran over to the collapsed restaurant to try and find the voice. The voice sounded like someone I knew, but it was strained, probably from being flattened by rubble.

I went around the side of a boulder, and my heart stopped for a moment when I saw who the voice was coming from. It was Sirius. I barely recognized him with all that soot and dust masking his face.

“Come on, Cassius, get me out of here!” Sirius said again, this time more forcefully, as if he wasn’t the one stuck under a hundred and fifty libras of rubble.

If it were anyone else on the planet, I wouldn’t hesitate to help them. But it wasn’t anyone else. It was the man whose sole purpose seemed to be to make my life as hard as it possibly could be for the last 20 years. Clearly my hesitation and pure hatred showed on my face, because Sirius sighed and said: “Look, I know we’ve had our differences, but-”

“We’ve had our differences?! You got me fired from four architecture firms!” I exclaimed, standing over him.

“Well you kind of deserved it.”

“Seriously, I deserved it?”

“Yes, you deserved it! You-”

“Not to mention, you tried to frame me for stealing money, twice!”

“Well that’s what you did to me! Or did your grape-sized brain forget that too?”

“And you tried to set my house on fire twelve years ago!”

“That’s nothing compared to what you did to me.”

“All because of what? I told Augustus that you stole some money?! Because I got you fired from one business?”

Suddenly, Sirius’ expression turned rock solid, and his eyes seemed like they were piercing into my skull. “Some money?! That wasn’t just some money, you dirtbag.”

“Well then by all means, enlighten me. What could possibly be so important that you had to steal from your own business?”

“My mother was dying, that’s what!” He screamed, his body writhing under the mound of rocks. “My mother was sick, and I couldn’t afford to help her.”

I froze, my crazed expression slowly dissipating.

“Then, these people came to me, they said they were professional doctors from Rome, and they said they could fix my mother. But they said it would cost me.” Sirius revealed, his breath more labored with each word. “That’s why I stole the money from Augustus architecture. I didn’t have any other choice. I couldn’t lose my mother. I couldn’t lose another person I loved.”

With those words, I suddenly remembered when I first started working at Augustus, the person who was showing me around said that four years prior, Sirius’ wife had died, something about a heart sickness.

My chest started shaking as tears swelled up in my eyes. “I’m so sorry, Sirius, I didn’t know.” I told him.

“Yeah, well, I wouldn’t expect you to.” Sirius replied, staring at the ground as if he almost wanted to be buried under all the ash and stone. “You know what Cassius?” Sirius added, “I’ve tried to forgive you, for what you did to me. I’ve been trying to forgive you for 20 years, Cassius, but I can’t.”

I exhaled. “My mother died too, you know.” I said, barely believing I was telling Sirius this story. “26 years ago, she came to Pompeii to visit me. She usually never travelled, but I had convinced her to come. I wanted to show her this beautiful city, and the life I had built in it. I was supposed to pick her up at the city borders, but I was working late and I sent her a message

telling her to meet me at my house. She lived in a small town, so she wasn’t used to the shouting and bustling of a big city, and when she walked across a street, one of the carriage drivers wasn't paying attention, and…” I stopped there, not able to finish. But Sirius didn’t need me to. He understood.

“I’m sorry, Cassius.” Sirius said.

“I’m sorry too.” I replied, and then stumbled over to him, curling my arms under the stone and wood that was pinning him down, and pulled up as hard as I could. The debris creaked, giving Sirius a little more breathing room. I raised it up a little more, enough to get Sirius on his knees, and then he pushed up with his back, giving him enough space to step forward and let the rubble fall down behind him.

Sirius got up, and dusted himself off. Then we locked eyes, and after a few seconds, he reached out his hand to me. “I forgive you, Cassius.” He said. I gave him a weak smile, and shook his hand.

“I forgive you too, Sirius.”

The lava bombs had stopped, but that didn’t make the wreckage look any better.

“The entire city has been annihilated.” Sirius said with sad eyes.

“Yeah, it’s hell incarnate out there.” I stated, looking around at the burning flames and the ash enveloping the city. I breathed out, and told Sirius: “I need to get to Aelia. She’s having a baby right now, and she’s going to need help getting out of the city.”

“I’ll help you get there.” Sirius promised. I gave him a knowing look, and we both set out to go find my daughter.

After ten minutes of avoiding fire and crashing buildings, Sirius and I arrived on the top of a hill overlooking Aelia's neighborhood, and from that high vantage point I could see our sister city, Herculaneum, which had now been erased from the map and replaced with a field of ash and burning lava.

“Aelia’s house is just over there.” I disclosed, pointing down the hill.

“Well, what are we waiting for?” Sirius returned, and started to jog down the hill. I followed suit, and the whole way there I couldn’t help but wonder if the baby had been born yet, and some darker part of my brain was wondering if Aelia was even still alive. I prayed to the gods with everything that I had that she was.

We ran down the street that her house is on, or was on I should say. This used to be one of the nicest neighborhoods in all of Pompeii, but now it looks like the rest of the city. A burning hot mess of extinction.

Three years ago, Aelia married a celebrated centurion in the Roman legion named Aurelius, and a few days ago, he had left for an assignment in Rome, luckily avoiding this abhorrent disaster. I stopped Sirius in his tracks as we arrived at Aelia’s house, and I gulped. The entire front entryway had caved in, but I convinced myself that she was okay.

“How are we going to get in?” Sirius asked me. I looked around the house, and noticed a gaping hole in the side of the house, a little more than three cubits off the ground.

“Give me a lift.” I told Sirius. He grabbed my foot, which was caked with ash, and he lifted me enough for me to climb onto the opening. I grasped his wrist and pulled him up to me. We both slipped through the gap in the wall and into the foyer, which was in ruins.

“Aelia!” I shouted out. “Are you here? Aelia!”

“Hey Cassius, I think she might be in here.” Sirius yelled. I dashed over to him, and sure enough, he had found a half-crushed doorway leading to another room. We both raced through the room, and I saw a few stools and towels in the middle of the room.

“Well, if she was having a baby, it was in this room.” Sirius analyzed.

I scanned the room, then I saw Aelia. She was huddled in the corner, her back facing the room.

“Aelia!” I called out, rushing over to her.

“D-dad?” Aelia murmured, reminding me of when she was a little girl. She slowly turned around and saw me. “Dad!” She exclaimed. I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her close.

“Are you okay? Are you hurt?” I asked, cupping her disheveled face in my hands.

“Dad, I’m fine.” Aelia smiled, looking down into her arms. I looked down too, and saw something, something wonderful in the midst of all this fear and death.

It was my grandson.

He had Aelia’s beautiful blue eyes, and a small tuft of brown hair on his head. The grin on my face was one that was long overdue, one that hadn’t been there for years.

“Is it a boy?” I asked. Aelia nodded, her smile matching mine.

“He’s beautiful.” Sirius said from behind me. As soon as Aelia saw him she backed away, probably because of all the stories I’d told her about him and the few times she had met him.

“Aelia, it’s okay.” I comforted her. “What happened? Where are the people who are supposed to deliver the baby?”

“They all ran away when the volcano erupted, before the baby came out.” Aelia explained, holding the baby close to her body.

“I’m so sorry.” I said, hugging her again. Then I looked at her again and asked: “What's his name?”

“Magnus.” She responded, her smile widening, like just talking about the baby brought a smile to her face.

“Magnus. I like it.” I whispered, putting my hand on the baby’s head.

“I know this is a special moment, but maybe we should think about getting out of here.” Sirius suggested.

“He’s right.” I told Aelia. “ We should get going.”

“Okay.” Aelia said, and the three of us went back the way we came in. Before we could get to the doorway however, there was another earth-shaking rumble. We all lost our balance, but I managed to catch Aelia before she fell down.

“Not again.” I said under my breath.

Abruptly, the top half of the wall to our right collapsed, revealing mount Vesuvius behind it as well as the hellscape that it had turned Pompeii into. The mountain was smoking again, giving me a sense of déjá vu.

“No, no, no…” I started as the ground shook harder and harder, climaxing until the mountain began to boil. “Everybody get back!” shouted as the top of the mountain exploded, releasing an onslaught of lava and rock through the air once again. A chunk of lava smashed into the entrance of the house, and part of the ceiling was melted away. The three of us backed away to avoid the dripping lava, backing up against the opposite wall.

“We’re trapped.” Sirius remarked, and although I knew he was right, I still was scanning the room for a way out. Another part of the ceiling collapsed and with it more lava slowly flowing into the room, which had now been cracked open like an egg. Clearly Magnus sensed something was wrong, because he started crying and wailing. “Shh, shh.” Aelia whispered, trying to calm him down.

“What are we going to do?” She asked with a scared look on her face.

“I don’t know if there is much we can do.” Sirius answered.

“That’s not good.” I commented all of a sudden as I peered through a crack in the wall behind us. Aelia and Sirius both looked through it too, at the colossal wave of smoke, lava and rock hurtling down mount Vesuvius at an unimaginable speed.

“That thing is going to wipe out the whole city…” Sirius told us.

“...and us along with it.” I said, finishing his sentence for him.

As the ravaging outbreak of destruction plunged down the mountain, Sirius and I shared a look of understanding, acknowledging that we were both going to die. Aelia was staring down at her baby boy, most likely thinking that it was so unfair, for a child to be brought into this world only to be taken away from it so soon after.

I let loose one last sigh, the sigh of a man accepting his end.

Certain death came charging at us at full speed, and Aelia turned and said to me: “Whatever

happens, I love you.”

I smiled and said back: “I love y-”