Hero of Rome

Marius dunks Sulla into the murky waters, but Sulla resurfaces with a grin, only to pull Marius down with him. Neither of them seems to realize they're destined for this chokehold forever.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Leo said, folding his arms. Next to him, looking rather confused, was Michael.

I couldn’t believe it. Leo looked exactly the same. Short cropped hair, darker tan from being a Californian. Michael wore longer, curlier hair and looked Italian like me. The only thing different about them now was they lacked their Roman armor that they had in the labyrinth when our group first met them. Leo was the only one wearing a subligaculum. Michael seemed not to care about his nudity. Instead, he had a distant stare as he looked at us.

“Who is that?” Michael said, scrunching his eyes in confusion.

“Michael, go get another drink from the river and I’ll tell you.”

“Okie-doke,” he said, retreating to do as he was told.

I had my golden oar ready to attack him, for the seething hatred coming from his glare proved he was not going to be friendly. His anger only abided when he sneered, laughing darkly to himself as he looked between me and the golden Camilla before me.

“I guess there is such a thing as justice.”

My rage had not abided. In fact, it only inflamed from Leo’s words. I planted one foot onto the muddy bank in preparation to kill him again. Leo immediately unfolded his arms and held them up, surrendering.

“You really going to kill me again? Like that’s going to help with anything?”

I was so angry that I found it impossible to respond.

“What’s with the chick, anyway? Did you turn her to gold or something?”

“It was that fool over there,” I said, pointing to King Midas with my golden oar. “And I am not in the mood to deal with you.”

“Neither are we, pal! Too late though, since we’re all dead. This stupid second life just had to be ruined because of you. You are freakin’ nuts, man. Is that how you treat everyone you meet? Get them all comfortable with you, and if someone looks interested in one of your girlfriends, wham instant betrayal?”

I shook my head. “That’s not why—”

“Then why did you murder us in our sleep? What kind of person does that?”

I sighed, lowering my oar. “You won’t believe it, and it won’t undo what I did, but I had a dream that Michael was prompted to kill us by the System. He accepted the offer to destroy us and take Camilla as his bride.”

Leo scoffed, totally unconvinced. “Wow. That’s all it took for murder, huh?”

“Look, I know I will never be able to redeem that. I am sorry about killing you both. We spared Gabriella after she ran away from us. I haven’t seen her here so I assume she’s still alive. And if it helps, I was betrayed too, which is why I’m here.”

A dark smile spread across his face. “Good.”

“Anyway, Camilla and I were going towards Tartarus—”

“Also good.”

“—but King Midas turned her to gold.” Leo looked like he was about to say good again, but this time he paused, looking at my enraged face. “I don’t know what to do now.”

“Who are you?” Micahel said, walking up to us as he returned. The question was directed to Leo, but he also gave me a confused look.

Leo contemplated a response for a couple seconds. “I am Leo, we’ve met before. This is Maximus. He’s going to help you restore your memories.”

“I am?” I said while Micahel looked at me with the same amount of confusion I had.

“I’ll tell you how to bring Camilla back if you promise to do so,” Leo said, still glaring at me. “And you can redeem yourself in the process.”

I took one look at Camilla, who was very still and beautiful before me. She deserved to live, to be free from her golden prison.

“Anything,” I whispered.

“Good. Come, bring the statue up to the bank.”

With that, Leo guided Michael back to the river on the other side of the muddy island.

I made sure to pull the boat up as much as I could onto the bank. To prevent it from drifting away, I used King Midas’s golden body as an anchor, having his face planted to the mud while his feet hooked onto the boat. A fitting end for him. Carefully, I carried Camilla onto the shore, following Michael and Leo over the mound. On the other side, all along the bank near the dark and glassy river, lay dozens of souls. Each of them looked like they belonged in a psych ward. They had the same creepy and blank expression that Michael had. None of them bothered to look at me as I carried Camilla with me.

“Why are they all like that?” I said as Leo and Michael stopped at the river.

“This is the River Lethe,” he said, pointing to the stream. “It wipes your memory. Michael, the one you murdered, couldn’t bear to live in his mind anymore and so he erased his memories.”

Michael looked at me with sudden hatred. “You… murdered me?”

Before he could react, Leo shoved him into the river. Michael floundered around for a second and shot back to his feet.

“Where am I?” he said, wiped of memory again.

“See?” Leo said. “Anyway, this river not only wipes you clean, but it also gets rid of diseases, maladies, curses, and so on. If you dunk your girlfriend in it, she’ll be good as new.”

Hope that sprang within me immediately wilted at the consequences for healing her. “Only she won’t have any memory,” I said.

“Precisely. Unless, you retrieve the Tears of Mnemosyne.”

I frowned. “What’s that?”

“Mnemosyne is the goddess of memory. After I about lost my mind being the only sane one here, the System tempted me with an offer that I could refuse. Her tears are way down at the bottom of this river here, kept in a nice little bottle. I know which side of the island it’s by, and if you can get it, you can restore hers and Michael’s memories.”

“Won’t I lose mine in the process?”

“Ah, you’re not just a dumb murderer after all! Yes, that’s why I haven’t tried it. It’s almost guaranteed that you will lose all of your memories if you reach it, along with your whole reason for swimming down there in the first place. It’s more likely you’ll just forget what you’re doing and turn back, leaving us back to where we started and making you a whole lot dumber.”

Leo shook his head, kicking some mud into the river. “Not that it matters, anyway. Thanks to you, Roman, nothing matters anymore. I was planning on diving in before you arrived.”

I couldn’t blame him. If I had been murdered, awoken in the Underworld, only to be damned to a lonely island of brainless souls, I would consider taking a swim. It would ease the pain gnawing at the heart for failing in life. I could see it, the shadow of failure hanging over him.

I lowered Camilla onto the island. She felt heavier in my arms given what I would have to achieve to save her. I looked at her petrified, lovely face. She did not deserve this. I would not let her die.

Only one question burned in me. Was Leo lying? How could I trust him if he harbored this much hate for me for killing him? This whole thing about a memory restorer could be completely fabricated just to get me to wipe my mind out. And there was no way I could test it. It wasn’t like I could see much into the future anymore. Looking down, all I could see was my ghostly reflection in the dark waters.

There was only one way to see if any of what he said was true.

I brought myself as close as possible to the quiet stream, being careful not to touch it or slip, all while keeping an eye on Leo just in case he decided to shove me in. I made sure to hold onto the oar so that if Leo betrayed me, there was no way he was leaving. I assumed that’s why he was helping me in the first place. The boat would be his only ticket out of here.

Taking Camilla’s frozen hand, I dipped it in the water. Almost immediately the gold washed away and her fleshy hand flopped loose in mine.

Leo told the truth.

I about screamed when Camilla’s hand suddenly seized my wrist. She was alive, very much so. From how hard she squeezed, she seemed to be afraid, desperate to be free.

“Almost there, Camilla,” I whispered, though I doubted she could hear me. I lowered her legs and abs into the water first, the water melting all of the gold away. Her legs started to thrash, making it difficult when I had to turn her around to dunk her head. The moment her golden, stoic face dunked underneath the stream, she shot right back up.

Camilla gasped for air, coughing out water as she struggled to her feet. She looked at me with fear, like I was only a stranger, pushing me away as she got up from the ground.

“What’s going on?” she said, looking around sporadically, eyeing everyone with distrust.

“Camilla, it’s me, Maximus,” I said, tossing my golden oar aside and holding my hands up in a gesture of peace. Leo’s eyes lingered on the oar. The joy I felt in seeing her alive and well was almost too much to comprehend. I had cheated death. “You just lost your memories in that river there. Everything’s going to be fine. I’m going to help you remember.”

Camilla backed away, looking back and forth between Leo and me. “No… no no no! I can’t remember a single thing.” Tears flowed from her eyes as she panicked. Camilla’s eyes flickered to the golden oar and then the boat nearby.

“No!” Leo yelled, lunging for the oar at the exact same time as Camilla. Leo moved too slow. Camilla snatched the oar and swung it up into Leo’s chin. The uppercut sent the Californian flying to the River Lethe as he screamed in despair. Submerging into the water silenced his cries. Leo’s head popped up a few seconds later, sharing the same clueless look that Michael had, who stood nearby watching.

My only lead to finding the cure had vanished with his memories.

I took advantage of the brief second that Camilla watched Leo crash into the river by ramming my shoulder into hers and yanking the oar from her hand. Camilla was caught off guard. My shoulder check slammed her so hard that she fell back into the river.

I took off running in the other direction to get away from the confused Leo, Michael, and now Camilla. The other lost souls looked at me with surprise, that I had any life or purpose to my steps. It was all I could do not to collapse. When I reached the end of the little strip of land, I crumbled to my knees.

There was no way of finding the tears now. Leo stumbled around with Michael and Camilla, forgetting me completely. It was all over.

Bitter tears chilled my face as I tried to suppress them.

“System,” I began, not knowing what else to do, “I need to know where those tears are.” I received no response for several seconds. “System, I know you can hear me. Please, tell me where to look. I’ll… I’ll do anything you ask, give up anything. Please, please help me. She deserves to live.”

System Message: “You’re the one who is defying death, not me. I’m sure you can figure it out.”

I scoffed, wishing to swing my oar at its face if it had one. My depression became a roaring rage at his dismissal.“It’s because you have nothing to gain from me, isn’t it? It’s all about you, right?”

I tuned out whatever he said to me because I already knew. I would do this myself. If I could save Camilla from a golden death, I could save her memories, too. Death would be defeated. Even if it cost me my memories, who I was, or if it killed me. Camilla, just like Cleopatra, deserved to live.

Walking along the riverbank, I stopped every few seconds to use my Historical Insight. Even though I could only see one second into the futures, it was enough to show me if there was anything glowing within my grasp.

As I was about to give up, I stumbled upon a bright, burning light towards the end of the strip of land. I used Historical Insight again just to make sure.

There you are, I thought, hope returning to my bones again. The vial, though entrenched in the mud at a great distance, was in sight. All I had to do was reach it before my memory disappeared. Hopefully I would at least have the sense to hold onto it and swim back to the surface.

Only one way to find out.

Jamming the oar into the ground, I took a deep breath and plunged into the icy Lethe River.