Life or Death? That is the Question ~by Tomi

"Life or Death? That is The Question."

As the sun began to warm the brisk morning air, the city people could feel the tension between every gladiator; this had not happened for at least one hundred and fifty years. This was no ordinary day. Zeavsulo would fight his brother in a battle to the death. As Zeavsulo put his cloths around his calves, he felt anxious and scared. He cried, letting the hot tears roll down his face and fall down to the dirt below him. As he put on his shoulder plate, his brother Kivris walked in wearing his own armor. "Do not worry about the coming battle, the outcome will be horrid for both of us. There will be no winner." They embraced knowing it would be their last time together. Zeavsulo was forced to fight his brother because of the death of an innocent citizen. He was wrongly accused of killing the man. He was a witness, but he was not the killer.

The gladiators were huddled in corners, the air in the room wreaked of tobacco. The word spread like the Plague of Black Death.
"Brothers have to fight each other in a fight to the death. Which one will die?" It was all people could talk about.
A few gladiators that were by the commons door heard a voice that seemed to come from just around the corner "This way, NOW! You two, don't you even try to escape from me. I am a guard, if you escape I will be the one who is in trouble, serious trouble." Two great bangs were heard just seconds after he stopped speaking to the two men. When the door opened, two men were pushed through the threshold, their hands cuffed together. As the guard turned them around, someone gasped and yelled out, "It's Zeavsulo and Kivris, poor old chaps." When everyone realized who the brothers were, they bowed their heads in honor.


The battle began. Their swords clashed, sending sparks out like fireworks. In the gladiator world, Kivris was a Secutor, also called the "chaser". Zeavsulo was a Retarius and more mobile, but he was more vulnerable to serious wounds. The crowd was wild, wine sloshing out of their goblets, spanikopita whizzing through the air as plentiful as a migration of birds on a cold fall day.

Zeavsulo swung, but Kivris blocked the blow. Zeavsulo swung again; Kivris wasn't as fast as the last time. His head was sliced off cleanly enough that his neck stub was not bleeding, and his head was sitting in the dirt as if he was buried in the sand. The Colosseum, which seconds earlier was buzzing with excitement and entertainment, was now quiet as a field mouse hiding from a hawk. In one stroke, Kivris was a headless gladiator. The sickening feeling in Zeavsulos' stomach grew into a death wish. That was the last time he saw his brother.

The following night, Zeavsulo had a very peculiar dream indeed. He climbed onto his cot. As he looked up, he fell back on to the coarse ground, a vivid hallucination was hovering just three feet away from Zeavsulo. The figure was covered by a cloak, it's face was darkened by shadows.
The figure moved closer,
"W-w-who a-are y--y-you?" Zeavsulo whispered in a coarse voice. "W-w-what d-do y-you want f-from m-me?"
The second the vision touched Zeavsulos foot, the hood flipped back revealing his brother. The ghost of Kivris let out a tremendous scream and faded into nothingness.
Then the dream segued into a battle. The sound of the clashing swords was deafening. Zeavsulo's heart skipped a beat, and he knew one little move would cost him greatly. He took his chances; one move to the left, one to the right, and a blow to finish his opponent off. However, he missed a valuable step and fell to the ground. Then a gut-wrenching pain flew through his leg. The next thing he knew, the gladius was at his neck...


Zeavsulo woke with a start; and he noticed that his hands were clenched and his heart was beating wildly. The blanket was wrapped around him tightly; he could not breathe. He pulled himself out of the blanket cocoon, easing his breathing. The loss of his brother turned him into cut twine. He knew that once twine was cut, you can never fully put the two parts back together.

One week later, the games began. Out in the back of the Colosseum, the barracks were built to house the new slaves who had qualified as gladiators. The date was April 25, 245 B.C, but Zeavsulo was oblivious to the date or the festivities since his brother's death. Zeavsulo was walking sullenly to his tent. As he walked through the many rows of tents he heard someone mumbling and laughing insanely. Why is he talking to himself? Or...is he... insane? Zeavsulo wondered. He looked in to find the sourse of the noise.

The candle cast a shadow on the wall of the barrack creating a ghostly twin of Junged. Junged was Zeavsulo's cousin. Junged had became a gladiator without Zeavsulo's knowing. Junged slowly un-sheathed his sword, bringing it up to his neck. He pulled back the sword and sliced his own neck like butter. Junged's depression began after his wife was killed before him. It grew as he was brutally dragged off to the Collosseum to be a gladiator. It finally got to a point where it was like a dam too weak and cracked, spilling all of the contents on the city below it. In the last moments of his life, he fell over, knocking the candle over on his desk. Zeavsulo heard the groan of a dying man and ran from the tent.
The tent was on fire. A guard heard a noise and walked around the corner and saw the tent where Junged had died engulfed in flame. Zeavsulo was standing in front of it stunned. He looked like a guilty man.
The guard ran to get him. When he grabbed Zeavsulo, he called for help.
"Someone, someone help me! Murder. Murder!" He told of finding Zeavsulo in front of the tent, half of it was burnt, the other half holding a corpse with singed hair. He slowly walked forward, then he saw a slice mark on his neck, blood spattered on his front.
"I know you did this, you little worm, you can't wriggle out of this one! Heh, heh, heh."
Zeavsulo vomited on the ground before himself when it dawned on him that he was being accused of the murder of his cousin. He heard footsteps behind him coming closer, he looked back, and he saw the Emperor was walking his way with three other guards.
"Get over here boy!" yelled the Emperor, "You will be dealt with very inhumanely if you don't cooperate, but if you do, we will be easier on you."



Where am i? Why is it so dark? Why are they doing this to me?
A rough echoing voice rumbled, "We are keeping you here until further notice."
"Who is we?" No answer.

A blinding light flashed into the giant iron room. Zeavsulo looked down at his wrists, they were chained together, the metal on the cuffs was slowly but effectively cutting into his skin. A large, gruff man walked toward him, grabbed his cuffs and pulled him up to his feet. "Where are we going?" asked
Zeavsulo.
"You are fighting another gladiator today," the man grumbled. The rest Zeavsulo could not hear because he was mumbling, "I hope you don't get as lucky this time."

The crowd was roaring as the two gladiators stepped upon the blood coated dirt. The Emperor yelled, "LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!!!" The two gladiators were locked in combat. In a matter of five minutes Zeavsulo was pinned down, at the opponents mercy. Zeavsulo and the other gladiator both looked at the Emperor, the Emperor gave him a thumbs up. Just as the opponent brought his gladius up, Zeavsulo heard a suffocated moan. Zeavsulo looked up and saw an arrow through the mans chest. Zeavsulo looked up into the crowd to see anyone who could be the culprit, then he saw a figure in a black cloak running down the aisles towards the exit.
"GET HIM" the Emperor yelled. But it was too late, the man had escaped. In all the chaos, Zeavsulo found out a way to escape the Colosseum without being noticed. He ran as fast as his legs could carry him searching for a place to hide, a barn, a shed, anywhere. After what seemed to be an hour, he finally found an old abandoned shack. Zeavsulo walked in, then was startled by a voice.
"Who are you, and what do you want from me?"
"I almost got killed in the gladiator arena, but I was saved by someone in a black cloak. He shot the other gladiator." Zeavsulo replied as he turned around to look for the owner of the voice. When the man saw Zeavsulos face he gasped and spoke
"You, you are the gladiator I saved in the stupid gladiator games?" As he called out the revealing sentence, he jumped out of the loft just above Zeavsulo.
"You were the man in the black cloak?" Zeavsulo questioned. "What is your name?"
"My name is Midnock. I didn't want you to die."
"But why? Did you know that I had to kill my brother?" yelled Zeavsulo
"Yes I did."replied Midnock
"I was depressed, I wanted to die right then and there," replied the tormented Zeavsulo before falling into a deep sleep.
One week later, Zeavsulo and Midnock were quite at home together, not fighting, not arguing. Zeavsulo was getting over his depression little by little. The two were in the middle of an intense conversation about the Emperors past and present when there was a tremendous bang and a yell.
"THERE THEY ARE!!" the roman soldiers yelled out."GET THEM!!"
Zeavsulo and Midnock were running around the room in a panic. Zeavsulo was tackled, but punched the soldier in the nose and heard a scream. Target hit. Zeavsulo heard Midnock yelling his name.
"Zeavsulo! Zeavsulo help!" As Zeavsulo ran to find Midnock, he felt great pressure on his hands and looked back to see a soldier putting cuffs on his hands. Oh crap, not these again. The next thing Zeavsulo knew was together with Midnock again. They were moving and the ride was really bumpy. He saw that he was in a cage. "I think we are going to the Emperor."

After a short time they arrived in front of the Emperor. "Have you decided what you are goi..."
The Emperor interupted the guard half way between his sentence. "Yes I have. To the guillotine for both of them." NO, NO, NO! "You can't do this to me!" Zeavsulo wailed. They were dragged to the dungeons where the guillotines were located. They had their heads fitted to the hole. "STOP! NO PLEASE!" yelled Midnock and Zeavsulo in a harmony. The blade was pulled up, no mercy. Then dropped. Zeavsulo was now in his happy place, right next to Midnock, his only true friend.
By: Tomi