Rome's End

I woke up feeling as great as ever. It felt like what had happened that day was just a dream and for all I cared, it was. That is until I decided to open my eyes and look around. I was still in Rome. I was still held captive in a room.

With trying to wrap my head around this nightmare, I tried to push myself so I was sitting up. Looking down at my legs, there was a long string of rope with a note on it.

‘Thought this could help you escape somehow. Use your imagination.’

It didn’t say who it was from or anything else for that matter, but I would just have to accept the gift and be smooth making sure no one could find it but me. I looked out the window to see that it was dark out. The stars were shining brighter than I had ever seen them.

There was only one thing on my mind, Max. The best part of thinking of him was knowing that he was just outside that door. I knew that he was just a guard, but he was my guard. He told me he would protect me and as long as the Doctor wasn’t here, I trusted him.

I put my feet on the cold ground and walked over to the door and opened it very slowly. Through the little slit in the door, I saw him. He frowned, moved only his eyes to the door, and turned around slowly and a smile arose on his face.

“Good morning Max. What time is it?”

He began to laugh lightly. “Good morning? You have barely been asleep for six hours!” He stopped talking and just looked me in the eyes. “Although it’s not morning, I could still give you a kiss.”

He was smooth but I wasn’t going to fall for it. Just thinking about him going out to the bars when he’s off of work and picking up girls made me feel sick.

“I don’t think so Max.” I fixed my dress and frowned at him.

He leaned against the wall and folded his arms to his chest. “What happened to you? Earlier you were really warming up to me. Possibly falling in love may I say?”

I smacked his arms back down to his side as if to say that I was much higher in status than him. “I was tired and wasn’t thinking straight. To tell you the truth, I didn’t mean a word I said to you.”

“Oh really? A lot of girls have lied to me before and I’ve read every one of them. Don’t play with me.”

I backed away. “Maybe I lie to you because I don’t want to hurt your feelings. Underneath all that muscle and. . . and skin, you’re just soft like Arnold Shwartzanager.” I swept my bangs to the side in my pride.

He lifted an eyebrow. “Who?”

“Exactly.” I smiled at him and touched his hair. He took my wrist in his hand and kissed it softly. I pulled away, coughing.

He looked down at the ground. “Sorry, I thought you wanted me to.”

“No, I didn’t.”

Caecilius walked up to the two of us and looked at me from head to toe. “What are you doing talking to the guard?”

I began to flip my curls with a smile on my face. “Caecilius! Can I talk to you for a minute, alone?” I looked at Max, who looked horrified that there was a chance I would talk to Caecilius about what he had just done. I walked into the room feeling the Emperor following me.

Once we were both in the room, I closed the door. “I’m sorry about how I’ve been acting.”

He looked deep into my eyes. “You have been very naughty and something like that should not go unpunished.” He walked over to the window and looked out.

“Then why don’t you just kill me. You would regain your false sense of power and you wouldn’t have to deal with me for any longer.”

“You’re foolish, Victoria. I’m going to train you like a dog. As they say, a trained dog is a good dog.”

I walked over to him. “Excuse me but did you just refer me to a dog?”

“Does it cause you any harm?”

The rope was hanging just out of the curtain. My eyes popped out but I tried to stay as calm as I could. I rubbed his cheek with my left hand, as I moved the rope with the other. It just fell to the floor loudly.

“What was that?” He appeared to be getting upset.

“Hear what?”

He tried to get a glimpse behind me.

“You’re right. I have been naughty.” I didn’t want to but I had no choice. I pushed myself into Caecilius and gave him a kiss.

He intensified it with his tongue and pushed me onto the bed, holding my lower back as he did so. I squealed in surprise until he finally he let go of me. It didn’t help my fear at all when he took off his toga and tried to lift the bottom part of my dress to expose my legs, thighs, and beyond.

“Stop!” I pleaded to him.

It took him a moment to think about why I would lead him on and act like a tease just for him to get nothing.

He held his hand into my hair and began petting it. “Why? Why should I stop?”

“Because if you don’t, you will regret it.”

He laughed. “You’re cute when you reject me like that.”

Saying that one word helped a little. Instead of forcing me to play around in that way that he truly wished, all he asked me to do was lay on the bed keeping my arms together at the top of the bed. I did so in fear that he would change his mind. He lay on top of me and began sucking and licking on any piece of skin that was showing, my face, ears, neck, shoulders.

Pervert, weirdo.

I wanted to cry but I didn’t want to show him any sign of weakness. He was physically stronger than me and that was my risk. I was psychologically strong. Not even my smarts could get me out of this kind of situation. I had learned over time that when it comes to sexual tendencies, the man will always try to get what he wants.

It took Caecilius half an hour before he was done with me. I was in pain from the intensity. The suction between his lips on my skin.

“It’s a shame you don’t want more. Oh but I can very well guarantee it. You will soon and when that time comes, you will see me through different eyes. Respect.” He put his toga back on and began walking out the door.

I was holding onto my neck. “I wouldn’t bet on it if I were you, because that’s the one thing I do have right about now. I have respect for my wellbeing. Respect for people who aren’t as fortunate as you or me.”

“Pity you have such sincerity to those who haven’t done anything for you.”

I stood up beside the bed. “When you give to the people, the people will give back. Not to mention, that’s not even the reason why I do it.”

He only sighed and made a disgusted face at me. “You’re weak. Sympathy makes me sick just as you are doing to me.”

“Will you ever let me go? If I make you sick then you should free me.”

“Never, not until your body sags and your faces becomes morphed with a snail.” It was quite clear that he didn’t like the thought of that. “Even then, I suppose I’d make you live the rest of your days in prison.” He slammed the door behind him.

How depressing it was to think that I could be a prisoner for the rest of my life and that I would look like a snail. I collapsed onto the ground against the bed so I wouldn’t even be able to see the door. Tears fell from my eyes like a waterfall and I started to sound like Moaning Myrtle from Harry Potter.

“Victoria! Victoria!” Max came running over to me with his eyes wide open. He sat on the ground with me. He looked worried for me. “What did he do to you?”

I wiped my tears with my hand. “I don’t want to look like a snail!” Since I couldn’t stop sniffing, I buried my head in my dress.

Max’s laugh was dying to get out as he was talking to me. “Is that why you’re crying?” He grabbed a cloth and handed it to me, watching me as I blew my nose into it.

I nodded up and down and quickly decided to tell him the truth. I shook my head back and forth. “No, he touched me.”

His faint smile changed nippily into anger. He pounded his hand onto the floor. “Why didn’t you scream for me? I would have killed him with my bare two fists.”

“It’s not worth it Max. He would have you killed in a second’s time.”

“It would have been all worth it. I’m sick of seeing him torture women. Someone needs to teach him what chivalry is.”

I soon stopped crying. “You better leave. I want some time alone, plus I’m pretty tired.” I watched him stand up and leave. He didn’t take his eyes off of me. “Goodnight Maximilian.”

“Goodnight princess.”

As soon as he did leave, I stood up and decided to take the rope to some good use. I tied it to the bed’s leg and tied another hole at the other end and put it around my head. As I tightened it, I wondered what I was doing. It didn’t really matter what I was thinking though because I was going to follow through.

I walked to the window and opened it, stood up on the ledge and looked out. I began to lightly cry. When I said I wanted to be free, I didn’t mean it in this way, but if it meant being free from Roman Emperor, Caecilius, I would do it.

No matter what it took, I wouldn’t live with knowing what he had done to me or what he potentially could do to me in the future. This was just my second night. I couldn’t make it another.

Thinking about death, I thought of the Doctor. I wondered if he needed me just as much as I needed him right now. It worried me to think that maybe he was in danger. Maybe this is why he had people like me. We help him make the right decision. We give him a reason to fight. He could rely on me and how would he rely on me if I was dead?

Just as I was about to step back into the room, Max stormed in screaming my name again and running over to me. As soon as he made it to me, I fell back into his arms as he fell onto the ground, nearly crying.

“Victoria, what were you thinking?” He pulled the rope off my neck and threw it towards the door. He cradled me in his arms like a mother does to her baby and put his forehead to mine.

I closed my eyes. “I was thinking that maybe everything would be better for everyone if I had never come here.”

“This is your destiny, Victoria. You, I know it’s you who will change Rome into a better place for men, women, and children. You’re strong. I saw it from the first moment I saw you.” His breathing was hard. “The way you rejected Caecilius when no one else would.”

I held my hand to his cheek. “How did you know?”

“I promised you I would never let anything happen to you. Remember? And didn’t I tell you that I can read through lies?”

“I changed my mind. There’s too much to live for to die because of him. I just have to get out of here! I’ve got to leave this place.”

Max stood up and placed me on the bed just as he had done earlier in the morning. “I can see it in your eyes Victoria. You are meant to be here.”

Seeing that he was still standing, I moved over and motioned for him to lie down but he didn’t. All he did was smile.

“Max, why do you smile?”

“It’s not right to share a bed with a woman who is not yours.”

He made me lose my seriousness when he said that. “Come, we’re not doing anything. Just talking. There’s no harm. Your feet must be tired from standing all day and night.”

I had made him fall into my charm when he agreed to lie down for a while.

“I’ve got to leave, Max. I want to see Rome.”

“You’ve never seen Rome before?”

I shook my head. “Wasn’t able to. I got here and I was held captive.”

“Really Victoria, I wish for you not to leave.”

“I have to. I don’t belong here.”

He looked at me in sadness. “If you’re going to leave, then I’m coming with you.” It was hard for him to seem so upset when he was with me.

I stood up and walked to the door.

Max stood up. “Where are you going?”

I opened my eyes wide at him and smiled.

“Now? You honestly want to leave now? Do you know what time it is?”

“So what? Why start and adventure tomorrow when you can live for life today?” I opened the door but Maximilian tied the rope around the bed two more times.

He then took the rope and threw it out the window. “I hope you know that you tied the rope all wrong.”

There was nothing for me to respond back to him.

He then stepped up to the windowsill, grabbed onto the rope and jumped like it was nothing to worry about. He was crazy. Absolutely insane, and he could have seriously injured himself.