Forum Romanum
by Lara
May 1999
This is a piece of amateur fiction and is not intended to infringe on
the rights of Anne Rice or her publishers.
Thanks to my sister Lis, who beta read this
despite the piles of test papers she had to correct.
Dedicated to Sabine, my soulmate since we met in
high school. Thank you for all the Latin homeworks!
Rome. The Eternal City. A vast jungle of streets and houses, and
lost in the middle of all that the ruins of a people that had been the
greatest of its time. Now the open space called Forum Romanum, that
shadow of the beauty it had shown before, was tourist attraction,
graveyard and hunting ground at the same time. The stones that had
formed temples built to the glory of the gods were now nothing more than
the scattered parts of something that would never return.
She sat on steps that led nowhere, in front of the ruin that had once
been Minerva's sanctuary, and watched the last visitors leave. They were
typical tourists, with cameras and giant maps, who had only come here
because it was considered a duty to see as many devastated, ruined
places as possible. They would spend the rest of the evening in one of
the more entertaining places. She had been there too, but felt strange,
misplaced. Clubs and bars were something that she did neither understand
nor like. Too loud, too crammed. The music hurt her ears, the smoke of
the cigarettes burned in her eyes. She wondered what made these places
so attractive to mortals, but then mortals could be so strange. In
groups they wandered to the Piazza Navona to drink Grappa and sat on the
Spanish steps in crowds, chatting, drawn to the locations like the moths
to the flame. Sometimes, when she couldn't find a victim anywhere else,
she joined them; a blonde always attracted admirers there who were
willing to follow her in a dark alley. They expected something else from
her than death, though.
Being mortal was something she had never missed in two hundred years,
other than her son. But even he had realized that it wasn't the glorious
existence it seemed to be, and had turned his back on it. And then he
had done another foolish thing when he had made another fledgling, who
had always resented the Gift and who had finally been forced to take it.
During the first years she had feared that he would go the way of so
many who couldn't come to terms with their new life. Immortality was
hard to deal with if taken out of free will, and nearly impossible to
cope with if it was given without consent. But this one had come to like
it, and had even found a duty in collecting knowledge as he had done all
his life for his order. Mortal habits were hard to shake off.
The thirst raged in her, it was not as violent as it had been during
her time as a fledgling, but strong enough. Soon the first creatures of
the night, as she called them, the drug dealers, whores and little
criminals, would come and claim the Forum as their territory for the
dark hours, dancing on the stage that presented itself in the very heart
of the city as they had done countless years before. And she would pick
her victim among them, who weren't missed and weren't mourned, always
the lonely, silent predator.
She had been sleeping in the cool ground that night, as she did most
of the time. Hotels were for other people, for those who lived and
functioned in the artificial world they had created. But she was a child
of another century, a time when such simple things as ballpens and
zippers had been unthinkable. The surface changed rapidly, but the earth
beneath was still the same. To sleep there gave her comfort and made her
feel at home, and she did it as often as possible. Maybe that was the
reason why she had never gone underground like so many of the
others.
Scanning, she found that the first participants of the never-ending
dance had already arrived and were hurrying through the deserted ruins.
She stood up in one fluid movement, graceful like a cat, and followed
them silently, waiting for them to stop at their hiding place.
They were moving fast, as if haunted by a ghost. She could even feel
their fear to be discovered. They were thinking that the police were
following them, and hoped that they could escape them in the dead city
of the Forum. Well, maybe they could shake the police loose, but they
couldn't escape her. She scanned again and found that they were two of
the numerous little drug dealers. Nothing the community would miss.
Coming closer, she hid in the shadows as they did. She could already see
them, smelled the sweat and the blood. Their heartbeats were loud to
her, a delicate sound of sweet life, life that would stop soon. They
were hiding in the remains of the Basilica now, pressing their hot
bodies against the cold stone wall.
She stepped closer until she was within their reach. If the one on
the left had stretched his arm, he would have been able to touch her
face. One of them moved, causing some pebbles to roll over the remains
of the marble floor. The noise was clearly audible, and both froze,
listening if their pursuers had heard it. They would run away again now,
but she didn't want to wait any longer. She moved towards them, too fast
for their eyes to see. And collided with something that hadn't been
there a moment ago.
Stumbling, she fell on her knees and rolled on her back. Frantically
scanning her surroundings for a trace of danger, she cane to her feet in
an instant, backing up against the wall. She was ready to defend herself
against whatever could be threatening her.
A slim, tall figure emerged from the shadows, and in the dim
moonlight she could see who had interrupted her hunting. There was no
way mistaking the long brown hair that was flowing freely down the
other's back, the narrow waist and the pale, nearly white face with the
high cheekbones. Dressed casually in jeans and a shirt knotted below her
bosom, showing her navel, she looked stunning, a woman who truly
belonged into this time.
"It appears that we have the same taste regarding our hunting
grounds" Pandora said, smiling. "Forgive me for disturbing you, I didn't
know that anybody else is here besides me."
"Neither did I", she answered, brushing the dirt from her thighs and
arms. Raking her fingers through her tangled hair she hadn't brushed in
weeks, she quickly pulled some lose strands back into her braid. "It
seems that we both are too good at veiling our presence." In the corner
of her eye she caught a movement. One of the mortals was attempting to
sneak away. She smiled at Pandora. "There are two of them, enough for
both of us. Do you want to feed with me?" Pandora laughed quietly and
nodded.
"How could I possibly decline such an invitation?" Gabrielle nodded
and went after the fleeing one. In an instant she had caught him in a
tight embrace, her mouth at his throat, finding the artery immediately
with the practice of centuries. He tried to fight her, but gave up when
the blood loss made him swoon. As soon as she felt his heart beat stop,
she drew back and dropped the body to the ground, quickly digging a hole
to cover up the kill. In the middle of all these ruins nobody would
wonder too much about another corpse. Everybody knew that the Forum was
often used as a graveyard by criminals, nobody questioned the origins or
the age of the human remnants that were found sometimes during
excavations. Pandora, who had already hid her victim in the soft, damp
earth, came and helped her to cover the corpse with earth and the broken
capitell of a marble pillar.
"So, what are you doing here?" Gabrielle asked when they had
finished, rubbing her dirty hands over her thighs. Pandora shrugged.
"I just wanted to return to the city of my birth. It has been a long
time since I have been here, and so I thought it would be nice to return
here again. I love the city, it's so vivid and unique.' Pandora looked
at her, a smile on her lips. "How do you feel about spending the night
with me? We could hunt for some gorgeous young Romans on the Spanish
Steps." Gabrielle hesitated.
"These crowds are not really - " Pandora interrupted her with a quick
gesture of her hand.
"I am sure that you will like it." Gabrielle sighed, and a smile
crossed her face. Stuffing her fists into the pockets of her coat, she
settled on the rests of a wall.
"You have persuaded me, ma chere, I will join you." She blew some
blond hairs out of her face. "It's not as if I had a choice." Pandora
took her hands and pulled her along.
"Wonderful. Come, or the night will be over before it has even
started." Laughing, Gabrielle jumped gracefully from her stone seat and
followed her. Together, they disappeared in the dark.
The End
