So this is a short story I wrote to get over my writer's block, so its probably horrible. We've been studying the history of Ancient Greece so this kinda just popped into my head. Enjoy! Critiques would be much appreciated!
My heart pounded as I ran across the sandy shore and into his awaiting arms. The trees seemed to swirl all around me as he kissed me feverishly, his hands tangling in my fair blond hair.
You shouldn’t be here, its wrong, you shouldn’t be with him, stop now. You’re going to get in trouble. I pushed the thoughts away as I savored this moment, maybe the last that I would be able to have with him. “I love you,” I whispered as we pulled away, gazing into each other’s eyes.
“I never would have thought I would love an Athenian woman,” he said quietly, “but I suppose us Spartans can change after all.”
“Do you really have to go?” I asked. “Why can’t you just stay here with me? Or we can run away together, to Egypt or Macedonia, please Akakios,” I said kissing him once more. “Don’t run away and go back to Sparta, stay with me.”
“I won’t be a prisoner Corinna,” he said pulling away. “I won’t live the rest of my life in Athens.”
“Then why don’t I come to Sparta with you, say I am a Spartan woman-”
“They would know that you weren’t Spartan,” he quickly cut me off. “Women in our country don’t just stay inside and have children. They are taught skills, they are businesswomen, they own land, nothing like here in Athens. Women have freedom in Sparta, here they are just born to breed.”
“That’s not true!” I said. “We are loved by our husbands, we work around the home and take care of our children. If we were just born to breed we would be like animals, unloved.” I kissed him, my fingers tracing the scars lining his face. “And I am loved, by you,” I murmured.
He held my close to him and I felt my heart quickening as his hands traced my back. He had to stay, he had to stay with me. I loved him too much to let him go. “Corinna…I love you,” he whispered. “But I cannot stay. I have a wife and a reputation. I want to die on the battlefield, I want to be carried home and praises to be told of how I fell in battle. You must understand that.”
“Why are you Spartans so different?” I asked, shaking my head. “Why do you want to die and just leave your wife? Why do you want to leave me?”
“Would it be any different if I left my wife for you and if I left her because I died?”
“Yes, you would still be alive and still be happy. She would understand.” I lifted my head up towards him, our lips almost meeting but he pulled away and looked out towards the sea.
His eyes watched the sea crash against the shore, watched the sun glisten on the water, watched the birds soaring high above, watched everything except me. “I have to leave,” he whispered. “Athens is not my home, Athens is my enemy.” He turned to look into my eyes one last time and to tell me the hurtful, stinging words. “And that makes you my enemy as well. I want you to know that I will never return to this city ever again, that means I will never see you again. You must forget about me, and I must forget about you.”
“But Akakios!” I cried as he walked across the shore away from me, not looking back as I screamed his name. “Please come back! Don’t leave me, don’t leave me please!” I fell to the ground, my dress becoming smeared with sand. My hands shook violently as the tears flowed from my blue eyes and as I felt his kiss lingering on my lips.
* * * *
Months passed and no word was heard from Akakios. Not that he would send any, it would be dangerous to send word to Athens, especially with the war raging. I sat beside my father’s bedside. His face was pale and he held my small fifteen year old hand in his. “You must marry before I die,” he rasped. “I do not have much time left.”
“Father you are talking nonsense, you do not have the sickness that the others have, therefore you cannot die. You are just aging, you will be out of bed in no time.” I said, smiling weakly as he asked for another drink of water. I went into the main room and poured water from the small pitcher and into his cup, revealing that he had drunk the whole pitcher in less than half an hour.
“I am going to go get some more water father,” I called into his bedroom and walked out into the city. It was not bustling like it had months ago, nor did it have the usual smell of spices and olives, nor did it have the happy laughter of children. It was quiet aside from the meowing of a stray cat and the coughing of sickly people in the street and in their homes. The smell of Athens was now the smell of death. The smell of the plague.
I shook as I walked past bodies lying unmoving in the street, their faces pale and looking up at the sky as if to say one last prayer to the Gods. I walked past the small gutter lining the left side of the street that was filled with water and men and women alike trying desperatly to drink the water.
“The king is dead!” a shout came from down the road. “The king has died of the plague! The king is dead!” The men and women drinking from the gutter looked up for a moment at the man running down the street proclaiming the news, but didn’t seem to care, they just continued drinking.
I felt my stomach drop, Pericles? Dead? This could not be! Athens would surely fall to Sparta now! The organized system of Democracy that he had established would be destroyed, we would surely fall…Everything was falling apart, all because of our enemies, nature and Sparta.
* * * *
“Get out of the city! Out of the city!” a voice shouted through the streets as I lay in my bed, the smell of smoke wafting through my window. I stood up and quickly dressed and went into my father’s bedroom.
“Father!” I shouted. “Father something’s wrong! We have to get out of the city now! Come on father!” I shook him, but I felt his skin, it was icy cold. His eyes were closed as if he were only asleep, but I knew that it was so much more. “Oh Zeus,” I whispered. “Why is this happening?”
I ran out of the house and looked up to the polis where the temple of Athena stood, our greatest treasure. I could see torches lighting the way up to the temple, the place where we could be safe. I heard shouts reigning through the city and could see the men of Sparta running through our streets, plunging their spears into Athenian men and women alike.
I looked both ways down the road, only to see shadows lining the walls of shops and homes. “Oh Goddess Athena of wisdom and warfare, where do I run now?” I fell to my knees in the street, tears rolling down my face as I remembered a time where I had once been happy, a time when this city had been a marvelous place, a time when Athens was the grandest city in all of Greece.
“Get up!” A man’s voice shouted and his hands gripped my shoulders, helping me stand up. “We have to get you out of the city.” I looked at the man’s shadowed face and couldn’t help but feel a sudden calmness in my heart at the sight of his deep brown eyes, the scars lining his broad cheek bones, the Spartan shield he held at his side.
“Akakios,” I whispered his name, wishing to kiss him firmly and hard on his lips, wishing for him to hold me and protect me.
“Corinna, this is no time for memories. We have to get you out of the city now!”
“But why not to the Parthanon?” I asked, glancing at the place of refuge.
“Our soldiers will stop at nothing to bring down this city. We will burn it, now that you have surrendered.
“We surrendered?”
“Yes right as we began attacking, your dead king’s right hand man surrendered. I will discuss things with you later, but we have no time right now. Just come on, we have to get you out of here.” He gripped my hand firmly and together we ran through the streets, my hair flying out like his scarlet cape.
Homes and shops were burning, pottery was shattered on the floor, men and women ran through the city screaming, only to get speared by a Spartan soldier. “Why must they be so cruel?” I cried. “We have surrendered! The city is theirs!”
“Exactly,” Akakios said as we ran through the broken down gates and out to the sea. I looked up into his eyes as we stood there for a moment, the smell of death and smoke spiraling up into the air above us, and the dead souls joining Hades, the fates would have a lot of strings to cut.
“You saved my life,” I whispered, reaching up and taking off his helmet. I ran my hand along his face, stroking every little scar. I tilted my head up and kissed him, the touch of his lips bringing back memories of happier days, bringing back memories of us. The fire from the burning city framed our shadows in the night as the ocean crashed against the shore; Poseidon’s fury was beginning to unfold.
We pulled away and looked into each other’s eyes and it was his turn to stroke my face, the scarless, fair, beautiful face that he had fallen in love with a year before. “This doesn’t change anything Corinna.”
I felt my heart sink. I finally believed I had him back, he had saved me after all hadn’t he? “But you just saved my life.”
“And that was my fault,” he said harshly. “It would have been better to save you from this pain, wouldn’t it have been?”
I felt my heart breaking as he spoke the cold words. “Why don’t you love me? You said once that you did! Why can’t you just love me and stay with me? Why does dying mean everything to you?”
“Because its who I am!” he shouted, gripping my shoulders. “I’m a Spartan soldier. Its who I am Corinna, and I won’t let an Athenian change that.”
“But why can’t you just stay…” I whispered once more. “Why can’t you love me?”
“I could never have an enemy for a wife, nor could I ever stay, nor live, nor love my enemy.” He removed his hands from my shoulders and turned away from me, his red cape blowing in the wind as he walked back towards the city, my home, the place where he said he would never come back to.
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