Senza titolo

the first three pages of my novel

Massimo is giving instructions to his collaborators in a vineyard, when a woman who works as a servant comes running in a hurry and warns him:

“…sir, your wife is in labor!!”

Massimo immediately greets his collaborators and runs into the house. His wife is in bed, drenched in sweat, assisted by the midwife. Meridio is kindly invited to wait outside, to allow his wife to remain calm during the birthing operations.

The man remains outside waiting, sitting anxiously. From behind the drapes covering the entrance he hears his wife’s screams of suffering and the calm and patient voice of the midwife who is attending her. They seem like endless minutes that turn into hours. Massimo is outside waiting with Alcione, who has adopted him as his second son, is tense and prays to the gods and his deceased loved ones. Finally a long, prolonged scream from Julia is followed by a cry that fills the silence and frees him from tension. The midwife looks out from behind the drapes covering the entrance to the room, looks at the two men, especially Massimo, and, shocked but smiling, announces:

“…it’s a boy!”

Massimo, overcome by deep emotion, enters the room. He looks at his wife in bed, exhausted after hours of labor, who smiles at him. The midwife approaches Massimo and places a small newborn being on the floor in front of him, wrapped in a cloth bearing the embroidered symbols of the Meridio family, a tiny being who is moving imperceptibly.

Massimo Decimo Meridio observes the little boy, his baby, plump and a little red, a tuft of reddish hair tenderly framing his face. The newborn child opens his eyes and seems to look at him, sketching a smile. Massimo falls to his knees, overcome by emotion, delicately takes the bundle and holds it to his chest with love, standing up again. Massimo tenderly washes his son slowly, as if he were the most precious thing in his life. Still holding him protectively to his chest, he approaches Julia and places him on her breast, saying

“Here, I entrust you with our son!”

The man, with his eyes full of tears of joy, kisses his wife on the mouth for a long time, to seal once again his love and respect for her. Massimo stays there watching the little one who, in maternal instinct, searches for and finds the nipple to abandon himself to his first breastfeeding and then lie asleep and happy on his mother. Massimo observes as if hypnotized by the beauty of this moment.

to think, breathing hard and staggering, while it starts snowing again. Without wasting any more time he climbs onto the horse of the murdered Praetorian, taking with him a spare horse for the long journey, holding his reins with his right hand.

It is the horse where he was taken into the forest to be executed. Massimo climbs up the slope of the forest, then descends into the valley where the battle with the barbarians was fought and won and it seems like an absurd distant memory. A blanket of snow is whitening the muddy and black ground from the fires created by the

skin of pitch and arrows of fire shot between the

trees. Massimo spasmodically guides the two horses at a gallop, every moment more or less could be crucial. His family is in danger of death and he throws himself into the journey with all his strength. He doesn't even realize that he is traveling across long plains in a sky full of large and threatening gray clouds, crossed by lightning. Massimo in his desperation doesn't even realize how much time has passed of his desperate journey, the only thing he knows now is that he is in a barren, stony and inhospitable region. The long journey is starting to make itself felt in the horses, who proceed wearily on the stony ground.

Massimo's white horse has wounded legs. Massimo himself raises his head, overcome by tiredness. He realizes that the time has come to take a break for himself and the horses.

Massimo sits in front of a bonfire, while the horses rest, he takes off his armor to better take care of his shoulder wound. With a grimace he realizes the seriousness. The Praetorian's sword managed to enter the middle of the leather covering with a sabre stroke and tear his sleeve, causing a horizontal cut in the upper part, under the bone, at least ten centimeters long and almost two wide. With his right hand shaking with pain, he tries to stem the blood from the jagged edges, putting on an emergency bandage. But more than worried about the wound, his mind is absorbed in the memory of his answer of how much he is missing from home, to Marcus Aurelius. In his head, the prayer addressed to his ancestors resonates in an anxious crescendo, so that they protect his family and he firmly wants to believe that it will be so. The scenery around him is a majestic series of mountains, where the first lights of dawn reflect a pinkish glare. It would all seem so beautiful if it were not for the fact that a deep anguish in his thoughts makes him feel even more alone and inert.

Maximus, abandoning his armor, continues his journey with the military tunic and trousers of the legionaries, brick red in color. The horse that had brought him there has died of exhaustion and is now riding bareback on the only one left, the spare.

Man and animal continue on their journey. Massimo is gripped by fever. He holds his left arm numb, inert against his thigh, while blood runs copiously down his sleeve and stains his entire arm. The pain from the wound is unbearable and grips his stomach like a vice. His strength is abandoning him and with an expression of suffering he leans his head back, closing his eyes. Massimo then bends his head forward, while he struggles unsuccessfully not to lose consciousness. The horse slowly continues on its journey, Massimo's head, semi-unconscious, dangles following the movement of the horse's gait.

Massimo, feverish and gripped by the pain from the wound, slides with his back bent forward, clinging to the sweat-soaked neck of the horse that is drooling and breathing noisily. He manages to sit up straight as if driven by a sensation, by an unconscious call that seems to come from his son's voice. Only then does Massimo regain full awareness that another danger is threatening his family, he turns and looks around, as if he could perceive it from miles away at that precise moment. Lost and assailed by a deep anxiety, he throws his horse into a final exhausting gallop to get to his home, to avoid the impossible.

Lucilla, her eyes shining with tears, murmurs to the man:

"...I couldn't help but see you...."

Massimo gives a bitter smile, looking into her eyes:

“….you don’t have to risk yourself for me. My life has come to an end… I just have to figure out how…”

Lucilla gives him a long kiss on the mouth, almost bursting into tears, while she hugs him, caressing him:

“…I was forced to confess everything….she’s holding my son hostage, threatening to kill him…forgive me….”

The woman cries hot tears on Massimo’s chest, telling him:

“…I can’t do anything, not even free you…it would kill Lucio…..I’d like to die here with you now and not think about anything anymore….”

“….you don’t have to do it…you’re the daughter of Marcus Aurelius…everyone must follow their own destiny….”

A voice calls Lucilla, it’s a trusted servant who tells her: “…my lady, we must go now!”

Lucilla looks at Massimo for a long time, as if she wanted to imprint the image of his face in her heart and mind, she kisses him again on the mouth with love and says to him:

“…I pray to the Gods for you… as I have always done..”

The woman looks at them all with tears in her eyes, lost, murmuring with a groan:

“….my son….what do you want…who are you?”

The patrol leader dismounts from his horse, looks at her with a smile:

“….We send you the Emperor’s warmest greetings…”

All the other riders start laughing. The patrol leader signals to two riders:

“Go get the boy…”

All the riders dismount from their animals. Two go to the end of the avenue where the child lies face down.

“…what do you want? Why is this? Where is my husband?” asks the woman.

“….about your husband if they are already taken care of….we will take care of you and your son….” hisses the patrol leader. He starts laughing, and so do the other twenty soldiers. The terrified woman, shaking her head, tries to run away. A soldier grabs her by the hair, two others grab her and immobilize her by the arms. The group of farmers who were stopping to work in the fields, seeing that something is wrong in the avenue, throw themselves against the group with their hoes and sickles to run to the woman's aid. The soldiers pierce them mercilessly with their spears.

"...and now we can take it easy... we have plenty of time..." the patrol leader murmurs: "...let's go to the back where that pergola is...."

The woman is dragged by force to the back of the house, to that pergola that she has grown with so much love and passion, full of flower pots, the vegetable garden and the scent of aromatic herbs. With tears in her eyes she thinks of her husband who she will never see again. In the meantime, the two soldiers have carried the child in their arms. Wounded by the marks of some horse hooves, dirty with earth but still alive.

“…mom…” he calls her in a feeble voice.

“…please don’t hurt us…please..” the woman begs.

At a sign from the patrol leader, some soldiers tear off the woman’s simple dress, leaving her completely naked in the midst of 40 pairs of eyes. The woman tries to cover herself, while all those men observe that tall and harmonious body, the beautiful breasts and the round and perfect hips. The woman lowers her eyes, crying humiliated, trying to hide those ample breasts with her long black hair. Two praetorians throw her to the ground and block her arms, while the woman tries to kick with her feet. The patrol leader throws himself on his knees on top of the woman, forces her to spread her legs, slapping her and she with all her anger spits in his face.

“…..whore…..” hisses the man. He angrily begins to caress the woman's body, while the soldiers holding her arms laugh. The patrol leader begins to kiss her on the mouth, violently and with disgusting desire inserting his tongue into her. The woman screams, cries, tries to wriggle free, while the patrol leader takes his time penetrating her, enjoying hurting her, while he whispers dirty words to her with a voice broken by excitement. The woman moans in pain, screams, closes her eyes, full of tears, while she hears the man panting and continuing, continuing. The desperate woman hopes that the pain and her life will end soon. Finally, when the soldier has entered her aching body, the man stands up, buttons up and says to his men:

"... continue you... everyone... let's make him feel it well, that it's more than 2 years without her husband at home!"

Everyone laughs, the woman keeps her eyes closed, full of tears. The humiliation continues, in turn, where her body is abused, the bestial instincts of all the knights are satisfied, who slap her, insult her, cover her with aggressive caresses and bites, finishing penetrating her. Everyone without haste, everyone takes their share without respect for a beautiful body unable to move. The woman's moans are covered by the mocking laughter and the horrendous insults she must endure. When everyone has satisfied their desires they leave her on the ground exhausted, dirty inside and out, wounded, like an object now to be thrown away. The woman tries to get up, despite the pain and sees with horror that two soldiers are lifting the child. The soldiers laugh as they pull the child's hair, then look for a rope, lift him, tie his arms to a beam of the pergola roof and begin to nail the palms of his hands. The child cries with every blow that drives the nails into his hands. “shut up, little girl!… you are the son of a soldier!”

How much I love Maximus' expression... he's so sweet... just amazing!

The general is stripped of his armor and his robe, left only in his underwear and a long frayed vest, without a sleeve. He is chained to chains on the boards of the elevator, which goes up to the arena, with his arms stretched out and pulled out over his shoulders so that he cannot defend himself.

The patrol leader who broke into the school of Proximus and some Praetorians, according to the Emperor's orders, torture Maximus Decimus Meridius, all night. The gladiators imprisoned in the nearby cell, are forced to watch helplessly, as the Praetorians begin to beat Maximus so harshly, that they elicit stifled screams of pain and suffering, while they insult him.

When they have had enough, but have been careful not to leave too many visible signs of the beatings on his body, they leave him in that standing position, chained up for the whole night, without even giving him the chance for a break and a rest, remaining to watch along the corridor, to prevent him from being freed. It is dawn, the first reddish lights, are reflected on the outline of the Colosseum. Emperor Commodus is on the balcony of the Royal Palace. Senator Falco approaches Caesar, who is standing with his back to him, leaning out onto the balcony, and slowly announces: "It is all done......' A satisfied and cruel smile touches Commodus' lips. Lucilla sits inside the room with her back bent, distressed and frightened. Her eyes are shining, because she has been forced to confess and she knows with pain of her brother's orders regarding Meridius.

Commodus turns slowly, and with his eyes closed he murmurs:"... what will become of my nephew?... And of his mother?... Will they have to share the fate of her lover... or will I have to be MERCIFUL?..."

The emperor, it seems to think about it, frowns, with a smile, murmuring amusedly:

"... COMMODUS THE MERCIFUL...". Then he enters the room, coldly decreeing: ".... Lucius will stay with me, for now..." while Falco turns to look at him in silence. Commodus adds: ".... and if his mother, dares even look at me, in a way that displeases me...he will die!"

The emperor turns to look at Lucilla, who is still sitting, with her eyes lowered, reduced to silence, her expression is destroyed by grief, for the fate of her, her son and ofMaximus.

Commodus, threateningly continues to say:

"...and if she decides to be noble and take her own life. he will die!"

The emperor approaches his sister, saying: ".... As for you... you will love me, as I have loved you!..... You will give me an heir, of pure blood....so that Commodus and his progeny, reign for a thousand years..."

GLADIATOR