I’m Coming to You

“Navarch Marinos was found dead in his house at the fourth hour of the day in Athens. Suspects include his wife, Persefoni, and their slave, Anastasia. Please report directly to Liturgy if you have any information regarding the whereabouts of the suspects.”

…

Three days following the announcement that rang out through the town, diary entries written on papyrus by Anastasia are found carefully hidden in her room.

***

12th day of Pyanepsion, during the archonship of Thucydides,

I lived a good life in Sparta. I received an education provided by my family, and inherited 200 acres of land when they passed. I never thought war would find me here. How naive could I be? The taking was sudden - I was hit and fell to the ground, captured to become a victim and a slave by Athenian soldiers. The only thing I had time to take with me was the bracelet my father gave me, because I wore it on my wrist. I don’t know what life is going to be like now. All I can do is curl up in the corner and record what happens to me. 

13th day of Pyanepsion, during the archonship of Thucydides,

My master is a Navarch of the Athenian navy. He’s out for work. I don’t like him, because he seems like a man whose wealth has made him merciless, certainly to his wife.

I talked to my mistress today. She is so nice, kind, and decent, but I cannot ignore the bruises on her body. She told me that they are from her husband. Though my parents and brother would never hit me, I feel empathetic. I feel our hearts connecting.

She noticed the bracelet on my hand.

“I love this bracelet. It’s pure and innocent.”

I told her about my life in Sparta. And about the freedom I had to choose suitors, to inherit properties, to be educated, and to own lands. The surprise on her face made me even sadder for her.

15th day of Pyanepsion, during the archonship of Thucydides,

Life here is difficult for women. My mistress told me that she was only taught how to weave and to take care of a household. Women are unable to leave their homes without permission first. They can’t exercise or have work outside of ‘women’s roles,’ whatever that means. They are treated as a reproductive tool and a free caregiver of the family! I hate seeing my mistress with a dead soul suffering inside her weak body. Do not let this be my fate.

28th day of Pyanepsion, during the archonship of Thucydides,

I hate being trapped in this small, repressive house. I hate being ordered around by other people. I hate seeing my mistress weaving in the room day and night. This life is one without dignity; it is insufferable. I told her: we must do something.

3rd day of Maimakterion, during the archonship of Thucydides,

He came back with injuries from the war. I didn’t get enough water today for him, so he hit me and my mistress. I still remember the way he pushed us to the ground like a hungry beast, scolding us with his eyes about to burst into flames. His wrath rendered us unable to walk. We laid on the ground covered in blood, a horrific canvas to the violence of his paint brush.

In the chaos of his aggressiveness, my master broke my bracelet. Its pure, blue pearls are exactly the same size as my tears. I miss my father, whose face I used to see reflected in these transparent beads. Torn up and scattered around the room with reckless abandon, I can no longer see his love in their strands.

Bent over, I picked them all up, ignoring the pain in my joints, and put them in my pocket.

My hate became my weapon.

11th day of Maimakterion, during the archonship of Thucydides,

“WE ARE GOING TO KILL HIM.”

***

—

Two hours before he fell asleep, a distilled drug from water hemlock was positioned onto Navarch Marinos’s pillow. Though no one was there to witness it, the phantom that put it there imagined the impending scene of his struggle with glee. He would fall asleep later, and could not hope to wake up in time. The corner of the phantom’s mouth curled into a triumphant curve.

“He has fallen asleep.”

“Don’t make any sound.”

Two dark figures in the night quietly approached the bedside of their tormenter. With an extremely sudden power, they covered his heavy head with that pillow. The whole ordeal was over in a matter of minutes.

…The house was then deadly silent.

Dissatisfied with the result, another phantom used a knife to cut the man twenty times. The power in their eyes as they moved swiftly, up and down, up and down, showed a sense of triumph and justice that revealed no hesitation, no shred of remorse.

The shadow cut him into a bloody blur, blood seeping through the white sheets, a million times more than what had been left on the ground when he had abused his women.

And the room was then brought to life with laughter, helpless at first but then eventually manic until it sounded relieved.

With the carcass of their villain lying humiliated on his bed, the two assassins walked calmly to the Aegean sea. They held hands under the gleaming lights of sunset that stroked their faces.

“What are we going to do now?”

“What can we do?”

One of them looked into the clear part of the sea water that had not been dyed by blood from the war. They saw her father there.

“I’m coming to you, father.”

—

Five days later, beads from a broken bracelet were found along the seashore...