Perished

The second we stepped off the plane I started crying. To think all of these innocent people dying for no reason and to have it be all of the work of a volcano. Anyone would feel emotional but this is my job I have to keep it together. I sometimes think what it would be like to live in the historical times I look at and try and feel what the other people might have felt like. But this was different this hurt more, I didn’t know why but it did. As we get back in the plane to rest for the night I find myself in a dream state thinking of life in Pompeii. “Azuel are you going to eat your bread?” “Yes mom it's just I feel a little tired, I don’t think I want to go to the party tonight.” “Azuel you know that this is our only chance to make a good impression so you are going to act like the young lady you are and you will respect Mr.Guntra do you understand me?” My mom always acts like this when meeting royalty, go do this don’t do that. It’s not like I don’t know or don’t care I just want her to stop saying it. “Azuel I said do you hear ME!” “Yes mom,”. “Good well the dinner is less than 2 hours away according to the sundial so I suggest you go and get ready.” I wait for Peudo to go and get my items but this time I feel like going to get them. I walk down the corridor and brush my hand along the rock wall. “Ouch!” I cut myself, all the time I have walked down here and this is the time I cut myself. I wrap a cloth around it to try and cut down the bleeding but for some reason I don’t feel anything anymore. But I keep it there just in case and get my nicest dress, I braid my hair to the side and let it fall, my mother always said I looked pretty like that and I believe her. My father died when I was just a child around 3 my mother said, I can’t really remember him but my mom always says that he was a good person with a heart, she also said he died of a heart attack but he didn’t. I found that out later when my mom was talking about it, he was stabbed in the chest with a knife when trying to get meat for our dinner, I don’t really care about him that much anymore ergo we don’t really talk about him that much anymore. “AZUEL ARE YOU DONE WE DON’T HAVE ALL DAY!!!” “YES MOM IM COMING!!!!” Whenever my mom is trying to impress someone she really does set her mind to it. The second we get to Mr.Guntra’s home she immediately makes me stand up straight, elongate my neck and bow in-front of him. I absolutely hate having to act fake around anyone just because my mom wants to be the “perfect” family we will never be. So I don’t do anything she tells me to do and she immediately tells me to go next to her to have a “talk”. I always know how this will go she will compare me to my older brother in the military. Then she will say that she is disappointed in me and that I can do so much better than what I am acting right now. At the end she will say I have so much potential and then she will say “I am so sorry she just wasn’t feeling very well so I had to give her something, my bad.” The end, nothing happens after that we eat and go home then we never get a letter of marriage and that is the end. But this morning after the party was different at around eight AM there was a low rumble near Mt.Vesuvius some people started leaving but my mom said we were fine and we just went on with our regular routine. I asked my mom what was going on she just sat back and said “It’s probably your tummy did you eat breakfast this morning?” I know I did but I just nod and go to my room. The same thing happened around eleven AM again about 50 people left Pompeii but my mom and I stayed. She just sat back and said nothing is wrong but I started to think otherwise when I saw Vesuvius smoking at the top of the cone. I asked my mom was their going to be a volcanic eruption? She didn’t respond which was weird for my mom but she told me not to ask again. Then that's when I knew we were in trouble my mom never does that and she had a distant look in her eye like what happened when we got the message dad died which was probably a thousand years ago. Around one PM I asked my mom if we could leave because there were houses falling apart there were even houses on fire. My mom said we would go down to the cellar if it got close to our house, which it was nearly two blocks away. Around five PM it was near our block but still my mom said wait by then I was getting very worried that we might well go down like dad did. I was also worried about my brother Finescovo because he was stationed on the other side of Mt.Vesuvius which we didn’t know what had happened over there, we had no way to! We stayed downstairs until six AM that’s when I heard crashing and tumbling and burning. We had learned about it in school it was called a pyroclastic flow and my mom knew we were in trouble. We went to try and open the cellar door but the heat had sealed it shut, my mom kept pulling and pulling the door and I finally had to tell her it wouldn’t work. I started crying and curled up in my mom's arms I told her I was sorry for everything I had done everything I had said. Maybe if I had sat up straighter or elongated my neck or bowed in front of Mr.Guntra we wouldn’t be in this position right now, maybe if I listened to my mom and didn’t question her this wouldn’t be happening right now. Maybe just maybe- I was cut off there was smoke and ash filling the air BAM there was a crash- I heard my mom say “I love you” I said “I love you too” then- Oh my Gosh what a terrible dream. I was going to go wake up my group, but then I blinked and her the words “Then they were perished,”