Nero
Title: Nero
Word Count: 130 +author's notes
Rating: G
A Just for Fun entry at the online writing competition brigits_flame
The heat exuded from every corner of the city. The sound of the flames roared in everyone’s ears, bellowing almost louder than their terrified shrieks. People ran in panic, going this way and that, even though there was no escaping the blaze.
Rome was burning.
Its citizens fled. Its buildings came crashing down. Its every surface was covered with the vivid red of the fire. It was falling apart at the seams.
But somewhere, in the last quiet corner of the city, a lone man watched the chaos. Hardly anyone noticed him in the midst of pandemonium. Certainly, no one saw the charred piece of wood at his feet.
Still, if anyone had listened hard enough, maybe they could’ve picked out the sound of his laughter from the desperate screams.
AN: The setting wasn’t really an important thing for me here, but it was a shout-out to Nero (the emperor who supposedly but didn’t really burn the city of Rome and watched it burn while playing a fiddle). The prompt here was Sanguine which could mean both ‘red’ and ‘blood-thirsty’. I wrote the start of this before realizing in the middle of it that I could submit it for Brigit’s Flame this week. Three (half-hearted) cheers for, Nero!