Julie felt unusually calm over the revelation that Nick stranded her to a life of slavery. AJ, on the other hand, was pacing the cell. He was speaking a mile a minute with theories and ways to escape. Julie was sitting, watching him go from one side of the cell to the other. In between ideas he would throw curses towards the ceiling directed at Nick.

After awhile, Julie got sice of the show. “AJ, stop please. None of this is going to help right now. Just sit down.”

AJ looked towards Julie and moved closer to her, sitting a few feet away. “You acted like you knew me. I didn't have a one night stand with you, did I?” Julie knew he was trying to take his mind off of the situation, she was fine with it, talking would be better than watching him pace and rant.

“No, we never slept together. I actually met you yesterday.” She laughed at the thought. She met AJ yesterday but when she saw him today he didn' tknow who she was. She couldn't help but let out a small laugh.

“What's so funny?” AJ asked.

“Nothing...” Julie paused for a second and thought about it. The AJ she met yesterday had to be from after being stuck here to be sold as slaves. “I met you yesterday...” she let out a laugh of relief and turned to look at AJ with a huge grin on her face.

AJ sat there looking at her confused, he probably thought she was a little crazy and was probably thinking he had crap luck being stuck with a crazy.

“Don't you understand AJ? You had no clue who I was today, but I met you yesterday and you knew me.” She was so excited she could hardly contain the grin on her face as she watched AJ process the information.

“Which means I go back in time at some point for your first meeting me me, which means,” he paused and his eyes got large as he realized what she was hinting at. He moved closer and pulled her into a tight hug. “It means wer get out of here,” He said as he continued to hold her tightly.

Their moment of elation was short lived as the door to the cell was thrown open and the three guards came in. Two guards reached for AJ and began to pull him out of the cell, the third grabbed Julie's arm and held tightly as he pulled her to her feet and led her through the door and through the passageway. They stopped briefly for another man to assess each person, but a wreath on their head and hang a sign around their neck.

When Julie's turn came the wreath was shoved down hard on her head, she could feel the branches poking into her skull. The man in front of her barked orders at her, she could only stare back in response. The guard still holding her arm pulled back her lips to show her teeth. The other man nodded and jotted something down on a piece of parchment.

The guard then lifted her tunic to her nick showing the other man the condition of the rest of her body. She left the older man's grimy hands groping her, squeezing her breasts like you would a piece of fruit. Julie couldn't understand the language, but she understood the tone the men were using. Jeers were jeers no matter what language they spoke.

When the paper was hung around her neck the guard next to her proceeded to pull her down the remainder of the hallway and shoved her outside. She moved her arms up to cover her eyes, protecting them from the brightness of the sun. She saw a few dozen people milling around, walking through the group of wreath covered heads. The guard stood Julie next to another female and then moved to a spot just outside the doorway to the tunnels.

Julie kept her eyes on the exit watching for AJ to emerge. Their eyes caught for a second and Julie could see his eyes flick to the spear in the ground nearby and back to her, she knew he had a desire to escape. Julie shook her head slightly, it would be worse for them if they ran. If they were sold into slavery, they had more of a chance of living to be rescued; running would surely end their lives.

Julie and AJ must have been the last ones to bring out as the auction started soon after AJ was put in place. Julie watched as bids were made, people were purchased. She started to wonder who would buy her, what her owners would be like.

When Julie's turn came she noticed they pulled AJ up with her, were they to be sold together? Perhaps their notes said they were idiots since neither one of them spoke understood the language. The murmurs of the crowd became louder when they saw the two of them up on the stage, Julie could only imagine what they must think of AJ with his tattoos up and down his arms.

Murmmurs rustled through the crowd as the auctioneer started to talk to them. Julie watched as rich looking men who had only purchased a couple of slaves between the two of them started motioning the seller. The talking went back and forth with a few different parties, prices growing as more and more bidders were silent. One of the rich men said something that made the crowd gasp. Julie wished she knew what they were saying. She knew it was barbaric but she wanted to know how much she was selling for.

Nobody spoke up after the man said whatever it was that made everyone gasp so the autioner pointed to him, and said the phrase Julie had heard over and over throughout the day. Then it was over, Julie and AJ had been sold into slavery.

To Julie's surprise, they were not tied together with the other slave the man puchased that day. When they arrived back at the merchant's house Julie was taken aback. She'd seen pictures of Roman villa's but to see an actual villa in ancient Rome was a site any historian would pay to see.

“What now?” AJ whispered

Julie shrugged as the man spoke with another man. From the way the other man acted towards their new owner, Julie assumed he was a slave as well. Possibly a slave with more power, but a slave none-the-less.

As the men talked, Julie looked around the atrium in which they stood and took in the sights. A small smiled broke on her face, the house was beautiful. She stopped when she noticed the silence, the man who purchased her was gone and the man he had been talking to was looking at her. He started to spew words at her and the other two. The other woman nodded and stood still. Julie noticed both she and AJ had same look, a deer in headlights.

“What are we supposed to do? I don't understand him.” AJ whispered.

“I don't know.” She whispered back.

The man smiled and said something towards them and then motioned for them to follow. He showed them around, where they would be working. The young girl was sent into the kitchen, a small cot in the corner is where she would lay her head every night. It appeared she might have something to do with starting the fires and keeping them going.

The man took Julie and AJ to another room with another slave. He said a few words to her and she rolled her eyes as she looked at them. The other man left and the woman approached them talking to them in one language and when they did not respond, tried a different one. Julie shook her head in response to the woman, though a few words sounded familiar to her in the second language.

The woman proceeded to show them what they would be doing. AJ appeared to be a gardener of sorts and Julie looked like she might be one of the slaves to the lady of the house.

They parted to learn their chorse in more depth and only saw each other that night at the slave dinner. Julie picked at the meat and ate a few spoonfuls of porridge. She was tired and it was starting to sink in what happened on the stairs of The Library. Nick took out his revenge on Kevin through her, but why?

When it was finally time to lay down for sleep Julie was too exhausted to let her thoughts distract her for long.

The next morning, Julie's mind was not on what she was supposed to be doing. She missed her cues several times and though her mistress seemed to be patient with her, she could see the anger brewing behind her eyes. She needed to find time to speak with AJ.

At the noonday meal she found him rubbing his hands.

“Sore?” She asked.

“Yes, I was not cut out for manual labor,” He asnwered grinning slightly. “Have you thought of anything to get a message out of here?”

Julie shook her head. Why did he think she was going to be the one to think of the plan? “Did you?” She shot back.

AJ's shoulders slumped as his head shook. “No. There has got to be something.”

Julie told him she would think about it more, but they needed to continue with their day or else be punished. Sending a letter sixty years into the future was one thing, but thousands of years? She had to think of something that would last, she had to find something that Kevin would know to look at. Thinking about Kevin brought the look of horror on his face as Nick pushed the button pulling them through time. Maybe Kevin would find Nick and find her before too late.