Snippet

"What is is, Di?" I asked. 
Diomedes said nothing.
"Di! Tell me!" 
He still said nothing.
"I waited a week for my trial, and now that they've made a decision, you make me wait even more!" I felt more afraid at his silence than I would have if he had just told me. It must be really bad.
He sat on my bed and buried his face in his hands, and mumbled something.
"What?" I leaned closer. "Are they going to hang me?"
He lifted his face slowly, and his eyes were filled with tears. "They're sending you to the games."

I sat down hard. "Oh. I see." 

We did not speak for several minutes. The sounds of screaming, of sword on sword, of a roaring crowd, filled my thoughts. Oh, God, please no. Help me, Lord!

"When?" I spoke very quietly. "Against what?"

"Two weeks. A leopard. As a murderer and and a thief, you'll get no training."

"Surely you don't believe that!" 

He turned to look me in the eye.

"Persephone, of course I don't believe that. It's what the officials think that matters. Bloodied knife, murdered man, thief caught: it all fits. Unhappy coincidence."

"Don't tell my mother, not even if she comes out of her fever. Tell her I went to Ostia, or anywhere, but don't tell her."

He nodded mutely.

The guard knocked on the door, and opened it.

"Time's over," he said gruffly.

Di blinked at me, then threw his arms around me, surprising me. He leaned his face toward my ear, pretending to kiss my hair.

"I'll be one of your guards at the coliseum. You'll never touch the sand." Kind fools, I thought. I wrapped my arms around his neck, standing on tiptoe as if to kiss him.

"Don't!" I muttered through my teeth. "I'm shut in a Roman prison, not in my bedroom."

The guard cleared his throat. When Di at last release me, the guard was looking at his feet, embarrassed, not knowing, of course, that it was all an act. I almost smiled, but the look on Di's face stopped me. I stared at him, trying to say, Fool! Don't you know you'll be killed? 

-Snippet from my gladiator story.