Heir of Aurelian

Frank knocked on the door of his parents’ house thrice and stood outside of it for a good thirty seconds before it opened to reveal his mother dressed in an apron and covered in flour. Her gaze turned from stern to excited the moment she witnessed her son standing in the doorway.

“My baby boy has returned to me!”

The mature beauty quickly latched onto her son and suffocated him with her fierce grip. All the while getting the loose flower all over him. Frankly could only chuckle as he attempted to pry his mother off oh him.

“Mom, I’ve only been gone for a single semester. Why are you so worked up?”

The woman laughed as she eagerly brought her son inside. The moment the young man gazed at his surroundings, it was as if nothing had changed during his absence. A warm flutter entered his heart as he witnessed the same old living he had grown up with, where his father was currently seated on a sofa with a beer in hand, watching a game of football.

Marco instantly jumped up and shouted the word “Touchdown!” as his favorite team scored. Frank’s mother immediately slapped the man on the back of the head and lectured him about his lack of care for their son’s return from his first semester in college.

“Dear, our baby boy is home, and all you care about is football?”

The man rubbed the back of his head before rebuking the woman’s words of condemnation.

“Sofia, our boy is a man now. He doesn’t need his parents fawning all over him the moment he comes home from school. How was your first semester, champ?”

Before Frank could even respond, he heard a familiar voice call out to him from the halls as the woman it belonged to answered the question for him._.

“Filled with booze and pussy, I bet?”

Maria stood in the hallway in one of Frank’s used t-shirts and a pair of panties as she drank from a beer bottle. Her mother immediately scolded her for her choice of words as she heard this crass remark come from her own daughter.

“Maria! That kind of language is inappropriate, besides my precious boy would never be so reckless, would you?”

Frank rubbed the back of his neck as he shifted his gaze away from his mother’s watchful eye. The truth was, his first semester was pretty much as Maria had said. As the golden boy of Columbia’s wrestling team, he never had to search too far for a girl to sleep with him. His mother noticed his reaction and scoffed before walking back to the kitchen, visibly upset.

“You two are peas in a pod…”

Evidently, the woman had discovered Maria’s extracurricular activities on the web and was not pleased with her. Maria, on the other hand, did not seem to care in the slightest. Ultimately, it was Frank who commented on her inappropriate attire.

“Maria, put on some fucking pants. Neither dad nor I want to see your fat ass hanging out.”

Maria chuckled as she heard this and handed her empty beer bottle over to her little brother before giving him a nuggie.

“Admit it, you perverted little shit. You love seeing your sister’s ass!”

Frank quickly shoved Maria off of him before scolding her once more.

“Unlike some people in this house, I’m not into the idea of incest. Go be a freak somewhere else!”

Maria merely scoffed before walking up the stairs. Whether she was going to her room to sulk or to simply find a pair of pants, Frank didn’t know. However, he covertly stared at her ass as she walked up the steps while successfully evading the watchful eye of his mother.  Frank’s father quickly handed his son a beer and encouraged him to sit down and watch the game with him.

“Hey, kiddo, sit down, have a beer, and tell me about your experience in college while you watch a game with your old man.”

Despite not particularly being fond of team sports like football, Frank sighed before doing as his father told him. The man smiled and patted his son on the back as he inquired about the kid’s life.

“So, you meet any cute girls yet?”

Frank scoffed as he gave a questioning look to his father before speaking the truth.

“I’ve met a lot of cute girls. Why do you ask?”

The old man held out his fist as if asking for a fist bump as he congratulated the boy in his efforts.

“That’s my boy!”

Before Frank could fist bump his father’s back, the sound of a woman clearing her throat could be heard. The two of them immediately felt chills down their spine as they heard a frightening yet feminine voice erupt behind them.

“Dinner will be in five minutes. Frank, how about you go and wash up first?”

Frank immediately stood up and nodded his head with a polite smile on his face as he obeyed his mother’s commands.

“Sure mom, I’ll be right back.”

He took a swig from his beer as he walked off towards his bathroom. The moment he was out of earshot, the woman scoffed before complaining to her husband about his behavior.

“Don’t encourage him, or else he will end up just like his sister…”

It was Marco’s turn to scoff as he rebuked his wife’s words yet again.

“Please, it’s only natural for boys his age to go after any girl they can get with. As long as he wears protection, we have nothing to worry about. What’s not natural is having a daughter who moonlights as fucking a cam whore. What exactly happened to that girl? Were we not decent enough parents?”

It was at this moment that Maria returned to the room wearing a pair of leggings, where she responded to her father’s claims, which she apparently had overheard.

“You know, it is sexist to assume that a sex worker comes from a broken household. Maybe I feel empowered showing off my body and making fat stacks of cash by doing so? Have you ever thought of that?”

Sofia immediately chastised her daughter for her disrespect and threatened her accordingly.

“You watch your mouth, young lady, or there will be no dinner for you!”

Despite threatening to not feed her, Maria merely scoffed

“Fine, I’ll just eat out tonight. You think I need to eat your cooking? I can afford to buy whatever I damn well please!”

After saying this, the young woman grabbed her coat before storming off out of the house. Coincidentally, Frank entered the room at this moment and looked around at the awkward silence before making a remark.

“Am I interrupting something?”

Sofia forced herself to smile as she served food onto three out of the four plates that were sitting on the dinner table. She could only respond with the truth.

“Your sister has decided to eat out tonight. I guess it will just be the three of us.”

Frank sighed before sitting down in his seat. He did not hear exactly what had happened, but he knew that the university life had scrambled his sister’s brains. He muttered under his breath his true thoughts about his sister’s behavior, thinking his parents wouldn’t hear it.

“Good luck getting a husband with that feminist crap of yours…”

His mother gazed over at her son with a fierce glare before breaking out into a giggle. Surprisingly, she openly badmouthed her daughter in front of the rest of her family.

“She will probably live the rest of her twenties sleeping around, only to realize that no man wants her when she’s thirty!”

Frank and Marco gazed at the woman with astonishment. Though they were both thinking it, neither of them dared to say it. Evidently, Maria’s behavior had really pissed off her mother, because she was normally a kindhearted soul who wouldn’t dare talk ill of her children. After getting a good laugh out, the woman sighed before looking at her husband and son with a stern glare.

“Well, what are you waiting for? Let’s eat!”

After saying a brief prayer to the lord to bless their food, the couple dug into the meal, which was a chicken Alfredo lasagna. Frank instantly moaned in pleasure as he tasted it before thanking his mother for her effort.

“Mmm, man fuck Maria, she’s missing out. This shit is delicious, mom! You’re so much better of a cook than whatever restaurant she’s going to!”

Frank’s mother glared at him before scolding him for his language.

“Language!”

After saying this, the trio broke out into a fit of laughter. Where Marcellus immediately after awoke from his dream. By now, he was convinced that these were memories of another life, and not visions from the gods. After all, the more of them he had, the more he felt like Frank Caruso, and less like Titus Claudius Marcellus.

It was clear that every time he dreamt of this other world; he was melding into a new being. He did not know whether he should find a way to stop the dreams, or abuse them for the knowledge they contained. Ultimately, he sighed and rose from his bed, where he started his day of managing the Empire.