Committed Chapter 11

The beach-head clouds drifting across the sky were starting to recede like the tide in the early morning light as Ariadne pulled the car over to the side of the road.

            For a moment, she sat there in silence, and Paris indulged her for a moment before asking, “Why’d we stop?”
            Ariadne pulled the keys from the ignition, unbuckled herself, and climbed out of the car without answering.  As she slammed the car door and started walking Paris was stumbling out of the passenger’s side to keep up.

            “Wow, hey, what’s going on?”

            “Paris, do you understand how absolutely crazy all of this is?” Ariadne demanded.

            “Well, I have a vague notion, I was there after all.”

            “I’m not joking around Paris,” Ariadne snapped, turning on him.  “It hasn’t even been twelve hours yet and not only has Janus attacked me, shot at us, and convinced the police that you’ve kidnapped me but now I’m running from them with you.  What the hell is happening?”

            “Ariadne…”
            “No, Paris, this is a big deal.  How did everything get so screwed up all of a sudden?”

            “Ariadne, I don’t have any more answers than you do.”

            “Paris, you’re picking the locks on your handcuffs with hair clips and stealing keys off of police officers.  You’ve been shot.  I’ve been attacked.  Can we please just take a few minutes here and irrationally freak out over all of this?”

            “Do you want me to set a timer on that?” Paris asked, lifting his arm up and placing a hand on his watch.

            For a moment, they stood there, glaring at each other.  They were standing at the side of a ditch, brown gravel giving way to tuffs of grass down the slope.  In the early morning light, the only sound other than their voices was the early morning racket of crows announcing their presence to the new day.

            Paris’ grin undid everything.  All the anxiety and confusion that was raging beneath the surface just seemed to float away as he suddenly grinned at her over his watch.  The idiot was grinning.  It was ruin everything.

            She started laughing.  He joined in and before she knew it they were both laughing loudly in the morning light.  Ariadne stumbled forward and playfully smacked his raised arm down.

            “You are an idiot, you do know that right?”

            “If being an idiot means that I can make you laugh, then I have a long and productive future ahead of me,” Paris replied.

            They stood like that, now barely inches apart, for a moment, gazing at each other as chuckles still skipped out of their chests uninvited.  Finally, Ariadne took a step back and asked, “But seriously Paris, what are we going to do now?  The police think that you kidnapped me.”

            “Yeah, that does present a bit of a problem,” Paris admitted, his brow coming together to form thin lines at the bridge of his nose.  “But the only evidence they have is Janus’ word.”

            “And I’ll say that you didn’t kidnap me, that I came with you of my own freewill,” Ariadne replied.  “There’s no way that he can buy off the entire police force…is there?”
            “I’m sure if it came down to it he’d try,” Paris nodded.  “You saw the way he got those cops to disregard the fact that they didn’t have a warrant.  He must be giving them good incentive to do what they want.”

            “This is absolutely ridiculous,” Ariadne said, turning and running her hands through her hair.  It felt unwashed and she grimaced.  What she wouldn’t have given at that moment for a nice hot shower, a big breakfast, and to go sit in a boring history class with Mrs. Nowak.

            “Hey, don’t worry, we’ll figure something out,” Paris assured her, reaching forward and putting his good hand lightly on her shoulder.  “We just need to figure out our next move.”

            “I’m assuming you’re going to dodge the idea of going to police and providing our side of the story?” Ariadne said, turning back.

            “I really don’t think it’s in our best interest to put ourselves in their hands,” Paris said.  “Maybe I’m being paranoid but I’d really rather not have us in any situation where Paris can get to you easily.”

            Ariadne nodded.  After hearing the way those two cops had done what Janus told them to do she wasn’t entirely eager to be under their mercy either.

            “So, what do we do now?”

            “You keep asking me, how about I ask you instead,” Paris replied.  “We know we can’t go to the police.  What do you think we should do next?  Where do we go?  Who do we talk to?”

            Ariadne considered this for a moment.  A crow landed on the power line above them, shifting nervously on its feet as it gazed at the nearby houses.  Ariadne looked up at it, wishing for a brief moment that she could sprout wings and fly away from all of her troubles.  Yet somehow an oppressive weight had landed on her shoulders.  Janus seemed to loom over her, his breath spreading across her neck as he slunk up behind her.  She shook it off.

            “Well, if nothing else, we need to stop at my house,” Ariadne said.  “We can’t figure this out on our own.  We need to talk with my mom and dad.  We can’t do this on our own.”

            “Okay, I said I’d go with what you said,” Paris nodded, though he looked a little concerned.  “I hope they’re able to help us.”

            “What time do you have there?” Ariadne asked.

            “I’ve got 6:23,” Paris answered.

            “Okay, my dad shouldn’t be heading to work for another forty minutes.  We should be able to make it in time to speak with him.  He’ll know what to do.”

            “All right, you’re the boss,” Paris nodded.  He gestured towards the car like he was introducing the prize behind door number three.  “Shall we return to the stage coach, m’lady.”

            “You’re disturbingly cheerful for an escaped felon,” Ariadne told him, not without humour in her voice.  “Is that a sign of the psychologically imbalanced?”

            “Call me crazy all you want, I got you out of there.”

            “When?  At what point were you the one getting us out of there?”
            “The point where I was like ‘No, run!’”

            “Uninspired.”
            “That was my best performance all night.”

            Ariadne turned the car on and pulled it back onto the road.  She consulted her mental map of the city and took the next left before turning onto a road that would take them directly to her house.

            “You have an awful lot of faith in your dad,” Paris said, shifting his arm into a more comfortable position as he did.  “What do you know about his relationship with Janus and the Menelaus family?”

            “To be honest, I didn’t even know either one of them existed until yesterday when Janus showed up at school.  But when I got home I got this big speech from both of my parents about the importance of being friends with them.”
            “Do you think they’ll believe you if you tell them what happened?”

            Ariadne considered her own anxieties about how her parents would react to the whole thing.  She hoped they were unfounded, and realized a lot of their hopes right now rested on those fears being unfounded, but she couldn’t help straying back to what she knew of her parents.  Her mother definitely wouldn’t like this.  But what else was she expected to do?  They were her parents.  They loved her.  If she told them that the son of her father’s business partner was a deranged psychotic lunatic then they’d have to believe her.

            So, what she said was, “You’re arm is rather damning evidence.”

            “You didn’t sound so sure of that earlier,” Paris pointed out.

            “Paranoia,” Ariadne replied.  “They’re my parents.”

            Paris nodded, but as he gazed out the window he brought his good arm up and nibbled on the nail nervously.  The tick didn’t bolster Ariadne’s confidence in her decision but she pushed her anxieties away and continued driving.

            She did a pass of her cul-de-sac estate before circling back to the gate.  There was no sign of a police car or any other vehicle so Ariadne felt safe enough to move up to the gate and punch in the code.

            As the gates swung open she drove the car in and parked it in the driveway space in front of the garage.  As she killed the engine and got out, Paris did a quick three-sixty and took in her childhood home.

            “You could fit a small village of houses my size on this cul-de-sac,” Paris laughed.

            “It’s really not as big as it looks,” Ariadne said, instantly realizing how dumb that sounded.  “I mean, it’s not that special.  You really don’t get to use all this space anyway.”

            “If you lived in my house for a few months you’d begin to value every inch of space,” Paris assured her.  “Sorry, I’m not trying to make you feel guilty or anything.  I like where I live.”

            “Yeah,” Ariadne nodded, still feeling self-conscious about the size of her home compared to Paris. “It’s a bitch to mow the lawn on Saturday’s though.”

            Paris laughed as they approached the lily-pad walkway to her front door.  As they stepped past the fence the front door of Ariadne’s house swung open.

            Her mother stood in the doorway, eyes drilling into Ariadne so hard that she stopped in her tracks.  She didn’t see her father behind her mother and waited with trepidation for the maelstrom to hit.

            Ariadne didn’t receive the welcoming she had expected.  Her mother quickly stepped outside, walked right up to her, and wrapped her in a hug.

            “Thank goodness you’re all right,” she whispered in her ear.

            Taken aback, it took Ariadne a moment to return her mother’s hug.  “I’m all right Mom.  I’m okay.”

            Her mother pulled back and gripped Ariadne’s face in her hands, angling it from side-to-side as though she were examining her.

            “You’re not hurt, are you?”

            “No, I’m fine Mom, but Paris got shot.”

            “Got shot?” her mother cried, turning to Paris and jumping as if she hadn’t even noticed him there before.  “You’re Paris?”

            “Have been all my life,” Paris assured her, offering a hand.  “It is nice to meet you Mrs. Helen.”

            For a brief moment, Crete Helen stood starring at Paris with a look of confusion on her face.  Ariadne honestly thought that her mother might leave Paris hanging.  Paris seemed to sense some discomfort – really, with the silence that had descended over the three of them after her mother’s initial outburst of concern, it was impossible for him to not pick up on the vibes – and was about to lower his hand when Crete’s hand shot out and took it.

            “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Paris,” Ariadne’s mother said.  “Ariadne has mentioned you quite a few times before.  It’s nice to finally put a face to the name.”

            “Oh, you talk about me, do you?” Paris asked, winking at Ariadne as Crete released his hand.

            “Oh yeah.  Usually about how hunky you are and how I get weak in the knees whenever I see your athletic prowess in action,” Ariadne assured him.  “Oh, sorry, I almost threw up in my mouth a little bit.”

            Crete glanced between the two of them, her mouth twisting into a look of revulsion, but it quickly disappeared as she beckoned the two of them inside.

            “It’s chilly out here, you two should come in and explain to me what this business with being shot is all about.”

            “Is Dad here?  I’d rather not explain myself twice,” Ariadne asked as she led the way inside.

            “No, your father had to leave for work early,” her mother answered.  “It’s just the three of us for now.”

            Ariadne frowned.  Despite her mother’s initial act of affection upon her arriving, she had hoped for her father to act as the counter-balance between the two of them that he normally was.

            “Now, when you say shot?” Crete asked as she closed the door and locked it behind them on their way to the living room.