Committed Chapter 13

“Damnit Paris, I could really use you conscious right now,” Ariadne whispered, dragging Paris across the living room.  She glanced at her mother’s prone body as she passed, taking some relief from the fact that her mother’s chest was rising and falling regularly as she took breath.

            Ariadne moved into the kitchen and glanced around.  The house had a side door to her left, through the kitchen, that would let her and Paris get out of the house.  From there, she could sneak around the house and head for the SUV.  She still had the keys in her pocket, so she was good on that note.

            The trick would be getting past the police officers and Janus.  They were at this moment approaching the house.  She would have to wait until the three of them came into the house before she snuck out, and she’d have to time it perfectly so that they didn’t hear her sneaking out.

            No small task.

            Ariadne approached the side door and lowered Paris to the ground.  She decided the best plan was to open the door, pull Paris outside, and wait until she heard the front door open to close the side-door and make her way around the side of the house.

            She pulled the lace curtains over the window of the door aside and glanced out of the window, checking in either directions.

            She spotted movement towards the front of the house and saw one of the two police officers walking down the side of the house, hand on the baton at his belt.  Ariadne’s heart seized in her chest and she let the curtain drop, hoping that the officer hadn’t seen it.

            She felt the man’s appearance burn itself into her memory.  She didn’t know which of the two officer’s she’d seen, but he had sandy blonde hair cut short to his scalp, a fat nose, and a wiry frame.  His exposed forearms were bulging with veins, his hands a mass of green cords wrapped around the handle of his baton.

            Ariadne crouched low beneath the window of the door and waited.  She hoped that the officer was just doing a lap of the house before they knocked on the front door.

            It then occurred to Ariadne that she was only hoping that they knocked on the front door and didn’t just burst in.  These police officers weren’t exactly following the usual rules of police procedure to the letter.

            Finally, she heard someone pound their fist against the front door.  Taking that as her cue, she opened the side door quietly lifted Paris back up as best she could, half carrying and half dragging him through the door.

            She heard the pounding continue and then a voice called out “Mrs. Helen!  Open up, please.”

            Ariadne recognized the voice of Officer Seth.  Since he had seemed like the more dominant of the two police officers back at Paris’ house, she assumed it had been Officer Antenor who had done the check around the perimeter of the house.

            Ariadne reached up and gripped the door handle of the side door and listened carefully.  She remembered that her mother had locked the front door so no doubt she would hear the sound of the police officers breaking in.  She didn’t expect Janus to wait patiently for someone to come unlock the door.

            At last, she heard the crack of the front door opening against the protestations of the lock.  She quickly pulled the side door closed under the cover of that sound and picked Paris back up again.

            Her heart jackhammering in her chest, Ariadne crouched low and made her way down the side of the house, continuing to half-carry, half-drag, Paris along with her.  She knew that her time was limited.  It wouldn’t take the three men inside long to find her mother unconscious in the living room and find that she was gone.

            She came around to the front of the house and hurried towards the gate.  They had left the gate open when they came through it and she began to sacrifice stealth for speed as panic began to set in.  Any second now, she imagined the police officers or Janus bursting out of the house and coming after her.  She imagined Officer Antenor’s veiny hands gripping his baton as he gave chase.

            To cover her retreat, Ariadne stopped as she stepped through the gate and pulled it closed behind her, locking it by reaching over the metal.  Since the lock was on the inside it wouldn’t slow down any pursuers very long, but it would buy her a few seconds.

            She started running across the cul-de-sac now, Paris’ limp legs dragging behind her.  Part of her hoped he would wake up as a result as she raced towards the SUV.  Otherwise, she’d waste precious seconds trying to get him into the vehicle.

            Paris didn’t wake up, his head bouncing around between his shoulders on a limp neck.  What had her mother slipped him in his coffee?  Her mother, who rarely left the house, had somehow managed to get her hands on some kind of drug or tranquilizer that had knocked Paris out cold after a few seconds.

            Ariadne reached the police car and tried to think of anything she could do to the car to slow it down and give her more time for her escape.  She couldn’t think of anything that wouldn’t waste more time than it would gain her so that she continued on to the SUV.

            Luckily, because of the way she had parked, the passenger’s side was facing her as she approached.  She grabbed the door handle and pulled it open before she heard the shouts from back at the house.

            “Ariadne!”

            Janus’ voice cut across the cul-de-sac like a bullhorn.  Ariadne glanced over her shoulder and spotted him and the two police officers running out of her house with long, full strides.

            “Sorry,” Ariadne apologized to Paris as she shoved him unceremoniously into the SUV, kicking his limbs in so that she could slam the door.

            Once again, Ariadne found herself racing around to the side of the door and jumping into the driver’s seat.  She yanked her keys out of her pocket and felt them slip from between her fingers, falling down with her feet.

            Ariadne cursed, feeling every second like it was slipping away too quickly.  She reached down and fumbled around until she felt her fingers close over the keys.

            As she jammed the keys into the ignition she instinctively pressed the lock button for the SUV’s doors.  Almost at the same moment a body slammed into the passenger’s side door.  She let out a cry and looked into Janus’ face as he planted his hands on the glass.

            “Ariadne, open the door,” he ordered.  His eyes were boring into her, seemingly melting the glass that separated them.  “Do it now, love.  Don’t make this any more difficult.”

            Ariadne jammed the SUV into reverse and slammed her foot on the break.  Janus stumbled back and Ariadne braced for the crunch of the SUV slamming into the police car.

            She jolted form the impact, but her tensed muscles kept her from flopping around as much as Paris’ limp body was.  She kept her foot on the accelerator until she had pushed past the police car and was able to whip herself around.

            Janus was barking orders to the two police officers who were already climbing into their police car, which they were able to start up despite the dent that Ariadne had left in the side of the car.

            Ariadne slammed her foot on the break as she drove towards the front gates of the cul-de-sac.  She gritted her teeth, wondering how strong the front gates were.

            She had just enough time to think how short an escape attempt this might up being when the front of the SUV impacted the dark gray bars of the gate.

            For a moment, Ariadne thought that the SUV had been brought to a halt by the strength of the gates, but then the gates were suddenly forced open and she pushed through onto the street.  As she spun the wheel to turn left and tires squealed, she glanced over her shoulder and saw the gates slowly swinging shut behind her only to be forced open by the police cruiser as it shot after her.

            Ariadne slammed on the accelerator again and took off.  Her knuckles were white with the grip she had on the wheel, her hands clammy with sweat.  A few strands of hair had fallen down across her face at some point, either when she hit the cop car or when she hit the gates.  She didn’t know wish.  She didn’t dare take her hands off the steering wheel to move the hair.  Instead, she shook her head quickly and when that failed to get the hair out of her face she gave up.

            The street curved slightly ahead of her and she pulled up her mental map of the street layout.  Behind her, the police cars sirens had flicked on, red and blue pulsating around the interior of the SUV as though the cruiser was actually inside the vehicle with them.

            Ariadne turned right sharply having waited until the last possible second.  The street she’d been on eventually ended in a dead end, the street she was on now would as well, but she was already four turns ahead, planning out her route and hoping to lose the cruiser along the way.

            The cruiser behind her had braked sharply and lost distance in order to take the turn.  The light strobes were now less prominent and Ariadne let out a slow breath.  She needed to stay focused, she had this.

            Paris groaned beside her and his limbs jerked slightly.

            “Paris!?”

            Suddenly, the SUV lurched and Ariadne jerked forward, almost smacking her forehead against the steering wheel.  She glanced into her side and rear-view mirrors and saw that the cruiser had come up right behind her.  She could easily stay ahead of them with the SUV but she couldn’t risk going too fast in case she over-accelerated through a turn.

            Gritting her teeth, she dared to push the speedometer a hands breadth further up and slapped Paris on the shoulder.

            “Paris!  Wake up!”

            Paris groaned again, pulling his limbs into a more comfortable position and bringing his hands up to rub his temples.

            “Oh God, I am just not having a very good day.”

            “How’s your arm?”

            “It kills…what’s-“

            Paris was interrupted by another jolt as the police cruiser impacted the back of the SUV again.  He sat bolt upright in his seat. He braced himself against the dash as he turned to looked behind them.

            “Oh, I guess they had a spare set of keys,” Paris grimaced.  “Damn.”
            “No kidding!”

            Ariadne tossed the car into a left turn, praying that her judgements on speed and angle were correct.  She felt momentum push her to the side and gritted her teeth as a stop sign roared up in the windshield, then was gone.  She snapped the SUV back onto a straight path and slammed on the gas.

            “I assume you have a plan to lose them?” Paris asked.  “They lost a little speed on that turn.”

            “Yeah, but they can afford to go faster than I can in order to catch me,” Ariadne said.  “I’ll have to try something different.”

            “Is it a reckless and possibly stupid idea?”

            “Paris, if we are still at the point where safe and careful plans are still an option I’m a little confused why we’re being chased by a police car!”

            “Okay, reckless and stupid it is!” Paris conceded.

            “Just trust me!” Ariadne snapped.  Secretly, though, doubt was riding shotgun with the staccato thumping of her heart.