Committed Chapter 5

Ariadne spent the first hour of the Halloween event manning the corn maze and ensuring that they didn’t send too many people in at once.  She had a walkie-talkie and she got a call from the end of the maze every time someone made it out.  Everyone who went into the maze was given a card with the phone numbers of the members of student council on it so that if they got lost and really couldn’t find their way out they could call for assistance.

            In that hour, there was no sign of Paris.  Ariadne found herself unexpectedly disheartened at the thought that Paris might have skipped out on the Halloween event.  She hadn’t realized how much she’d been looking forward to seeing his grinning face approaching the maze.  It didn’t have anything to do with their stupid little challenge; she just really wanted to feel that warmth in her chest that Paris always gave her.

            Ariadne mentally chided herself as one of her fellow student council members came to relieve her of her post.  She was feeling upset about what her mother and father had said to her at dinner and it was terrible of her to use Paris to make herself feel better.  She wasn’t going to abuse his feelings for her.  While she did have some feelings for Paris, it was unfair to him to exploit his feelings for her just to make her feel better if she had no intention of making anything of them.  She couldn’t do that to him.

            So, shaking off her disappointment, Ariadne began to explore the field and see what other events had been set up.

            The fields twenty-foot high halogen lights were all light up to brighten the otherwise pitch black field.  Beyond the radius of those bulbs the night faded into an absolute darkness with nothing but a white moon hanging like a cotton candy piñata high above the spectacle.

            The field itself was full of people moving from event to event.  It was almost impossible to distinguish individual voices the further you got from the corn maze.  They’d set the sound system up furthest from the corn maze so that people walking through it could use that as a reference point, if they were smart enough.  At the moment, a Katy Perry song pounded from the massive speakers and almost entirely drowned out the conversations around Ariadne.

            There was one of those Strong-Man booths where jocks were taking turns trying to ring the bell.  Ariadne laughed out loud when one of the team’s wide receivers failed to hit the bell only to watch his cheerleader girlfriend ring it loud for all to see.

            As she made her way back across the field, not talking to anyone or heading to any of the particular events, she passed by one of three cotton candy stands and caught a whiff of the sugary treat.  She hadn’t exactly eaten her full at dinner and even though the cotton candy could hardly be called substantial she found her mouth-watering at the smell.

            “Are you a fan of pink or blue?”

            Ariadne was much less surprised when she turned to find Janus standing behind her, two sticks of cotton candy held out before him.  One was blue and the other was pink.

            At first Ariadne thought about rejecting him again and ignoring her growling stomach.  But then she flashed back to what her parents had said at dinner.  More importantly, she thought back to what she had said.  In many ways, Janus’ refusal to give up reminded her of how Paris hadn’t been dissuaded from being her friend despite her decision to remain single in high school.  It really wasn’t fair of her to shrug Janus off just because he came from money.  If anything, there was the possibility they had more in common than she realized.

            “Blue,” Ariadne said, deciding to give the richly dressed new kid a chance after all.  She just had to make sure he understood that this wasn’t him getting his foot in the door.  She was opening up a new one for him; it was up to him to step through it.

            “Then it’s all yours,” Janus said, handing her the cotton candy stick.  “I will admit I was expecting you to make another attempt at rejecting me.”

            “I decided I might have been a little harsh on you today,” Ariadne replied.  "It's not so easy making friends when you’re the new kid and you…”

            “Have a lot of money?” Janus finished for her, chuckling softly.  “Well, that’s true, but I’ll admit I’m not interested in making friends with anyone at this school.”
            “Then I think it’s equally important that you understand I’m not interested in having a boyfriend, especially not someone I just met,” Ariadne replied.

            “You’re very forward about what you’re thinking, aren’t you,” Janus said, cocking an eye brow.  His smile had dropped down a notch.

            “I just want to be honest with you from the start.  I feel bad about stone walling you all day but, in case you hadn’t heard, that’s kind of my thing.”

            “Yes, I seem to remember some less than articulate individual in our history class expressing some sentiments regarding your nature.  I must admit Ariadne, I find it hard to be dissuaded by either his words or yours.”

            Ariadne frowned.  “Well, I hope you’ll respect how I feel about the matter and drop it,” she said, not unkindly.

            Janus’ smile rose back up a notch and he chuckled softly again.  “Of course, Ariadne.  Care to walk with me?”

            While they’d been talking there had been a lull in the music but now a song by Classified began to blare over the speakers.  Not really wanting to shout to be overheard, Ariadne nodded and they walked together away from the music.

            “So, are you staying alone at your family’s manor here in New Carthage?” Ariadne asked, curious to hear if Janus had brought more than his chauffeur with him to New Carthage.

            “I’ve got my house staff to take care of everyday business around the house, but otherwise I am all alone.  My mother and father are back home dealing with some ridiculous inquest by the Canadian Revenue Agency.  They plan on joining me here for a few months once all that nonsense is cleaned up, which I expect will be within the next couple of weeks.”

            Ariadne nodded, wondering what it would be like to live in a house as large as she imagined Janus’ to be with nobody but servants to boss around.  She found the idea very lonely.

            “So, is this what this school typically does for fun?” Janus asked, frowning as he looked around.  “It’s seems rather…low-brow for my liking.”
            That was the second time that Ariadne had heard the term low-brow used to describe the things she cared about today and she found her desire to try and give Janus a chance diminishing greatly.

            But, what she said was, “I helped organize all of this.”

            “Oh really?” Janus asked.  Something about the way he said it made Ariadne wonder if she was being mocked, which only made her feel more annoyed with Janus.  “Well, then my opinion of everything just got a whole lot better.”

            Ariadne held back her retort by taking a huge chunk of cotton candy in her hands and putting it in her mouth.  She felt the blue crystals dissolve on her tongue into a chewy paste and felt a little bit better.

            They walked in silence for a moment, eating their cotton candy.  After a bit, Janus seemed to go fed up with his, and tossed the half eaten stick into a garbage can.

            “Pink’s not my colour,” he responded to Ariadne’s raised eye-brows.  She shrugged, and finished off her own cotton candy.

            They were closer to the corn maze now.  The entrance to the corn maze was facing the rest of the events and they had started walking down the side of it.  The night air was cool against Ariadne’s face and she adjusted her sweater, pulling her hands into the sleeves to stay warm.

            “I have something for you,” Janus said, pulling something out of his pocket.

            “Oh yeah, what’s that?” Ariadne asked.  She was pretty much fed up with this conversation.  She had tried, but around all of Janus’ charm there was something she just didn’t like.  A way he went about talking to her.  It all felt patronizing.

            “Hold out your hand.”

            “Tell me what it is first,” Ariadne said, folding her arms across her chest.

            It was darker along this side of the corn maze without the halogen lights glaring directly down on them, so Ariadne couldn’t see Janus’ eyes but she noticed a vein in his neck throb before he spoke again.

            “I said, hold out your hand.”

            His words sounded a little bit more forced than they had the first time and Ariadne felt a little uncomfortable, realizing that they’d walked almost to the back of the corn maze now.  She stopped and Janus took a couple more steps before he stopped as well.

            “I think we should go back,” Ariadne offered, glancing back over her shoulder towards the lights and sound.  Suddenly it felt a thousand miles away.

            “I think you should put out your hand first.”

            She turned back and realized that Janus had taken a step towards her.  She glanced down at his hands, which were lifted out before him.  In his right hand he held a silver ring, like a wedding band.  She noticed a strange symbol in black inscribed onto the wedding band.  She also noticed that the same symbol was inscribed onto the golden wedding band Janus wore on his left hand.

            Something about the sight of that silver ring made Ariadne’s heart clench in her chest.  Sweat broke out on her forehead.  What the hell?

            “I want you to wear this,” Janus explained, taking another step towards her.

            “Look, Janus,” Ariadne said – her voice was steady but her hands were starting to feel clammy – “I already told you I’m not interested in a relationship.  And even if you were trying to buy my affection with a nice ring, you could have sprung for something a little better than that probably.”

            A shaft of light sliced across Janus’ face over his mouth and Ariadne watched it coil into a snarl.  She was so shocked by the sudden appearance of the bared white teeth that she didn’t see Janus’ left hand speeding towards her face until he struck her across the cheek.

            Ariadne nearly fell over from the force of the blow and stumbled to the side, clutching her cheek.  As her face stung, several things came to mind.  Janus had led her down the right side of the maze to the back corner.  The exit from the maze was at the back left meaning that nobody would be coming around this side and stumble upon them.

            Janus grabbed her, his grip like iron on her wrists, as he grabbed her left hand and yanked it up.

            “I said, put the ring on,” Janus barked, his voice cruel and harsh.

            Suddenly, Ariadne knew that the last thing she wanted was for that silver ring to go on her finger.  She tried to take in a breath to scream but found herself paralyzed.

She balled her hand into a fist as Janus brought the ring towards it and rasped, “Don’t touch m-“ but before she could finish Janus slapped her across the cheek again.

            “Shut up.”

            Ariadne felt tears welling up in her eyes but ignored them.  That second blow had been too much.  She balled her right hand into a fist as Janus attempted to pry her left one open.  She jabbed at him, catching him in the chin, and he stumbled back in surprise.

            “Oh, you’ll regret that you bitch,” Janus hissed.