Committed Chapter 6

Ariadne turned to run but Janus grabbed her from behind.  He clamped one of his hands over her mouth and nose, cutting off her ability to breath.  She tried to scream but his grip was firm.  With his other hand he grabbed her around the waist.

            “I’m so going to enjoy breaking you in again.  You’re turning me on with all this resistance,” Janus whispered in her ear.  Then, as if to let her know exactly what he meant, he pressed his groin into her back.

            Ariadne felt revulsion bubbling up in her stomach as she struggled to get free of her attacker.

            “Hey!”

            Ariadne stopped struggling and glanced back towards the rest of her high school, all apparently oblivious to her struggle.  A single figure was charging towards her.  Even though he was silhouetted by the halogen lights behind him, Ariadne recognized Paris’ frame immediately.

            “Let her go!” Paris cried as he approached.

            “Oh look, its Theseus come to the rescue,” Janus chuckled.  “I wonder what he’ll do.”

            Janus grabbed at her left hand, which had been trying to pry his hand away from her mouth, and forced it away.  She struggled but he squeezed her wrist until she spread her hand open.  Then, she felt his hand creep up hers, working to get at her ring finger.  She began to thrash, trying to break his grip.

            “Leave her alone!” Paris yelled.

            He was on top of them now, so that all three of them collapsed to the ground in a jumble of limbs.

            Ariadne managed to roll to her left, away from the maze and the twisted pile of bodies, and scrambled to her feet.  She had her fists in front of her, ready to defend herself, but found Paris and Janus entirely focused on each other.

            She glanced towards the brightly lit field.  There were at least a hundred of her fellow classmates in that direction and – despite their usually overzealous interest in a high school brawl – none of them seemed aware of what was happening outside the safety of the halogen lights.

            Of course, from within that protective cone the surrounding area was too dark to see in.  No one could make out the three figures struggling alongside the maze only a few meters away from them.

            “You will never touch her again!” Paris was barking at Janus as Ariadne returned her attention to the struggle in front of her.

            “Oh, but we both know that I’ve touched her a thousand times, Paris.  A million times even.  And every time, no matter how hard you try, you can’t stop me from touching her again.  And what really must eat at you is the fact that every time I do, she loves it.”
            The malice in Janus’ voice was shocking.  Gone was the cool, collected, charm that she had seen earlier that day.  Now, he was like a feral animal unchained from some invisible restraint.

            Paris and Janus had both gotten to their feet and were standing a meter apart while they’d been talking.  As Janus finished his taunt, Paris sprung forward, his fist sailing through the air.  Ariadne almost didn’t catch the blow that landed on Janus’ face as a stray beam of light from the halogen lamps reflected off of a ring on his hand.

            Janus staggered backwards but had obviously been prepared for the blow because he returned a punch to Paris’ solar-plexus which almost doubled him over.  Paris coughed as he struggled for breath and charged forward, barrelling into Janus’ mid-drift.  Clutching onto them the two of them tumbled to the ground together, fists flying.

            “Stop it!” Ariadne screamed.  She could still feel where Janus’ hand had clutched her face and she wasn’t telling Paris to stop for his sake.  She was worried Janus might hurt him.  Despite Paris’ physical prowess, she had never seen him fight a day in his life and she didn’t want him getting hurt on her account.

            Besides, if it came down to it, over the past summer she’d taken kick-boxing classes as a way to stay in shape and could hold her own.

            Her small moment of self-confidence was overruled by the memory of Janus’ iron grip.  Despite not appearing very muscular, his strength was too much for Ariadne to break free from.  Did she stand any more of a chance against him in a fight than Paris did?

            As if in response to her question, Janus kicked Paris off of him and Paris sprawled onto the ground on his back.  Almost immediately, he kicked his legs back and lurched himself back up onto his feet.  Though the move was an almost classic one from fighting movies, Ariadne knew from her kick-boxing class it required a fair bit of strength and skill to actually pull off.

            Paris flew at Janus with a flurry of blows and Ariadne watched in amazement as Janus parried them and struck back with his own.  It was like watching a live choreographed fight sequence.  Except when Janus struck Paris across the face and a cut opened up over his eyebrow, real blood spitting on the ground, the illusion was shattered.  Neither of them were pulling punches.

            “I said stop it!”

            “Shut up,” Janus hissed.  “Let the men sort out their differences.”

            Ariadne stepped forward and delivered a sharp kick to Janus’ mid-section.  Completely unprepared, Janus collapsed backwards, crying out in pain.  Ariadne reached for Paris, who had fallen on all fours, and helped him up.

            “Are you all right?”

            “I’m fine, nice move,” Paris grunted, shaking his head and rubbing blood away from his brow.

            “You’re an idiot for coming to my rescue.  Who do you think you are, some damned knight?”

            “If I was I’d have probably been smart enough to bring some armour with me.  Fists hurt sometimes, you know?”

            “I’ve been told on more than one occasion.”

            “Are you all right?” Paris asked, reaching forward and cupping her face.  He tilted it so that the light shone on the side of her face that Janus had struck.  “Does it hurt?”

            Ariadne felt herself overwhelmed for a moment.  Too much was happening.  Janus had attacked her, Paris had fought him, he was bleeding, and now the last thing she needed was for his touch to make the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.  His touch was tender and yet at the same time electrifying.  She realized that he’d never touched her like this before.

            “I’m fine,” Ariadne said, feigning embarrassment and pulling herself away from him and angling her face away from the light.  “I’m not bleeding.”

            “A cut can heal,” Paris replied.

            Ariadne caught Paris’ eyes and held them for a moment.  Ariadne wasn’t often given to moments of sentimentality but for the briefest second she wanted to pull Paris into an embrace and feel his arms wrap around her.  She wanted to wrap her own arms around his neck and feel the muscles of his back against his palms.

            “Okay, I think that’s about enough for now.”

            Ariadne and Paris turned towards Janus who had pulled himself to his feet and was glaring at the two of them.  He wore that same simple smile and his arms were hanging relaxed at his sides.  He looked cocky, which only served to drown out the warmth in Ariadne’s face and concentrate it in her neck and chest as she tensed.

            “So, are we going to do this the easy way or the hard way?” Janus asked as though they’d been having a casual business discussion.

            He raised his right hand and opened it to reveal the same silver band resting in his palm.

            “We all know this is going on Ariadne’s finger, just as it’s meant to.  And then everything will be exactly as it is.”

            “I told you, that’s never going to touch her finger,” Paris growled, taking a step towards Janus.  Anticipating another productive fist fight, Ariadne gripped his shirt sleeve and kept him in place.

            “That’s enough, this is all over.  Janus, I’m sure you can afford a fantastic lawyer, but so can I.  So, I’m going to present you with a simple choice.  You have three options as I see it.  You can go through the exuberant affair of a physical assault charge, where our lawyers will no doubt battle it out with even less of a productive outcome than came from you and Paris fighting just a moment ago; you can transfer to one of the three other high schools in New Carthage and never make any attempt to see or speak to me again; or you can tell your mother and father you’d much rather be back in Ontario with them then out here in the boring east.  Any of these options is fine with me, but only one of them involves a whole lot of tedious news coverage that I’m sure your father couldn’t use right now considering what you told me about his financial situation.  So, what’ll it be?”

            Janus began to laugh.  It started as a soft chuckle and slowly built until Janus was almost doubled over with laughter, arms planted on his knees to keep him upright.  Ariadne felt her anger boiling just beneath the surface but tried to keep a cool head.  She also kept one hand holding Paris’ sleeve, as much for herself as for him.

            Finally, Janus stopped laughing and wiped away faux tears as he stood up.  “Oh God, that was good.  Thank you Ariadne, even after all this time you still manage to surprise me.  You got spunk this time ‘round.  I said it was going to be fun to break you in again but I never expected any of this.  It’s going to be positively delicious when I take you as mine again.”

            “Listen you sick basta-“ Paris took another step forward and Ariadne barely kept him from launching himself at Janus again.

            “I don’t know what you’re going on about Janus, but if you’re going for an insanity defense I don’t know how that could possibly be a better outcome than the options I’ve given you,” Ariadne said, trying to see through Janus’ game.  What were all these references to before and this time around?  They’d met for the first time today.  He couldn’t be talking about the time they’d apparently met as babies, could he?

            “Okay, I think this charade has gone on long enough,” Janus said, suddenly deadly serious.  “There’s only one way that this is going to go, and let me lay it out for you nice and simple.  First, you’re going to shut that slut mouth of yours, Ariadne, before I have to mess up those perfect teeth of yours.  Paying to have them repaired and coming up with the appropriate cover story would be so tedious at this point.  Second, I’m going to put this ring on your finger, where it’s meant to be, and you’ll assume your proper place.  And if you’re nice enough to me our first night together,” the way Janus’ eyes seemed to devour Ariadne at these words made her want to gag, “I might show you some mercy in the morning.  If not, I’ll break your arm along with that pretty mouth of yours.  We’ll call it a simple accident of course, and no one will ask any questions because you’ll agree with whatever I say.  There, does that sound simple and reasonable to you?”

            “Wow,” Ariadne said, shaking her head in disbelief, “you are right Paris.  He’s really is a sick bastard.”

            “Ariadne,” Paris hissed, suddenly taking his own grip on her arm.  Something in his voice put Ariadne on high alert.  It was only then that she saw the black barrel sticking out from beneath Janus’ sports jacket.

            Without her even noticing, Janus had slowly pocketed the ring he’d been holding and reached for something nestled in his left arm pit beneath the blazer.  Now, with the jacket draped over his arm and hand to cover it, he stood, ever relaxed, with something pointed in Paris and Ariadne’s general direction.

            Ariadne wasn’t certain, but she thought it looked like the barrel of a silenced pistol.