Committed Chapter 7

Part II: Furiae

“But myth is something else than an explanation of the world, of history, and of destiny.”

– Paul Ricoeur

Ariadne was frozen in place, her heart suddenly clenched tight with fear.

            “I noticed you didn’t have sufficient motivation to act in your own best interest so I decided I might…help you along.  So, which of the available options are you going to be taking Ariadne?”

            Ariadne was having trouble thinking clearly.  Fear was clouding her thoughts.  What was happening?  How had everything gone so completely out of control so quickly?  Why had Janus brought a gun with him?

            “Ariadne?” Janus said in a sing-song voice.  “Time’s running out.  Fine, if you’re still not quite motivated enough, you’re going to make a decision right now or I’m going to put a bullet through Paris’ face.”

            Paris stiffened next to her and Janus brought his gun out, pointing it directly at Paris.  “Tick tock, Ariadne.”

            Adrenaline dumped into her system like the bursting of a dam.  It was a misconception Ariadne was quite familiar with that adrenaline didn’t slow things down the way it was often described to in books and movies.  Instead, it accelerated time.  Everything was moving faster.  Ariadne was quite familiar with this state of mind.  Usually, in the heart of a game, her adrenaline and instincts would pull her through the game.  But now the adrenaline was laced with the bitter taste of fear and if her instincts were wrong, and Janus wasn’t bluffing, then Paris would die.

            “Okay, Janus,” Ariadne said, raising her hands up to chest level in front of her.  “Okay, nobody needs to get hurt.”

            “Do you remember where I mentioned the first part of this plan was you shutting the hell up?  That part’s still in effect,” Janus snarled.  He gestured her forward with his gun.  “Don’t try anything.”

            Trying to think of a way out, Ariadne took a hesitant step towards Janus, her hands still raised in front of her.

            “Ariadne, no!” Paris cried, reaching out for her.

            “Keep your hands at your sides Paris,” Janus said, gun held steady.  “We don’t want any unfortunate accidents now do we?”

            “You can’t expect me to just stand here and do nothing!”

            “You’re right, I really can’t.  And frankly, your ruining what should be a momentous occasion.  I’m surprised you found us both so quickly.  I wasn’t anticipating that.”

            “Ariadne,” Paris said now, pleading.

            Ariadne just wanted them to both shut up.  She was judging the distance between her and Janus.  But planning how she was going to get the gun out of his hand was only part of the problem.  She also had to deal with how they were going to get away from him if he was still armed.  If they ran back towards the field, which appeared to offer safety in terms of lights and people, they’d be presenting their silhouettes to Janus and giving him the perfect target to shoot for.  And there was nothing between here and there for them to hide behind.

            The only direction that offered any cover for them was going to the right, around the corner of the maze.  There would be people manning the exit and it was far closer than anyone out on the field.

            “You know, I really don’t need you complicating things this time around, so I think it’s time to put you down,” Janus said.  Ariadne watched him raise the pistol higher to get a better aim, extending his arm out as he did so, and putting his hand into the perfect position for her to strike.

            She kicked out, the heel of her shoe striking his knuckles.  The gun fired, bucking in Janus’ hand.  The gun had a suppressor attached so the shot sounded like a clap.  It was louder than Ariadne had expected but not loud enough that it would be noticed above the music.

            The bullet went wide of where Ariadne knew Paris to be standing, probably burying itself in the ground to his right.  Janus tried to swing the pistol back into position for another shot but Ariadne was already punching out.  Her hands, which she’d raised as if in surrender, were now coiled into fists in front of her body, close to her chest like she’d learned in her kick boxing class.  Her first jab caught Janus in the shoulder while her second jab caught him in the chin.  He grunted in pain and stumbled back while his arms pin-wheeled for balance.

            “Let’s go!” Paris cried, grabbing Ariadne’s arm and pulling her away.  He seemed to have planned out the same means of escape as she had, pulling her around the corner and along the back of the maze.

            She shook off Paris’ grip on her and pumped her arms.  She started to pull ahead of Paris as they went.  The maze was now between them and the parking lot.  She felt her keys in her pocket slap against her leg as she ran.  The sooner they got to the parking lot the sooner they’d be able to get away.

            As they reached the exit Ariadne saw that nobody was there waiting for people to make their way out.  Someone must have called for assistance or the person had snuck off to do something else.

            Ariadne glanced over her shoulder and saw Janus come around the corner of the maze, gun raised.  She ducked instinctively, barely hearing the slap of a fired shot over the pounding in her ears.  If they continued running around the outside of the maze like this they’d encounter the same problem she’d thought of before, their silhouettes would make easy targets for Janus.

            “Quick, into the maze!” Ariadne cried.

            “What?”

            “I know the way through, come on!”

            Ariadne cut sharply to her left into the maze with Paris on her heels.  She heard another clap of gunfire and a sound like paper shredding.  She ducked her head instinctively.  Chunks of shredded corn fell around her.

            “Follow me!” Ariadne said, turning right at the first opportunity.

            “Are you sure you kno-“

            “I helped make this maze, remember!” Ariadne called back.

            The stalks of corn were lowering themselves down around them, filling Ariadne with a sense of claustrophobia.  She pushed forward, arms raised up to her face to help push aside the stalks that fell down in her way.

            More sounds of paper shredding and chunks of falling corn told her that Janus had followed them into the maze.  As long as they stayed ahead of him there was a chance that they might lose him.

            “Are you hurt?” Paris asked her as they took two left turns.

            “I’m fine, you?”

            “Just great.”

            The music began to grow in volume as they raced around another turn.  Suddenly, someone was in their way, and Ariadne cried out in surprise.  For a terrifying moment she thought Janus had somehow managed to get ahead of them.  But the figure in front of her cried out in shock too and leapt to the side.  Ariadne dodged past them and kept running.

            Ariadne cut to the right, racing down another path, her heart hammering, and consulted her mental map of the maze.

            “We’re almost out!” Ariadne cried.

            “Where are you parked?”

            “Close, I had to get here earlier to help set up.”

            “Good.”

            Ariadne led them down the stem of a T intersection and then turned sharply right, coming to a dead stop.  They had reached a dead end.

            Ariadne fought back panic and racked her brain.  Admittedly, she had memorized the path of the maze from start to finish, not in the reverse, so it was entirely possible she’d taken a wrong turn somewhere.  But they couldn’t risk going back, not if Janus had kept up with them.

            “Where do we go now?” Paris asked, turning around.  “Should we go back?”
            “No time,” Ariadne said, realizing that Janus had stopped shooting.  “He might not be too far behind, we need to go.”

            “Where?”

            “If you can’t go over it and can’t go around it,” Ariadne said, grabbing Paris’ hand.

            She pulled him after her as she pushed into the wall of the corn maze.  Using her free hand she pushed aside the stalks and stretched her foot through to the adjacent passage.  Paris followed through behind her, stalks snapping as he pushed through.

            “One more to go,” Ariadne assured him.

            As she pushed aside the stalks her foot got caught and together the two of them tumbled forwards out of the maze, sprawling onto the ground.  They were now just a few meters away from the entrance to the maze and people were all around them now.

            “Jeez Ariadne, you couldn’t just call for help?” someone asked, awakening a sea of laughter.

            Ariadne ignored the laughter and helped Paris to his feet.  “Come on, we have to go.”

            “You don’t need to tell me twice,” Paris assured her, glancing over his shoulder.  “Hopefully we lost him in there and it’ll take him a while to find his way out.”

            “There’s nothing to stop him doing what we did, now come on,” Ariadne insisted, pulling Paris after her as she ran towards the parking lot.

            They were about halfway across the field, heading back out beyond the Halogen lights towards the dimly light parking lot, when the music lulled and there were more cries of laughter and surprise from behind them.

            “Ten bucks says that’s him,” Paris cried, but Ariadne could hear concern in her voice.  She didn’t bother glancing back.  The last thing she needed was another glimpse of Janus rushing after them with a gun drawn.  She could only hope that the halogen lights would mask their retreat and that Janus wouldn’t risk running across the field with a drawn weapon in front of the entire school.

            The two of them ran side-by-side to Ariadne’s SUV, which she had parked closer to the school than the field.  Ariadne felt every foot-fall with a sharp clarity.  Every moment they were exposed on that run to the car.

            She fumbled the keys out of her pocket but managed not to drop them before unlocking the car with the remote as they ran.

            The driver’s side was facing them so Ariadne reached it and leapt inside before Paris had even opened his door.  By the time he was seated next to her, panting, and glancing over her shoulder back the way they’d come, she’d turned the car on and was reversing.

            “He’s right behind us.”

            “Does he have a car?”

            “I don’t see one.  His chauffeur must have dropped him off,” Paris said.

            Ariadne flipped the car into drive and slammed her foot on the break, heading for the parking lots exit.  She glanced into the rear-view mirror just before turning onto the street and spotted Janus slowing to a stop in the middle of the parking lot, silhouetted against the field lights behind him.

            “Did you drive here?”

            “No, I got dropped off by my parents on their way out of the city,” Paris replied.

            Ariadne slowed her breathing, trying to calm her racing heart.  She glanced over at Paris and saw him adjust his left arm over his chest, grimacing as he did so.

            “Are you all right?” Ariadne asked, keeping one eye on the road.

            “Yeah, I’m fine, don’t worry,” Paris said.

            Looking closer, Ariadne saw sweat breaking out across his forehead.  “Liar.  What’s wrong?”

            Paris adjusted his left arm again and winced, but didn’t respond.

            “Have you been shot!?”

            Paris didn’t respond but struggled to get his sweater off.  It was a zipped up sweater and he managed to slide it off of his arm despite several grunts of pain.  When the sleeve was off, he pulled the rest of the sweater off and bundled it around his upper arm, but he didn’t do it fast enough for Ariadne to miss the dark red blood running down his arm.

            “Oh my God, you have been shot!  We need to get you to a hospital!”

            “No, no,” Paris said, tightening the sweater around his arm.  “The bullet went clean through.  It’s not that bad.”

            “Stuff the macho crap, you’ve been shot!”

            “I’ll be fine; just don’t take me to the hospital.  If you do they’re report it because it’s a gunshot wound and then we’ll have to answer all kinds of awkward questions.”

            “Well, wouldn’t that be a good thing?  We need to call the police and let them know what happened.”

            “It’d be our words against his, and he’s got all the money.  Just go to my house, I’m closer than you are, plus your house is the first place he’ll look.  We need to take a minute and think about what we’re going to do next.”

            “Do you really think he’d be able to bribe the police or something?” Ariadne asked.

            “His family has power, and not just the monetary kind,” Paris assured her.  “I don’t think we should take the risk that he’ll be able to buy his way out of this.”

            “Fine, we’ll go to your house,” Ariadne said.  “But once we get there, we’re taking care of that wound.”

            “You’ll get no argument from me,” Paris assured her.