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.

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.

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.