Committed Chapter 14

The hair had fallen back into Ariadne’s face.  She took in quick breath and locked her eyes ahead of her.  She risked taking one of her hands off the steering wheel to shove the rogue strands of hair behind her ear.

            “Hold on,” she warned Paris.

            Paris tightened his grip on the door’s handle and braces himself against the dashboard with his other hand.

            “Would it help the situation if I told you that you are super-hot right now?”

            “Shut up Paris,” Ariadne replied.  But, against all odds, a smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.  It did make the situation a little better.

            The street Ariadne was aiming for was up ahead on her right.  There was one other street between her and it.  She pushed the speedometer almost to 80 km/h and glanced at her rear-view mirror.  The police cruiser was too close.  They passed the first street on the right.

            “There’s going to be a bump.”

            “Like a bump-bump or a crash-bump?”

            “The latter.”

            Paris cursed under his breath.  “Oh, this is going to hurt.”

            Time was running out.  The police cruiser was still too close.  Making a split second decision, Ariadne flicked on her turn signal.

            The reaction was almost instantaneous.  The police cruiser slowed, dropping back a couple meters.  It was enough.  It would have to be.

            Ariadne started to take the turn, checking her rear-view mirror for the split second when the police cruiser committed, then she yanked the wheel back.

            As the wheels spun in the opposite direction and they started to come out of the turn Ariadne grabbed the emergency brake and jacked it up.  Tires began to scream as the SUV whipped around, the back and spinning around.  The police cruiser tried to compensate and failed, streaking past the back of the SUV and narrowly avoiding a collision.  There was a bark of tires on cement over the now combined sound of squealing tires as the cruiser rode up over the curb.

            Feeling her muscles strained against the momentum of the vehicle, Ariadne dropped the emergency brake back down and stomped on the accelerator.  The change in momentum snapped her to the side, her neck aching from the sudden movement, but she ignored the pain.

            Backtracking to the first street they’d passed, she turned left onto that street and gunned it down the road.  Ahead was a major street which would take them in to the city, far away from these smaller residential streets that would ultimately suffocate them in a prolonged chase.

            “I don’t see them,” Paris said, turning to look behind them.  “Can I start howling with pain now?”

            “Sorry,” Ariadne apologized.  “How’s your arm?”

            “It feels like someone jammed a white-hot poker into the wound, but I’ll live,” Paris assured her.  “Nice moves.”

            “Thanks.”
            “Where did you learn to do that?  Summer School for the Fast and the Furious?”

            “Driver’s Ed,” Ariadne replied.

            “You had a way better instructor than I did.”

            They turned onto the major street, pulling in behind a taxi making its way downtown.  Ariadne loosened her grip on the steering wheel and forced herself to bring their speed down to something that would draw less attention.  Ariadne glanced over her shoulder and pulled over to the right lane.

            “We need to ditch the SUV,” Ariadne said.

            “Good call, they definitely won’t forget that.”

            “If they’re sticking with the story that you kidnapped me then they’ll be putting out an APB for this vehicle and for us.”

            “Okay, you definitely didn’t learn that at Driver’s Ed.”

            “No, just from watching TV,” Ariadne assured him.  Ahead, there was an off ramp to a different subdivision, one closer to the city.  Ariadne pulled the SUV off the main road and turned onto the first street they came across.  Parking the car at the side of the road she climbed out and chucked the car keys as hard as she could towards the nearest house.  The keys dropped into a cluster of bushes beneath the front house window.

            “Um, okay, that works,” Paris said as he climbed out as well.

            “The SUV was my mom’s car,” Ariadne offered as way of explanation.  “We’re calling a taxi.”

            “Where are we going then?” Paris asked.

            “I don’t know.  If we’re taking turns I guess it’s your call to make this time.”

            “Okay, how about the library then.”

            “The library?”

            “Yeah.  Right now Janus has the entire advantage.  He knows all about us.  Maybe it’s time we learned a little bit more about who we’re dealing with.”

            “I’m willing to accept anything right about now.”  Ariadne pulled out her phone and checked in her contacts.  She had read the taxi-cab phone number off the side of the cab they’d pulled in behind earlier.  Recalling it from memory, she dialled and quickly requested a taxi pick up.  She gave them the house number of the house she’d thrown her keys at and hung up.

            “They said it’d probably be five minutes.”

            “Okay,” Paris said, dropping down to sit on the ground in front of the SUV.  “Can we maybe take a nap until it gets here?”

            In response, Ariadne dropped down next to Paris and leaned back against the hood of the SUV.

            After a brief period of silence, Ariadne said: “I’m sorry my mother drugged your coffee.”

            “Trust me, that was not exactly how I imagined meeting your parents for the first time.  But it’s certainly going to be an interesting memory.”

            “What a terrible impression that must have given.”

            “Nah, you should see my parents.”

            They lapsed into silence again.

            “My Mom was going to give me over to Janus,” Ariadne whispered.

            Paris didn’t reply.  A beat passed and then he reached out to wrap his injured arm around her and pull her closer.  For a moment, Ariadne felt as though the warmth of his body beside her was the only thing that was keeping her from losing it.

Janus stood over Crete Helen’s body, waiting.  When his cellphone rang he removed it from his pocket and listened with displeasure.

            “She got away from you?”

            “Yeah, that bitch can drive a car.”

            “Do not call her a bitch.”

            “But you-“

            “I do not pay you to insult her.  However I choose to address her should not be considered a free ticket for you to demonstrate the same disrespect.  The two of you need to get back here.  Now.”

            “Yeah, yeah,” Officer Seth sighed before hanging up.

            Janus slipped his cell phone back into his jacket pocket and continued to stare down at Crete Helen.  He had not touched her yet.  He was waiting.  Any moment now.  He wanted her to see him standing over her when she first awoke.

            It took her another two minutes to stir, absently brushing the plant off of her face and causing the dirt still clinging to her frame to shift and collapse to the floor.

            She did not open her eyes, however, and Janus felt the familiar rage bubbling at the back of his throat.  At last, he could stand it no longer, and he kicked her, softer than he would have liked, in the side.

            She yelped and sat bolt upright.  She spotted him and turned herself around on all fours in a crab-walk and backed away from him to press herself against the wall.

            “Mr. Menelaus,” Crete breathed, her bottom lip quivering slightly.  “Sir, I am so sorry.”

            Janus smiled.  He thought about how odd this might appear to an outside observer.  A fully grown woman cowering on the ground before a seventeen-year-old boy.  Addressing him as sir.  It was good to see that this woman at least understood to give respect where respect was due.

            It was not really enough to dissuade him from his intentions.

            “You couldn’t keep your own daughter here?  You allowed her to escape from me again?”

            “Sir, I am so sorry.  I understand how important it is that you have her.  I tried my best.  I even drugged Paris and-“

            “So, you are telling me that you weren’t able to restrain your daughter, even with Paris drugged on the floor, and allowed her to overpower her?  You certain do set a new standard for the weakness of your sex, Crete.”

            “Sir, I can get her back.”

            “How do you presume to achieve that?  Your daughter was willing to strike you over the head with a vase in order to escape.  You obviously pushed her beyond her willingness to adhere to your authority.  What do you propose to do that could possibly get her to return to you?”

            Crete’s mouth opened and closed slowly, but no sound came out.  Janus grinned.  He loved the thrill of seeing that fear in her eyes.  A tear was budding in the corner of one of them.

            Janus moved swiftly.  He surged forward like a force of nature, swelling up against Crete’s body.  His right hand had already dove into his sports-jacket for his shoulder holster and pulled out the suppressed pistol, jamming the barrel into Crete’s cheek.

            “Oh, Crete, what have you done?”

            Crete was sobbing, tears rolling down her cheeks now.  One droplet curved onto the barrel of the pistol and sat frozen, as if waiting for what would come next.

            “Please, please,” Crete begged.

            “Do you understand how much it pains me to be away from her?” Janus asked, pressing his chest with his free hand.  “She is my very soul.  I hunger for her like a famished town hungers for the crop giving rain.  Every second I am away from her is like I am being devoured from within by this cruel love.  I spent too long without the knowledge of her and now that I have remembered I will not be kept from her.”

            “Please…”

            “She is even more beautiful and perfect every time I see her,” Janus continued, finding the need to confess to Crete more powerful than he had expected.  There were so few people who truly understood his predicament.  “I hate to use threats with her but she is not in her right mind.  She has been poisoned by this time against me.  But once she has her ring she will return to the woman I have known.  She will come back to me, as she always does, if I just keep up the chase.  She cannot run from me forever.”

            Janus lowered the silencer slightly, considering a new thought.  “Maybe she does desire me, she just wants to see how far I will chase her.  Will I follow her despite everything and still show her the same love and mercy that she has known from me before?  She will be punished, she know she will, for her actions.  But maybe she wants to see the lover before she can face that punishment.  It has been a while.  She needs to remember that I love her even when I raise my hand against her.”

            “I can help you…to make her understand…”

            “No, Crete,” Janus shook his head, slowly pressing the barrel of the pistol against her cheek again.  “Because of you, I suffer without her for longer.  You would have been rewarded if you could have brought this pain of longing to an end.”

            “Please…”

            “No.”

            Janus pulled the trigger.  The wall had caught the bullet, so it would be easy to remove it from the scene.

            When Officer Seth arrived back at the house and saw the remains of Crete Helen’s body he starred slack jawed at Janus, who was standing casually over her.  Antenor arrived a moment later and barely glanced at her corpse.  Janus’ gaze was directed out of the window and his hands were cupped behind his back.

            “I will have fifty-thousand dollars transferred into each of your accounts.  I believe that will be sufficient to keep this matter silent.  This is, of course, an additional payment on top of the original payment for your services.”

            Antenor was the first to speak.  “Of course, sir.”

            “Good,” Janus nodded.  He pulled out his cell phone and hit a speed-dial number.  “Hello.  Were you able to reach him?  Is he on the plane?  ETA?  Excellent.”

            Janus pocketed his phone and felt a moment of satisfaction.

            “What was that, sir?” Seth asked.

            “I do not appreciate curiosity,” Janus informed him.  “But you’ve caught me in a pleasant mood.  Not that I don’t appreciate your continued services to me, gentlemen, but I have sought outside help.”

            “Outside help?” Antenor asked, crossing his arms.

            “A bounty hunter, Officer Antenor,” Janus replied.  “We’re going to put a price on Paris’ head.  He is a wanted man.  He has, after all, kidnapped Ariadne Helen against her will.”

            “Of course, sir,” Antenor grinned, understanding perfectly.  He was already heading back to the police cruiser to use the radio.  “Come on, Ed.”

            “In a minute Han,” Officer Seth replied.

            Antenor shrugged and left the room.

            Janus adjusted his sports jacket.  Ariadne would not keep away from him forever.  He would show her the lengths to which his love would drive him.

            He did not even notice Officer Edmond Seth continuing to stare at Crete Helen’s body.

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.

Committed Chapter 12

It took thirty-eight minutes to explain everything that had happened since Ariadne had gone to school the previous evening for the Halloween event.  Throughout the retelling, sublimated only occasionally by comments from Paris, Crete Helen remained seated at the coach opposite Ariadne unmoving.  She had her hands folded calmly in her lap, her face hardly changed expression at all, and her eyes remained locked on Ariadne’s.  She asked Ariadne to pause only for a moment, when the coffee she had been making was ready, and then returned, handing each of them a cup.

            Finally, with the story finished, the three of them sat in silence.  None of them had actually touched their coffee but the more Ariadne smelled it wafting up from the white mug in front of her the more she wanted it.  She could use the energy boost, if nothing else.

            “I have three questions,” Ariadne’s mother said at last.  “The first of which is, did anyone see Janus shoot at you at the school field?”

            “Nobody,” Ariadne said.  She wanted to ask if Crete believed their story and at the same time she was still afraid of what the answer would be.

            “Okay.  My second question is whether or not either of the police officers saw you attack Janus?”

            Ariadne didn’t like the use of the word attack, somehow the way her mother said it sounded a little too accusatory for Ariadne, but she answered nonetheless: “No, they were both upstairs when it happened.”

            “Okay,” Crete nodded again.  “Then my last questions is this: is there anything that you left out from the story?  Did you text anyone else, talk to anyone else, or do anything else that you didn’t mention already?”

            “No, you’re the only person we’ve told anything to,” Ariadne replied again.  “Paris didn’t trust going to the police, and after what they did back at his house I think he was right not to go to them first.”

            “Good,” Crete nodded.  “The less people know about this the better.  The last thing we need is for rumours to circulate and for word to get out about what happened.  Publicity of these events will not help us.”

            “What are we going to do then?” Ariadne asked.  Her mother’s brow was furrowed.  This wasn’t the mother that Ariadne was used to seeing.  She seemed deep in thought and for a moment Ariadne felt the weight of Janus’ presence lift off of her shoulders.  Finally, they had somebody to help them who knew what she was doing.

            “We have to think carefully before we make our next move,” Crete nodded, as if to herself.  “This all has to be handled carefully before it gets any worse.”

            Suddenly, as if remembering her job as a good hostess, Crete shook her head and took a sip of her own coffee.   “You two look exhausted; have some of the coffee, please.  It’ll help wake you up.”

            “Thank you, Mrs. Helen,” Paris said, picking up his own white mug.  “This smells delicious.”

            “If there’s one thing that Arthur isn’t stingy about it is the quality of his coffee,” Crete assured him.

            “What about Dad,” Ariadne asked, setting her mug down after taking a searing gulp.  “Shouldn’t we call him and let him know what happened?”

            “He has a meeting this morning that he’ll be in and he will have his cellphone off,” Crete explained.  “He said he would probably be out of that around nine-thirty or ten.  We’ll have to wait until then to let him know what happened.”

            “You don’t think this is something important enough to interrupt a meeting over?” Ariadne asked.

            There must have been more edge in her voice than she intended because her mother gave her a scolding look before replying.  “Ariadne, this is possibly the most important thing that has happened to this family.  But your father’s phone will be off and I have no way of convincing his secretary to interrupt his meeting without giving her more details about what has happened than I am comfortable doing.  All we have to do is wait a few hours and he’ll be accessible to us.  Until then, all we can do is wait.”

            “No offense Mrs. Helen, but I’ve never been very good at waiting,” Paris commented, taking another sip of his coffee.  “And unless I’ve completely misread your daughter, I don’t think she’s much for the waiting game either.”

            “Amen to that,” Ariadne nodded.

            “Well, Paris, the only suggestions you seem to have contributed to this entire ordeal thus far is that we do nothing.  That doesn’t sound much better than waiting to me.  Or did you have another plan?”

            “We should get Ariadne out of the city for a while, without anyone knowing,” Paris replied.  “I would have recommended it earlier to Ariadne but I figured my opinion would have more weight if you supported it.  If we can get her out of the city without Janus finding out then we can buy ourselves some more time until we figure out how we’re going to deal with this.”

            “So, you’d run away?” Crete asked.

            “Mom!”

            “No, Ariadne, that is exactly what Paris is proposing, let’s be blunt about it,” Crete said, holding up a hand to silence Ariadne.

            “She’s right, Ariadne,” Paris agreed, “I am suggesting that we run.  But running away in a situation like this means we’ll be able to keep you from Janus and ultimately that should be our goal here.”

            “I’m not going to run from him,” Ariadne told him.  “That’s really not my style.  I’d rather stay and fight.”

            “There’s a time to run and a time to fight, Ariadne,” Paris replied.  He blinked slowly as he turned back to Ariadne’s mother.  “You must agree with me Mrs. Helen.  Keeping Ariadne here only puts her in further risk.”

            “My daughters not going anywhere, Paris, though I appreciate your concern,” Crete said.  Ariadne noticed her gaze was now intently focused on Paris.  Her gaze was sharp and her mouth had settled into a thin line, the slightest of curves noticeable at one corner.  “How is the coffee?”

            “The…coffee?” Paris asked, blinking slowly as he glanced down at the mug in his hand.  “Oh…God, you have got to be kidding…me.”

            Paris stumbled to his feet and dropped the mug.  The contents spilled onto the carpet but Crete did not even glance at it as she watched Paris.

            “Paris, what’s wrong?” Ariadne asked as she sprung to her feet and tried to support him by grabbing his arm.

            “The…coffee…she spiked it,” Paris mumbled, his voice becoming slurred as he took a hesitant step forward.  “Why would you…your daughter…?”

            Before Ariadne could catch him Paris fell on his side.  Ariadne grimaced as he landed on his bad arm, but he didn’t even flinch as he rolled onto his back, unconscious.

            “What did you do?” Ariadne demanded, dropping by Paris’ side and cradling his face in hers.  She quickly checked his pulse and found that it was still there.

            “What I had to in order to protect this family,” Crete replied.

            “Paris wasn’t threatening it!” Ariadne snapped.  She tried to lift Paris up onto her arm when her mother’s hand reached out and shoved Ariadne down next to him.

            “Leave him,” she barked, striding over to the window and pulling the curtains aside.  “He’ll be here soon anyway.”

            “Who?” Ariadne demanded, but she felt a cold sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.  “Mom, who did you call?”

            “Who do you think?” Crete snapped, barely sparring her daughter a glance over the shoulder as she watched outside.  “Do you have any idea how much trouble you’ve caused?  This situation has gotten completely out of control.”

            “You called Janus,” Ariadne breathed, her blood turning to ice in her veins.  “Why the hell would you do that!?”

            Ariadne sprang to her feet and in response her mother spun around and back handed her across the face.  Ariadne staggered to the side, feeling that sting for the second time that day.

            She starred at her mother in horror.   “What the hell are you doing?”

            “You are a selfish brat,” her mother snapped.  “Only concerned with your own problems.  Have you any concern whatsoever for others?  You should have just let him put the damned ring on you.  Everything would have gone much smoother if you hadn’t been so strong headed.  Now you’ve jeopardized things for your father and I as well.  Do you even understand how long you’ve been promised to Janus?”

            Suddenly, the ice in Ariadne’s veins turned to fire.  Before she knew it, she’d struck her own mother across the face.  Her mother stumbled back, catching herself against the windowsill and blinked at Ariadne in surprise.

            “You don’t own me!  I’m not some commodity!” Ariadne spat.

            “That’s exactly what you are Ariadne,” her mother hissed.  “That’s what your whole life has been.”

            Ariadne shook her head in disbelief, trying to rationalize what she was hearing.  It was insane.  It was too much to handle.  She had to get out.

            “I’m taking Paris and I’m leaving,” Ariadne told her mother, lacing her voice with the hatred now bubbling in her chest.  “And you’re not going to stop me.”

            With her mother glaring fiercly at her, Ariadne reached for Paris again.  She waited until Ariadne’s gaze was focused on Paris before she struck.  She reached out and grabbed Ariadne’s arm, dragging her back from Paris.

            “Let go of me!” Ariadne cried.

            Crete’s eyes were wide, her pupils dilated, and Ariadne looked into them for a moment as her mother shoved her back.  She could see anger in those eyes, anger directed at Ariadne, but there was something else in them too.  Something that frightened Ariadne even more.

            Fear.

            Her mother shoved her against a wall, her grip maniacally strong.  Ariadne’s hip struck a black mahogany dresser and rattled the objects displayed on top of them.  There were two vases with artificial plants growing out of them as well as a framed photograph of Arthur Helen, Crete Helen, and Ariadne Helen from a few years ago when they’d gone on vacation to Cuba.

            Ariadne was looking at that photo when she grabbed the nearest vase and smashed it into the side of her mother’s face.

            Her mother crumpled to the ground, her grip on Ariadne going limp as she did so.  She hit the ground with the shattered remains of the vase around her, black soil spilled out over her body, and the evicted plant falling across her chest.

            Ariadne took a moment to breathe, staring down at her mother in disbelief.

            Then, a voice kicked in at the back of her brain.  No time.  Focus.  Get Paris.  Get out.  Janus is coming.

            Ariadne stepped over her mother and hurried to Paris side.

            “Hey, Paris, conscious you would be incredibly useful right now,” Ariadne said, slapping Paris lightly on the face.  Her gave no reaction and she cursed under her breath as she lifted one of his arms over her shoulder and pulled him up.

            She heard a buzzer sound deeper in the house and froze.  That buzzer meant that someone had opened the front gate.  Her mother suddenly going dry, she dragged Paris with her over to the window and pulled the curtain aside to look out into the cul-de-sac.

            A police car was pulling into the cul-de-sac.  The lights were not flashing.  The car pulled up and stopped so that it was parked directly in the path of her car.  Three doors opened.

            Janus was the first one out, stepping out of the back of the car and adjusting his sports jacket.  He turned his gaze towards the house and Ariadne let the curtain drop, her heart hammering as she shifted Paris weight more evenly across her shoulders.