Page 99 of Hellbound

“Because I’m going crazy sitting around. We’re going to do something about it.”

Marian arched a brow. “Good something or bad something?”

Tori flashed her a small smile. “I only do good something’s from here on out.”

Tori led Marian out of her room and through the labyrinthine house to a spacious rec room. There was a pool table on the far side and a living room theater on the other, marked by plush white recliners and a massive screen.

Marian let out a low whistle as she stepped inside.

“Do you like pool?” Tori asked.

Marian turned her attention to the billiards table. “I don’t know.”

Tori headed straight for it. “It’s fun, I’ll show you.” She pulled two pool cues off the wall-mounted rack. “My brother taught me to play. Do you have any siblings?”

Marian shook her head as Tori handed her a cue.

“Siblings are such a mixed bag. My brother and I were at each other’s throats constantly. But when mom got sick, I guess we both realized the beef between us was too petty to keep.”

“Oh. Well, good for you guys.”

Tori’s smile turned sheepish. “Sorry, I know you don’t like talking about personal stuff.”

“It’s fine. I get it. You miss your family,” Marian muttered.

Tori removed the triangle and set up the first shot. “I’m not going to keep score; I just need something to do with my hands so I don’t throw Vale’s computer out a window. How can you say you don’t know if you like pool?”

Marian turned her cue in her hands and wracked her brain for what should have been an easy answer. Surely, she’d played pool enough to form an opinion. But as she searched her memories for that evidence, she came away empty. “I don’t remember playing much.”

Or at all.

The balls scattered with a “crack” as Tori took her shot. A solid green ball ricocheted off a wall and right into a pocket. Tori straightened and propped her cue on the floor.

“What do you do for fun?”

Marian shrugged. “I drink beer. Coffee.”

Tori snorted. “That’s like saying your hobby is breathing.”

Marian drummed her fingers on the wooden perimeter of the pool table.

“I read.” Clickbait and dead message boards about not-Hell and how to get there.

“What about before you became a diver?”

Again, Marian had to think very hard about what should have been a simple answer. When was the last time she went looking for these memories? Maybe she’d stopped because they weren’t there. Or there hadn’t been anyone around to ask her to find them.

Yet as she pulled and pulled at her past for evidence of a life she had to have enjoyed at some point …

Static. So much of it.

“Don’t pull a muscle or anything,” Tori said with a nervous laugh as Marian floundered through the great sea of nothing in her mind. Until she spotted a speck of a memory, like an island in the distance.

“I … played video games.”

Tori perked. “Oh yeah? What did you play? Also, it’s your shot.”

Marian shuffled to the table and mimicked Tori’s stance. She hit the cue ball and sent a few stripes tumbling into each other, but nothing ended up in a pocket.