Page 29 of Hellbound

“What are you drinking, sweetheart?” Paul asked Tori as he shook a stray lock of hair from his face. His lips slanted in a roguish grin.

Tori looked like she might puke. “I’m not. Marian was. Please get her a Blanton’s, neat. And put your shirt back on. I’m not into any of this.” She looked at Marian. “Does he strip on the job often?”

Marian’s head bobbed. “Often enough that I don’t notice anymore.”

Paul paused the clean-up-slash-gun show and frowned. He straightened and propped his hands on his hips, damp shirt still clutched in his palm. “What do you mean, you don’t notice?”

Marian sighed. “You take your shirt off at least three times a shift, which is a health code violation. The only reason I even started coming here was because I heard there were free tampons in the bathroom.”

Paul slowly narrowed his eyes at Marian. “Those aren’t free.”

“Welp, I’m gonna go,” Tori said and scooted out of the booth, grabbing her bag along the way. She produced a few crumpled bills and put them in front of Marian. “Text me.”

Paul gave Tori a wide berth. The traveler was halfway to the door when Paul put his liquor-soaked tee back on. He called after her.

“If I keep my shirt on, will you stay?”

Tori pushed the front door open. “No.”

When the door squeaked shut, it was just Marian and Paul again. She slipped out of the booth and found a new stool. She looked over at Paul, batted her lashes, and wondered if the gesture looked as cringey as it felt.

“You heard the lady. One Blanton’s, neat.”

Paul threw back his head and barked a short, sharp laugh.

“We don’t have that. You get Wild Turkey.”

Marian’s shoulders slumped as Paul went back around the bar. She eyed the liquor wall, which she ought to have inspected before she lied to Tori about what had been in her glass. And yet the traveler went along with it anyway.

Marian had never met a human with an uncanny ability. “Gifted,” they were called online. And none of them claimed possessing a power like that. Empaths, short-term foreseers, and emotional manipulators.

She drew her bottom lip between her teeth while Paul pulled out a fresh glass.

“Did Hell freeze over while I was pissing? Did you pick up a cute girl in here?”

Marian snorted softly as she bent to pick up her fallen glass. In another life, perhaps. She raised her hand to her lips to lick away the thin sheen of whiskey that had dripped on the pad of her thumb.

“I’ll let you know when I get there.”

She couldn’t remember the last time she’d flirted with anyone or felt even the slightest tug of romantic interest.

Liar. You felt it yesterday in Mr. Vale’s office.

The thought made her clamp her mouth shut tight. Lust, yes, but what she experienced in Mr. Vale’s presence didn’t count. The attraction she suffered when she was near him had to be an effect of his aura. Some demon trickery unique to him.

But Mr. Vale wasn’t here. And Marian had made yet another bet. Hopefully a mutually beneficial one that would end with a young woman keeping her life. If they failed? Well, that sure would suck.

Everyone made their own terrible choices in this business, and everyone owned them all the same. Pity was for suckers.

So, what does that make you?

WELCOME TO HELL > SPECULATION Elio & Spotter Shit

Ricky_deeSpotter— RiversideI have a theory. When divers die, the door to Hell opens, and stays open way longer than we thought. Maybe Hamilton was on to something—maybe brain death is what closes it. What if there are other damned, but we can’t see them because we haven’t fully passed through the veil. Maybe they slip through to Earth when we go to Hell. Maybe one killed Elio Ramirez.

1DeadguyDiver—VenturaYou think ghosts killed Elio? That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.

Ricky_deeSpotter— RiversideYou die and go to Hell, and that’s where you draw the line of plausibility? Ghosts?