Jason Thorn's Parallel Quest

"Break."

The ivory ball hit the felt and rolled, bouncing across the green. Jason Thorn watched it intently, concentrating on that ball as if his life depended on it. It was a deep plunge into the side pocket, but he was confident in his shot. The white chalk of his cue stick made a quiet *scritch* sound as he drew the tip down along the edge of the ball. His arm moved slowly forward and he put just the right amount of force into the hit, gently guiding it into that difficult pocket. The ball fell neatly inside, rolling twice before stopping.

"Nicely done," said his opponent as she lined up her next shot. "I'm gonna win this match now."

Jason grinned at her and stood back from the table to allow her room to shoot. He glanced around at their fellow players, who took little notice of them. Most of them were engrossed in their own games and didn't seem to care much about what was going on at this particular table. That suited him just fine; he wasn't interested in being observed either.

He couldn't have chosen a better night for this particular visit to the club. Most members were here because they needed some time away from home - somewhere they could relax and unwind with friends while they had a smoke or shared a drink. The staff knew most of them by name, so they would be unlikely to raise an eyebrow if one of them went off to play a game alone rather than socialise with everyone else.

That in itself was unusual enough to draw attention, though; lots of people were playing on their own tonight, but nobody seemed to be shooting pool or having any fun at all. In fact, it looked like most of them were sitting quietly by themselves at small tables with drinks and cigarettes in hand whilst staring into space or talking softly with friends as if they were deeply unhappy about something. No laughter or loud conversation anywhere in sight; all you could hear was the quiet buzz of muted conversations and soft background music. A strange atmosphere for sure - he'd have to ask someone later what was going on tonight that everyone seemed so sombre and miserable.

He'd made sure there was nobody else nearby when he had taken his cue off its hook by the wall and walked over to this table earlier, ostensibly to watch other people play some pool while he waited for whoever had claimed this table next to use it again so he could join in too. Once he got here though, he'd made sure there wasn't anyone around who might have recognised him before changing into different clothes right there on that table and hiding his old outfit beneath one of those seats surrounding it where nobody would look unless they were really desperate for a fag or something else from their pockets. He'd then changed back and gone through with his plan: sneaking out through a door behind this table where nobody could see him leave except for other players who weren't looking up from their own games anyway, hurrying out through another door near there and walking calmly down a corridor towards the rest room until everyone was out of sight before ducking into an empty room around the corner where he could change back again without anyone spotting him leaving that room either when they passed by later looking for someone who had sneaked out after them earlier (though no-one would suspect him since no one ever suspected anyone else).

He liked doing things like that every once in a while; not just for fun but because it gave him experience with other worlds which might come in handy one day when he might need to slip unnoticed into one of those places that looked very similar but had subtle differences which might be important later on when things started getting serious...

"Good shot," said Jason as she sunk her final ball into a corner pocket, ending their game on a perfect run-out which left him needing two shots just to tie it up again since she'd got two balls ahead already during this game thanks to some expert positioning of balls around the table which usually only took her opponents several turns longer than it did her instead of just one turn like this time - *she* always thought her trick shots were worth more than everyone else did even if they couldn't pull off anything nearly as tricky as she could! She picked up both their cues and walked round beside him so they could walk back over together towards the entrance hall after their game ended early like it usually did whenever they played against each other these days; she couldn't remember how many times they'd played each other now but she knew she always lost whenever they met these days regardless what anyone thought about how good she was supposed to be at playing pool these days...

As they approached that entrance hall though Jason stopped suddenly dead in his tracks outside it, causing her to bump into him from behind before turning around quickly with an annoyed scowl on her face which faded immediately once she saw why he'd stopped dead like that where everyone passing by in front of them could see clearly if they were looking towards them due to how well-lit that area was compared to most others nearby (not just from lights above but also from windows high up in walls either side): "You're not supposed to be here!" she whispered loudly at him before glancing nervously around nervously herself worriedly too as if someone might have heard her despite how quietly she'd spoken under her breath (which wasn't very quietly at all)..."I need your help!"

She turned quickly away again after saying those words, trying hard not just to glance regretfully back at him over her shoulder with tears welling up in her eyes before angrily wiping those tears away with both hands as soon as she realised what she'd done before turning away even faster hoping no-one else had noticed too before hurrying off through crowds towards those doors marked 'LADIES ROOM' further along past where security guards were standing by another set of doors leading somewhere else which no-one would dare go through without permission from those guys standing nearby watching everyone carefully especially since those guards wouldn't hesitate for one moment before asking anyone looking suspiciously guilty about anything nearby over for a word if anyone (especially women) complained about feeling uncomfortable about someone standing nearby staring at them for whatever reason...