Chapter 4: You Live Here?
In the early hours of the morning two figures could be seen staggering through the empty streets, one holding up the other. "Ugh, for a skinny guy you weigh a ton," Rael grumbled.
"What did you say?" Giriko snapped.
"Nothin'. Which way did you say your place was again?"
"That way," Giriko slurred drunkenly as he pointed a shaky finger to his left.
The two struggled on in silence for a moment or two before coming to a house that was so small and run down that Rael felt calling it a 'shack' would have been rather generous. "You live here?" he asked with a frown.
"Yep," Giriko mumbled and they made their way inside.
It wasn't long before Rael had helped his brother into bed and made a pot of coffee. "Here you go," he said as he handed Giriko a cup. "This'll help sober you up." The wasted weapon accepted it without a word.
Glancing around Rael spotted a beat up kitchen chair and pulled it up beside the bed. Flopping into it he sighed. "Whew, I haven't drank or gambled like that in years. What a night!"
"Oh that was nothing," Giriko said, his voice a little louder than necessary, but that was nothing new.
"Yeah I s'pose this is sort of a nightly ritual for you, isn't it?"
"What the hell's that supposed to mean?" Giriko shouted as he tried to jump out of bed.
"Nothin'. Just relax and drink your coffee." Rael placed a hand on Giriko's chest and gently pushed him back down into a sitting position. Had he been sober the demon chainsaw might have resisted, but as drunk as he was he said nothing and even drank his coffee without complaint. This didn't do much to put Rael at ease however. Giriko had been a young teenager when Rael had last seen him but he was drinking then too and Rael distinctly remembered the angry violent outbursts that would occur when his brother got into their father's liquor cabinet. Not that angry and violent weren't words that described Giriko when he was sober as well, Rael thought, but the point was that his brother had always been a ticking time bomb and Kess doubted time had changed him any. He would have to be on his guard.