Drawn & Quartered

Chapter 5

December 28th 2011

Mige, Linde, Gas and Burton sat in their rehearsal space waiting for Ville. They had all planned to meet there first thing in the morning for a final Helldone rehearsal and Ville was running late. Running late was generous, Ville had kept them waiting for hours. They were supposed to start at noon, it was nearing 4 o'clock.

By now, word had started to spread about Caitlyn and her rebound, which shocked everyone because Ville hadn't said a word about a breakup.

"Should we ask him if he's alright?" Burton suggested.

"You can, I'm not going to bring it up." Gas replied with his typical Scandinavian "mind your own business" philosophy.

Moments later, Ville walked in seemingly followed by a storm cloud.

"What's up?" Ville said out loud but to no one in particular. His friends watched as he pulled out a case of beer from his backpack and a bottle of Jack Daniels, immediately cracking open the cap of the latter and taking a swig.

Mige and Burton side-eyed each other, Ville had been sober for years. A familiar feeling of dread washed over the room. They'd all been here before.

"Are we having a party or something?" Mige questioned.

"Hm? Oh, no." Ville responded. "Just me. One man party over here."

"I see we're starting early?" Mige questioned.

"Ha! Starting? That would imply that I've stopped." Ville chuckled. "No no, my dear boy, this is day 3 for me."

"Ville--"

"Mige, I love you, but shut the fuck up. You have no fucking idea what the last 3 days have been like for me." Ville glared at his friend.

Linde, Mige, Burton and Gas all shifted uncomfortably. They'd been here before.

"Gas, doesn't look like your kit's put together." Ville mentioned, cracking open a beer. "Maybe do that so we can get the fuck out of here at a decent hour?" Tone dripping with passive-aggressiveness.

Gas replied, matching Ville's tone. "Oh yeah, my bad. We've all been waiting on you for hours but sure..."

"And in all that time you could have had your shit together but alas!" Ville replied bluntly, throwing his arms up in an exaggerated shrug.

Ville picked up his backpack and ducked into the bathroom, immediately turning on the sink.

"I'm not sure why he took his bag in there, I doubt he's changing his tampon. Even though he's acting like a PMSing bitch." Burton pointed out.

"I can think of a reason." Linde muttered.

Seconds later, the running water stopped and Ville emerged from the bathroom rubbing his nose and stuffing his keys back into his backpack.

He cleared his throat loudly and sniffled. "I know we said that we'd take a break after Helldone, but I've been writing, so I'm thinking we can reconvene on the 3rd to start going over some ideas I have. Title of the new album is 'Fuck you Caitlyn Part 1.' And then we'll have a single called 'I'm Going to Murder Matthias Olavi in His Fucking Sleep.'" He sniffled again.

"Ville, do you need to go sleep it off?" Burton asked.

Ville side-eyed Burton, "I don't need sleep. I need to create. It's the only way I'm not going to walk out this fucking door and kill that motherfucker."

"Ville--" Mige admonished.

But before Ville could jump in and begin to tear Mige a new asshole, Linde chimed in "No, I get it."