As we walked into the house I was shocked by how different it looked inside. My grandfather had inherited this house from his father, but at the time it was much smaller, and while he had it built up to its present form, his style was, well, austere at best; some humans might call it “Spartan.” His son, my uncle Khakkoc, was a little more flamboyant, had a little better taste, and the interior design became classier, updated. But I guess since my cousin Shal became capo, he decided to do the interior along his own, incredibly flashy inclinations. There was tiger pelt rugs strewn about the house, lots of leather, there was custom Versace decor and furniture which must have cost a lotta fuckin’ money, more than I could even consider at the time. There were electronics everywhere, big stereo systems, televisions in nearly every room, even the kitchen and the fuckin’ bathrooms. All the newest video game systems were layin’ around, hooked up to a television here and there, and there was big arcade box games over in a wing of the house that led off from the main living room; I could have swore that room used to be for ceremonial purposes, private family matters and rituals. In the middle of the big, open living room there was a small fountain built into the floor, and at the top of the fountain was a small statue of marble inlaid with gold veins, and as I got closer I realized it was a statue of my cousin, Shal, with a crown on his little marble head, wearin’ some sort of royal regalia, and a little gold plate underneath that read: SHAL I, KING OF KINGS, BOSS OF BOSSES. I studied it for a moment, perplexed, wondering, is this for real? He always thought fairly highly of himself, but this is somethin’ else entirely.
“Glorious, isn’t it?” Shal noticed me lookin’ at his statue, mistakenly thinking I was silently in awe of it. “One of the guys had it made for me last year as a birthday gift, after we hit a big score heisting a diamond shipment.” Lookin’ down at his little miniature statue, he proudly went on, “wish you woulda been here for that, Teek, so much cash you coulda filled rooms with it, hell, coulda built a replica house out of it.” He chuckled. “I whacked it up fairly amongst my top guys, put some of it on the streets.” His red eyes flashed greedily. “Now I’m doin’ better than my old man or gramps ever did.” He pulled his big revolver out from his waistband, placed it on the round glass and iron table by the couch.
“A little vainglorious, no?” I pointed at the statue, an eyebrow raised.
Shal barked a laugh. “But if only we were so lucky to have a hobgoblin as boss of Philly, no?” Then he turned away from me and called towards the kitchen, “Welga! Where are you?”
“I’m in the kitchen with my sister, dear!” A sweet hobgoblin lady’s voice called back. “We were watching this cooking show, and now we’re trying to make an elven charcuterie board!”
Shal patted me on my already stuffed and slightly protruding gut. “I love a good charcuterie board, had one for the first time last year when I took the wife over to Paris, fell in love with ‘em. How ‘bout you?”
I raised my eyebrows at him, pushed his hand away from my belly. “You didn’t say that the girl I was supposed to marry ten years ago would be here.” I grabbed hold of Shal’s arm.
Yanking his arm back from me, he hissed, “I didn’t even fuckin’ know you were back until a half hour ago! What am I supposed to do, throw her out because you decided to waltz in out of nowhere?” Shal turned to walk towards the kitchen, saw I wasn’t followin’ him, so he reached back, grabbin’ part of my shirt and pulling me with him ‘til I started walkin’ of my own volition. When we got to the kitchen, the two beautiful hobgoblin women were standing next to each other at a big island in the middle of the kitchen, watchin’ a television set up against the wall on the counter opposite of them.
“Oh, I didn’t know we had company.” Welga looked up and over at me, shot a confused look at Shal.
He nudged me into the light of the room, and I noticed that Welga briefly scanned me before turning an angry red eye back on her husband. She was tall and lean, her skin a shade of blood red, crimson, and her eyes shone like a cat’s. Her hair was worn up, in one of those old styles like from the 50’s, which surprisingly looked good on her. To top off her retro look, she had one of those long thin cigars with a plume of smoke rising from it that might as well have been potpourri from the smell of it. Her sister, Rosma, the one I was supposed to marry long ago and who I had actually had something of a genuine friendship with back then, looked at me strangely, like she was confused by what she was seeing, maybe having an odd sense of deja vu, or perhaps tryin’ to figure out where she might have seen me before.
“Excuse me,” Rosma began, a gorgeous but shy hobgoblin girl that had grown into an even more beautiful but excessively shy hobgoblin woman. She was much shorter than her sister, with a wider face, almond eyes the color of amber. Though she was shorter, her pointed ears rose much higher than her sister’s, rising out from the thick obsidian hair that swept down, grazing her shoulders. And her skin, it was lavender color that was rare among our kind, hobs like that being called blue bloods, crystals, among other things. “You look really familiar...”
“I get that a lot,” I muttered, causing Shal to snort a laugh and his wife to glance at me quickly.
“Have we met before?” Rosma turned to her sister, then back to me. “Do we know each other?”
“You two were betrothed, once upon a time!” Shal shouted triumphantly, no longer able to contain himself and laughing hard.
“Oh! Oh, my…” Rosma blushed.
“By all the gods in the night sky!” Welga exclaimed, her long silver and red-highlighted curls bouncing as she turned from me to Shal, back to me, her mouth dropping as she looked me up and down. “Teek? Is it really Teek? But, we all thought you disappeared, we thought you were... gone.”
“I was gone, you could say,” I started, nervous under the questioning eyes of these girls.
“Take it easy,” Shal told his wife. “Teek’s been surfin’ in California with the beach bums, he’s been long lost but he’s home now.” He went over to Welga, put an arm around her. “He’s family, and we’re gonna make him feel like he’s home with his family.” He looked pointedly down into his wife’s eyes, then looked at me. Welga came around the island counter and hugged me, saying a heartfelt ‘welcome home’ in my ear, kissin’ my cheek real quick then walkin’ back over to her sister and Shal. Rosma looked like a scared, trapped animal, her soft doe eyes darting from me to her sister to Shal, back to me, over to the doorway, over to the hallway around the corner and the bathroom it contained.
Finally she settled her eyes on me, which was a little unnerving, and said simply, “welcome back, Teek.” Then, turning to her sister, “I need to…head home. I have something in the oven.”
“Okay, Ros’, go ahead,” Welga responded quietly, nodding to her younger sister. Rosma immediately hurried out of the room, her footsteps fading fast as she went around the hallway and towards a back staircase.
“What the hell, man?” I shot over at Shal, irritated. “That was really awkward!”
He grinned and shrugged his shoulders, but didn’t say anything to me, instead turning to his wife. “Me and Teek gotta talk a little family business, okay?”
“Oh, okay,” Welga said quickly. “I’m gonna go check on Ros’.” She turned back to me. “It’s so nice to see you again, Teek, I can’t believe how long it’s been!” She hurried out of the room, her bougie high heels clicking on the expensive hardwood floor.
Shal grabbed a bottle of dark red wine outta the wine cabinet under the island counter, expertly popped it open, let it breath for a few moments, swirled the open bottle under his nose, breathing in the rich bouquet, then grabbed two glasses and poured. I was already half drunk, but I took the glass.
He pointed down at the mostly made charcuterie board, loaded with different sorts of meats and cheeses, jams and mustards, tiny cornichon pickles, some crusts of bread, looked at me and rumbled, “help yourself.”
“I’m stuffed, cuz.” I had to say, I was really startin’ to dig how Sh
al was livin’, he made our family home opulent, luxurious, had beautiful girls in the kitchen, ate like a fuckin’ king all throughout the day. I looked out the windows of the french doors, which led out of the kitchen and into the backyard, which had a massive pool, a large pool house, multiple good sized bungalows, a big grill, a bunch of beach-style chairs, tables here and there with umbrellas. There was a couple hobgoblins pacing around back there, both carryin’ big rifles.
“So, I was thinkin’,” Shal began, snatchin’ up some items from the charcuterie board, poppin’ them all in his mouth together, “Now that you’re home, you should come join my crew. It’s only right, blood sticking together.”
“Join your crew.” I looked at my cousin in surprise, wondering, just like that? The offer was sorely tempting, all things considered. I could never bring the hybrid girls around him, the other hobgoblins in his crew, that was certain, but maybe it could work. No... No, it couldn’t work. I ain’t my father and he sure ain’t his, and after all this time takin’ orders mostly from myself, sometimes from that fat faced orc J-Maxx, I couldn’t go back to that. I want my own thing, I don’t wanna work for my cousin for the rest of my life.
“Teek.” Shal was lookin’ at me intently, though his eyes had a pink haze to them. “What do you say? It’s what we always talked about back in the day, and now it can be reality.”
“Just like that?” I blurted, not thinking. I saw a light hurt in Shal’s eyes, once again it seemed like I was turnin’ him down, and it made me feel bad.
“You’re my cousin,” he said coldly, “and more than that, you’re smart, capable. You’d be a real valuable piece of manpower that I could put to good use.” He patted his pocket on his left leg. “And you’d be rollin’ in the dough and the girls in no time.”
I didn’t want to say no outright to him, and all the wine was confusing me, making me nearly forget all that had led up to me being in Philly in the first place.
“Shal...” I started slowly, as purposefully as I could muster at the time. “I appreciate it, man, I’m grateful, really. Look, I just got here, right? I wanna figure things out first.” I paused when he snarled at that, thinking he was about to say something in anger, but when he didn’t I went on. “Plus, I’ve been doin’ my own thing so long now, I was kinda lookin’ to continue that out here, no disrespect.” I finished, hoping he wouldn’t snap and throw his glass of wine in my face. “But maybe there’s some way we could help each other out.”
He looked at me real hard for some time, but then he finally broke into a wide smile, threw his arms up in mock frustration. “You always were a stubborn son of a bitch, Teek.” He came around the island, put his arms around me and hugged me tight for a second, then pulled back. “But damn it’s so good to see you back. Come, let’s talk about all this. What’d ya have in mind?”
Chapter 10
We were sittin’ at the table as the afternoon hours flew by, shootin’ the shit, recallin’ old times. They always say that ‘remember when…?’ is the lowest form of conversation, but when it’s with family that you were close with and haven’t seen in nearly ten fuckin’ years, it was more than acceptable, hell, it was down right fun. As we were chillin’, laughin’, drinkin’ a little more wine, I broke out a joint and went to light it, but Shal suddenly stopped laughin’.
“What’s that you got there? Smells like some dope.” He pointed a finger at the joint.
“Yea, is it alright?” I went to grab my lighter, took it from my pocket, flicked open the top and was about to spark the little flame, when Shal reached out and snatched the lighter from me.
“What you do on your own time is your business,” he said seriously, puttin’ his glass of wine down. “I might let some of my guys sell that shit, but I sure don’t smoke it.” He looked at the joint with some contempt and disgust, his mouth curling in such a way to reveal a few sharp teeth. “And I don’t wanna smell it in my house.”
I looked at him for a moment in some surprise. “We used to smoke all the time.”
“Used to.”
I shrugged my shoulders, put the joint and lighter away, lit up a cigarette instead. Guess he picked up a few of his old man’s traits after all. I puffed on the cigarette. I was tryin’ to figure out how I was gonna lay it on ‘em, how I was gonna tell ‘em what I had to tell ‘em, since I was tryin’ to do my own thing and not necessarily be under my cousin. He was sippin’ on his wine, keepin’ an eye on me, the drunk pink haze in the whites of his eyes quickly transitioning to a reddish color, making them appear intensely bloodshot around the green color of his pupils. I could tell he was waitin’ for me to divulge my plans.
I took a big gulp of the wine, needin’ a little more liquid courage under that drunken red glare.
“So, cuzzo,” I began, smokin’ my cigarette a little too fast, probably ‘cause of all the wine, “what’s the lay of the land out here now? Are things still how they were, when I left?”
Shal shook his head. “If only they were, my friend, if only.” He drained his glass of wine, promptly refilled it with the nearly empty bottle he had just popped open. “It’s been chaos since you left, if I’m gonna be straight with ya. When my pops got locked up, the orcs that were testin’ us before got real ballsy, have been movin’ into our turf.” When he said this I immediately had a flashback to a few hours earlier, when I had been headin’ up to the old family house and had seen a few orcs walkin’ on Baron’s Street with that strange collar around their necks.
“Is it the ones with the collars on?” I looked up at him.
Shal gave me a shifty look for a moment. “Saw them, did ya?”
“Yea.” I nodded. “What’s up with that?”
“Those ones you don’t have to worry about. They’re mine, they’re workin’ for me. Didn’t ya notice the ‘S’ on the tag?” He smirked. “If ya see any orcs on our street without my fuckin’ collar on, that’s a problem.”
My eyes got wide for a moment as I thought, ah, that explains that. What the fuck is goin’ on here? He’s got orcs wearin’ his collars like they’re his fuckin’ dogs? He’s got orcs workin’ for him? Wonder what old uncle Khakkoc would say about that.
Seemingly guessing my thoughts, Shal drained half his wine glass and shot me a cocky look. “My old man don’t know about it, he wouldn’t approve, as you know.” He tilted his wine glass towards me. “But as far as I’m concerned, this is the way of things. The younger generation always takes the reins from the older. I’m acting capo, and I had to act, we needed more muscle on the streets and orcs don’t mind getting their nails dirty. I ain’t in bed with them. They’re a labor force directly under my control, and who has any right to tell me how to fuckin’ earn a living?”
I looked back at Shal in surprise, our drunken red eyes meeting.
“You sure got progressive,” I said sarcastically, not really knowin’ what else to say to what he had just told me.
He snorted a laugh. “I don’t know about all that, but yea, the times are changin’ and the clever ones change with ‘em. I'm not sayin’ I’m gonna spend my free time with orcs or eat at the same table as ‘em, but when it comes down to the brass tax, when it comes to the dollars, it’s hard to be picky these days. Our numbers ain’t as great as they once were, and I always been one to tell which way the wind is blowin’, just like you, Teek.”
“True.” I nodded, finishing my glass of wine, deciding to not take another. “No one’s got any right to try and get in the way of someone else earnin’, but your pop is gonna blow a gasket when he finds out.”
“And how’s he gonna find out, cuz?” Shal looked at me suspiciously. “Who’s gonna tell ‘em, you? That would be a mistake.”
My eyes shot up. “Gettin’ your fuckin’ stripes sure made you paranoid. You think I’d go run to him and snitch you out, after everything? After all the times you looked out for me, saved me from a vicious beatin’, to say the least?” I was really offended that he could even look at me like that, ten years missin�
�� or not. He seemed to pause and consider that for a few, then nodded to himself more than to me.
“What else did you wanna know?”
“What else do I need to know? I’m not tryin’ to step on anybody’s toes.”
“The elves are still runnin’ Center City, the nicer spots of South Philly, a few exclaves in the north of the city.” He counted off his fingers as he added up the elves territories. “They’ve become a real pain ever since they decided to make an alliance with the humans. We’ve had somethin’ of a cold war goin’ on with ‘em the last couple years, a lot of little bullshit situations that get blown out from time to time.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, the usual nonsense. They steal one of our trucks or corners, we kill a couple of their guys. They respond by killin’ twice as many as our guys, so we come back and take down even more of theirs, maybe torch some of their cars and trucks, some of their businesses and fronts that we know about.”
“That bad?” It wasn’t like that when I was still livin’ in Philly.
“That ain’t even the half of it.” Shal spat in disgust. “These elves that we’re beefin’ with, they’re workin’ for the Pale Spider.”
“Who?” I was gettin’ a little confused tryin’ to piece all this new information together.
“The Pale Spider. An asshole extraordinaire, he’s been the new boss of Philly since about a year after you left.” Shal shook his head. “A real prick of a drow, his real name is Rainn Mizziryth, and Teek is he fuckin’ miserable! He don’t even pass the salt!”
I looked at him curiously, thinkin’ my cousin was losin’ it, then I understood. “He’s one of them types that eats alone, huh?”
“And how,” Shal began, animated in his irritation and glad to vent about it to me. “Our family has been capos in the Philly organization practically since they built this fuckin’ city, yet every chance he gets, the Spider shits on us. He secretly encourages these elves and humans we got problems with to antagonize us, then when they take out a couple of our guys and we avenge ourselves, he hits us with an extortionate fuckin’ tax, per elf.” He shook his head bitterly. “Yet when they take out any of our guys, they get off with it scott fuckin’ free. Our people ain’t happy about it, Teek. My people. Some say I should step up, some say it would only be justice that a hobgoblin become boss of this city.”
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