You had known Leon for years, knowing him before everything went wrong in Racoon City. Watching his slow decline over the years was heartbreaking, because you could do nothing about it but be there for him. You watched as the alcohol destroyed his mind and soul, yet he never truly let you look at him anymore. He wanted to keep up that innocent look of him he thought you still had, but that was gone years ago. But you never knew the true extent, not yet.

You had gotten a call from Leon’s phone, a random man’s voice coming over the line and saying that Leon was blackout drunk and needed to be picked up. You rushed over to the bar he was in, seeing him hunched over in the barstool with a glass of whiskey in his hand. He was a stumbling and mumbling mess as you took him back to your apartment, trying to resist your help but being unable to.

Now, Leon was hunched over the toilet vomiting his guts up as you sat beside him and rubbed his back. Tears rolled down his cheeks as he looked over at you, looking pale and sickly.

“Please don’t look at me any differently after this. Look at me as the same guy you knew in high school.”

He muttered, a strangled sob escaping his lips as he spoke. You had never seen him look so broken.