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Chapter One – A Monster’s Tale
The sun beat down on a fatigued thirty-two-year-old Brett Kelso as he made his way to the bus stop on his way home from a hard day’s work. The frown cast upon his face expressed sheer frustration as he cursed under his breath at the three teenage lads who were listening to grime music from a mobile phone as the three of them brazenly stood at the bus stop glancing at the broad-shouldered Brett walking towards them.
Brett Kelso would usually be met with an infectious, warm smile and he was well known for his brash sense of humour and energy; even though he was big and broad in stature, any menace that may have come with his size was usually quickly replaced with laddish charm. He was very engaging, always ready to greet you with a compliment, a sincere handshake and a reassuring pat on the shoulder. People liked to be around him. He could be a loveable prankster and would find great pleasure in making others laugh.
Like the time he strolled into his local pub when he knew one of the lads was in there taking a girl out for a drink for the first time, thus making his way over to greet the girl and his mate in just a pair of underpants and a curly wig, offering them a drink straight-faced as if nothing was out of place. Or the time he swiped the keys to his best mate Steve’s dad’s brand-new camper van to the absolute horror of Steve, before driving off down the road in it, stopping to randomly pick up two old ladies who were waiting at the bus stop in the rain and dropping them off into town
If anybody was feeling down, Brett would be the first person to go out of his way to cheer them up and make them feel better, but there was something happening to Brett Kelso. Recently, sadness had begun to fill his dark-brown eyes. His infectious smile was starting to fade. His caramel-coloured skin was not carrying the same glow and his heart ached with the pain of unfulfilled ambition
Some years ago people used to say he was one of the best hip hop MCs they had ever heard grace a microphone. He was a very talented lyricist and was once a big personality on the stages of the local clubs. He’d once had big dreams of becoming a star and having something profound to say to the world and making a change, but like a lot of things, these dreams had come to nothing.
The crowded rooms of venues and bars, and people cheering his verses and patting him on the shoulder and telling him how talented he was, were now faint memories. His life had become what seemed like endless days working hard yet having nothing to show for it. The breaks hadn’t come his way and he felt trapped inside the same routine day in, day out, with the constant struggle of financial strain weighing down on his shoulders. His frustration was even more evident as he finally reached his flat, tired after the long bus journey. He threw his keys on the settee before slumping down next to them with a deep sigh as he held his shaven head in his hands.
“This wasn’t the way things were meant to turn out,” he said to himself under his breath.
Brett worked as a mental health support worker in the supported accommodation service and had done so for the past three years. He enjoyed the role but it could be very challenging. His job was about making a difference to the lives of people who had a history of mental health issues, supporting them to maintain independence within their living accommodation after long hospital admissions. It was a very demanding job and things were beginning to take their toll. The night shifts, the work on bank holidays, the weekend work, the endless paperwork and the challenging behaviour were beginning to suck the enthusiasm out of him, not to mention having to work over the holidays like Christmas.
He’d got into the job for all the right reasons and he genuinely wanted to make a difference but he wasn’t prepared for the lack of empathy towards staff in such a job. The system seemed to hold the needs of staff at the very bottom of the priority list.
The money he was being paid was just about getting him by and the strain of struggling month to month was a constant source of frustration. He felt he had nothing to show for the hard work he was putting in and was struggling to earn a decent living. Every month he was just making it to the next payday. He went to work every day and worked hard to help and support others yet he seemed to be the one struggling.
He had a small two-bedroomed flat and he was just managing to cover the rent. He couldn’t afford to run a car, and a nice holiday abroad with the lads wasn’t even worth thinking about. He hadn’t had a steady girlfriend for over a year and he was lonely, particularly as most of his friends were in relationships. He’d never really struggled for women in his life before but he seemed to be going through a phase where nothing was coming together for him and he felt like he’d made all the wrong moves in life and was now at an uncompromising dead end. Even if he met a nice girl he’d probably struggle to pay to take her out for a meal. Life was a grind with not a lot to look forward to. He was now fast approaching thirty-three years of age and feeling like he’d failed. To add to his frustration there were many people around him who seemed to be having the opposite kind of fortune.
A lot of people he knew or knew of around his home city of Leicester seemed to be living well. There appeared to be more and more wannabe gangsters emerging these days, lads fuelled on bravado and pumped on steroids living like high rollers inspired by today’s celebration of status and celebrity lifestyle culture. Some of these folk had made some good money in the drug game and with wads of cash came inflated egos.
The women were becoming a lot more unapproachable in recent times, too, heavily influenced by TV programmes like Made in Chelsea and The Only Way is Essex and controlled by glamour and hedonistic self-indulgence. These were tough times to be a single man earning just enough money to get you through the month. Status was what women seemed to be drawn to, and to Brett it seemed like everyone was trying to live by the standards of celebrities or playing toy gangsters. Brett Kelso felt stifled by it all, surrounded by plastic people with plastic minds and plastic hearts.
The wannabe gangsters were ten-a-penny, jumped-up party boys that had watched too many ‘Brit flick’ gangster films. But they had the flash cars and the designer label clothes and they weren’t grafting hard all day for them. They walked with an arrogant swagger and glowed with the confidence that a pocket full of cash can bring. They were the ones enjoying the finer things in life. Brett took them for what they were, wannabes that had made some quick cash and thought they were the top boys. None the less, they had the good-looking girls on their arms, they had the flash motors and the luxury holidays, they didn’t stand queuing to get into the clubs. They always seemed to have people around them, they were given attention and shown respect, they were the ones that would pull the wads of cash out of their pockets when they were standing at the bar. They were on top whilst Brett was struggling.
One of the people that particularly caused Brett immense frustration was a guy called Kristian Bell. Kristian was well known around Leicester and people seemed to respect and fear him; by all accounts he was an arrogant bastard and totally full of himself, but he had the cash and the good looks. He was light-skinned for a mixed-race guy and he had these hazel-green eyes that were his most striking feature. He was always well groomed with a neat, short beard and he always looked sharp. He’d been heavily involved in the cocaine game in the past and had made some good money, but within the past couple of years he had allegedly stopped any business to do with drugs and now he owned a restaurant and a tanning shop. He was never short of cash and was always driving a flash car and was well known for being a ladies man. Life seemed good for Kristian Bell.
Brett hated Kristian from his head to his toes. The reason why he held such hatred for Kristian was because Kristian had fathered a child with Brett’s older sister, Maria. Kristian didn’t treat Maria with any real respect. He’d cheated on her countless times and Brett was certain that he’d slapped her about on occasions. They were no longer together in a relationship but Kristian just seemed to breeze in and out of Maria’s life when he felt like it.
Maria and Kristian’s son, Damian, was three years old now but Kristian had never been a proper dad to his son. He’d sometimes not see Damian for months on end but then just turn up out of the blue and expect to take his son out for the day or the weekend, or take him off for days on end. He didn’t give Maria money either; he’d always say he didn’t have it or he’d expect not to have to because he would buy Damian expensive clothes and toys and stuff, but he had more than enough money to be able to maintain his son. But he was nothing but a selfish and abusive man-child, and he didn’t think he had to explain any of his actions to anyone.
He would usually turn up at the door unannounced and could be very disruptive to Maria’s life. He hated it if Maria became involved with any other man even though they were not officially together. If Maria had a new boyfriend or began seeing someone, Kristian would start enough trouble to make sure it didn’t last. He was possessive and controlling. He could also be a very nasty bastard and this was something he was also well known for. He had a lot of people and muscle around him that had come with the money and status he’d acquired in the drug game, and this made him a dangerous man to cross. Maria still seemed to be a bit smitten with him and still maybe a little bit under his spell, or why else would she let him get away with treating her the way he did?
Brett knew that Maria was still sleeping with Kristian, and this hurt him because he hated to think of his sister allowing herself to be used. He had told Maria countless times that she should get Kristian out of her life and he’d offered her support to do this, but Maria always seemed to let Kristian back in.
Brett would just love to give Kristian what he deserved, a good beating, and tell him to get out of his sister’s life for good as he saw Kristian for what he was; a selfish, abusive bully. The man was a pain, a hindrance and he never did Maria any good. Damian was just a trophy to Kristian along with his several other kids that he had scattered across town by numerous other women. Brett knew Maria would never be happy with Kristian lurking in the shadows, but Brett also knew that if he were to give Kristian the beating he deserved, he would have to be prepared for the repercussions, and with a person like Kristian Bell it would just go on and on until one of them was dead or in prison. That’s how it is with people like Kristian Bell. Brett couldn’t afford that to happen as he had the person closest to his heart relying on him and he couldn’t ever let that person down no matter what the reasons, which brings us to the most important thing in Brett’s life.
Brett was father to a four-year-old girl called Macy, and she was the purest thing in Brett’s existence. No matter what was going on in his life, Macy was his absolute priority without question. She didn’t live with him as Brett had separated from her mother, Lisa, his ex-girlfriend.
Brett and Lisa had split up when Macy was still just a baby after six years together. It was a bad relationship really and could be quite volatile, mainly because the two personalities massively clashed. Lisa could be very emotionally demanding and every day was just a series of heated arguments, so one day Brett decided enough was enough and he left the council house they had shared. He’d had enough of all the bitterness and the spite so he had to call time on the relationship. Brett had care of Macy on an overnight visit every weekend on either a Friday or Saturday depending on his work shift pattern. Sometimes he would have her on a Sunday and drop her off to school on a Monday morning.
Things were very tense between Brett and Lisa these days, mainly because Brett didn’t agree with the way Lisa was bringing up Macy. Lisa had let herself slip, too, over the past couple of years and Brett would be concerned about Macy a lot. Lisa was out partying most weekends and Brett had heard she would have folks on the estate where she lived around the house drinking and partying, particularly at the weekends, and he was also concerned about the kind of people who were caring for Macy when Lisa was out partying as she’d often leave Macy with local teenage girls from the estate. Brett wasn’t happy about this at all.
Lisa’s priorities seemed to have slipped and this was a constant source of stress for Brett. He would confront Lisa about having people off the estate drinking and smoking weed whilst Macy was there, and there was also an occasion when the police were called to the house because of the loud noise and disturbance.
A lot of the time when he went to pick Macy up, she would look untidy as if Lisa hadn’t made much of an effort with her. Lisa hadn’t always been like this, and she wasn’t dirty or unclean, but her standards just seemed to have dropped over the past couple of years and she didn’t seem bothered by anything Brett tried to say to her. Brett would usually end up bickering with Lisa and just leave before it turned into a big row but he wasn’t at all happy about the way Lisa was raising Macy, but he was between a rock and a hard place as he couldn’t tell Lisa how to live her life. He knew how difficult Lisa could be if someone was giving her a hard time and she could also be very selfish.
There had been an occasion when Lisa had stopped all contact between Brett and Macy for a couple of months after a series of arguments over what was best for Macy. This was a living hell for Brett, and this kept him on edge as he knew that if he rocked Lisa’s boat too much she wouldn’t think twice before stopping all contact again.
Brett knew of friends that had ex-partners who had stopped them from seeing their kids altogether and this scared him, so he was careful. He just played the game; as long as he was close to Macy and had a strong influence and presence in her life he would just do all he could to make sure she was OK.
A Monster’s Tale – Kelso Simon
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