My Richie Kray

Curtains Up...

It was darkness for a few mere seconds until Richie reached the bottom of the uneven stone steps. As soon as the lights flicked I heard a woman's panicked and muffled scream.
Within that scream I noticed the pitch and tone of her voice. My blood ran cold.
We turned a corner and instantly I stepped back in shock as I saw my mum knelt on her knees, ankles and wrists bound together to the back of her, gagged with duct tape over her mouth and wrapped multiple times all the way around her head. She stopped screaming when she saw me. Her eyes told me that she thought I was dead and then the shock of seeing me made her cry uncontrollably, I could kind of hear "I'm sorry" in the grunts and groans from her throat,

"Fancy seeing you here Mrs. George... Beautiful weather outside, you seen it?" He put his hands in his trouser pockets as he walked slowly up to her. He then squatted down in front of her,
"Nah... Course you 'ant. Shame really... what with it being so dull these past few weeks and all. It's like a... Like a spirit has gone up to heaven and released the sunshine, almost..." He looked at me and then back to her,
"Or maybe gods tellin' us to keep that angel, so she can... do some good upon this world. Ay? What do you think?" He pulled her head up by her fringe so that she had to look at him in the eyes, however she squeezed them tightly shut,
"I know you're worried you can't look me in the eyes for fear of getting lost in 'em, but it's a bit impolite in my books. What was it you said... ah yeah that was it, you told Cal that I'd wind up gettin' Jada killed... but yet, I found her in hospital today... yeah, funny story really... turns out, she almost died from being drowned... by her own... mother. Funny that ain't it. Funny that, here she stands, feeling safe, feeling protected, all because she's under my wing, but then there's you... I have to say, you made me rather fucking mad today. You did. You took away the trust Jada had in me to protect her. I can protect her from anything in this world, anything but cancer. You're a cancer ain't ya? Rob people of their lives, but sometimes Mrs. George, sometimes... they fight back. With a vengeance. And cancer... well, it loses the fight, not always, but it ain't impossible. There's no... no cure for cancer though is there? Nah... it still plagues the earth... can't quite seem to get rid of it. Bit like you really. And no disrespect Mrs. George but... we only have survivors here, and we need to rid of you once and for all now don't we? Ay?" She started to frantically shake her head and make desperate noises,
"Ah cmon there's no need for hysteria. We ain't gonna kill ya, just yet. We need to... run a few tests first, if ya will" he walked over to a big cabinet in the corner,
"Jada... Your brother once told me a lovely little childhood story..." he spoke to me with his back turned to us,
"Mummy's in the kitchen. Making a lovely family meal. And there's a bag of spuds that need peeling for the mash. Now when I was little, me mam, she would sit me and my brother down before cooking and she'd teach us how to peel potatoes, you know, with one of these little things..." He turned around with a potato peeler, instantly flashbacks flared up in the back of my mind. I folded my arms, one hand cupping over where the scars lay, admit the horrific flashbacks I almost didn't hear that he said he had a brother?
"Not quite like this one of mine. I had this made with a swiss army blade. Quite sharp, as it happens. Anyway it was a nice little... bonding thing we'd do on a Sunday. But I heard you bond differently with your kids, so it seems, ain't that right love? See now your Callum went on to tell me that you in fact don't just use a peeler on vegetable skin, do ya?" He knelt down beside her, she was now rocking back and fourth, crying dramatically,
"Turns out they're pretty handy penetrating the likes of human skin too..." He softly ran it over her cheek, she looked terrified, but I felt nothing, I just felt hatred for her, I remembered how she attacked me, how scared I was, how much pain I was in, how sick the blood spilling out of my arm made me feel...
"Jada... you beautiful thing, come here for a second will ya" we all looked up as Callum emerged right on time,
"Ah Callum, just in time. Welcome"

"Alright Rich" he came walking over and stood by my side,

"I'm fine mate, gasping for a cuppa but turns out your mother here needs to learn a little lesson on how to use a FACKIN' POTATO PEELER!!!" He pulled it away and screamed ferociously at her, it even had me on edge,
"And if she don't open those eyes and keep them open I'll carve them out of her sockets!" She quickly opened them, now visibly shaking, snot flowing from her nose,
"Come here baby, come on" he stood up and turned towards me,