R*A*T*S (Sequel To A*M*E*R*I*C*A)

Chapter 20

"Daddy, how many stars are in the sky?"

A young Ricky gazed over at Chris with his round kitten eyes and the tall man's  heart melted. He's grown so much, he would be 8 years old soon. The two were currently laying on top of Chris' trailer just star gazing while everyone else slept. They just finished a show a couple of hours ago.

"Well, they're never ending. So there's billions and billions going on and on."

"Oh, but where do they come from?"

"Hmm, well Ricky, there's a lot of answers I could give you. Some people believe in science and others in God. But its your choice what you want to believe."

The small kitten boy shifted a bit to cuddle more comfortably against the tall mans chest. His eyes glued to the stars in the sky.

"But why do we have to choose? Why can't we all be the same?"

"Well, if we all thought the same and believed the same, nobody would be special. Everyone is different but it works. Its better that way because then everybody can see how special you are, including you Ricky."

Ricky tilted his head a bit as he held his little hands to his chest.

"So am I special no matter what I am? Or who i am?"

Chris turned his head to the young kitten with a reassuring smile and reached over to run his hand through his long dark hair.

"Yes kitten. No matter what, me, mommy, Ash, Dani, we all find you special."

Ricky giggled letting his tail sway around.

"Even Ryan?"

Chris chuckled under his breath and nodded his head before turning back to look at the sky.

"Even Ryan."

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I turned hearing a familiar voice and it felt like my whole froze. Like time had stopped and I couldn't move.

"Balz...w-what...?"

The mind reader was slightly hunched over holding onto his side, half of his face was scarred and his left eye was just an empty socket, blood dripping down his cheek.

"Oh God, Balz what happened?" I reached over to him but he quickly stepped back hiding his face with his hood.

"D-don't....we don't have much time. Where is Ryan Ashley and the others?"

I furrowed my brows and shook my head at the man.

"I..I don't know. I've been locked up myself. I'm not sure where they took the others."

Balz hissed in pain as he held the side of his head with his hand.

"Josh, we'll find them. But set me free so I can take care of your wounds."

Balz nodded before reaching into his pocket pulling out a single Bobby pin. He walked over to the lock on the end of the chain and got to work to unlock it.

"Ricky, everything is such a blur. What happened....?"

I shook my head as I tried to remember what the girls told me about Balz.

"I'm not 100 percent sure. But according to the girls you went berserk and almost attacked everyone. Including Ryan Ashley. After that I can't remember what else they said. But it wasn't your fault, it was Hyde's song."

Balz furrowed his brow bones in disbelief as he finally unlocked the chain, letting the heavy metal fall onto the ground with a thud. I quickly rushed to my feet groaning slightly as my knees cracked. Carefully I placed a hand on his shoulder and noticed a tear threatening to escape from his right eye. I got a better look of his empty socket, some dry blood as well as fresh blood decorating his cheek.

"We need to find them, we need to find Ryan Ashley, and Ash and Dani and..and..."  I shushed the man rubbing his back soothingly trying to calm him down.

"Please, tell me what happened to your eye. Let's go inside and see if there's a first aid kit and we can keep talking about it okay?"

Balz simply nodded as I lead us back through the building I was just in and closed the heavy door behind us. The only light provided was the moon light but my cat eyes could see just fine. I sat Balz down on an empty steel chair while I crept around trying to sniff out some kind of aid kit. In a corner I found a white first aid box and quickly picked it up taking it back over to where Balz sat silently. I kneeled down in front of him gently lifting his face with my hand. His eye seemed cloudy, almost red like he had been holding back tears.  My ears laid down across my head and my tail just rested on the ground.

"Josh, it'll be okay. We'll find them."

Silent.

I let out a small sigh as I took out some disinfectant from the box as well as a cotton pad. I soaked the cotton with the string liquid and held it up to Josh's eye. He took a deep breath before nodding for me to go ahead and I began to pat down around his eye. The man hissed in pain, trying his best to not move around. I carefully cleaned up the blood until the cotton was coated in blood. I dropped the bloody cotton and reached back into the box taking out a large white gauze and some medical tape. As I patched up his eye, Balz rested his hand on my shoulder, not taking his eye off of me. I finished taping down his eye and I couldn't help but tilt my head slightly as i gazed back. 

"Balz?"

"Chris....he's gone isn't he?"

My heart felt like it had stopped and my throat went dry as he said this. I swallowed the lump in my throat as he wrapped his arms around me, pulling me into a hug. Tears ran down my cheek as he held me and I wrapped my arms around his neck holding onto him. We stayed like this for what felt like forever before Josh pulled away. He looked down at me softly grazing his fingers against my tear stained cheek. His eye twitched as another tear ran down his cheek which I quickly wiped away with my hand.

"Ricky, even with one eye all I see when I look at you is the baby Ryan Ashley fell in love with all those years ago. Chris may have been the one who mainly raised you but I see you like my own son. Ryan Ashley does too, we love you.All I wanna do is keep you safe but I feel like I've failed you and I'm so sorry."

I let out a dry laugh as I laid my forehead against Josh's chest. It's true, even though Chris mainly raised me, Ryan Ashley was like my mother. And since she was with Balz he treated me like a father. They were like my other parents. And it just made me feel more awful about them losing their first child.

"Josh, you are like my dad...no, you are my dad. More than you know. You didn't fail me, never have. We have to save my mom, so you both can have a child of your own."

Josh managed a smile as he looked down at me and nodded wiping his eye with his sleeve.

"Okay, but they took my all-seeing-eye. I can't detect anyone's exact location. I can just barely sense their movements."

"I think I know someone who can help us...we just need to find them."

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