Once we hit the 24-hour mark, we may never be seen again

Conversations, reflections and horrible realities

Location: Outside of Big Red's hospital room

Beep, beep

"Is she going to be okay!"

"Sorry, but she didn't make it through surgery."

"No!"

Who knew hospitals could be a scary place? Ricky doesn't frequent them, but he felt like he had been here for ages.

"Ricky!" He was slapped in the leg suddenly, snapping him out of his trance. He looked down to the attacker and saw a bright mess of red curls, instantly recognising the ray of sunshine.

Kelsie Redonovich, Big Red's little sister.

"Kelsie?" Ricky kneeled down to reach her eye level, she just huffed and cocked her head to the side.

"No, I'm obviously Nini!"

"Super funny Kelsie, what's up with you?"

"When can I go in and see Red? I miss him."

Ricky looked inside through the window; Big Red was being comforted by both his parents since the doctor allowed multiple people to go in now.

"You can go in now?" He saw that she didn't like that response, and she just sat down and laid against the wall.

Feeling pity, he sat next to her.

"Kelsie?"

She turned to look at him, she looked disappointed. "What Bowen?"

"What's wrong? Don't you want to see your brother?"

"I do! It's just that..."

"What? You can tell me."

She sighed and looked to the closed door.

"I want to hug him! But Dad said that I couldn't because he wouldn't like it! I missed him so much Ricky, why can't I just give him a hug like I always did?"

She was so young and that broke Ricky's heart; how could he tell a seven-year-old why she couldn't? Tell her that he had been tortured to the point where he could have died? He couldn't, she deserved to view the world with innocence and not pain.

"Kelsie?" He pulled her quite closer for a hug, she reminded him so much of a younger Big Red. "He's been through a lot right now, but I think he's waiting for the moment when he can give you the biggest hug ever."

"When will that be?"

He placed something into her hand, a small bear ornament that Nini had given him as a gift.

"Very soon, but you can have this while you wait."

"But Ricky, this was given by Nini! Don't you want it?"

He gave her a smile and closed her hand tightly. "I think that you need it more than me."

"Okay, thanks Ricky!" She put the small bear onto her necklace chain and got up, she opened the door and Ricky watched as she sat onto the end of Big Red's bed.

He saw the bright light of joy glow in Big Red's eyes when he saw Kelsie, and he could hear all the words she spoke about how much she loved him.

He just sat down against the wall and began to recount everything that happened prior with him and E.J.

~~~~

Why was E.J so panicked? He sounded like he had seen a ghost, and that worried Ricky deeply.

"E.J? Are you-"

"74 Reginald Street!"

"What?" He was so confused, why was he telling him a random street name?

"Ricky! 74 Reginald Street! Do you not know what I'm talking about?"

"I clearly don't Caswell! Why are you telling me this?"

He soon heard why, and his heart dropped when he heard the words come through.

"Because that's where Ashlyn is! The names are Carmen Miller, Quinn Fargo, and Luke Evans! They took Ashlyn and tortured Big Red! They worked for my dad!"

His heart was descending into the depths of his stomach right then, those names were of the people who did this? It sounded so hard to believe, but his gut told him that this was the truth.

"I-"

"I know if you want to know if this is the truth, it is."

Well, they just confirmed his worst fears. He looked to the empty bed; his best friend was being examined by the doctors to determine what they could do for him. How could he tell him all this? This felt like a nightmare, a cruel one indeed.

"Thanks E.J, what do you plan on doing?"

"I don't know, I'll speak to Gina and Seb about it."

"That's good."

They were silent for a bit, before E.J bought the question up.

"How is he?"

Ricky took a deep breath in, bringing back everything prior. "He's good, he woke up and told me their names."

"The same?"

"Yeah."

"That's good, we're so close to stopping this."

"Yeah."

They were silent again, before Ricky decided to end this call.

"I have to go; I'll see you soon, okay?"

"Okay, bye!"

~~~~

Present day Ricky was now reflecting on that call, he didn't know what to think except just a mere thought of anger.

"I'll get you Carmen, Luke and Quinn, no matter how far I have to go."

~~~~

"You'll never get out alive slut!"

"Filthy bitch!"

"You just let a man protect you, and now he's dead!"

"Worthless bitch!"

Her thoughts were taking over her mind, it was like everything these people had said to her combined to make a knife that would stab her repeatedly with these insults.

"Leave me alone!" She called out into the abyss of the basement; the silence just answered for her instead.

Of course, it would, she was all alone without her guardian angel, and he was all alone without her somewhere in the sky.

Why did they kill him? He was innocent in all this! Now he was dead in her eyes, she had lost the only boy she had ever loved to the hands of those monsters.

"Why did they do this...why! Just fucking kill me please!" That made the door open immediately, Luke was coming down and stared at her weakened state.

"Kill you princess?" He ran his fingers down into her shirt, sickening her senses so much. "We can't kill you; how can we explain that to your buyer? He wants you alive and pretty."

She didn't respond, she could only let her tears fall some more and that made him proud.

"I'm going to miss you princess, it's such a shame that another man wants you."

He sounded so jealous, like he enjoyed using her body as his toy and she hated that.

She just wanted to go home, was it too much to ask? But home wasn't going to be the same without him there.

He left then, shrouding her back into the empty darkness and with her harmful thoughts once more.