Behind The Mask

Chase's Past Part 5

     When Chase made it back home to his parents, large portions of the sky was pink and orange and dark blue, the sun was already setting and luckily, Chase made it back on time, but empty handed.

But before he could knock on the door, he could yell the sounds of screaming and arguing inside the house. This wouldn't be a surprise for him, because almost everyday he would come home to hear his parents arguing at each other, and insulting each other.

Chase looked down on his small amount of pennies in his paw and backed up at the door. He hesitated to knock but he did it anyway.

"Who's there!?" Chase heard his fathers booming voice, sounding annoyed and mad at the same time.

A couple seconds went by

"I-It's me." Chase revealed himself and for a few seconds after, everything went silent. Quickly, Chase heard the door unlock, revealing his father looking down on him with a glare.

"What do you want?" Chase's father asked bitterly

"C-Can I come back inside, please?" Chase asked in a broken voice. His father studied his son's conditions, before realizing he had no bottle with him or any change. But that's when he noticed Chase's paw gripping onto something. Quickly, Chase's father grabbed his paw and took out what he was holding and saw the few cents he had in his paw.

"Is this all that you've made today?" His father asked in almost disbelief. Chase nervously nodded.

Silence

"Even after everything, you still slack off." Chase heard his father chuckle in an evil tone.

"N-No, I wasn't slacking off. I-I brought extra wood today." Chase stuttered in fear, and felt a sharp sting of pain on his cheek as he saw his fathers paw race across his face which sent Chase down on the floor and placed his paw on his cheek where his father had just slapped.

"D-Dad, what?" Chase was confused and shocked at the same time.

"If you slack off one more time, I'll make sure you won't get back up." His father threatened with a growl, making Chase walk back a little bit in fear.

"You won't be allowed back home until you quit slacking off and you start making yourself useful!" His father yelled and walked back inside and shut the door, locking Chase out.

Chase slowly rose to his feet and suddenly felt a breeze which made Chase cold, even with the hoodie that he was wearing.

Suddenly, Chase felt something wet his nose from above, he looked up and saw a couple droplets of water falling from the sky.

"Oh no." Chase whispered to himself in fear and quickly ran towards the poor village to find shelter. Chase quickly ran through the forest and he saw the sight of the village ahead, but more rain drops came down and it began pouring down.

Chase quickly lifted his hood over his head to shield himself from the incoming rain but more water came down hard and fast, that it soaked through the hood, still getting on Chase's fur.

"Ah, c'mon, c'mon. Just a little further." Chase calmed himself and ran even faster, the water caused Chase to slip and land in mud, messing up his entire hoodie and fur.

"Ugh." Chase groaned out in pain and now the rain was hitting Chase directly in the face. But Chase didn't bother getting up.

Wet, dirty and in pain, Chase decided to lay there on the mud. There was no point in running now. Chase's face then began getting wet, but not by the rain, but the rain coming out of his eyes.

"Hey! You're gonna catch a cold!"

Chase heard a familiar voice and quickly wiped his tears and looked to the side to see the same man he talked to a couple days ago, standing there under a beaten up umbrella.

The man quickly walked over to him and held the umbrella under the soggy German Shepherd.

"What're you doing all the way out here?" He asked in shock, but Chase didn't answer. Quickly remembering what he heard of Chase's parents, he picked up the poor puppy, and had the umbrella under both of them.

"W-Where are you taking me?" Chase asked in fear as he noticed they were walking off.

"I'm taking you to my place." The man simply said, and the clouds went darker and the rain kept on pouring.

Some time had passed and the man was rubbing Chase's fur with a rough rag, drying his fur and cleaning out the mud. Of course, the man noticed the scars on Chase's body from removing the hoodie to clean him, but the man decided not to say anything, because Chase already felt uncomfortable and scared. They were under the man's stand where he sells his toys and other things.

"Well, at least you're clean now." The man said in a chuckle, but Chase didn't laugh at all, but just stared down at the floor. Noticing this, the man changed his attitude.

"You know you can run away, right?" The man asked.

"And where would I go? I have no friends and no relatives that could take me in. I'm all alone." Chase said, about to burst into tears.

"Okay, then how about you run away and live with me?"

Chase gasped and looked at the man in shock.

"W-What?" He asked, making sure he was hearing things right. The rain suddenly stopped, like time has stopped suddenly because of that single question.

"Yeah. As much as it hurts to face the truth, your parents are abusing you. You shouldn't have to put up with that." The man said and gave Chase a hopeful smile. Chase looked down on the ground. He seemed like he was considering the idea, but then, the man's hopes were then shut down.

"I'm sorry. But I can't. My Mom and Dad need me, I have to help them." Chase said.

"Why help them when they'll just throw you away?" The man asked, which angered Chase a little bit.

"They didn't throw me away! You don't know anything about them at all!" Chase defended his parents and the man gave Chase nothing but a calm frown look.

"I've been told what your parents were like-" The man couldn't finish his sentence when Chase interrupted him.

"Don't believe everything you hear! They don't know anything about my parents. They're all just lies!" Chase yelled, backing away from the man.

"Woah, woah, calm down. There's no point in hiding it." The man tried to calm him down, but Chase wasn't having any of it.

"I'M NOT HIDING ANYTHING!" Chase yelled and ran off, leaving the man stunned.

"Wait!" The man yelled after but he then gritted his teeth in frustration as he watched the German Shepherd run off into the darkness of the forest.

Suddenly, the man heard footsteps behind his stand and saw a man, dressed in a fancy suit, with a microphone in one ear.

"He seems troublesome." The man in the suit commented on Chase.

"Yeah." The other man agreed, but then stood up and stared at the pathway that Chase was going.

"Don't worry, we'll get the job done soon. It just takes a little time."