Behind The Mask

Chase's Past Part 15

     A week has passed since Chase was captured and was sent into the pound. Of course, Chase had no idea where he was or what place he was at. And the living conditions were just as bad or maybe even worse than the living conditions were while surviving in the wild. Chase began to lose hope in life and the sake of humanity because every other human he has met had only abused him.

Chase was inside a cage, a really small cage, outside in front of an old, boring shack. Not only that, but there were a bunch of other dogs in cages next to him. He was at an animal shelter where stray, lost, abandoned or surrendered animals are housed. Chase has always thought animal shelters were a good thing, but he also heard that there are some animal shelters that treat animals really badly.

Each day, the pups would have to wake up early in the morning, eat some disgusting food and exercise. Now the workers were especially abusive, it's like they didn't care about animals at all, they only cared about the money they were gonna make. Their exercises and trainings would get tiring, every dog would be drenched to the bone. Some dogs were even chosen to do hard chores around the shelter and when they got too tired to move, they would be punished with a beating by a baton. Now luckily, they don't torture, but they're punishments are harsh and merciful.

Sometimes, the workers would beat the dogs just for fun and their own entertainment purposes. Chase would constantly hear the whimpering and cries of other dogs and it would eventually get onto the workers nerves and they would punish the dogs for that.

The workers especially like picking on Chase since they witnessed a dog trying to end his life. It was another day and after training, all of the dogs were tired and trying to rest in their cages.

"What did I do to deserve this?" Chase whispered to himself, and looked up to see the workers walking towards the back, carrying some large food bags. He then remembered Archie, Arya and Lucky. Chase could imagine them wondering where he is right now. But there's no use in thinking about that now, Chase was far away and he'll most likely never see them again.

Ever since Chase arrived at the Pound, the workers did however give Chase a bath and bandaged up his scars. They also decided to remove his blooded hoodie and throw it away. At least that's what the workers did. Some of them were even a little bit surprised to see how many scars, burn marks and bruises were on the pup. But neither of them asked what happened or did they show him any care at all.

Suddenly, he heard footsteps stop in front of him and Chase looked up to see one of the workers get to his level.

"Are you, Chase?" He asked. Chase was confused, but slightly nodded his head. The worker then inserted a key to the cage and opened it.

"Follow me." He simply said and walked off, having Chase slowly walk behind him.

Both of them walked from the back of the shack and the worker closed the door and made Chase follow him to the front counter.

This whole time, Chase had his head down this whole time, he didn't even bother looking up.

"It's been quite some time."

Chase's eyes widened as he recognized that voice. He slowly raised his head and saw Jamison, standing in the shop, looking down at Chase with a smile. Chase had his mouth agape, it's like he saw a ghost. Chase could feel his tears about to drop, but he held it back in as soon as he could.

"H-How did you...?"

"Trust me, I did my best to try and find you. But thanks to the internet, I was able to find you." Jamison grinned at him, answering Chase before he could ask.

Then, Chase looked and saw the worker coming from the back and behind the counter, handing Jamison some papers.

"And there you go, you've adopted him." The worker behind the counter said and Chase gasped as he looked up at Jamison again.

"Y-You're adopting me?" Chase asked and Jamison kneeled down to him, he was able to get a good look of the German Shepherd scars which made him frown, but he looked back at Chase's eyes.

"I need you to trust me on this, okay?" He asked in the most confident and hopeful voice, he also had a warm smile that made Chase trust him. After everything that he did, Chase, in a long time, formed a smile.

"Okay, I trust you." Chase said and Jamison laughed and patted the dog's head.

"Alright, let's go." Jamison said and both of them walked out of the door, and out of the shelter and out into the parking lot.

Chase saw that both of them were walking towards a red pickup truck, and Jamison opened the passenger door for Chase to hop in and closed it when he got on. Jamison soon got to the drivers side, both of them buckled their seat belts and Jamison started up the car.

"T-Thank you. But, how are you able to afford a car, much less, adopt me?" Chase asked, he knew it costs a lot of money for both and Chase remembered that Jamison was poor when he met him.

"Well, I've recently begun working for Felicia, but, shortly after you ran away, she got arrested."

"Wait, what?" Chase asked again, hoping that he wasn't just hearing things.

"Yeah, apparently, one of the guards was a spy-detective, and once he gathered a lot of evidence, he ratted out Felica and now she's spending the rest of her life behind bars." Jamison explained and began driving the car slowly out of the parking lot while Chase was processing what Jamison said.

And his shock turned into a sigh of relief.

"At least she won't hurt anyone anymore." Chase whispered to himself.

"Anyways, we'll be taking a long road trip because I have deals with someone and this might be a good thing for us, we'll be making even more money." Jamison said with a smirk, making Chase smile.

"Okay, so where are we going?" Chase asked and Jamison opened his mouth to answer:

"Adventure City."