Cherish || A Chase x Sweetie Fanfiction ||

(S3-C20) • No Evil •

Sweetie sat with her mind in complete silence. She didn't want to think about anything. The hunger she endured, the dirtiness from the lack of bathing, even the uncomfortable lack of space in her cage. She stayed quiet and unmoving, as if submissive—she actually was.

She raised her head from the jangling of chains, a silhouette brought up from below, for she was still suspended in the air.

"A few more days and it'll all be over, prince. If you weren't misbehaving, you could've stopped suffering by tonight during your execution but that's your fault now, isn't it?" A disembodied echo of a male came into the ears of the terrier, momentarily watching as Prince Julius was held and suspended in a cage the same level Sweetie was, a few meters away.

She examined the bruises around his body as he was slouched back, looking lifeless.

"Are you dead?"

A small period of silence, a groan then came out, Julius opening his eyes in flutters. "Not quite," he struggled to say.

"Go to sleep, you two. Or not, I don't care," the man below them spoke again, turning off the littlest of light in the room before leaving and locking the door. The only source of light for the pups was, conveniently, the same moonbeam that entered through the open window where their friend left them. It blew a strong evening breeze, acting as the fan for the two pups.

They stayed in a bit of silence, other than Julius's coughs and moans every time he touched the small wounds that formed around his limbs.

"For a coward, you're pretty tough. I don't think I would've survived their torture."

Julius chuckled from the compliment. "They were dunking my head in a barrel full of water and beating me up every time I came up for air. It wasn't as bad as the thirty lashes though," he replied as he turned his back, the marks of yesterday still fresh in their memories and on his scars which his fur couldn't hide.

Stretching as much as he could in his confined space, he observed the Terrier in her own cage, just a few feet distant from his. She was calm despite the situation, which wasn't new. It has been three days since she's been like that. Sweetie just sat and stared, living in a separate world unless spoken to most of the time.

"I don't find it unfair that Coraline doesn't hurt you partly because you're her pup but why are you relaxed? It's almost like there's nothing bad that's going to happen to us, even when there already has. Not to mention, the more that'll come."

Sweetie lifted her paws to the bar of her cage, giving a small, honest smile to keep them both hopeful. "Chase did say she probably put something in my eyes before it wore off recently. It was scary, knowing you're looking around only to see nothing, but perhaps that's a good thing. I would curl up into a ball and cover my ears rather than listen to her monologuing about how she was prepared to sacrifice everything and more nonsensical stuff. She was talking to her guards that time so I'm not sure if she was lying."

"See no evil and hear no evil, smart of you to keep your sanity high up on your priority list."

They shared a giggle.

"I just trust her, Julius. Far more than you anyway."

"Ouch, try speaking no evil too," he jokingly replied. "Well, when Coraline told me about the truth, my memories came back to me. Turns out, although I still would be asking for forgiveness to you, I was already controlled during the fire incident."

"Oh, really?" Sweetie's ears perked up, acting nonchalant in the casual conversation. Laying down, her belly absorbed the cold of her cage's metal floor, letting a paw hang out through the bars.