Cherish || A Chase x Sweetie Fanfiction ||

(S3-C12) • True Solitude •

He couldn't keep his paws off of his ears, scratching and clawing as if there were ticks causing an unending itch that almost burned, yet there was none. Only his sanity he tried to piece together with glue, and his tense breathing caused guards to take steps away from his cell.

"I didn't mean it, I didn't mean it," he mumbled repeatedly, teeth chattering. His eyes bounced everywhere despite looking at the cemented ground where moss grew through the smallest cracks, knees up his chest.

Every second he was in confinement felt claustrophobic and isolated, but that was least the mental struggle he endured, for what he couldn't keep off his mind was the memories. The memories he never had yet were present in his head, like he was some kind of robot programmed to exist with the knowledge of something he never found out where they came from. That's like living a life without a beginning.

Chucking out a sound between a gasp and a shout, the hinges of the pup's cell door protested, opening up, and a figure was thrown down to scatter dust before the prisoner, Prince Julius. His eyes were motionless towards the body, the thought of a dead carcass making his legs push him more into the corner of the small jail he was already in, catching a glimpse of a human boy and a tan princess in a dress being escorted out by knights, as well as faint sobs from somewhere within the leaving group.

Further, the prisoner's instincts told him to coward away, the body of a brown pup just laying still with its back turned to him. He wouldn't dare try to fight if the creature was alive, he could barely stand up to a mere rat, and there were plenty of it in the dungeon. His nightly screams became a getting used to.

Until a flinch, a groan.

The prisoner of a pup latched onto the black, rusting bars, screaming for help for someone, asking to get him out of his cell, his reddish eyes forcing whatever tears he had left, but no answer. He grabbed the air, the only comfort he could cling to and the only taste of freedom he would ever have, his brain melting his tired consciousness, and his body slid down the bars, almost passing out from both fear and exhaustion, out of breath from his desperate calls.

His back leaning on the wall just beside him, the individual used the remaining strength he had, still and unblinking from the pup that started rising from the ground. The prince put a paw on his neck with a face that symbolized disbelief. He knew it was the same face he's been doing for years, being the coward he was.

It was a foolish thought but his heart moved him to reflex, blurting out the question if the newcomer was all right. Immediately, he regretted it.

"Am I okay?" the brown pup chuckled. It wasn't a good sign. The voice was also dangerously familiar.

Quickly, the new prisoner turned towards the former loner. Light was shunned in that single side where his cellmate was, yet the new canine knew exactly who he was facing. It was clear just from his silhouette and his outfit, not to mention their ability to see through darkness.

"Chase?" The pup quivered upon realizing.

"Nice seeing you, Prince Julius," Chase replied with a sickening grin.

As the other was about to respond, his stomach tightened back from a cheap punch, his hind legs quickly giving out as his front paws draped onto his attacker's shoulders.

"Wait... please," Julius begged for the mercy he knew wouldn't arrive.

Instead, he was given another hit in his belly, and just as he coughed once more after the previous attack, he was thrown into the wall, sliding down on his side with his aching body slowly balling itself like an armadillo. He couldn't see anything from his defense position but he felt the flurry of blows on his midsection. The tears he thought were draught-dry ran along the side of his head again. Chase's fury was going to be the death of him.