Hey, hello everyone, how is it going? I hope everything is okay. Well, the second chapter is here. I'm sorry for delaying it, I just had some problems that affected on writing. The most important change is that The Charismatic, who was my beta writer for a while, probably will stop helping me with writing. I honestly don't know why, but I have some ideas, however, they are personal, and I don't see any point in revealing them. Due to this my stories will become much worse because I'm an awful writer and I make tons of mistakes. But I still hope it won't ruin them. Anyway, I think that's all I wanted to say now, hope you enjoy.
chase the new pup: Glad to hear you liked this story
Marshall V2018: Thanks, happy to hear you liked the story
«I know you were most likely taught not to listen to strange voices from phones, but do you really have a choice? But first you need to calm down, take a deep breath and exhale a few times, this should help.»
Chase took the advice and it really helped. Although he was still scared, the pup was able to regain his composure. However, he had a lot of questions for whoever was able to connect to his pup tag.
«Okay, I see you feel better. Now-«
«Now tell me who you are and why I should listen to you.» Chase interrupted rudely. «How do I know you're not Sweetie and really want to help me?»
«Well, I understand your concerns.» The voice didn't even notice the rudeness. «If it really matters to you to know… I am a night guard here. I think you should have been told about me. It is my duty to ensure the safety of those in the castle. That's why I want to help you.»
«Okay, but how did you manage to connect to my pup tag?» Chase asked.
«You know, magicians don't reveal their secrets.» The guard answered shortly. «And does it matter? Now we need to somehow save you, and only then deal with such trifles.»
Chase didn't like this answer very much, because it is simply impossible to suddenly connect to the pup tag of any of the team members from a random phone or any other device. But now the pup at least knew who was on the other end of the phone, which gave him some hope.
«But what is that voice? Why are they looking for me? Where are the ghosts from?» Chase began to panic again.
«I know how you feel, but please calm down, we don't want trouble.» The guard said. «Yes, Barkingburg Castle has many secrets, but they shouldn't concern you, so let's just forget about it, okay?»
«What does it mean?! Are you saying that I don't think this voice?! But ghosts aren't real! This cannot be true, because I personally made sure of it twice!» Chase clutched his head and covered his ears, hoping to stop hearing the voice that was looking for him. «This can't be true, it's just a dream! It's just a dream, it's just a dream…»
At that moment, the voice that was looking for him seemed to get closer and louder. However, now, judging by the way it spoke, it was calling someone by name. Because of his closed ears, Chase couldn't make out whose name it was, but he didn't want to know it, he wanted it to be over as soon as possible. And the voice continued to insistently call, pronouncing the name more and more often. Because of this, Chase only covered his ears tighter, hoping to wake up in his room and make sure that it was all just a nightmare.
«Hey, listen, I know you're scared, but…» The guard tried to calm him down. «I know you're scared, but I'll help you. I'm… I… I'll be right back.»
And the guard went silent, leaving Chase alone. Suddenly, the hatch that Chase had almost fallen into closed. This frightened the puppy, and he even jumped in surprise. To keep his balance and not fall, he automatically lowered his front paws to the floor, thereby opening his ears. However, what he heard surprised him a lot. Though it would be more correct to say that he was surprised because he heard nothing. The voice that had been following him disappeared. It was quiet. Has it ended? Chase plucked up his courage and slowly moved back to where he came from. Suddenly he heard the sounds of metal hits, as if someone was hitting an empty tin can with a spoon, on which other similar cans stood and bounced from each blow, creating a clatter. These sounds reminded him very much of the footsteps of knights in armor, but he wasn't completely sure of the origin of this noise. This caused the pup to step back. And suddenly he heard another voice.
«No no no no!» It was the only thing that the voice cried out.
Then there was a scream, which quickly subsided, as if the source of the scream was quickly moving away from the castle. Chase's heart sank again. But he didn't run away, he just stood stock-still and couldn't move. His legs didn't obey him. At that moment, his pup tag activated again.
«Hey, I'm back.» It was the night guard. «I had to deal with something, and you know what? I was able to get you a safe passage to your room.»
Considering what Chase had just heard, that sounded about as suspicious as it could possibly be. The pup took a few steps back and slowly turned his gaze to his pup tag, preparing to tell the guard all his thoughts.
«WHAT DOES IT MEAN?!» Chase exclaimed. «Someone just screamed there, some voice was looking for me, and besides that, something bad happened there, and you suggest me to go straight there?!»
«Hey, I know you think that this pup from the phone is talking nonsense, but trust me, the path is safe.» The guard insisted.
«You know what? I will stay here.» Chase said firmly. «Nobody tries to find me while I'm here, I'm safe, and the fact that you tell me to go straight to the epicenter of weird things that you don't even tell me anything about, it's more like you only want to harm me! I'm staying here. That's it. I'll just lie down under the table and wait until morning.»
«You won't be safe here, trust me, they'll find you.» The guard tried to convince Chase to listen to him. «Your room is much safer.»
«I've said everything, I'm not going anywhere, I'll stay here and wait!» The pup answered, walking along the center of the corridor towards the nearest table. «Now leave me alone!»
«I warned you…» The guard said and fell silent.
Chase's pup tag has turned off. The puppy just chuckled and kept walking. However, he had an irresistible desire to look back, to make sure that everything was over and no one was following him. At first, he thought that this desire is just paranoia and he continued walking, but at one moment, he nevertheless looked back. His heart clenched in fear again. He saw a large black shadow of a dog with white, luminous pupils standing directly in front of him. Outwardly, this shadow resembled either a Bernese Mountain Dog or a Dalmatian, Chase didn't have time to understand, because this shadow, making a terrible sound, jumped on the pup. Everything happened extremely quickly, and the last thing Chase managed to see was white glowing teeth. Suddenly, he jumped up on his bed.
He looked around and realized that he was in his room in perfect health. It was all just a bad dream. He breathed a sigh of relief and collapsed onto the pillow, glad it was all over. He glanced at the clock on the wall in front of him. Three o'clock at night. There was still time to rest. Chase drank some water that Earl had left for him in the nightstand, and it instantly helped him forget about the nightmare. He settled into the bed more comfortably and closed his eyes, trying to sleep.
It is not known how long he lay like that, but at one point he began to feel hot. He opened his eyes, looked around and was horrified. There was a fire all around him. There was fire everywhere, there was smoke under the ceiling, and the wooden ceiling itself was falling apart. Chase rushed to the exit. After opening the wooden door, he rushed out of the room and saw a staircase across from the exit of the room, leading up and down, and on the stairs stood a Labrador, the same one Chase had seen in the nightmare with phones, calling Chase. The pup without much thought rushed after the Labrador, and a couple of floors later they were on the roof of a building engulfed in flames. Even though the building was on fire, Chase was able to see other buildings through the fire screen. He also noticed that the weather was terrible – it was raining, lightning flashed in the distance, there was a thunderstorm. But he and the Labrador were not alone on the roof. Chase saw a man in a blue business suit with a slight bald patch on his head and gray hair. Also, there was another dog on the roof. It was a Border Collie. She was a standard black and white, but age was undetectable. While Chase was trying to figure out who it was and what was happening, although it was obvious that they were being evacuated from a burning building, the man jumped from the roof. Chase noticed this and rushed to the edge to make sure he was all right. Looking down, the pup saw a group of firefighters with a rescue net, who caught a man. He breathed a sigh of relief. He had no idea how, but he automatically knew that now it was the collie's turn to jump. But there were problems with this. Chase noticed that the Labrador and Collie were standing on the edge of the building, and the Lab was trying to convince the dog to. But the collie was afraid. She was saying something, but Chase couldn't understand any of her words. Suddenly, without saying anything, the Labrador just handed her some kind of tag, vaguely similar to those worn by pups in the Paw Patrol team. Collie took it and looked at the Labrador.
«This talisman will keep you safe, no matter what happens. Trust me, I have been living with it for a long time, it saved me more than once.» The Labrador spoke clearly in a voice that Chase couldn't remember and smiled.
It worked. The collie took a deep breath, plucked up courage, pressed the talisman to her chest and jumped. Firefighters caught her without much effort. The dogs remaining on the roof smiled, mission accomplished. The Labrador waited for the firefighters to catch the Collie and get ready to catch him, then he was about to jump in after him. Suddenly, Chase noticed that the raindrops had frozen in the air, the flames had frozen as well, and the lab wasn't moving. Time has slowed down. He didn't understand why this happened, but a bright flash of light from somewhere in the sky explained everything. Chase looked up and saw lightning, right above the roof of the house. At first the puppy thought that it was reaching for the roof, but then, after a while, he realized that the lightning was about to strike right at the Labrador. He wanted to save the stranger, but he himself was unable to move, so all he could do was stand still and watch in horror. A few seconds passed, and the lightning overtook the victim… Suddenly, time became normal, and Chase again saw a terrible picture: the Labrador twitched, smoked and screamed due to the insane amount of electricity passing through his body. Then there was a powerful clap of thunder, and Chase woke up screaming.
He looked around and realized that he was in his room. He breathed a sigh of relief and laid his head back on the pillow. It was all just a dream. He had never had so many nightmares before, and he didn't even know why he sees all of these dreams. But he didn't care, the main thing was that it was over, and that it was just a dream. The pup glanced at the clock. There were only a few minutes left before he had to get up. Chase didn't see the point in trying to sleep more, only to wake up a few minutes later. He got out of bed and went to get his suit, which was in the closet.
The day turned out to be moderately difficult. At the end of the day, Chase was quite tired, but didn't fall off his feet. However, he coped with this more than successfully throughout the day. In between assignments, he was reflecting on what he saw in his dreams. He barely remembered any of the nightmares and remembered only what happened there in general, but he couldn't remember the details, whatever one may say. But even just trying to think about it completely isolated Chase from the real world, and he didn't even notice what was happening around him. He stumbled across the same pillar several times as he passed what he thought was past it, slipped on twice in the same spot on the stairs, and just looked detached from reality. But no matter how hard he tried, these reflections didn't give any results. None, except for one. Chase's behavior attracted the attention of Earl, who left his room a couple of times as he felt a little better.
After Chase's work day was over, Earl called him over to talk. The puppy entered a room similar to the royal mansions, but more modest in size, with warm-colored lighting. Despite the size, there wasn't much space in the room. Most space of the room was filled with various cabinets with various kinds of documents, reports and other things of this type, but it still was spacious. When Chase entered the room, Earl was sitting on the bed in warm socks, slippers and a burgundy dressing gown, apparently intended for use exclusively in this room.
«Hello Chase, feel free to come in.» Earl said warmly.
«How is your health?» The puppy asked, sitting down on the soft carpet around the bed.
«I feel better, but I'm more worried about you.» Earl answered. «I saw that something was wrong with you today. You crash into walls, fall down stairs, and basically look like something's bothering you. Don't be afraid to tell me about it, nothing bad will happen because of it, I want to help.»
«Well, I… I just had…» Chase wanted to talk about his meeting with the guard, but changed his mind at the last moment. «I just had a bad dream. A nightmare. Twice… I just had a nightmare twice, and I tried to remember what it was about, that's all.»
«Oh, I understand, nightmares are very unpleasant.» Earl chuckled slightly. «If you want, we can talk about it, or if you like, we can find something to help you sleep better.»
«No thanks, it's just that I'm not used to staying alone at night, you know, usually my team and I sleep in our pups houses close to each other, and here I'm far away from my friends.» Chase lied because he had no idea why he was having nightmares. «I just need to get used to the castle a little and then everything will be fine.»
«Okay, but don't be shy to ask for anything, I'm always happy to help. Anything else needed?» Earl asked, to which Chase shook his head. «Well, in that case, I won't delay you any longer, you can go, rest, but don't forget, you can always ask me for anything.»
The pup nodded and left the room, and Earl saw him off with a slight smile. But as soon as Chase closed the door behind him, that smile disappeared. Earl knew something was wrong with Chase, but he didn't know what it was, and he couldn't figure it out on his own. He needed help. After some thought, he picked up the phone and called Ryder.
It was midnight, but Chase was still awake. He was just lying on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. He had mixed thoughts. On the one hand, he understood that without sleep he would have a hard time, but on the other hand, he was afraid to see another nightmare with which he was already fed up. Still, he decided to close his eyes and try to sleep. The puppy tried not to think about anything, or think only about good things, for example, about music. Indeed, after thinking about it a little, he heard a pleasant melody in his head, which he liked very much. It was a piano, and someone was playing it quite well, but judging by the calmness of the music, the main part was still ahead. The pup couldn't help but enjoy the melody, it was really good. Suddenly he sneezed. This sneeze knocked him out of his state of peace and interrupted all his thoughts. Dissatisfied with this, Chase rubbed his nose and was about to fall further into sleep, but noticed one interesting thing: the music didn't disappear anywhere. It seemed strange to him, because in theory, it should have disappeared from his head with all thoughts. After listening more carefully, the pup realized that the music was coming from the corridor. He jumped off the bed and headed for the door to confirm his guess. After he opened the door, and the melody became louder. Chase felt uncomfortable. Did someone really play the piano at night in the remote part of the castle, or was it all just his imagination? Anyways, Chase decided to find out who or what is the source of this music.