Behind The Mask

Chase

Family

What is that ever like? Like, what is family?

Are they, just best friends who are closest to you? Do they just raise you to prepare yourself for the world? Do they support you? Do they love you? What is having a family ever like?

That's something that a certain German Shepherd puppy thinks about a lot. It's currently late at 12:05 AM at night. Chase is a German Shepherd pup who is a police/security/spy dog on his team, the Paw Patrol. A team of rescue pups that help and save their town, called Adventure Bay. "Whenever you're in trouble, just yelp for help!" Is something that Ryder always tell the person whenever they got done helping him or her. The Paw Control consists a team of a few dogs.

Chase, Marshall, Rubble, Rocky, Zuma, Skye, Everest and their leader, Ryder. There are a few other dogs on the team but they're not really that active that much. Tracker, Tuck, Ella and Rex.

Right now, it was late at night and everybody was asleep, Ryder was up in the lookout while every pup was in their pup house. Everybody is asleep...except Chase, who was staying up late, thinking to himself.

Chase has considered these pups as good friends of his, he considers himself as a good friend too, right? Sometimes, Chase wonders if jealousy is a terrible or a good trait. From what he has heard, it's more a neutral feeling than anything. Chase isn't usually the jealous type, but there's something about Mothers and Fathers day and Family Day, that just really triggers his jealousy feeling. Everyday, when he walks around town in those types of days. He always see kids with their families, playing, having fun and other stuff like that.

Chase doesn't usually talk about his past, but only himself and Ryder know about it since Chase was the first dog to be adopted by Ryder. It was probably the best day of his life, but there's a saying.

"May the best day of your past, be the worst day of your future."

Worst Day.

Chase would always be jealous of the other kids with their families. When Chase was little, he didn't know what it was like to have family because he never had a family. Did he? Does family have rights to mentally and physically abuse him? Manipulate him? Humiliate him? Abandon him? From what Chase remembers, his parents had...issues with himself, like, more of an addiction to some...things that ruined their lives after Chase was born.

Chase felt like he ruined them just by existing. He would always be confused when he looked at other families. He would see that they would have fun but the family that he was born into was way different. All he felt was pain, depression and suffering.

It felt like he was the odd one out. It's no wonder to Chase why he hasn't spoken out about this type of stuff. He doesn't want to be judged or shunned out by the rest of the community because he was at fault of his past. He doesn't want to be...alone or bullied. Chase had to deal with a lot of bullying when he was younger, not just from his parents but...from other dogs from where he used to live. Nothing was better, until the day Ryder adopted him from...an incident that Chase never wants to talk about.

He felt wrong for being jealous of other kids. Just because he didn't have something that they had. But what was he missing that the others weren't? This bothered Chase so much and had self debates at nights.

The feeling of missing something especially kicks in on Family Day and Mothers and Fathers day.

But it's never wrong to wonder though, right? Is that what family is or was it just him? But, even so, Chase has never expressed these inner thoughts out to his friends. Mostly due to the fact that he was second-in-command for the leader of the Paw Patrol, Ryder, a 10 year old boy who was really caring, responsible and overall a great leader. Of course, Ryder is the only person to ever know about Chase, and how he truly is. Ryder overall thinks he's a great dog and has awesome potential, but only time will tell when Chase will reach it.

Chase was laying inside his pup house, in the darkness, his blinds shunned the darkness from the outside. He was the only one who was awake while everybody else was asleep. Chase was so sure that he could even hear Rubble snoring from the other side which made Chase giggle a little bit.

It's one of those nights, huh? Chase sighed in his mind. Again, Chase had stayed up at nights, thinking about these thoughts and it kept him up for a long time, it makes him lose sleep. Chase is the first pup to wake up early and wake the rest of the team up.

As soon as Chase realized that, he quietly gasped as his eyes widened. That's right! Chase has to wake the others up tomorrow. Waking the others up in an early time has always been a habit out of Chase and it that habit is broken, the others will get suspicious.

Quickly, Chase has closed his eyes and forced himself to sleep. But tomorrow, he'll need to do something that he has always done ever since the rest of the 5 pups have joined in on the Paw Patrol.

It's like a mask. Chase, for some reason, has found it fun to do, but soon realizes that it became a habit of his too. A habit that he really doesn't want to let go. Hiding his emotions behind a smile. Chase has always imagined himself, wearing a white round mask on his face with a simple plain smile on the face. Circle black eyes and a black smile on it. That's just it. A mask with a smile that he wears every day, which became a part of his life.

His scapegoat.

His hiding place.

His home.

His trait.

His personality.

Smile through the pain.