Silencing Darkness – Move the Pieces

  “… I can’t believe he left us!” Bane snarled, kicking Phillip’s old sleeping spot of boxes, causing them to topple and crash onto his old stuff. “We gave him… We had everything with him!”
  Ashton was looking nervously around, twitching a bit oddly. “Be quiet Bane or they’ll hear you… They’ll hear you…”
  “Shut up!” The Malinois barked, pushing Ashton into the boxes. “Ever since he left that’s all you go on about! The voices said this, the voices said that, well the voices can shove it and you can shut up!” Ashton tackled him, growling deep. He might be hearing things, but he was still an unpredictable fighter.  They bit and clawed at each other, drawing blood as boxes cascaded around them.
  “Dear, dear…” They both heard from the doorway, pausing in their fight to look over towards it. Standing there nonchalantly was a black Labrador, grey on certain parts of his body, the most noticeable around his quick, sly eyes. “Friends fighting amongst each other like vicious common dogs? Now that isn’t what I taught you when I was here.”
  Pushing Bane off, Ashton stared at the hound. “Chess…” He breathed, eyes narrowing. “What the hell are you doing back here? You left us months ago!”
  The sly canine grinned, showing his canine fangs as he spoke, “I was just around in the neighborhood, Ashton. In fact I’ve always been in your shadows, because I have eyes and ears everywhere. I’ve heard you’ve been hearing things as of late,” he started slowly circling Elkhound, whose eyes had widened in terror, “things that aren’t there, that only you can see?”
  Ashton shook his head slowly, and the Lab drew close, placing a sympathetic paw around his shoulders. “My friend, you have no need to be afraid. You’ve been through trauma and your whole world cracked down, it’s understandable.”
  Ashton seemed to relax a bit before Bane muscled his way between them, glaring at Chess.
  “What do you want you backstabbing bone snatcher?” He asked flatly, hot tempered and in no mood for any games. Chess pretended to look hurt.
  “I’m appalled, Bane.” He said, mournfully putting his ears back. “After all the trouble I went through of finding you a new member to fill that empty…” he looked over at the wrecked boxes from the fight, “albeit messy space Phillip left behind.”
  “A new member…?” Bane parroted, narrowing his eyes.
  Chess, ignoring the repetition, went to the doorway without permission. “You can come in now, Matthew.” He spoke softly, a smile on his face. As he stepped back, another dog hove into view, with two different colored eyes and a blank sort of expression on his face, one of disinterest but with a kind of angry edge. Chess turned to look at the two with a beaming, disturbing smile. “I found this guy on the streets, and he needed help with getting revenge on someone.” He said gleefully.
  “Who is he?”
  “You just heard me say it, he’s Matthew!” Chess said, putting a paw around the blank dog’s shoulders. He shrugged him off with a growl. “Oh right. You aren’t the touchy feely sort. Pity your father never was around to share those.” He said, shaking his head in pity, Matthew’s face hardening at the mention of his father.
  “I know his name.” Bane snarled. “Who is he and why did you bring him here?”
  Chess gave an innocent look. “Should have been specific Bane my boy. He’s Joey’s son, poor, abandoned, all alone.”
  “Shut up Chess.” The canine beside him said softly.
  “Shut up noted.” The Lab replied. “He wants help… Something to get back at his… Well, you know.” He smiled at the two, Ashton growling a bit in suspicion.
  “Why, Chess?” He muttered, looking around fitfully and twitching his ears.
  “Because my associates need some help, and I’m willing to.” Chess stepped forward, yellow eyes narrowing in a dangerous smile as he put his paw against Bane’s chest. “It’s all a part of my fun and games.”
  The Malinois could feel something in the paw, and as Chess removed it he caught a falling object: a tracker, which beeped in their location. “What is this…?”
  Chess nodded at Matthew, and the other two noticed a thick, faded leather collar hidden in his thick fur, a black bug sewn into it. “It’s a tracker Carface put on him. You can keep your eye on him whenever you please.”
  Bane looked from the tracker to Matt, who had moved into a corner and was muttering to himself, which made him think he had another crazy to handle.
  Noticing his glance, Chess playfully patted his head, making him growl. “Don’t worry about that, he does that from time to time. Let him have his own conversations.” Chess turned and started to go before Bane grabbed his tail, making him pause.
  “Where are you going Chess?”
  The Lab smiled and absently, but firmly, kicked Bane’s paw off of his tail, looking over his shoulder with his eyes flashing. “To give you more help by getting you some information. It’s part of the fun.”

  A few hours after Chess had left, Bane had talked with Matt about his goals, getting little but adequate response while Ashton listened to the best of his ability. The Elkhound was thinking about how Chess had acted with him, and he wondered a bit if he understood what he was going through. When the other two went to sleep, he stood up and headed to the door, ducking around images only he could see, one of them a ghostly sort of dog.
  He sniffed, trying to follow any trail to Chess. The dog was careful about how he was tracked, usually bringing a few dogs to knock anyone off his trail, though this time he seemed to have left a trail open. Seeming cautious since their group knew the Lab well, he followed the scent through the city, trying to find him. He followed every winding corner, and he was sure that it would be dawn before he found the elusive hound.
  When he was about to give up, he came upon an alley where the scent was the strongest, following it and dodging the images in his head. He soon came upon a hole in the side of a building, and he started to muscle his way into it. What he expected to see inside was below expectations of what he actually saw: candles lit around, casting flickering shadows around the room, an improvised table, and two bowls of food. Looking around, he stepped forward as quietly as he could.
  It wasn’t long before Chess revealed himself with a smile, something that unsettled Ashton more than he already was. The Labrador sat in front of the bowl farthest from Ashton, getting comfy. “Come Ashton, have a seat.” He said, nodding towards the bowl. Noticing the Elkhound’s apprehension to sitting with him, he chuckled. “I assume you think that your bowl is filled with poison?”
  “Knowing you I wouldn’t doubt it.” Ashton grumbled. He watched as Chess jumped nimbly onto the table and took a large mouthful of the bowl he had offered, hewing and swallowing before taking his place. Feeling only slightly at ease, Ashton stepped forward and sat, starting to eat the food rapidly, realizing how hungry his walking had made him.
  “Now then Ashton,” Chess spoke as his companion ate, “what brings you to one of my humble homes?”
  The Elkhound growled a bit, though Chess noticed it wasn’t at him. “Shut up, shut up! I don’t want to listen to you, get out of here!” He snapped at empty air, as if trying to scare something away.
  Doing some quick thinking and remembering others he had met like this, Chess shook his head. “Annoying things aren’t they?”
  “This old dog won’t leave me alone…” Ashton snarled, nipping the air again.
  “The old are generally persistent, and they always want you to do something for them.”
  Ashton stopped, looking over wide-eyed at Chess. “How did you know…?”
  Chess smiled sympathetically, but inside his head his mind was like a whirlwind of moves he could make. He had pinned down what Ashton was seeing that easily, now he could move him how he wanted. “You might not like it, but the elderly know what they want you to do. What is this important thing he keeps bugging you about?”
  Ashton gulped, hating to sound weak, but he had to tell someone before he went crazy. “He… He wants me to hurt someone… Two people he wants me to get actually…”
  “War dogs, what can you do?” Chess shook his head, hoping his shot in the dark would lead him.
  “Yeah, he is one! A-and the other two left when they were younger…” Ashton said, shocked. It was as if Chess could see his hallucinations also. “Blade and Chandler… He won’t stop telling me to get them, make them hurt…”
  Seeing an opening, the Labrador made his move. “Well I know them. They live with the ones you’re after, the Slumdogs and the Barkins.”
  “They do? They’re real dogs?” Ashton said in relief.
  “Of course!” Chess slowly moved