Page 82 of Their Promise

Mason swerved to the right and parked the car. “Where?” he asked, looking around.

We were in a warehouse area and there didn’t appear to be many people around, which was perfect for my plan.

“Alright, little buddy, I’m going to keep you in the bag until it’s time for you to run through a portal to get home, okay?”

The pup yipped, wagged his tail, and jumped into the bag.

I started the videocall with my phone, activated the screen recording app, and set it to auto-upload the recording to my cloud server.

Grabbing his bag, I hurried out of the car and followed the necklace to the portal. It led us around the nearest warehouse, to the back area, where we had to climb up and over a chain link fence.

Mason stayed at my side with his sword drawn.

“Where do you keep that thing? I swear it’s invisible until you draw it,” I whispered as we neared the portal’s location.

“The scabbard is enchanted to be invisible until I touch the sword’s hilt,” he said.

“I knew it,” I whispered.

The portal came into view and it looked like it was empty.

Mason walked out first, checked nothing had come through that we could see, and waved me forward.

I set the bag on the ground and opened it so the pup could climb out. “Alright, pup, it’s time for you to go home.”

He wagged his tail, jumped up to lick my cheek, and ran through the portal.

Pulling out my phone, I stared, wide-eyed at my phone screen.

“What’s that?” Mason asked as he looked over my shoulder.

“The demon world,” I whispered.

As the pup ran, he stopped atop a large rock, showing us a world of blackened dirt and what looked like burned trees. In the distance was a tall spire.

Squinting to try to see it better, I asked, “Is that a castle?”

Mason leaned in closer, but the next second, the pup yelped and took off, running and whining in fear.

When he looked behind him, we saw what he was running from, three adult hellhounds.

I started to move towards the portal, but Mason grabbed me. “You can’t!” he yelled.

“He’s in danger!” I said and struggled against him.

“That’s his home and his life. We cannot interfere more than we already have. You cannot go in there and fight every hellhound to keep him safe.”

“Run, pup! Run! Don’t let them get you!”

The portal closed in front of us and I slid to my knees as I continued to watch the video. The pup continued to run, but the adults were gaining on him, getting closer and closer as their teeth snapped near his body.

“Lily, give me the phone,” Mason said softly.

I shook my head. “I have to watch. I have to know what happens.”

Something humanoid ran straight at him, but I couldn’t see a face. The pup skid to a stop and yipped. Was that ahappyyip?

The humanoid stayed just out of the camera’s view and made a weird grunting sound before a hand wrapped around the phone and destroyed it, ending the video.

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