"Surprise!" Will shouted and tackled Mason in a tight hug. Mason was frozen in shock; why was Will here? He said his plane wouldn't arrive until tomorrow. He stumbled on his words a bit as he tried to find the right response, "W-Will? What- how are you here?"

"Well, I sent you those texts to lead you away from a surprise visit. I got home yesterday and I just really wanted to surprise you since I knew you missed me." Will gave his boyfriend a passionate kiss which Mason happily kissed back, but broke it to tell him, "How about you come inside, I was actually just making breakfast."

"Breakfast? Mason, it's noon, you might as well call it brunch by now."

"Is it really? I didn't realize, I've... been busy! Yeah, busy with... uhh, c-cleaning! This house is old and it's kinda falling apart, it's why I got it so cheap." Mason panicked a little by the end of his statement. He couldn't tell him about what happened earlier with Miss Otterson getting eaten by Banehound, the monster living in his basement; they'd break up on the spot or worse.

The two of them walked to the kitchen where Mason's eggs are thankfully still warm. He transferred the eggs from the pan to a plate while Will sat down at the table and talked about his amazing trip to Germany and France. Turns out that Will has family in Germany, so he stayed there most of the time but for one week they went to Paris since it was only a three-hour train ride. Mason had sat down next to his lover and started eating his eggs with some toast as he listened to Will. Then he heard a loud burp coming from Banehound in the basement. If he heard it then that means Will heard it too.

"What was that?" Will asked after his story was interrupted by the sound. Mason nervously responded, "I-I'd assume it was... the pipes. Like I said before, this house is old and I've only been here a day. I haven't exactly started to fix up the place yet." Will shrugged, seeming to accept Mason's explanation, and continued with his story, "As I was saying, you will not believe what I managed to find while I was in Paris."

"Oh god, what did you find?"

"There was this whole expo thing going on at this one place and guess what it was about."

"I don't know, what?"

"Anything supernatural! It was awesome, though I couldn't read shit because it was all in French so I had to listen to one of those audio tour things. There was one thing there that I've never heard of before, but it looked really cool and it was just really cool in general! Besides the fact it's said to eat people."

Mason froze for a moment, but tried to hide it and asked, "What was it?"

"It's this thing that's native to Africa, they call it a 'spirit beast' or a 'spirit of beasts' or something like that. But apparently, the locals call it 'the beast in the plains'. They had this sculpture there to replicate the descriptions they got about it, it's supposed to be like part lion and part hyena, but also ironically part human."

"T-that sounds pretty cool..."

That description and what he said about 'the beast in the plains' matched Banehound's exactly. He needed to know more; maybe there's a way he can kill the beast, "So, did you ever find out how to kill one? I mean, every paranormal creature has to be killed in an oddly specific way right?"

"Yup! Apparently, to kill a spirit beast, you need a dagger made of pure gold and stab the thing in its heart. It's supposedly really hard to even get close to one without getting ripped to shreds though. I mean, you have to get face to face with a creature that's a foot taller than you and most likely a lot stronger too."

Well, it seems like Mason will never get out of this situation then; he can't just get a golden dagger and walk up to Banehound, expecting him to not know what he's doing.

"There's also a way to trap them too. You need to have these talismans or whatever and place them around the area where the beast is, then once they're all in place they act like an electric fence. It shocks the beast when it tries to leave and they can't touch the talismans without getting electrocuted."

That must be what Banehound meant when he said he was bounded to the house. Mason kept thinking about what to do to stop people from dying because of Banehound. Then was pulled out of his thoughts when Will said something, "Mind giving me a tour of your new house?"

"O-oh! Umm, n-no not at all. I'll give you a tour." Mason responded and stood up. He put his dishes in the sink and proceeded to give his boyfriend a tour of his house. It didn't take very long since the house was so small, and Mason purposely left out the basement, but his nosey boyfriend didn't let this go unnoticed, "Hey Mason jar, I think you forgot a door."

"Which door did I forget? There are quite a few doors in this house." Mason replied, knowing exactly what Will was talking about.

"The one in the front hall."

"Oh! That's the basement door, but it's been stuck since I moved in yesterday, I can't get it open."

"Well now I'm here, so maybe we can get it open if we work together!" Will said then went to the basement door with Mason close behind, trying to convince him it's not worth it. Will got to the door and turned the knob, pulling it open. Mason's heart stopped when he saw Will open the door and said jokingly, "This door isn't stuck! Mason Finch, what are you trying to hide from me?" He started walking down the stairs as Mason pleaded him to stop and come back, which didn't work.

Mason watched his boyfriend walk down the creaky steps and turn around when he got to the bottom. He saw Will bump into something and slowly turned to see Banehound's eyes glowing faintly in the darkness that concealed him. Mason watched Will start to back away as Banehound stepped into the light which poured in through the open door. Will screamed and scrambled back up the stairs and into Mason's arms that met him halfway. Mason brought him back upstairs and closed the door behind them.

"What. The. Hell. Was that!" Will asked beginning to hyperventilate. Mason quickly tried to calm him down and thought it'd be best to sit him down and just tell him: "Will... I don't know how to tell you this but... That thing in my basement is a spirit beast that's been trapped in this house for years. There's one other thing too..."

"I threatened to eat him if he didn't feed me," Banehound said from behind them, "the name's Banehound by the way."