The Power Of Cithrí - A Chaol Westfall Fanfiction

Freak 11

The next day wasn't so bad, we were on talking terms at least, but there was an uneasy tension as we drove to his friend. One I had never heard about until yesterday. I didn't even know the fella's name as we pulled into the driveway of the small bungalow.
"No matter what you do, don't stare. You'll upset him." Chaol whispered before knocking. It didn't take long before a whirring noise sounded from within, and the door was opened.
He should have given me more warning, because what we were met by was hardly human. It was just a battered, drained, hairless flesh attached to numerous machines and thrown into a wheelchair. I gulped, and tried to look away but I couldn't, it was too horrifying to avoid.
"Chaol?" The man choked on the tube that ran down his nose and throat.
"Rob!" Chaol said firmly. "This is y/n."
The eyes, dark pits of pain swallowed into the skin turned to me and a shiver ran down my spine. "Hi. It is nice to meet you. Come in."
I wanted to run, to hide in the car and refuse to get out until Chaol took me home. However the polite mannered me, found myself following Chaol inside, taking my shoes off and commenting on how nice his house was. I grimaced as we passed a rotting carcass of a mouse, this house didn't just need a good clean out, it needed to be burnt down to dispose of the millions of diseases that lingered on every strand of carpet. I tiptoed behind Chaol staying very close.
With the flick of Rob's wrist he turned into what I assumed was the kitchen. I only managed to figure it out from the nuermous dirty and broken plates that clattered the countertops and the fridge who's door was ajar and beeping frantically white liquid pouring onto the tiles. I straightened the milk bottle, fastening the lid on and shutting the fridge door as I passed. I skirted around the milk, and stood as i watched the man, without slowing slam him and the wheelchair into the side. I clasped a hand over my mouth, as I watched him squash his legs between his chair and the cupboard, a fragile hand reaching up and trying to open the draw. Did he have parkinsons? It was hard to tell, and working out his age was even harder, there was no hair to go on, not even eyebrows, and his eyes. I knew I had to avoid looking into them again or I might just erupt into tears.
"Would you like a drink?" He said, knocking the coffee pot onto the floor. He stared at it, then moved his chair. I intervened, grabbing onto the pot firmly. Whincing as I saw the out of date label, three months ago. "Why don't I make drinks and you guys go catch up?"
Rob seemed thankful for the offer slumping into his chair.
"Sounds great." Chaol said, completely at home with these shocking conditions. "Just three plain coffees."
I set about trying to find intact mugs, having to give them a firm scrubbing out. I even considered bleaching them. I wasn't normally a hygiene freak, but there were probably lethal germs in this place and I was not going to risk dying for a cup of coffee. As the kettle brewed I began to clean the other dishes and mugs, how this man was allowed to live like this I had no idea. I was in a rhythm, fading out all my senses as I scrubbed hard at the plates and cups. When I felt something wet on my foot, I froze. Every nerve was compelling me not to look, but I did. I let out the loudest scream ever.

When Chaol came running into the kitchen, his eyes filled with concern, I was crouched on a chair, red in the face. "Y/n?" He cried.
I just pointed at the floor, where the most bushy cat I had ever seen was sat licking its paws over a maggot infest rabbit corpse. Yes, that is what it had dropped on my feet.
Chaol's nose shrivelled, but the concern in his eyes was replaced by the same coldness they had had all day.
"That's Maureen, the neighbour's cat." Rob explained, wheeling in behind. "She brings me gifts most days."
I held a hand on my chest trying to calm my breathing as Chaol grabbed a frying pan and chucked the disgusting body out the window Maureen had entered through. Leaving just the broken glass on the floor. "I'm so sorry Rob, she scared the daylights out of me and I dropped a glass."
"Do not worry, I break some every day." With that he turned and went back into the other room.
As I lowered myself from the chair a beep rang through the house and I flinched. My eyes met Chaol, and I prayed that he would see just a drop of my fear.
"Rob has your fire alarm ran out." Chaol said marching out after his heavily disabled friend.
I scrapped up the glass, made the coffee and went through.
Chaol was sorting out changing the batteries in the fire alarm, Rob just slumped in his wheel chair, legs sprayed in different directions and his head tilted slightly. I settled Rob's drink in the cup holder on his chair and perched myself on an armchair. I answered Rob's questions about how Chaol and I met, and talked to the best of my knowledge about the football. I was unsure where to look, his eyes chilling me to the core so I settled on his nose. It was the least disfigured part of his face, only bent to the right a little. He had clearly had a stroke, the whole of his face shifted to the right and his shoulders haunched over that way. I began to pity the man as we talked, he was a bright man, with a funny personailty, just trapped in a miserable body.
Chaol finished and took a spot leaning against the wall, his coffee at hand. "What do your doctors say, Rob?"
Rob tried to shrug but it more looked like him heaving his body to the right. "The doctors keep giving me deadlines, saying I will die next month or that I won't be able to talk by next month. But I've surpassed everyone of them." The man tried a smile, and I could see the exhaustion it brought him just talking to us.
"It was chemical castration that did this to you, wasn't it Rob?"
My breathing stopped, and my coffee cup shook so much I had to put it down on the table. I felt Chaol watching me, waiting to see my reaction. This was why he had brought me here. He was trying to make a point, trying to pressure me into rejecting the chemical castration.
One of Rob's machines beeped and he waved a hand trying to press a button. I got up and pressed it for him, sitting back down quickly so Chaol couldn't see me shaking.
"Yes."
"The doctors pressured you into it right?"
Oh I wished he would just shut up! He was making an idiot of himself, and an idiot of me.
"They said I had to be fixed."
Chaol shifted on the wall, his eyes still focused on me. "And it was those drugs that did this to you."
Rob's head flopped in what I could only guess was a nod. "I had a stroke after three months into the programme, then a kidney failed and they had to remove it. I got anemia. And then, three cancers."
I kept my eyes on my coffee. Those were his chemotherapy machines around him, it was all beginning to make sense now, but I wished if hadn't happened like this. It was like Chaol was interrogating the poor man.
"You went into a care home few years back, right?"
Oh god! I was digging my nails into the sofa, it was obviously meant to be a cream colour, but was now more brown.
Rob produced a straw, all battered and chewed at one end. Chaol pushed himself off the wall and held the straw as Rob slurped his coffee. Coffee ran down his chin, and Chaol merely wiped it off with Rob's top.
"I went in a care home whilst I was still on the programme. The workers there thought they could make me gay by coming into my room at night..."
I jumped to my feet cutting him short. I didn't want to hear what happened. "Do you have a bathroom I could use?"
Chaol pointed me down the hallway and I locked the door behind me. The bathroom was as filthy as the rest of the house and I dare not sit down. So, I paced. How could I get out of here? Could I say I was suddenly sick and needed to go home? Or my period had started - no Chaol would see through that. Chaol would see through it all, and I didn't get the impression he would let me get away that easily.
I calmed my breathing down as I tried to focus on other things. There were positives to me being here, I could help a man who desperately needed it.
I had to go back out there. Listen to more of Chaol's horrible integration.