#cheese-chase

Anti did try to kill them by possessing Chase, and very nearly succeeded, if not for Stacey holding him off just barely long enough for Jackie to intervene. Anti had Chase locked in his own head, externally zombie-like and apathetic in his behaviour with glimpses of Anti's terrifying personality puppeteering him. One big thing about Anti is that he is not careful with his puppets. As I write in the Nine Months Duology, he will hurt them and force their bodies to do what he wants whether or not their bodies are capable of doing so. He essentially ended up smashing Chase's head through a window and had him climb through, covered in blood and glass.

Stacey had been getting ready for a night out at the time and had some hair curlers plugged in when "Chase" attacked. She had hoped they would fend him off with no real intention to actually attack him, but Anti only had Chase grab them and laugh.

The start (and most of the middle) of Chase's story was filled with tragedy, bad decisions, and dark clouds. He had a lot of hardships, some self-inflicted, and made a lot of mistakes. He pushed people away out of fear and self-hatred in a twisted way to preserve himself, and was estranged from Stacey and his children for a long time. While there was a period where they were scared of him and what "he" did, even after they longed to see past that, Chase still avoided them out of fear and shame. He couldn't bear the thought of his children being scared of him, so he thought removing himself from their lives would protect them. That eventually culminated in him very-nearly taking his own life a second time, but thankfully failed.

During that time, his closest friend was Henrik. At first, Henrik was the one to lift Chase out of his dark moments. He would be there to tend through wounds, drunken stupors, or the days Chase couldn't even get himself out of bed. At the time, it was rather unhealthy. Chase confided in Henrik for a lot of things, but he was not ready to heed the advice he'd been told over and over again, so he was stuck in a cycle which Henrik always found himself trying to break.

The pair of them had a very close friendship with sparks of something else. They mainly took the form of the odd lingering touch or thought, or unspoken actions after too much to drink (Henrik was still figuring out his sexuality). Again, it definitely was not healthy.

It wasn't until Henrik was kidnapped and went missing for nine months did Chase realise that, while his circumstances were indeed terrible, it was his responsibility to try and change them and no one else's. He recognised all too late how much he really expected of Henrik, without even realising it. He thought about how many promises he made to him, and how he'd broken every single one because he found safety in the routine of pain rather and feared failing to recover.

Until they found him, Chase continued to spiral with his self-hatred. When Jackie and Marvin finally announced they had a promising lead, Chase was there. From the moment he laid eyes on him in the mortuary to the hospital bed, something in him changed.

Chase has always been better at reaching goals when they're on behalf of another person. Not to mention he's a very "all or nothing" type of guy. As Henrik started to recover, he took responsibility - almost too much, especially all at once.

He yearned to look after him just as Henrik had done for him, and he wouldn't let himself fail. He quit drinking cold-turkey, found a job, reached out to Stacey and the children, and cleaned out his apartment so Henrik could move in with him once he was discharged from hospital. While these things are good in a vacuum and undoubtedly improved his life in the long run, Chase had suddenly tipped the scales the other way. After all, he had spent years in that routine and had suddenly uprooted it for a far more mentally-strenuous one.

In a way, the following year was just as dark as his previous ones. He dealt with withdrawal symptoms, absences from work, and put far too much pressure on himself. All the while, he spent every spare hour looking after Henrik, who was a completely different person whose trauma was so severe it caused him to lash out physically and emotionally. Chase would often sit at the kitchen table in the dead of night to sob to himself while shakily trying to treat bite wounds or scratches. Without the others to help him, he definitely would have crumbled under the pressure.

It was definitely a tough time, but thankfully it did get better.

Chase held on through it all, because he wanted to be there for the people he loved. Even though it took a while for him to finally pluck enough courage to do so, he still did, and he stuck to it even when the consequences hit him like a ton of bricks.

As things got better, Henrik did not move out. The pair of them found comfort in one another and built each other up again. Both of them had grown a lot, albeit through unimaginable amounts of pain and hardship, and their relationship blossomed from there. They sort of had it a bit backwards, because by the time they officially brought up the topic of being in a relationship, they were already doing what most couples do.

Thankfully, in the present of my timeline, this is where Chase becomes the chill guy I mentioned.

He sees a therapist, and is medicated with antidepressants which helped him remain stable so he could go about improving his life.

Following from the day he was possessed, Chase is covered in scratch-like scars from the glass as well as one from the third-degree burn he sustained to his palm. They're healed and faded now, slightly stretched as he gained weight over the years. Only his palm causes him mild discomfort now, with some days where it's itchy or difficult to move. Thankfully, living with Henrik drilled in the advice to keep it moisturised and lathered with sun cream on sunny days.

Nowadays, he works as a technician and does a lot of DIY outside of work, including carpentry. He's always trying to make things better for his family, and he loves to make them smile, whether through jokes or heart-felt actions. He worked on Cooper and Sam's bedrooms to give them fun lofts and extra space, without them being an absolute nightmare for Stacey to clean.

He is at anyone's beck and call if they need something worked out, whether it is a wardrobe needing assembly or a TV that won't turn on. He makes additions to the home to make Henrik's life more accessible, and designs storage systems for Stacey's home and hairdressing business.

While he and Stacey remain separated, they are amicable to the point where they can happily sit over a coffee and chat without hostility or awkwardness. They haven't gone out of their ways to meet up without the children as the leading motivation, but they are happy in one another's presence and make each other laugh like they used to. Chase did have conflicted feelings about Stacey's new partner, but he worked through them and he makes comfortable small talk without issues.

He loves his music and video games, and he especially enjoys hanging out with Jackie to play arcade games and talk in-depth about the "retro" titles they used to play as children.

Overall, he's really started to enjoy his life again. He has his ups-and-downs, but he's at his happiest when he's with his family. He could be sat in a living room listening to the others ramble or sign, or watching his children play or draw him pictures. One of his favourite parts of any regular day is listening to Henrik come home from work while he cooks dinner, catching a glimpse of the photos of his friends and drawings his children made any time he opens the fridge.