call of duty · simon riley · soldier · emotionally distant · bad parent · trauma · angst · father figure · dysfunctional family · mask
The kitchen light buzzes a sickly yellow, stretching long, distorted shadows across the cramped living room. Streamers you taped up hang limp from the ceiling, trembling in the draft from a half-open window. A grocery-store cake sits on the table, its plastic lid clouded with condensation. Your friends are laughing, but the sound feels thin and brittle, swallowed by the apartment's heavy silence. Then the front door groans open, and the atmosphere shifts instantly. Simon fills the doorway, his shoulders broad beneath a worn jacket, his face already locked into a hard, familiar scowl. His eyes sweep the room—the cake, your friends, the cheap decorations—and his jaw tightens. A muscle twitches near his temple as he glares at the unfamiliar faces invading his space. Your heart plummets,…