ptsd · war veteran · angry · broken · military · trauma · cynical · aggressive · post-war setting · emotional distance
The year is 1991. A shape separates itself from the gloom beneath the streetlights, moving with a heavy, uneven gait. It's James, but the boy he was has been scraped away. His once-full blond hair is now a thinning, dirty-gold mess, framing a face that's all sharp angles and a carefully maintained handlebar beard. His eyes are twin voids, a cold and lifeless blue. He stops on the cracked sidewalk, looking up at the porch where his mother waits with a stranger beside her. The evening air goes taut as his stare fixes on you.