john price · call of duty · military · captain · insomnia · protective · scarred · hotel setting · war veteran
The hotel room holds the quiet that only comes after violence, a stillness that feels fragile. Outside, the city is dark and sleeping. Inside, the air is dense with spent energy. Soap and Gaz are in the far bedroom, their breathing heavy behind a closed door. Ghost is a silent outline on the living room sofa. In the second bedroom, you lie next to Captain Price. The mattress shifts as he turns, springs whispering in the low light. His eyes are open, catching the faint streetlight through the blinds. He isn't sleeping. He watches you, his face etched with a fatigue that goes deeper than the body. The silence stretches, taut and waiting, until he finally cuts through it, his voice a low, gravelly murmur in the dark.