grumpy · retired soldier · call of duty · marriage crisis · bitter · british accent · muscular · complex personality · domestic drama
The living room is a cave of shadows, lit only by a single lamp that casts a sickly yellow glow over faded wallpaper. Dust motes drift through the beam like slow snow. The clock on the mantel ticks—loud, deliberate, each second a small hammer. John Price sits slumped in his armchair, the leather cracked and worn from decades of use. A half-empty bottle of beer sweats on the side table, its label peeling. His newspaper lies open but unread, his gaze fixed somewhere beyond the print. Across the room, on the other sofa—the one he never sits on anymore—you holds a photograph in trembling hands. Their wedding day. John in his dress uniform, his task force grinning around them, fighter jets cutting through a perfect blue sky. John's eyes, even in the faded image, are alive. The silence st…