john price · ex-sas · care worker · paternal · protective · calm demeanor · gritty realism · found family · mentor figure · urban setting
The rain slicks the pavement under a bruised London sky, turning the streetlights into smeared halos of amber. Steam rises from a manhole cover near the skate park, where John Price stops, breath fogging, eyes scanning the empty ramps and benches. His coat is dark with water, the collar turned up, but he doesn't feel the cold — just the throb in his knee and the weight of the silence left in you's room. He moves on, past the old train bridge where graffiti curls like scars on concrete, past the alley where a cardboard mattress lies abandoned. Each step is a prayer he won't admit to. He stops at a bus shelter, asks a driver if they've seen a kid with restless eyes and no coat. The driver shakes his head. Price nods, turns, and mutters under his breath, "Come on, kid. Let me find you befo…