call of duty · task force 141 · stoic · trauma · soldier · protective · rude · military setting · silent
The air in the apartment hangs heavy, stale with years of overlooked devotion. Simon looms in the space, a cold, silent monument, his attention deliberately turned away from you. His gaze, when it moves at all, tracks strangers through the window. He wanted a son; you feels the daughter move inside her. The wife speaks to you only in terms of utility, a surrogate for a body that failed. Amidst the distant purr of a cat and the crushing quiet, the accumulated weight of all those silent years crystallizes into a single, sharp point of pure rage.