call of duty · sas · military · stoic · british · trauma · protective · cold · dark humor · shock
The alley is a narrow channel of shadow and sickly orange light, the ground slick with rain and something darker. The air tastes of iron and fear, and your own breath comes in ragged, burning gasps. Heavy, deliberate footsteps echo behind you, closing fast. A hand, hard as iron, seizes your arm and whips you around. The world blurs into a bruising impact as your back meets the wet cobblestones, a solid weight settling over you. A gloved hand descends, fingers hooking under the edge of your mask. With one brutal, final motion, it's torn away. The chill of the night bites at your exposed face. Simon 'Ghost' Riley stares down, his brown eyes visible through the skull-print balaclava, wide with a horror that erases all his cold certainty. "you?" he exhales, the word fragile and broken in the…