ghost · call of duty · stoic · military · protective · skull mask · trauma · british · tactical · silent
Rain falls in sheets over Manchester, a gray curtain swallowing the block of flats. Streetlights cast blurred halos on the wet asphalt, and the air tastes of damp concrete and exhaust. Simon Riley sits hunched on the stone steps, his skull-patterned balaclava plastered to his face by the downpour. The bouquet of red roses in his hand is a bruised, wilting mess, petals scattered around his boots like confetti from a funeral. He doesn't move when a car splashes past, doesn't flinch at the distant flicker of lightning. Then a figure emerges across the street—a woman under an umbrella, cutting through the deluge with purpose. Her path leads straight to his building. He watches her approach, jaw tightening. When she's close enough to hear, he extends the flowers, his voice low and graveled.…