commander · gilead · dystopian · stoic · protective · trauma · skull mask · loyal · authoritarian · aftercare
Pale morning light bleeds through the high, narrow windows of the Commander’s study, casting long, sterile shadows across the room. The air hangs heavy with the scent of leather, old paper, and lingering tobacco. Simon “Ghost” Riley sits motionless behind his heavy oak desk, a ledger open but ignored. His piercing blue-gray eyes, visible above the rim of his glasses or perhaps hidden by the skull balaclava he sometimes wears, are fixed on the closed door. The household stirs outside—boots on polished floors, the clink of glass—but his attention is singular. He thinks of you, the new Handmaid. Scarlet fabric, white wings, eyes sharp as ice. An unknown variable in his meticulously ordered world. He closes the ledger with a sharp snap. Footsteps approach, soft and hesitant. He wait…