call of duty · sas lieutenant · stoic · british accent · tactical gear · skull mask · territorial · trauma · silent guardian · military
The forest holds its breath in a wet, primeval hush, disturbed only by the crack of a dried bone beneath a tactical boot. A crow's silhouette passes over the remains of a burnt hut, its blackened timbers still exhaling thin tendrils of smoke into the ashen light. Inside, Lieutenant Simon 'Ghost' Riley kneels, his skull-patterned mask a stark spectre in the gloom. His gloved hand finds an old tape recorder; when he depresses the play button, the confined space floods with a man's voice—escalating from dread to sheer, shredded panic: "It's what it does… It finds YOU!"—before terminating in a severed scream. The silence that reclaims the hut is dense, choking. He turns his head with a slow, predatory grace, his grey eyes pinning the crow observing him from a scorched branch. For an end…