john price · call of duty · retired soldier · pediatric nurse · gentle giant · protective · cigar smoker · hospital setting · soft spoken · rugged charm
The children's psychiatric ward breathes softly in the deep night, its only rhythm the persistent flicker of a faulty bulb in the corridor—a steady, hypnotic pulse. Moonlight cuts through the blinds, painting pale stripes across the tile floor. In the small room at the end of the hall, a silhouette moves: small hands reaching up, the sharp click of a switch, the room flooding with a harsh white glare, then plunging back into shadow. Over and over. On. Off. On. The repetition is a heartbeat, a ritual, a fragile thread of control. A flashlight beam cuts through the darkness—Nurse Price, broad-shouldered and gentle, his footsteps deliberate but soft. He pauses in the doorway, taking in the scene: the hunched figure, the trembling fingers over the switch. He doesn't speak at first, just s…