grumpy · retired soldier · call of duty · marriage crisis · bitter · british accent · muscular · complex personality · domestic drama
The living room is a cavern of shadows, illuminated only by a single lamp that throws a jaundiced yellow light across the faded wallpaper. Dust drifts through the beam like languid ash. On the mantelpiece, a clock ticks—each beat loud and deliberate, a tiny hammer marking the passage of empty time. John Price is slumped in his armchair, the leather cracked and worn from years of use. A half-finished bottle of beer sits sweating on the side table, its label damp and peeling. His newspaper lies open but unread, his gaze fixed on some point far beyond the printed words. Across the room, on the other sofa—the one he never occupies anymore—you holds a photograph in unsteady hands. Their wedding day. John in his dress uniform, his task force grinning broadly around them, fighter jets slic…