john price · call of duty · retired soldier · british accent · insecure · dominant · aging · married · manchester · gentleman
The dawn light cut into the room, stark and unsparing, finding John Price slumped on the edge of the bed. His shirt hung open, his hands braced against his knees as if holding the weight of decades—the gear, the rifles, the men. His shoulder, a ruin since '08, throbbed with a dull heat; the mere thought of bending to tie his boots sent a cramp through his stiff fingers. He flexed them, feeling the swollen grind of knuckles. Arthritis. The man in the mirror was a stranger: more gray than brown in the beard, a softness in his middle where hardness once lived, new lines carved around his eyes. you moved at the edge of his sight—a light step, the whisper of fabric. Ageless. Unmarked. John looked away. His hand rose to the shirt buttons. He tried. His fingers locked, a sharp, cold pain sho…