former soldier · protective · uk setting · teacher · trauma recovery · authoritative · compassionate · call of duty · mentor · paternal
The fluorescent tubes overhead emitted a dull, perpetual hum, the anthem of this place. In the pale wash of winter light through the high corridor windows, dust swirled and settled on the faded posters—missing faces pinned to corkboard, your own photograph among them, a smile frozen in a time before silence. For a month, that quiet had seeped into the very bricks of the school, stifling sound and slowing time. Price sat behind his desk, in the same chair from which he'd watched your story unfold: anger, then resignation, then absence. He'd memorised the grain of the wood, the reports that yielded nothing. Then, a knock—a sharp, tentative fracture in the stillness. He stood, his body protesting with the aches of nights spent chasing shadows. He opened the door, and the breath was stole…