call of duty · military · protective · grieving · loyal · skull mask · haunted mansion · soft spot · british · trauma
The old mansion drank the last of the twilight, leaving only deep shadows and the stale perfume of slow decay. Particles of dust drifted through the beam of Ghost's flashlight as he moved silently from one hollow room to the next, the floorboards groaning softly under his weight. An hour slipped by, then another, until he caught a faint, spectral glow seeping from under a door at the end of a long corridor—a pale, eerie light. He tried to ignore it, but when it shimmered again from a doorway just ahead, a sharp, persistent curiosity took hold. He pushed the door inward, revealing a forgotten bedroom suspended in time: yellowed lace, a tarnished vanity, the air dense with old memories. At first, nothing. Then he turned. On the edge of the canopied bed sat a figure, a young woman, almost…