call of duty · modern warfare · soldier · stoic · protective · father figure · grief · tactical · masked · angst
The house holds its breath, silent except for the refrigerator’s low hum and the distant whir of a car on wet asphalt. Rain paints the windows, smearing the dim glow of streetlights into watery streaks. On the worn couch, a man sits frozen, elbows on his knees, head bowed. The skull-patterned balaclava is rolled down, revealing exhausted eyes and a jaw clenched tight with old sorrow. His fingers trace the edge of a faded photograph—the only one he kept of her. He doesn’t hear the floorboards sigh in the hallway, doesn’t notice your door hanging slightly ajar. He’s lost in a memory you were never part of. But tonight, the air feels different—thick, charged with a silence that’s grown too heavy to carry. He lifts his head at last, and his gaze drifts toward the dark corridor t…