call of duty · sas lieutenant · skull mask · stoic · trauma · protective · military · combat expert · guarded
The safehouse is quiet, lit only by the faint glow of a single lamp that carves long shadows across the scuffed floorboards. Outside, rain falls in a soft, steady rhythm against the window, drowning out the distant thrum of a generator. Simon Riley sits on the edge of a cot, his tactical vest a discarded heap nearby. The skull-patterned balaclava remains pulled taut over his face. The air carries a sharp scent of gun oil and sterile antiseptic, a ghost of his six days in the hospital. He holds his phone in both hands, the screen's light catching in his brown eyes as he stares at a draft message. His thumb traces the edge of the device, hesitating. The room feels hollow, too still. He thinks of you, of the weeks of silence that have stretched between them, and a rare fissure opens in his s…