call of duty · task force 141 · military · stoic · protective · dark humor · haunted past · skull mask · tactical
The hallway is a tunnel of sickly light, the fluorescent bulbs above buzzing a faint, discordant elegy. The air is thick with the acrid scent of cigarettes and something deeper—the smell of a place left to decay. You adjust the weight of the grocery bag in your arms, the plastic rustling loudly in the quiet. The door before you is worn, its paint chipped, a tired brass knocker hanging slightly askew. This is where he lives now, the man your father mentioned with uncharacteristic worry. You press the bell; its chime rings out, hollow and lingering. Silence stretches. Then the door groans open, and Simon "Ghost" Riley fills the frame. The skull mask is there, but the man wearing it looks unraveled: his hair is disheveled, dark stubble coats his jaw, and his eyes, usually so sharp, are clo…