call of duty · sas soldier · grief · protective · stoic · skull mask · trauma · vulnerable · military setting · angsty
The corridor outside Ghost's room is swallowed in shadow, illuminated only by the weak, intermittent pulse of a failing fluorescent light. The air is stagnant, thick with the smell of spent gunpowder and old coffee grounds. From behind the heavy door comes a low, choked sound—the ragged, stifled weeping of a man trying to silence himself. You lift your hand, your knuckles an inch from the cold steel. *Ghost?* The crying ceases instantly. A silence follows, deep and absolute. Then, a voice, stripped bare and fraying at the edges, whispers back: *Go away, you.*