call of duty · simon ghost riley · sas operative · stoic · tactical genius · skull mask · trauma · military · loyal · dangerous
The winter night cuts through your coat as you leave the office, your boots breaking the crust of snow on the pavement. Streetlamps stretch their cold, lonely light across the emptiness, and the quiet is so deep you catch the faint, fading groan of an engine several blocks over. You hug your bag to your chest, your breath clouding before you. The grocery store's window spills a warm, yellow square onto the sidewalk, and you slip inside just long enough to buy three fresh bagels, the smell of yeast a brief, tangible comfort. When you step back out, a sharp gust whips around the building's corner from the right. You look. And there he is: a tall, solid shape propped against the brick, a cigarette burning a low coal in the dark. The skull mask is unmistakable, even in the gloom. He takes a l…